We took a punt and booked a long weekend away with friends at Paradise Resort on the Gold Coast. By punt, I mean…its usually great for kids but for mums and dads its all a bit ho hum.
Well…happy to eat my words (I love to eat anyway and p.s. the food here was good) and we found the opposite at Australia’s only resort with a waterpark, day/night kids club, indoor and outdoor playcentre and pumping ice rink!
With everything all under the one roof, we found this to be heaven on earth for our little family.
Expect: It to be busy. There’s kids everywhere, but you’re all there doing the same thing – trying to relax while showing your little ones the time of their life. You dont mind the noise and the masses because everything is so well organised and laid out. There’s enough room for everyone and the whole complex runs like a well oiled machine. Like all good parents, the resort has worked out routine is key!
Bonus: 4 hours of kids club included per day. This is not a typo or a mirage. It really happens and the children have a ball. There is a babies and toddlers centre and a zone for over 3s. You take the children there with all the normal things that you take to daycare (change of clothes, water bottle, nappies etc). We were understandably a bit nervous when we first dropped the boys off (and the parental guilts started to kick in), but we really didn’t have to worry. The staff were extremely caring and gave us an end of session run down that was so detailed it would rival the best of nannies. Note: If the children are there for lunch and dinner, their meals are extra but its a mall price to pay for your sanity. We used our 4 hours to go to an early Tepanyaki at the nearby Marriott and shopping at Pacific Fair the next …yes we felt so confident that we even left the complex and suburb by car!
What’s near by:
– The Beach
– Seaworld
– Movie theaters
– Shopping
– Infinity World
…and all the glitz of Surfers Paradise.
Would we go again: Absolutely! We stayed just prior to the release of their newly refurbished family suites and we’d love to give these a try. We found the room we stayed in great, it had bunk beds for the boys and a Sony PlayStation and TV for them to watch movies on their side of the room but have heard the extra space in the new zone to be even better experience for all.
