Gold Coast Sightseeing Cruise with Buffet Lunch

Appel Park and the Surfers Paradise riverfront

The cruise boards at the Appel Park jetty on the Nerang River side of Surfers Paradise, a small waterfront park a few minutes' walk west of Cavill Avenue and the light-rail stop. This is the quieter face of the suburb: moored boats, pelicans on the pontoons and the towers of the skyline rising directly behind the river. Most visitors looking for a Gold Coast lunch cruise find this the most convenient departure on the coast because it needs no car.

Arrive about 15 minutes before the 12:00 departure to check in and be shown to your reserved table. The vessel is a large, stable catamaran-style boat with a fully enclosed lower deck and a wide open deck above, so the first minutes are spent settling in while the crew casts off and the skyline begins to slide past.

The Nerang River and the Surfers Paradise canals

The Nerang River is the waterway that made the modern Gold Coast possible. From the 1950s onwards its swampy banks were dredged into a lattice of canals and islands, creating hundreds of kilometres of waterfront on which the city's most expensive houses now stand. The cruise follows the main river channel past Chevron Island and the canal mouths of Isle of Capri and Paradise Waters, where the crew points out the mansions, the private jetties and the yachts tied up in front of them.

This part of the route is sheltered and calm, which is why the buffet is served as you cruise. From the sundeck the contrast is striking: on one side the high-rise skyline of Surfers Paradise, on the other low islands of palm-shaded homes. Plan on about 40 minutes through the canals before the river widens.

The Gold Coast Broadwater

The Broadwater is the wide, shallow estuary that opens north of Surfers Paradise between the mainland suburbs of Southport and Labrador and the long sand spit of Main Beach and The Spit. Fed by the Nerang and Coomera rivers and connected to the ocean through the Gold Coast Seaway, it is the city's playground for sailing, fishing and water sports, and it is also where the biggest marinas sit. A Gold Coast Broadwater cruise is the easiest way to see the whole sweep of the city skyline from the water.

The boat loops out into the Broadwater past the marinas and the cultural precinct on the Southport side, with the arts centre, the yacht club and the marine park on The Spit in view. Pelicans and the occasional dolphin follow the boat here, and the sundeck is the place to be for photographs.

Main Beach and the Southport waterfront

At the northern end of the loop you see the Main Beach shoreline from the water: the low-rise apartments along the Broadwater, the parkland of The Spit and the marine park with its distinctive rides and the monorail on the spit. Across the water the Southport Broadwater Parklands line the mainland shore with a swimming lagoon, a pier and the light-rail line running behind. This stretch is the calmest open water of the trip and the best place to take in the full width of the Gold Coast from sea to hinterland.

The crew's commentary covers the history of Southport as the original town of the Gold Coast, long before Surfers Paradise grew up around a single beach hotel. The boat then turns back into the river for dessert and the return to Appel Park.

The buffet lunch on board

Lunch is a two-course tropical buffet served in the air-conditioned lower-deck dining room, with a reserved table for your party. The cold selection is built around locally sourced ocean king prawns and includes natural mussels, lightly seasoned roast chicken, baked ham off the bone, a summer garden salad, a pasta salad, coleslaw and bread rolls, with gluten-free and lactose-free dishes marked. Dessert brings sliced seasonal melons and tropical fruit and a pavlova with mango and passion fruit.

You help yourself as often as you like during the cruise, so most guests eat early, go up to the sundeck for the Broadwater and come back down for dessert. Tea, coffee and other drinks ordered on board are not included; vegetarian and vegan choices are available, and we pass on dietary needs when you book.