The Gold Coast Holiday

Azzura Greens Resort Apartment

Let me tell you that this was the first family holiday we have had which included hubby. He normally stays behind (by choice) when I holiday with my sisters and mum. However, this family holiday was so different because we were in another state and he was with us. Plus, it was the first time the kids were on a plane. Yipppeee! I was a bit nervous about all my plans but in the end they worked out perfectly. 

Above is the glorious Surfers Paradise. The tallest building in this pic would be Peppers Resort. We did not stay there. We stayed in Hope Island. It was only 7 mins drive to the theme parks and Coles was just a heartbeat away so we loved the location. The 3 bedroom apartment I chose at Azzura Greens was fabulous. So.much.space! Two bedrooms with ensuites, one master bathroom, one single toilet, lovely clean laundry and huge balconies. Air-conditioning! Loved the lay out of the kitchen and lounge area. For six nights it cost us $2,200. I book through booking.com. I always do. This was the cheapest I found with all the amenities we needed. It was also nice and quiet.

My gosh we were so excited and checking in and out was a breeze. We just had to ask them to top up the toilet paper. We had to buy the extra things ourselves like toiletries. Their pool was kind of small but we enjoyed their hot spa. Mmmmmm. Spaaaaaaaa.

Here's our family pic in front of MovieWorld. His nephews joined us on the last two days so this was the second time we went to the theme park. We used our free 14 days passes we received when we signed up for our annual Wet n Wild season passes. So every time we went we didn't have to pay for entry. We got our separate passes at Wet n Wild the first day we arrived so that we didn't have to line up later on. It was a real time saver.

Wave Pool

This is Wet and Wild Junior (inside Wet and Wild) Elijah loved playing here while Jacquie liked the pool area. It's all very shallow so really nice. The big kids went with dad to do the rides. I'm not a rides person so I looked after the younger kids. It worked out in the end but I think dad wanted to do a lot more scary rides. He just had to wait for his nephews to arrive. We all got a good sun tan by the end of this holiday.

This was actually at the boys hotel - Chevron something. There's three of them so this one they stayed in had a wonderful large pool and a separate kids area. I discovered that the water up here is warmer and not icy like the water we have in Sydney. Not sure why. Is it because it's salted? Heated? I don't know but I love it. Wished we hung out at this pool a lot longer but we left after an hour to catch our flight home.

The kids were totally pooped out in the back seat. It was a long but glorious holiday. We dropped off the keys and made our way to the Virgin Airlines check in. The gate was right in front of the security gates so we bought a bit to eat on the plane as it was dinner time. I suggest you have some ear phones so that you can listen to your own music and free in flight entertainment on the Virgin planes as they don't give them to you like Qantas does.

This was our view from the balcony. At night it was beautiful when the stars were out. They looked so close and unlike anything I've seen in Sydney. Every day was pretty warm. 30 degrees. I can't fault our holiday really. It was just enough time to relax and unwind. Not sure if we would have got bored if we stayed longer than a week. I will miss you Queensland though. Til next time!

Have you got any good holidays ideas for families?? I'd love to hear about them in the comments.