by Miriam | May 3, 2018 | Destinations
Name: Broadwater Tourist Park (Gold Coast Tourist Parks)
Location: 169 Marine Parade, Southport, QLD
Date of Stay: 27-29 April 2018
Type of Park: City/Water/Parklands
Rating: 4 out of 5
Description:
A well maintained park, great for families, couples or singles in a great location.
We have stayed here many, many times… And we love it! My first Trip Advisor review on this park was done back in 2016, and that was written after returning on many occasions.
The park is situated right on the beautiful Broadwater, and has million-dollar views.
It had a foreshore makeover a couple of years ago, and now there is lots of lush, grass between the park and the sand. It’s great for kids… And kites. I do believe on one occasion that particular strip of grass was used as a race track between the local police on their quad bike and our youngest who was on her push bike!
The inlet is a great little spot to take the kids fishing as the sun goes down. It’s also where the boat ramp is located, giving easy access to the water for us to launch our jetski! Many of our friends come to this park purely because it is so easy to get the ski’s and boats into the water as the ramp is located within the park itself.
The amenities are good (there are a few blocks), camp kitchens are well appointed and very well maintained, as are the grounds.
There are many cabins… Lots right on the water with stunning views and some further back in the park.
Staff are friendly and very helpful.
Both swimming pools are great… The big shade is great for kids in the hot summer sun. The girls went swimming this weekend, but only for a few minutes as it was ‘freeeezing!!!’ So, I guess heated pools could make this park even better (hint hint!).
We have been telling the kids to ‘go and entertain yourselves’ at this park for a few years now, and currently at ages 10, 12 and 13, they still haven’t outgrown the playground, games room and jumping pillow which is a good thing J
We rate this park highly as it’s consistently produced fun and memorable times no matter if it’s our family of 5, just me and Chris, our friends with kids or our friends without.
Facilities:
- Boat ramp
- 2 pools
- Tennis court
- Jumping pillow
- Playground
- Recreation room
- Camp kitchen
- BBQ areas
Staff:
Sites:
200+ sites including water view, ensuite, powered slab and powered grass sites. Large and flat – easy to get in and out of.
Positives:
- Location – it is close to Surfers, the Broadwater and the parklands which are great to ride to with the kids. The aqua splash is set up just down the path, and there is a fun little waterpark for the kids to have a play in.
- Maccas is over the street if you like their coffee – if not, the Donut Shop D Point Ten makes great coffee. There is a supermarket and some other little shops right across the street as well.
- Well maintained
- Clean, well appointed and relatively modern amenities
Negatives:
- We had heard of many people having items stolen from this park and considered ourselves lucky as it hadn’t happened to us – until Australia Day 2017. Cooper’s near new scooter was stolen one night along with quite a few things belonging to other people. It is commonplace to see people chain their Weber’s down to deter theft.
- It can get very busy during the school holidays (this could be negative or positive – it depends on if you like lots of people! J )
- It’s quite loud due to the location – you will hear sirens, cars racing and loud engines through the night. But this is to be expected as Surfers is less than 5ks away.
- The park is quite strict on the 10am check out time.
- The beach/Broadwater out the front can be overcrowded with PWC (which again is to be expected in most waterways on the Gold Coast).
by Miriam | May 3, 2018 | Adventures, Adventures Family, Destinations, Destinations Family, Miriams Moments
What do you do when you hear your mates are headed down to the Broadwater for the weekend? You book of course! And that’s just what we did – jumped on the phone and secured our site for 2 nights.
We have been staying at the Broadwater Tourist Park on and off for years now, and we’ve always enjoyed our stay.
It’s a lovely, well-maintained park in a great location. Beautiful trees, lots of lush green grass out the front of the park, and a great little piece of beach right on the Broadwater. The park has its’ own boat ramp, making it an easy decision to take the Jetski down with us.
We did a bit of a shuffle to get everything down there. Chris towed the van down in the morning and then brought the truck back and went back down with the Jetski and the smaller hilux. I picked the kids up from school and went down in the truck.
Traffic was great, the weather was great, the kids were behaving as they usually do and I could tell straight off that it was going to be a great weekend overall. And it was.
