Brisbane Airport to Gold Coast - how?

[OceanPrincess]

Plan is to NOT use the car while we are there - we hadn't planned on hiring a car.

I just got a quote for a hire car for $65, including two car seats. That is very attractive considering it'll take us door to door. Hmm.

I think I need to call Sea World and find out about shuttles that they offer. And look into train tickets. I do like the idea of letting the kids run around a bit. What is the shuttle train service like?

[Doing my best]

Except for peak hr, all the trains from the airport go to the Gold Coast and are express trains. And they are generally aren't packed so the little ones can move around. They also have lots of luggage space and most of the airport trains have toilets.

Personally though, after a 2 hr flight, the last thing I would want to do is take the kids on a bus or train that I have to stay on till our destination is reached. I prefer the idea of car in case I need to stop for any reason.

[UntoldAngel]

We took our two munchkins to GC earlier this month, and we hired a car - we got an Audi A4 for 7 days for $248. We took our own car seats as they don't count toward luggage, and the car gave us the freedom of working around the kids schedules etc

[human bean]

Pretty sure the shuttles run to all the theme parks from the Helensvale station if you go the train route. They used to be really regular and an express train doesn't take too long from the airport down to the Coast.

[OceanPrincess]

Thanks everyone for the responses!

I'm about to start googling trains but DH is now thinking if we hire a car for Day 1 and Day 5, we might as well get one for Day 1 - Day 5. That way we have freedom for dinners as well, won't be confined to the resort and if we get sick of Sea World we can go check something else out. Found a pretty cheap car rental place too, East Coast Car Rental, anyone used them?

Going to check train prices...

[diva det]

hey love- we did the gold coast trip with twins when they were 5 years old
we hired a car- way to hard to get around gold coast without one and the kids in tow
got a car through europcar for like $28 a day so cheap as
also pays to get the car insurance here b4 you go through racv and that way you dont have to pay the extra for the huge excess thingy they try and scare you with
you can take car seats with you or i actually hired a car with 2 seats as well- it was only a couple of bucks extra a day to do so- they also installed them but i definately had to check them b4 i used them
even just hire cars for days you are not a seaworld and for the airport shuttles
it worked out cheaper to hire a car for us than use public transport to get around everywhere
xxx

[OceanPrincess]

Wow, it is $57 return per adult, $14 per child, for Airtrain from Brisbane Airport to Gold Coast station. Hmm! Might just be cheaper (and easier) to hire a car!

[Floweryfields]

Are flights booked? Because flying into Gold Coast airport would be much easier. Otherwise I think hiring would be a better option - seaworld isn't exactly in the middle of other things - sort of a distance to travel - not walking as far as I remember anyway if you want to do other things during your stay.

[MummyNaomi]

We took our own car seats as they don't count toward luggage

This isn't the case with all airlines though, best to check with the airline you are travelling with.

We flew with Virgin to the GC and had no problem with excess luggage as they didn't include pram, travel cot etc - Jetstar on the way home did and slogged us $200 excess - we were not at all happy!!

[OceanPrincess]

Good point Nay. Just checked - we can take car seats extra with no charge. We're going Qantas both ways.

Wonder if we should bother taking them ourselves? Last time we did but the hassle of getting them in the car was a bit of a pain... but then again we'll have to check and probably re-fit the ones we hire anyway...