If you had to pick one stretch of Australia that has a bit of everything the country is famous for, it would be hard to beat the coast north of Brisbane. In the space of a few hours’ easy driving you pass a line of ancient volcanic peaks, Australia’s most famous zoo, its most effortlessly glamorous beach town and, just offshore, the largest sand island on Earth.
That’s what makes this corridor such a good trip: nothing about it is hard work. The distances are short, the roads are good, and every day ends somewhere worth being. It’s also a route we know first-hand: Chris, The Road Trip’s owner, recently travelled it with his family, and this article follows the trip they took. Here’s how the route unfolds, south to north, and where we’d have you stay along the way.
1. The Glasshouse Mountains: thirteen ancient peaks
Where: Sunshine Coast hinterland, about an hour north of Brisbane.
Barely an hour out of Brisbane, a series of steep, isolated peaks starts rising out of the coastal plain. These are the Glasshouse Mountains: the cores of volcanoes that stood here around 25 million years ago, left behind after the softer rock around them wore away. Captain Cook named them from the deck of the Endeavour in 1770, and they remain deeply significant to the Gubbi Gubbi and Jinibara peoples, who have lived among them for far longer. The lookouts are an easy drive, and the walking tracks range from gentle rainforest loops to proper summit scrambles.
Insider tip: Mount Ngungun is the summit walk we recommend. It’s short enough for most fitness levels, passes a small wind-carved cave near the top, and the view from the summit takes in Tibrogargan and Beerwah, the two most striking peaks in the group.
2. Australia Zoo: the Irwin family’s backyard
Where: Beerwah, Sunshine Coast hinterland.
A few minutes from the peaks sits the zoo Steve Irwin made famous, and it’s still run by the Irwin family today. Australia Zoo is enormous, genuinely world class, and unmistakably personal: the family’s passion for wildlife runs through every corner of it. You can get close to koalas, hand-feed kangaroos, watch giraffes and rhinos out on the African savannah, and see a crocodile launch itself out of the water at feeding time in the Crocoseum, the stadium at the heart of the zoo.
Insider tip: Give it a full day rather than a half. The crocodile show in the Crocoseum anchors the middle of the day, and the koala and kangaroo encounters are calmer in the morning before the crowds build.
3. The Crocodile Hunter Lodge: fall asleep in the bush
Where: On the Australia Zoo property.
Rather than seeing the zoo and driving on, this is a place worth slowing down for, and the Crocodile Hunter Lodge is the reason. Set in bushland on the zoo’s own property, the lodge is a collection of quiet, comfortable cabins with kangaroos, emus and koalas moving through the grounds, a 25-metre heated infinity pool, and the Warrior Restaurant & Bar for dinner. A stay includes breakfast, unlimited zoo entry while you’re there, and a behind-the-scenes look at the zoo’s wildlife hospital.
Insider tip: The Crocodile Cabins are the ones we’d point you to. Each looks over a waterfall pond that’s home to freshwater crocodiles, so you can watch them from your own deck with a coffee in hand. Because zoo entry is included, you can also split your zoo time across two relaxed visits instead of one big day.
4. Noosa: the beach town that got everything right
Where: Noosa Heads, about an hour north.
An hour up the coast, Noosa is the Sunshine Coast at its best: a calm, north-facing main beach, a national park on the headland where koalas doze in the trees above the walking track, and Hastings Street’s restaurants and boutiques a few steps from the sand. Our pick of the places to stay is Peppers Noosa Resort & Villas, set against the edge of the national park with its own path onto the rainforest trails, treetop villas, pools and a spa, and Hastings Street a five-minute stroll downhill.
Insider tip: Take the coastal track through the national park early, before breakfast. The section from the park entrance to Tea Tree Bay is flat and easy, the light on the water is at its best, and it’s the most reliable time of day to spot a koala.
5. K’gari: the world’s largest sand island
Where: Fraser Coast, off Hervey Bay.
The finale sits just offshore, and it’s the wildest day of the trip. K’gari, formerly Fraser Island, is the largest sand island in the world and World Heritage listed, a place where tall rainforest grows straight out of sand and lakes of rainwater sit ringed by beaches whiter than the coast you’ve just left. There isn’t a sealed road on the island: everything moves by 4WD, wild dingoes patrol the beaches, and sharks cruise the surf off 75 Mile Beach, which is why the swimming happens in the freshwater lakes instead. It all adds up to a genuine adventure rather than a sightseeing stop. We send guests across with Fraser Experience Tours, the small-group 4WD specialists who run day tours from Hervey Bay: a swim in the clear water of Lake McKenzie, the rainforest walk at Central Station, a cruise along 75 Mile Beach, an actual gazetted highway made of sand, a float down the current of Eli Creek, and a picnic lunch on the island.
Insider tip: The tour sets off from Hervey Bay early in the morning, so it’s worth considering a night there beforehand to make the start of the day an easy one. For couples or families who want the island to themselves, Fraser Experience Tours also run a private version of the tour that takes as few as four guests.
One road, no logistics
Strung together, this is five or six days of very easy travelling: one corridor, short drives, no backtracking. On a private guided trip, your guide handles the driving, the timings, the ferry connection for K’gari and the check-ins along the way, and then steps back so the beaches, the peaks and the wildlife get your full attention. Prefer to drive yourself? We build the same route as a self-drive, with everything arranged ahead of you and help only a phone call away.
See the icons, skip the planning
If this stretch of coast has been on your list, or if crocs, peaks and a sand island sound like the right mix, tell us. We’ll shape the route around your dates and your pace, choose the stays that suit you, and hand you an itinerary where the hardest decision left is whether to swim before breakfast or after.
