Don’t have any concerns about visiting Brisbane with kids because like pretty much every city in Australia, there’s always lots to do and see and keep the kids entertained, especially if they love the outdoors. Here’s Grobblers take:
The best thing about Brisbane is the amount of big honking lizards you can see at many parks and even around town. The Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-ha are awesome. At the time, I was just beginning my obsession with lizards, had I gone now, in the full-on lizard mode I’m currently in, I would have been in paradise. There’s lizards, and large lizards roaming around freely here and they come up to you and let you get close to them as well. Most people seemed to think they were a bit annoying but I thought they were fantastic.
The Steve Irwin Australia Zoo was also wickedness, saw a good crocodile show and had a ball just walking around the zoo exploring. The actual animals were a bit hard to see because they’re a bit far away but again there were lizards roaming around all over the place and they were just as good as any of the animals I saw. I don’t care much for Koala Bears (the boring sods sleep most of the time), but if you want you can hold them and there’s some other animal encounters you can do too. I also rode a camel, without my Dad, that was pretty good, basically just ride around in a circle. It was pretty hot there, so take your togs as the zoo has a big water slide which would have been good. Overall, if you’re in Brisbane with kids, the Australia Zoo is definitely worth driving up to.
The Lone Pine Koala Santuary was also not bad, you can hold a Koala and get your photo taken, which I was too cool for school to do, but Mum did and I photobombed her (see photo below!). We got there early as usual (because Dad always gets the worm), which meant we had the Kangaroo’s all to ourselves almost. You can walk around and pat them, there’s a couple of big-ass Emu’s you can also pat. Also saw some Kookaburra’s and some other birds and one of the best things was the mining for minerals.
One the last day we took a drive back up the coast and stopped by for some terrible fish n chips at Bribie Island. It was an ok beach, nothing great but you can hire a paddle board and burn around in that. Bribie Island is apparently much quieter than the more popular and more well-known Morton Island, and there’s no tourists there at all. After lunch we headed up the Sunshine Coast and visited the Sunshine Coast SeaLife Aquarium. As you probably know I’m the aquarium guru and didn’t think much of this, despite insisting we drive another hour to get to it. We blew through it in about 30 minutes. Not sure if going to the Sunshine Coast is worth it if you’re in Brisbane with kids, I guess if you have a hire car it’s worth the trip but otherwise not a lot to see up there.
Also head to Southbank Parklands for a swim, cool down and ice block. Loads of other kids there having a great time and in the city do won’t take long to get to. We spent a morning there and of course the highlight was me spotting a lizard in the garden. I still talk about Brisbane and all the lizards we saw and would love to go back one day. My Dad likes Melbourne, but I liked Brisbane the best of out the Australian cities we’ve been to.
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