Australia’s tallest building and a surprisingly family-friendly accommodation option on the Gold Coast
As a family, we often favour small unit blocks or holiday villas for our time away from home. They are usually more accommodating of larger families and feel less intimidating overall. Holidays are meant to be relaxing, after all. Lately, however, I have been hankering for a different experience - anything different at all - just a chance to learn and grow through travel.
We have had so little opportunity to experience new places since the beginning of the global pandemic. We are still quite limited in our choices of travel destinations, so instead of going somewhere new (which we had planned, and had to cancel due to border restrictions), we decided to try a different sort of holiday experience in a familiar location. We chose to stay in a high-rise resort in our corner of south-east Queensland.
Since we wanted to enjoy great views, we thought we’d stay at Q1 Resort and Spa, Australia’s tallest building.
We booked a two-bedroom spa room with city views and just a short time after placing the booking, we received an offer to bid for an upgrade. FunDad and I toyed with the idea of bidding for an upgrade to a three-bedroom suite, because sleeping six people in a two-bedroom suite usually means there’s a sofa bed involved, and while we always ‘make do’ cheerfully, we do miss the floor space that gets taken up in the living room when a sofa bed is made up. In the end, though, we decided not to worry about an upgrade.
I had braced myself for a fairly small room with a sofa bed, so when we walked into our room, I was BLOWN AWAY! The two-bedroom spa room was spacious beyond our expectations! There was a full kitchen, a dining area, an office room, an enclosed balcony with a second full dining setting and two bedrooms, as well as two bathrooms and a laundry room. Best of all, there were two single trundle beds waiting for us in our living room, and these fitted perfectly into the office space - effectively creating a three-bedroom experience for us, for the price of a two-bedroom room.
A view from our room
Fantastic laundry facilities for families
A spacious kitchen with fridge, microwave, oven and TWO dishwashers
Bonus balcony space with fresh air and views
Our bonus 'bedroom'
Other great inclusions:
An indoor pool and an indoor spa: Swimming in winter for our mermaids (our outdoor pool at home isn’t heated);
Daily housekeeping: Fresh towels, milk, dishwasher tablets and toiletries every day;
Streaming services on TV: Not that we watched much!
A spa bath in the room.
The resort includes a restaurant with room service, undercover parking at no cost, a media room, a gym and many other great amenities. Our room was also extremely clean and felt airy and spacious. The views were spectacular - so much so that I kept the blinds open all night, just to enjoy the twinkling lights right up until we fell asleep and so we could be greeted with views as soon as we woke up.
Q1 is located one block from the beach, so we enjoyed a walk along the beach and boardwalk areas on our way to the Cavill Mall (four blocks away).
Beach walks
There are also plenty of eateries around the resort and we were able to find breakfast, lunch and dinner options within short walking distance. Our picks:
Coco Hut Thai: Delicious, generous servings.
Osaka Kaiten Sushi: Huge range and right beside the resort.
Pancakes in Paradise: Fantastic value for money, quick and friendly service, something on the menu to please everyone and fun, family-friendly decor.
Pancakes in Paradise
There’s an observation deck near the top of Q1 called SkyPoint. The experience has its own entrance (separate from the resort) and an entry fee applies. At SkyPoint, there are 360-degree views of the coast and there’s a cafe, so you can sit and soak in the views. There are discounts for locals. We have Dreamworld/White Water World/SkyPoint annual passes, so we went up twice during our visit - once in the day time and once at night. The binoculars were all covered during our visit (presumably due to COVID restrictions), but the markers and information posted on the floor and the walls still made it an informative experience. We might even go again if the binoculars return.
View from SkyPoint during the day
View at night
We enjoyed spotting signs for places we had been!
Q1 Resort and Spa gets five stars from us all around - adults and children. We loved the location, cleanliness, spaciousness, inclusions and value for money. It was the perfect base for a Gold Coast holiday and we had a fabulous time!
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