We arrived about 5:00pm and Chris was already well into happy hour with the others. The kids ran off and I started dinner. Mexican is our traditional ‘night one’ dinner – always loaded up with lots of guacamole and sour cream and washed down with some homemade kombucha.
A few of the guys took the kids across to Maccas for waffle cones (tradition at Broadwater!) while I tucked into my homemade coconut custard, brownie and raspberries. (It was the last day of my gut cleanse which meant no dairy, bacon, mushrooms and so on for 2 weeks!)
The usual night time chats and drinks helped us wind down for what is always a great night’s sleep – man I love our bed in the van! Our eggshell mattress topper is tops (haha).
I was up at sunrise to capture the magnificence that is the sun peeking over the horizon, onto the water and through the palm trees; Chris was up to capture his coffee. It’s always lovely to sit at the table and chairs down on the grass to watch the sun come up. If I drank coffee, I’d probably say ‘it’s lovely to drink my morning coffee and watch the sun come up!’
The sunrise held all the promise of a beautiful day, but it didn’t turn out quite that way.
The girls managed a (very) quick dip in the pool and emerged covered in goose bumps with lips turning blue. It wasn’t long before the ominous clouds started rolling in, the wind picked up and the rain started to fall – heavily. The clothes airer was blown over 3 or 4 times, and all the chairs got drenched as everytime the gusts of winds came through, the water poured off the awning like a river from the sky!
The girls took hot showers and then all the kids spent some time in the games room before coming back into the van to play 5 Second Rule.
Thankfully the clouds disappeared, the sun reappeared (just like it promised at sunrise) and the jumpers came off! On went our swimmers and into the Broadwater went our Jet ski.
The Broadwater is just great for skis and boats, especially on days that start cold, wet and miserable, and surprise everyone by becoming Summery quite quickly! We were one of just 3 skis on the water. Chris took the girls across to Straddie, and then we hooked up the tube and spent a couple of hours trying to flick the kids off and into the water. Everyone had a blast; the sun was shining and the water was warm. We played until the kids were exhausted and couldn’t hold on anymore.
Lunch was a BBQ, and the beers and wine was flowing again by 2:30. We all took our chairs to one van and settled in for an afternoon of good conversation while the kids entertained themselves.
The rain clouds returned, along with a few spits of rain, and the temperature dropped pretty quickly. It really was like 4 seasons in one day!
I left the gang engrossed in merry conversation and went down to Mermaid with my bestie to check out her wedding venue (in the pouring rain!). When I got back from our secret wedding business, Chris was in the van with the BBQ on and salad prepared and the kids were showering in the amenities. I took a quick shower to thaw out, popped by trakkies and ugg boots on and then dinner was served. Our plates were filled with Honey Soy chicken kebabs I’d made the day before and salad with some homemade sauerkraut and beetroot on the side. Strawberry kombucha helped to wash it all down.
After the kids had done the dishes in the camp kitchen, Chris and the kids made their nightly trek back across for more waffle cones, and I had my brownies and custard again.
We had a pretty early night as the kids were pooped, and Chris and I like to lay in bed and watch cooking shows on TV, especially Bizarre Foods. This particular night we watched Andrew eat lobster poop saying it was delicious! Hmmm. We are real party animals!
Sunday morning’s we usually take our time and have a bit more fun before packing up, but at this particular park, they’re pretty strict with check out times. So it went kinda like this:
Wake up, grab coffee from the Donut shop across the road, drink it looking out over the water, cook a big brekkie of bacon and eggs, pack up the van, say goodbye to everyone and start the half hour drive home.
The girls and I did manage to sneak in a quick photoshoot before pack up .. and some of the pics turned out rather well!
It’s always sad packing up, but it’s never long before our next trip away. We like to have a few adventures lined up to give us something to be happy about as we vacuum inside the van and wind up the awning.
It was more like a ‘see you in a few weeks!’ than goodbye – which left us smiling as we all hooked our vans up and headed out under the boom gate, across Marine Parade and made our way back to the M1 and home towards Brissy.
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