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Why the Gold Coast is better than ever (for grown-ups most of all)

To the beaches and beyond: Why the Gold Coast is better than ever right now

Sarah Maguire
May 12 2023 - 3:00pm

From the coast to the hinterland, the ever dynamic Gold Coast delivers big time on a grown-ups' getaway.

Less than two hours after landing at the Gold Coast Airport, we're in the Currumbin Valley testing our endurance in a wood-fired hot stone sauna. It's set beneath a magnificent Moreton Bay fig in the yard of a century-old farmhouse that is now, of all things, an outdoor bathhouse. The grounds of the restored Queenslander are the site of two saunas, a pool dense with Dead Sea minerals, a cedar hot tub and two hydrotherapy spa baths. You rotate your way through them, as many times as you like, sneaking an ice-cold plunge bath into the mix if you're brave enough. It's quite the wake-me-up after our early rise to catch our flight here. Then it's off to lunch at Pasture & Co, just next door. Along with The Bathhouse, it's part of a complex known as Ground at Currumbin, a collective of local businesses with "strong environmental and social values". The cafe is wildly popular and the queue to order lunch is long. The wait for the food, thankfully, is not, and I'm soon eating vegan zucchini and potato rosti, with beetroot hummus, avocado and a macadamia rosti.

Sarah Maguire

Sarah Maguire

Editor, Explore

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