leejo

Decisions, decisions.....

Gold Coast or Cairns?

I like the last frontier feel of cairns which some call Redneck. But my wife wants more to do than waterholes and tropical islands at weekend. Which I understand and agree, do get a little bit repetitive.

The Gold Coast seems a more balanced area. Plenty of shops, couple of theme parks and load of canals to take the boat on at weekend. Cairns only has one Bluewater and Barron river and no Theme parks or water parks(just sugarworld).

Been looking at places to live and kind of narrowed it down to Sanctuary Cove, Hope Island or Commera Waters.

We need a Catholic School for the children. Can anyone recommend a school in this area?

Also, does anyone live in Commera Water or Gold Coast? Who can give us some feedback as to what it's like living on the Gold Coast?

moneypenny20

Ok so I don't live that end of the coast and know nothing about the Catholic schools other than Upper Coomera has Assisi College and Hope Island/Sanctuary Cove have nothing but there is St Francis Primary at Runaway Bay so you'd have some driving if they aren't suitable.

We love it here but we're down the bottom which has a much quieter feel than the rest. It suits us even though the husband works in Oxenford and he hates the commute but until we win Lotto he has to suck it up.

Not much help sorry but feel free to ask me different questions I may be able to answer.

Bermudashorts

Not lived in either, but visited both several times and when we return, one day, probably near retirement, they are both options we are seriously considering.

We like Cairns because we both like water based activities and being tropical. Yes it might get old, but then again so would theme parks! I do think that Gold Coast would win out in the end though, as well as being more balanced as you mentioned, it also suits geographically with easy hops up to get the tropical fix and also down to get a different city scene.

astera

If, like me, you do not have to be physically located in any particular place but can live anywhere you like, you should definitely look at the Gold Coast. IMO it's the #1 place to be if you have free choice over where to move.

It pretty much has everything you could ever want as far as living in Australia goes. Sure, I didn't feel that great here after moving from Singapore, but looking at the rest of the country I'm really happy to be living here and not in Sydney (where most of my family is) or elsewhere.

You are looking at probably the best climate in Australia, with maybe 1-2 months of less than perfect temps in Winters but at least those Winters are packed with sunshine, so you don't feel chilly as long as the gigantic spotlight covers you. Hottest average high of 28.6 C is in Jan, with the lowest average high of 21.1 C in July.

Overall you'll find everything you need here without the big city problems/issues. You've got awesome beaches, loads of ways to spend time outdoors, tons of big theme parks just a short drive away to keep the kids pleased, great shopping, some good restaurants (in this country it takes a while to find those hidden diamonds amongst the myriad mediocre eateries everywhere), and if you see the satellite view on Google Maps you can see that people here, when not focused on living near the beach, live on these artificially formed canal areas, giving them water access and a unique lifestyle (jetski, perhaps? ).

There's loads of interesting places to drive to from here, and they're all quite close like Burleigh Heads, Coolangatta, Sanctuary Cove, Mount Tamborine (some fabulous views from there, and some good grub too), etc., etc., etc. Broadbeach is tops for evening entertainment, and if you're into sports then the Jupiters Casino Sportsbar covers absolutely everything, 24/7. Already have Tuesday the 12th pencilled in for the US college football championship game at 11:30. Of course if you're up for a longer drive, then you have Brisbane less than 80km away, with a 3-late highway taking you there. Beyond that there's the Sunshine Coast. And if you really want to head far then you have two airports to choose from, not just Brisbane but Gold Coast airport too, where you can fly direct internationally as well (Singapore, Tokyo, etc.).

I also think this is the next, big, up-and-coming place in Australia that will develop at record pace. The light-rail infrastructure has changed this place around and linked it together, and just looking at the new developments all over tells you the Gold Coast is going places. Sydney and Melbourne will remain the top cities where people move to for work reasons, but the Gold Coast will (or even already is) the lifestyle destination of choice.

KJCherokee

Don't forget that the Gold Coast isn't just the Miami Vice section a few kilometres inland from the coastline - you can get the best of both worlds by living inland around Nerang or Mudgeeraba from which you have easy access to the M1 and the beach is less than 20 minutes away.