How to plan your own foodie tour on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Looking for a foodie tour on the Sunshine Coast? Create your own. Here’s how.

Having been a visitor to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland for over 50 years, I’ve never really been one for doing the touristy thing on every visit. We love nothing more than just hanging out at the beach.

My grandparents retired on the Sunshine Coast in 1969 so every other weekend we would visit from Brisbane and go to the beach for a swim. The only tourist attractions to really see were The Big Pineapple, The Big Cow (which used to be at Yandina), The Ginger Factory (in Buderim in the early days) and the Sunshine Castle in Bli Bli.

Now you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to the Sunshine Coast, especially as far as food and alcohol goes. Here’s a way you can plan your own foodie tour on the Sunshine Coast and make the most of what’s on offer, in your own time.

Why plan your own tour?

We visit the Sunshine Coast often. It’s our second home. Having been there so much over the years, it’s our favourite place to visit. I have noticed that it has really come of age as being a foodie destination in South East Queensland so wanted to make the most of my next visit.

When I started researching the foodie tours already available (why reinvent the wheel right?), I noticed most of them included wine, beer or other alcohol destinations and we’re talking a couple of hundred dollars.

I don’t drink alcohol anymore so it really wouldn’t be worth it for me. There were also parts of some tours I liked and parts of others I didn’t. So that’s why I decided to start researching the places I wanted to visit the most and found this amazing website that does all the hard work for you.

How to plan your own foodie tour

South East Queensland Food Trails is a website that allows you to plan and create your own foodie tour on the Sunshine Coast and anywhere else in South East Queensland.

There already pre-planned routes you can take that make the most of the region, for example bicycle tours, walking tours or what’s happening right now. They also include some hidden gems you may not have even existed, in your own backyard!

There are also links to that particular region’s tourist websites for even more information. Really a one stop shop to find out all the information you can about the area you’re visiting.

How it works

You simply choose which region you’d like to visit. Either check out the information already available or click on “Create My Trail”.

Choose which region you are visiting from either the List or the Map, then click which Sub Region. You can select all or on an individual region in that area.

Enter the address from which you’ll be starting at. This could be your home address, if you live in South East Queensland, or your accommodation address.

This is, of course, a self-drive tour and if you wanted to visit places that serve alcohol, choose a designated driver. If there are a lot of you, look at the cost of hiring an Uber driver for the day. It might work out a lot cheaper than an organised tour.

After you’ve entered your starting point address, choose your “Interests”. This could be “All”, dining, markets, cooking schools or other attractions in that region.

Your places of interest are then displayed and then it’s a matter of selecting which places you’d like to visit. Click on each one you’d like to include on your tour.

A map is then created with all of the places you’ve chosen with the distance, time and location of each place.

You can then save the link to return to when you’re out on the road and follow the Google map driving instructions to find your way around.

Conclusion

I’m going to be using this tool more for my own area. There’s really so much to see and do in your own backyard, if you really look hard enough. It will save you money, it will be tailor made for your tastes and you can take your time. The South East Queensland Food Trails website has made the job of planning your DIY foodie tour even easier.

Marcus Beach, Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Ever since the children were toddlers I’ve tried to take them away for a summer vacation. This year we decided to go to Marcus Beach, Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Marcus Beach is located on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. It’s the next beach after Peregian Beach travelling north and just south of Noosa Beach. I’ve been going to the Sunshine Coast since I was a baby and it’s my most favourite part of the world. We usually vacation at Coolum Beach, just south of Marcus Beach but leaving it until the last minute, I couldn’t find any accommodation for the dates we needed so we found a cute little house at Marcus Beach. 

I love the Sunshine Coast for it’s unspoilt beauty. No high rise buildings, no fancy hotels. Just wide open spaces, beautiful beaches, sand dunes, natural bushland adjoining the beach and crystal clear ocean. Except for the busy times people walk their dogs, you can sometimes feel like you’re the only person on the beach.

Accommodation

When my husband and I vacation just with our two dogs, we take any accommodation but because we had the children, we chose a place with a swimming pool. When we weren’t at the beach they were in the pool. It was so refreshing to see them get back their childhood with absolutely no electronic devices brought with them at all.  

Even the dogs went in for a quick dip. The drive up was so hot. We put them in to lower their body temperatures. They aren’t too keen on the water at the best of times.

My husband is such a good step Dad. The kids absolutely adore him. He loved playing with them in the pool and they loved it too.

