Gold Coast during Schoolies week

by Sarah
(New Zealand)

Gold Coast during Schoolies week

Help!
We seemed to have booked our Gold Coast holiday right over schoolies week.

We are staying at Imperial Surf apartments. Do you have any tips?

Should we rent a car and we really wanted to go to the theme parks... is it worth it?

Also can you let me know what schoolies exactly is? Any info would be kindly appreciated!!

Firstly, no need to panic. It isn't ideal, but there are things you can do to make sure you enjoy your time.

Schoolies Week is the week when the Year 12 school leavers go to holiday areas to party and celebrate the end of their school life. So, it is definitely a time when you will see lots of 18 year olds cutting loose for the first time. Surfers Paradise is a popular destination for the Queensland school leavers and to make it as safe an environment as possible, there is a structured program of entertainment and safe zones for the schoolies.

Non schoolies are not allowed in these zones, it is restricted. Schoolies can be found in many of the hotels and apartments close to the entertainment zone on Surfers Paradise beach close to Cavill Mall.

Imperial Surf is offered as a schoolies accommodation, so you are very likely to find schoolies staying in apartments in the complex. If you booked through Breakfree who are the managers, you will probably be able to get them to make sure you are on a different floor or at least away from the schoolies. Many of the apartments and hotels try to do this for the sake of both groups - schoolies and non-schoolies. So it may be worth contacting them to find out.

It will be busy, and there will be schoolies at the theme parks, but if you are travelling with young family you will find that the schoolies will most likely be more interested in the thrill rides than the kids rides and attractions. Hiring a car would be a great way to get around the Gold Coast at this time as the schoolies generally don't hire the cars, they take the shuttle buses out to the theme parks.

I have had similar questions to yours before, so rather than repeat all the same things, here are some suggestions and ideas that I have given to others.

Tips to Avoid Schoolies and Suggestions on things to do

Ideas for a family holiday during schoolies week.

Will Schoolies Week affect our holiday in the Gold Coast?

I hope that helps put your mind at ease a bit and also gives you something to follow up with your accommodation - better to be on to it now. Good luck and if you have any other questions leave a comment below and I will try to answer for you.

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Closer to your visit you may want to check out the latest deals for Gold Coast theme parks.

Surfers Paradise During Schoolies

by Wilson
(Sydney, NSW, Australia)

Surfers Paradise During Schoolies
Me and my girlfriend are a young couple that have just recently graduated from university. We booked our trip to Gold Coast early on this year and had no idea our trip (23rd - 27th November) is right in the middle of schoolies, which we didn't realise until it's too late to change all our bookings.

Our main focus is to the theme parks (Seaworld, Movie World...etc.) during the days - any idea how schoolies might affect them? (e.g. more busy etc.)

While we see that most people say you should AVOID Surfers Paradise during schoolies - unfortunately the apartment resort we booked is exactly in Surfers Paradise (luckily they do have a strict "no party policy"). Any suggestions as to what time is best to go out (e.g. for dinner, or just to walk around) to avoid the schoolies crowds? This may sound extremely paranoid - but we want to avoid the drunk kids for safety reasons, and we just want to have fun by ourselves during the trip.

Thanks for any advices.

Cheers,
Wilson

I get this question alot! Unfortunately, there are a few schoolies who ruin it for the rest, but most are actually there just to have a good time and let their hair down to celebrate leaving school.

The theme parks are busy, but probably not much more than normal for holiday times, and you really shouldn't have any trouble there. Tip would be to get there early as the schoolies tend to enjoy being out late and not getting up so early ;-). Plus they find doing these extra things quite expensive after they have paid for their trip and bond etc, and the theme parks are a bit out of Surfers so you need to drive yourself, or book transport out there.

Although you are staying in Surfers, I would probably recommend heading down to Broadbeach to have dinner, especially if you want to have a nice quiet one. In a taxi it is probably only 5 to 10 minutes depending where in Surfers your apartment is.

If you do want to go out in Surfers for dinner, the earlier the better, I would probably say aim to be out of there by about 8pm.

There are some other great spots for dinner - you could try some of my favourites such as the restaurants at Aqua on the Broadwater, or head up to Marina Mirage, Fishermans Wharf or even Tedder Avenue in Main Beach and you are quite unlikely to have too much trouble from schoolies there - they tend to stick to Surfers and the schoolies precinct.

Let me know how you go and maybe leave some tips for others when you have finished your holiday.

Hope that was helpful, please leave any further questions or comments below. If you found this helpful, you can Like it, Tweet it and share on Facebook ;-) Thanks for spreading the word...

Cheers

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