I went to Sydney a decade ago, really liked it and always wanted to go back to Australia. This time we decided to check out Brisbane which is the capital of QUeensland and the third largest city in Australia. It was a lovely trip! The city is BEAUTIFUL. The people are so friendly. The food was amazing. I cannot say enough good things about this city. Look at these pictures and you will be convinced too.
First things first: the flight to Australia from the US is long. 15 hours long (from West Coast). The good news is that multiple airlines have flights to Australia so you have options. From the US, you do need an Electronic Travel Authority (a type of visa) to enter Australia. It's super easy to complete the application but you need to download the app to do it. The fee is reasonable. Australia is below the equator so their seasons are the opposite of ours. We went over Thanksgiving so it was summer. The weather in Brisbane is humid because it's next to the water. The UV index is high and the ozone layer is depleted so you NEED sunblock. Our plane landed super early so we dropped off our bags at the hotel and immediately started exploring. We stayed in the CBD (Central Business District which is their version of downtown). It was a perfect location because we were close to almost everything.
We had to get coffee first. Australians are obsessed with coffee. The Maillard Project was next to our hotel. I asked for a cold brew which is my favorite drink but they didn't have that. Nice waitress recommended the cold drip which I had to google. Cold drip is dripping cold water onto filtered coffee. Like one drop at a time. It's super labor intensive and you can only make small batches. That means most places run out of it quickly. It was so delicious. The flavor is intense but smooth, sweet and floral. I was almost speechless when I drank this. And this cherry polenta cake was also something I've never had.
We had lunch at Luc Lac at Queen's Wharf which is Southeast Asian fusion. It was really tasty, a twist on familiar Asian foods.
We then crossed the Neville Bonner Bridge from Queen's Wharf to South Bank. This is a popular area with lots of attractions, restaurants and shops. There is a rain forest walk. With ginormous lizards. Nepalese Peace Pagoda was created for the World's Expo in 1988. The wood work is astounding.
Then we walked through Arbour Walkway which had lovely gardens. Next stop was the QUeensland Museum which is a combo of history, culture and science. Admission is free! it was small but had cool exhibits.
The museum was a part of the Queensland Cultural Center which had other museums on the complex with beautiful fountains and statures. We were too tired to go out for dinner so we ordered Uber Eats (haha). The Japanese food was decent. Day two started with another coffee shop (Sugar 'N Spice Cafe). I had an iced latte and an orange toffee cake.
Roma Street Parkland is a "park" but it's the largest, most beautiful park I've ever seen in the whole world. It's 11 hectares with different themed areas, lakes, bridges, walkways. Admission is ... FREE! When I got home, I set all my background photos to pictures from this park. It started to rain pretty hard so we ducked into the cafe for drinks and a snack. After we finished exploring the park, we had lunch nearby at Hill Station Cafe (Vietnamese). Delicious and fresh! City Botanical Garden is another large FREE park near our hotel. It was next to the river. It was so pretty and serene. Lots of people were just sitting on the grass or benches enjoying a break from the city. We had Dinner at Sul.Zip which looks exactly like a Korean pub from Kdramas. It had all my favorite snack foods. Look at the crazy omelet! Day three started at the Hideout Specialty Coffee. I had the Yuzu Tonic Cold Brew. Yuzu is one of my favorite flavors. I've never had it in coffee. This was light and refreshing. The place was packed so we asked to share a table with a nice lady sitting by herself and she was so nice. We chatted for almost an hour. We found out she was also a BTS fan so that was another 20 minutes of talking about their reunion concert next year. 💕
We took the train to Gold Coast which took about 1.5 hours. The fare was 0.5 AUD which was like 30 cents! I was about to move to Australia at this point. The Gold Coast is famous for their beaches. We went to the Burleigh Head National Park which had trails along the coast and through the rain forest. The views were stunning.
We had lunch at LIMLAY Thai Street Food. I eat a lot of Thai food. I've been to Thailand. This is the most beautiful Thai food I've ever had. Look at the colors and the flowers. The dessert is to die for. It's their version of a mochi donut made from sweet potatoes. I would go back to Australia just to eat this dessert again. On the way back, we saw the Christmas lights at King George Square. It’s hard to evoke Christmas feelings when it was so hot and sticky. Day Four started at Double Maker Coffee. I had the iced latte with coffee jelly. The coffee jelly was yummy.
We headed over to Brisbane Museum where admission is ... FREE. It's a cute little museum. Brisbane Museum also offers different tours. I booked two tours: one for the Clock Tower and one for City Hall. The price for both tours? Free. I know, it's insane. The Clock Tower tour is only 15 minutes. You read the rickety elevator to the top. The views from the top of the clock tower was good but the highlight was seeing the clock from the inside.
The City Hall Tour is about an hour. The tour guide takes you to cool areas and explains the history. It was an awesome tour. We then had dim sum at Longtime Dining. This is a really fancy Chinese restaurant inside of a fancy mall. There were many interesting things on the menu that I've never had. The spring rolls had avocado. One of the dumplings had a squid ink wrapper. There was truffle on the sui mai.
We spent our last afternoon at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha. Guess how much admission was? Yes it was free. This is maybe the biggest botanic garden I've ever been to. It was basically a whole mountain. There were so many areas and trails. We barely made a scratch. The Japanese garden was beautiful. I loved the bonsai house. The tropical dome was really impressive. The original plan was to take the Spotted Gum Trail which leads from the garden to the Mt Coot-Tha Look Out. But apparently the trail closes at 4 PM. So we didn't go to the Look Out. But you gotta save something for the next trip, right? Day Five was flying out of Brisbane. I couldn't leave Brisbane without one more coffee. I went back to The Maillard Project. I had a latte with the most delicious matcha white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. It was so good I ordered one to go.
I am in love with Brisbane. The city is chocked full of gardens and parks. You can see the Brisbane River from every where. Everything is basically free. I'm just going to boldly declare the 30 cent train ride from Brisbane to Gold Coast is the cheapest in the world. The people are so warm and friendly. The food is interesting and diverse. There is nothing bad to say except it's really humid. I'm looking forward to my next trip to Australia.
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