Brisbane, while on the river, doesn’t have any ocean beaches as it is protected from the Coral Sea by Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. Therefore, if you want a true ocean beach day, you need to take a ferry to one of these two islands. It’s not a difficult journey, but it does require a bit of planning and time. Let’s jump in to how to spend a day in Brisbane, while heading to the ocean on North Stradbroke Island!
As usual when we’re in Brisbane, we’re going to start off from the South Bank area, which is directly opposite the CBD on the south side of the river. If you’re staying in the CBD, you can easily grab a ferry or train to make your way to the South Bank train station. When we headed to Straddle, we wanted something quick, healthy, but filling so we actually stopped in to the local grocery store (Woolworths Metro located below the train station) to buy some breakfast pastries, fruits, and snacks for the journey.
Estimated time for breakfast (less than 15 minutes) and price ($10.41 for breakky, fruits, and snacks)
Then, we hopped on the train from South Bank station towards Cleveland station, onboard the Shorncliffe line. The trip takes just under an hour and costs $50 cents per passenger. Once you get to Cleveland station, you have the option to either walk to the ferry terminal (2.2km or 30 minutes) or wait for the bus (271) that takes you directly there in 15 minutes. Note that the train and bus don’t necessarily line up, so we recommend that if you can walk that distance, you walk it, as its a straight, paved, on a sidewalk walk. If you go down one street from the train station, to Middle Street, you also get to walk past cafés and stores.
Once at the ferry terminal, which they recommend getting to 30 minutes before departure time, you’ll get your tickets (make sure to book round-trip for a day trip… it saves you money!), but you can also pre-book the tickets online to save even more. The trip over takes approximately 30 minutes, and depending on the time of year, you might be able to spot whales, dolphins, turtles, and manta rays!
Estimated time to get to Straddie from South Bank (1.75 to 2.25 hours) and price ($46 total for 2 tickets bought day of and 2 train fares)
Once you’re on Straddie, in the town of Dunwich, you have so many different adventures you could choose from, but we’ll just cover our personal favourite below. We’ve done trains, boats, and walking so far, so let’s add a bus trip to it! Right outside the ferry terminal, the bus station takes you to different points along the island. The bus you’ll be looking for to have the same day as we did is the one heading to Point Lookout (880) and you’ll get off at the Mooloomba Rd at Gorge Walk stop, perfectly positioned for our first adventure of the day (if we don’t count actually getting here).
Estimated time to get to North Gorge Walk from Dunwich ferry terminal (45 minutes) and price (50 cents per person)
The North Gorge walk is a beautiful stroll with views of the ocean on one side and native Australian bushland on the other. If you’re lucky, you’ll spot wallabies, kangaroos, dolphins, whales, turtles, and manta rays along the 1.6km pathway. It takes about 30 minutes to walk the entire loop, and once you get back to the starting point there are options available for lunch. We’ve gotten takeaway fish and chips from Fishes at the Point, and eaten them on the grass opposite, surrounded by wallabies, as well as ice cream and gelato from Whale Tail Gelati and Coffee Bar.
Estimate time for walk and lunch (1 hour to 1.5 hours) and price ($54.00 for classic fish and chips, kids calamari and chips, 1 kids gelato scoop and 1 single gelato scoop)
It’s finally time to hit the beach now and luckily Main Beach is only a six minute walk away. This ocean facing beach has public toilet facilities, a bar and bistro, and has lifeguards on duty. As with all Aussie beaches, make sure to always swim between the red and yellow flags and follow lifeguard instructions.
Estimated time at beach (1 hour to 5 hours depends entirely on you - and the weather… we got rained out) and price (free if just chilling on beach)
When its time to go home, make your way up back to where you were initially dropped off by the North Gorge walk entrance. You’ll take the same bus (880) to head back to the Dunwich ferry terminal. As a reminder, this is about a 45 minute bus journey and you’ll need to also consider that the last ferry leaves Dunwich at 7:45pm (except for Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8:45pm), for which they recommend you get there approximately 30 minutes before it leaves, and to make sure you don’t miss the last boat back to the mainland. The journey back is a copy paste of what we did to get to Straddie in the morning… and you’ll likely be following many others doing the same journey.
Estimated time to get back to South Bank from Straddie (1.75 to 2.25 hours) and price (50 cents per person since we already paid for return tickets on way there)
Once you’re back in South Bank, there are plenty of restaurant options available for you to eat at. We personally wanted something quick so grabbed some greek food from the Yiros Shop on Grey Street, before collapsing to have some rest after a long but so worth it day.
Estimated time for dinner (less than 15 minutes) and price (33.80 for lamb pita and greek salad and chicken plate)
Need hotel recommendations to continue the adventure for multiple days? We’ve stayed at the Emporium Hotel (apartments via AirBnB), as well as the Courtyard Marriott and would recommend both of them. The Courtyard Marriott is a tiny bit more out of the way, but if you don’t mind an extra 5 minute walk (*uphill), we would recommend this hotel for the price you pay any day. The Emporium Hotel is a 5 star hotel so it is quite expensive if you book through the hotel, but do look on AirBnB for the apartments option as it was very reasonably priced and we got access to a pool.
- Total time: 6.75 hours to 11.5 hours
- Our personal totals (per person) from our last time in March 2023:
- Price per day without including accommodations : $73.11 AUD
- Price per day if including accommodation at Courtyard Marriott hotel: $230.61 AUD (we stayed during summer and on a concert night so rates were higher than usual)