The house we rented had a real retro feel about it, resembling something like a Swedish sauna with timber internal walls and vaulted ceilings. We had all the creature comforts of home and that’s all we needed. As long as we have a bed, a shower and somewhere to cook, we’re happy. Considering the small window of time we were able to go away, the house was really reasonably priced for the location. Only 1 street away from the beach and surrounded by beautiful trees and nature.

The evenings were spent watching television, playing board games and winding down from a hot, tiring day.

The Beach

In the afternoon, we took the dogs for a walk along the beach. It was a bit windy the first day and there was a really bad storm brewing back home in Brisbane so we didn’t stay long.

The second day we went back to our favourite place, Coolum Beach and a walk through Stumer’s Creek, a dog friendly beach that we love. The dogs immediately remembered it and felt right at home.

Our little miniature Fox Terrer, Bonnie will be 16 years old after Christmas and she still goes alright for an ‘old girl’. She loves the beach and keeps up with us walking even having a little game with ‘Dada’. (We love our dogs and they come everywhere with us.)

My husband is such a joy to go away on vacation with. He packs the car, unpacks it, looks after the dogs, looks after me and makes holidaying a real joy.

It was only 3 days long but hopefully the time we spent together will have a lasting memory for the children. Holidaying with them as they’re getting older is definitely a lot easier compared to when they were toddlers.

 

Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa

I’m lucky enough to belong to an online holiday club that occasionally sends through really good getaway packages. Most often than not, I’m not in a financial position to take them or they’re offered to couples or in off season periods therefore not enabling me to take the children. Since meeting Damien, I’m now a couple and have been looking for the odd deal to pop up and the opportunity to go away for a mini ‘staycation’ presented itself towards the end of last year. We managed to book a really good deal at the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa on the Gold Coast.

Our room had all the mod cons that one would expect in 5-star luxury. We had 6 pillows full of duck down feathers and once our head hit them each night, we were out like a light. We ventured down on the Wednesday evening for 3 nights of relaxing and indulging. Included in our package was full buffet breakfast daily for 2, valet parking, free in-house movies and internet and access to all resort amenities.

This was the view from our room on the night we arrived with a near full moon shining over the ocean.

This was our view from our 20th floor room. We slept with the door open each night and let the ocean waves hitting the shore lull us into a deep slumber. We could see the ocean from our bed and what a sight to wake up to each day.

This is the view of the lagoon and swimming pool/spa complex from our room. The dark area of the lagoon is home to an array of tropical fish which are hand fed at 9:30am every morning. You can hire (or bring your own from home) snorkels and flippers to get up close to the fish, which we did and it was beautiful.

Citrique is the restaurant that served our full buffet breakfast which had just about everything you could imagine. It also serves a seafood buffet at various times during the week and weekend that is very popular, serving some of the freshest seafood on the Gold Coast. The following are photos of in and around the resort.

It’s nice to get away and experience some of the finer things in life but we were missing home and our regular way of life. We missed our two legged and four legged friends and our routine but were so grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a fantastic couple of days away. Oh, and just before we went to dinner on Thursday night, this happened…

Who would’ve thought I’d ever be planning a wedding again? I LOVE IT! Look out Pinterest. Stay tuned for the best ever, beach themed, budget wedding ideas in town. What a wonderful couple of days. 

Coochiemudlo Island

Summer officially finished here in Australia on February 28 but you wouldn’t think so throughout the month of March so far. It’s been very warm still and just beautiful weather. I’m making an effort to have at least one good outing with the kids on the weekends I have them so we all packed up and went to Coochiemudlo Island for the morning.

Coochiemudlo Island is a quick 7 minute passenger ferry ride from Victoria Point on the main land. Victoria Point is approximately 40km from the Brisbane CBD and if you don’t have a car, you could catch a bus from anywhere within the Redlands. It is only 5 square kilometres in size so easy to walk around and the beaches are safe for kids, remembering to take note of the tide times.

With water crystal clear like this on your door step, why would you go anywhere else? Just near the ferry jetty the lifesavers have set up flags and the beach is monitored. There is bed and breakfast style accommodation on the island as well as the local residents who live there. You can get snack type foods at a small takeaway shop or everyone usually decides to bring their own. There are barbecue facilities and toilets located close to the ferry.

My son and I enjoyed a game of catch as well as kicking the football around.

My girlfriend put in a cheeky bottle of chilled sparkling light red into the picnic basket and it was just beautiful sitting there with that view.

There truly isn’t a better place so close to home for around $10 return ferry ride for the 3 of us. How blessed are we? Check here for fares and ferry times.

If you’re visiting Brisbane, make sure to include a trip to paradise in our backyard.