Thanks for the feedback. Just to clarify when we have “free time” we will be free of the kids so we can do some sightseeing or dining on our own. We have a few afternoons free and one entire day! I wish we could extend the trip but the way it’s set up we are “chaperones” on the plane and coaches on the ground. So we have to fly with the kids to make sure they make there connections arrive home in one piece.
I looked up South Stradbrooke Island, Mount Tamborine and Springbrook National Park. They all look beautiful! I just have to figure out transportation.
To go to them, a tour would be great and the mountains you could also do a tour or hire a car, a taxi would be very expensive and there is not a train service to those areas nor is there a public bus. There is a ferry service to South Stradbroke Is.
A couple of (maybe stupid) general questions:
How is the public transit system in Brisbane?
The hotel you mentioned is on the Gold Coast NOT in Brisbane, they are different cities and about an hours drive away from each other (Gold Coast is 90 minutes from Brisbane Airport by Train). Brisbane is the capital of the state of Queensland (which is where many international flights fly into), then there are many different cities located within the state of Queensland (Think California, most international visitiors fly into LAX but if their hotel is in San Diego, they are not staying in LA, so you are flying into Brisbane from what you have said, but Legends Hotel is Surfers Paradise which is in the City of the Gold Coast, so Bris and the GC are run by different councils, they have different public transport services, they are close by, but they are two different cities ), Brisbane is another day trip you could take from the Gold Coast . To answer your question Brisbane does have public transportation, buses and trains. The Gold Coast's system is not as fantastic, you are limited to buses, the train does run between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, from your hotel it would be about a 20 minute taxi ride to the train station (Nerang would be the closest station), then an about an hour train ride. So if googling things to do whilst you are staying there, it would be best to google day trips or day tours for the Gold Coast rather than Brisbane as if you look into day trips from Brisbane and you are staying at Legends Hotel, you are not going to get the correct information, if you look into Gold Coast day tours, you could get pick up from your hotel.
Are you staying in Brisbane also? or just on the Gold Coast?
To go to South Stradbroke or the mountains it may be good to take a tour or for the mountains you could hire a car. Another fun place for a day trip (it would be a very long day) is you could do a trip to Australia Zoo(the late Steve Irwin's Zoo), there is a tour bus that leaves the Gold Coast daily and goes up and back to there, its about an hour and half to 3/4's drive
Do you tip restaurants servers, taxi drivers or hotel staff? We basically tip everyone here in the states LOL. When we’ve traveled to Europe or Central America we always tipped some but not as much as here. Just wondering what people might expect.
We are not a nation of tippers here, you really do not need to tip anybody, not restaurant servers, taxi drivers, tour drivers or hotel staff, (not concierge, housekeepers, bell desk). If you came here and didn't tip one person you would not offend or upset anybody, nobody would think twice about you not leaving a tip. Sometimes people will round up, so if something is $9.75 and you give them $10 then keep the change but this is not expected. If you were at a restaurant and the bill was $49.90 and you paid $50.00, you could take the 10 cents and walk out. The staff here are by law paid decent wages so nobody expects a tip, they will all happily take it who wouldn't but it is not expected nor required, so come away and enjoy not having to budget all this extra cash to tip. An example an adult waitress/er is paid anywhere from about $15 (during the week) to $30 per hour on Sundays and that is paid by the restaurant owner, for you as the customer, you only need to pay for your meal.
We typically don’t bring a lot of cash on trips and prefer to use our Visa card. Should that be okay?
Visa is widely accepted in shops and restaurants, so you will be fine
My husband always gives me a hard time about buying stuff when we travel because he doesn’t want to lug it home. Are there store fronts that ship packages? Here we have a UPS store, Pakmail, Mailboxes Etc on like every corner. Since we are leaving our daughter with the grandparents I want to be able to buy her something while on the trip. I’m sure my husband would complain about a carrying a giant stuffed kangaroo onto the plane.
In Surfers Paradise (where your hotel is) there is an Australia Post office a short walk away in the Paradise Centre (Hanlan Street up near the beach end if you looked on whereis.com or google maps you will be able to see how close it is to your hotel). There are also Australia Post offices throughout the area, but there is usually one one in a certain area. There is usually one at the major shopping centres (we don't call them malls) near by, Pacific Fair, Robina Town Centre are the best two. But Australia Post would be the best way for you to post home. Australia Post offices also have packing boxes etc for you to pack up your box. It is possible that your hotel would help you with that, you could always ask them.
That’s it for now… I’m sure I’ll come up with some other questions. I’m SO excited to visit your country. It’s been a dream ever since I saw Crocodile Dundee in 1986
(seriously)