The secret to saving a fortune on a Gold Coast holiday

Want to know a secret about the Gold Coast? Nothing much happens during the week. On weekends, hotel rooms are full – and more expensive – the best restaurants are often booked out (or you’ll need to eat at 5pm), beaches are busier – especially those with sheltered swimming options – and attractions are full.

While Melbourne and Sydney’s best bars and restaurants stay busy all week, Gold Coasters are at home readying themselves for the weekend. And Brisbane locals, who represent the largest numbers of visitors to the region, won’t venture down until Friday evening, after work and school. This is even more pronounced now with winter fast approaching. Nighttime temperatures barely dip below the high teens, but that’s enough to keep long-term locals ensconced in their homes.

The Exhibitionist Bar at HOTA.

Only a few years ago, this meant the Gold Coast was a ghost town mid-week. But that was before it became one of the country’s top culinary destinations outside a capital city. The occasional bar and restaurant still won’t open its doors until Thursday night, but in 2024 most do, with just the right amount of patrons, minus the queues … and many offer discounts to entice locals out.

I’m staying at The Star Gold Coast in Broadbeach on a Tuesday night. The hotel’s signature restaurant, Kiyomi, helmed by executive chef Chase Kojima (who has led kitchens across the world for the Nobu chain), is one of Queensland’s most popular Japanese restaurants, but I’m dining on a weeknight and I didn’t have a booking (and I have a dining credit for staying mid-week).

There are discounted mid-week options all over the Gold Coast in winter for those who know where to look. Next day I travel to HOTA – Home Of The Arts – to cash in on another. This cultural precinct located just behind Surfers Paradise is home to the largest public art gallery in Australia outside a capital city.

Italian Renaissance Alive is at HOTA until August 4.

It’s exhibiting Italian Renaissance Alive, a digital multi-sensory gallery featuring the most famous works of Michelangelo, da Vinci, Botticelli and co, accompanied by an operatic musical score, until August 4. Afterwards, I head up for one-off Renaissance-inspired cocktails at the precinct’s cocktail bar on the top floor, followed by an eight-course degustation Italian feast in Palette Restaurant.

And at other top-rated eateries, I’m able to easily find a table, and mid-week specials, including at Paloma Wine Bar in Burleigh Heads, run by the region’s most celebrated chef, Alex Munoz (former head chef of Sydney’s Monopole and Cirrus Dining) and recently voted Australia’s best wine bar.

Though it’s not just bars and restaurants that should draw you here mid-week. Some of the Gold Coast’s best attractions are also only half-full and are offering discounted entry. I take a lift to the 77th floor of the Q1 Resort for Australia’s highest external building climb with barely a handful of climbers in time to see the first pods of what will be 35,000 humpback whales swimming past over winter.

On Wednesday, I explore the Gold Coast Broadwater, an estuary of calm water and sand islands that stretches all the way to Brisbane’s Moreton Bay. Mid-week, there’s a sense of calm you wouldn’t expect four minutes’ drive north of Surfers Paradise. I take a two-hour private charter with Crystal Blue Yacht Charters. They’re offering mid-week specials so I can afford to holiday like a star, riding my own boat alongside the region’s most expensive waterside homes as I’m poured champagne on the back deck.

Exploring how the other half (or is that just the top five per cent) with Crystal Blue Yacht Charters.

For three days I eat, drink and play my way right across the coast, avoiding queues while saving money. By Friday, the cars begin to arrive from Brisbane, along with travellers from down south escaping for a winter weekend break, but I’ll leave them to it. Mid-week in winter might be the best time all year to visit the Gold Coast. Just don’t tell the locals.

THE DETAILS

Fly
Virgin Australia is offering 35 per cent off selected mid-week flights to the Gold Coast until May 16. See specials.virginaustralia.com

Stay
Star Gold Coast is offering a 30 per cent discount, access to the executive lounge and $100 dining credit and breakfast for mid-week stays. See star.com.au/goldcoast/

Visit
HOTA, Gold Coast Helitours, SkyPoint, Arro Jet, Crystal Blue Yacht Charters, Soak Bathhouse and many other Gold Coast operators are offering special deals for mid-week travellers with their Sneeky Mid-Weeky campaign, See destinationgoldcoast.com/sneeky-mid-weeky

The writer travelled as a guest of Virgin Australia and Destination Gold Coast.