The thing about Main Beach is that it eats breakfast properly. Most of the residents along Tedder Avenue and Hedges Avenue start the day at a cafe rather than a hotel buffet, which is why the Main Beach cafes have to actually be good. There's no captive a...

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The Broadwater sits there, flat and protected, while the ocean a few hundred metres east is doing whatever the swell happens to be doing that morning. From Ocean Sands you can see it from the north-facing balconies. In October, with the water warming up p...

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Aqua park, gondolas or the co-op: how to plan one full Broadwater day from Ocean Sands, with drive times, parking, a named lunch and what to skip if you are short on time....

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The thing about the Gold Coast Oceanway is that it does what it says it will do. A continuous shared path runs along the beachfront from Coolangatta in the south to the Spit in the north, and Main Beach sits roughly at the midpoint. From Ocean Sands at 11...

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What spring is really like at Main Beach: water temperatures, the whale-watching finale, when the flags go daily, and what to book ahead from Ocean Sands....

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Southport is the Gold Coast suburb most visitors drive through rather than stopping in, which is a small mistake worth correcting. It sits a few minutes north of Surfers and about five minutes south of Ocean Sands at Main Beach, and over the past decade i...

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A walk-only guide from Ocean Sands: Tedder Avenue, the patrolled beach, Federation Walk, the co-op and the Spit, with honest times from our front door....

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What whale-watching Gold Coast guests notice first is how close in the humpbacks come. From early July, the northbound migration is in full swing past Main Beach, and the whales travel along a coastal corridor close enough that you don't always need a boa...

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The thing about Tedder Avenue is that it works like a proper neighbourhood dining strip. People who live in Main Beach actually eat here. They book the same tables, recognise the staff, and order without the menu by their second visit. That's a useful tes...

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The Spit doesn't really feel like the Gold Coast, which is half the reason locals come up here on a Sunday morning. It's the narrow strip of land that extends north from Main Beach, flanked by the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Broadwater on the other,...

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