Gold Coast · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Cheap beds, endless surf and free beaches — the Gold Coast is where backpackers stop and overstay.
Sleep in Surfers Paradise
Hostels line the blocks behind Cavill Avenue in Surfers, with quieter and cheaper options south at Coolangatta and Burleigh Heads.
What a day costs
Dorms A$30–50, food A$25–45, tram and bus fares around A$10 on a Go card. Reckon A$70–120 a day, roughly $45–80.
Getting around cheap
The G:link tram runs the beachfront from Broadbeach to Helensvale on a Go card, and buses reach Burleigh and Coolangatta on the same fare.
Free by day
The headland walk at Burleigh Head National Park, every beach on the coast, and the rainforest tracks at Springbrook an hour inland.
Burleigh Heads at sunset
Backpackers drift south from Surfers to the Burleigh headland in the evening — a park, a point break and drummers, with buses running back late.