EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Spiritually, if not geographically, SURFERS PARADISE is at the heart of the Gold Coast, the place where its aims and aspirations are most evident. For the residents, this involves making money by providing services and entertainment for tourists; visitors reciprocate by parting with their cash. All around and irrespective of what you're doing - shopping for clothes, sitting on the beach, partying in one of the frenetic nightclubs or even finding a bed - the pace is brash and glib. Don't come here expecting to be allowed to relax; subtlety is non-existent and you'll find that enjoying Surfers depends largely on how much it bothers you having the party mood rammed down your throat.

Surfers' beaches have been attracting tourists for over a century, though the town only started developing along commercial lines during the 1950s when the first multistoreyed beachfront apartments were built. The demand for views over the ocean led to ever-higher towers which began to encroach on the dunes (not to mention shading them from mid-afternoon); together with the sheer volume of people attracted here, this soon caused serious erosion problems along the entire coast. Attempts to stabilize the foreshore with retaining walls, groynes and sand pumping from offshore have had little long-term success. But none of this really matters. Though Surfers Paradise is a firm tribute to the successful marketing of the ideal Aussie lifestyle as an eternal beach party, most people no longer come here for the beaches but simply because everyone else does.