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We were looking for somewhere nice to stay in Coolangatta on Queensland's Gold Coast, not far from the airport as we had an early morning flight to catch and found Mantra. The Mantra Hotel is an upmarket tower, right on the beach, so the location is fantastic and within walking distance of the main CBD. Restaurants, cinema, supermarket are all nearby. Plus it's only about a 10 minute drive to the Coolangatta International Airport.
Our three bedroom apartment (limit four people) featured self contained cooking with complete kitchen facilities, three tvs, two bathrooms (one ensuite) and a laundry. There were two King beds and one bedroom with two singles. It's always a bonus when traveling to be able to wash clothes without searching for the laundromat and it's awkwardness. Also an awesome balcony with a southern view looks out onto the beach on the 17th floor - and the views were just beautiful. The apartment was well laid out with privacy for each room, and is peacefully quiet. Some nice touches were detailed here and there in the decor. There is undercover secure parking and good security. The receptionist was very professional, friendly and informative and made us feel at ease. The hotel pool is positioned on such a superb beach with barely a soul in sight, making for a lovely private swimming day.
Coolangatta has a nice mix of upmarket meets olde worlde beach village. For a night out on the town, you'll find is a first class venue at the Twin Towns Club. Just a block from the Mantra, major international, and local artists play, along with heaps of local music around the clock. Coolangatta Hotel is a big rock venue and the local Greenmount Surf Club has a jazz band and cheap meals on a Wednesday night. There is excellent dining nearby. We chose the O Sushi Japanese restaurant and the food lived up to it's award winning reputation. The second meal we had was breakfast at Belakai which was also more than adequate, and right next door.
If you're exploring the main street there is a fascinating Antique market with a fascinating, quite mind boggling array of interesting olde worlde items well worth the view. Make sure you walk up to the lookout on the southern point, it's breathtaking and inspiring.
Recommended: All-in-all a totally satisfactory and good value stay. Loved staying at the Mantra and would like to book that room permanently!
You haven’t truly been to the Blue Mountains unless you’ve viewed the spectacular landscape sights from a cable car at Scenic World. Or ridden in Scenic World’s steep rainforest railway; descending from the top of a rocky mountainside down a slow drop to the bottom of thick lush rainforest.
The Blue Mountains are a short two-hour drive from the city of Sydney, and well worth the day trip. Famous for the rock formations known as The Three Sisters, the Blue Mountains are also a great place to go for fresh air, relaxation, and especially winter festivals. The arty, crafty villages will charm your thermal socks off, and are all close to each other atop the mountain area making a village-hopping drive-by very easy.
You’ll find Scenic World well signposted with lots of parking. Scenic World is mainly a divine walking track looping through forest with a ‘choose your own adventure’ option on which path you take. Everyone will start off at the check-in. Take the steep railway to the bottom of the rainforest, and then pick a path to walk around the lush raised walking tracks through tall trees and flowing creeks. There’s a cable car to take from one side of the rocks, over the rainforest to the other, in super close view of the tumbling waterfall and three sisters.
The best way to experience Scenic World is with a guided tour. My tour guide was Murray, who grew up in the Blue Mountains, and whose grandfather was an original Scenic World railway engineer driver. Murray tells interesting stories of the land’s history of the great coal mining days, points out the tools & machinery left behind so camouflaged I wouldn’t spot it, and describe interesting facts about the fauna and flora which you will walk through. A tour guide is also brilliant because instead of iphone-googling for answers to all your hundreds of questions that pop to mind like ‘how can you tell how many billion years old that dicksonia Antarctica fern really is?’ Murray will tell you – count the rings. Murray even holds the talk on Carnivorous plants. Kids love it. I’ve seen Little Shop of Horrors - think I would too!
If traveling in the winter months of Australia, the Blue Mountains are well worth a day trip, at an easy two-hour drive out of the Sydney city. Instead of hibernating like the rest Australia, the arty Blue Mountain folk liven up their lives with a fantastic Winter Solstice Festival on the shortest day of the year. Held annually, stalls line along the main street of Katoomba, selling an assortment of treats. You’ll find homemade warming foods, arts, crafty wares, hand-made soaps and candles, and aromatic coffee stalls aka hot chocolate stalls.. mmmm. This festival is a good opportunity to stroll through the town and local gift shops, while talented locals serenade Katoomba with violins or (as spotted) a guitar made out of a wooden box. At midday, the parade with possibly the best dazzling costumes you’re likely to see in Australia, will descend along the main street. People from near and far gather to watch (perhaps with a spicy chai tea or warm mulled wine in hand, plus scarves and beanie’s) as the parades pass by. The annual Winter Solstice Festival in the Blue Mountains is a daytrip your itinerary will thank you for. If it could speak.
Website for more info: www.wintermagic.com.au
A quintessential day trip to the Blue Mountains of Australia is best made in the winter months of June through to August, when the local townsfolk are embracing cold season temperatures with mountain winter festivals and hot delicious chocolate.
You’ll find the Blue Mountains just 2 hours drive inland from Sydney’s coast, an unmissable lush high mountain range radiantly glowing of a beautiful blue-gum haze. Most famous in the Blue Mountains are the hiking and bushwalking tracks with views of beautiful rock formations called the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters consist of three enormous sized peaks on the highest rocky mountainside, beside a gully of never-ending rainforest. This is a spectacular view, having inspiring many artists and writers for centuries. Close by to the Three Sisters is Orphan rock, standing along, hence the name, and also sitting by the never-ending gully of trees and wildlife.
There are several viewing points to take advantage of these sights, with Sublime lookout definitely worth a short walk to see the Three Sisters. Often clouds will form around the height of the rocks, making for the most photographic sight (and ‘selfies’ opp) you’ll see.
Website for more info: www.bluemts.com.au