About BroadbeachGoldCoast.com.au

Our Broadbeach Story

We arrived in Broadbeach in early 2020, just weeks before the world changed forever. We had no idea that the lively, buzzing suburb we had fallen in love with was about to go very quiet. But we stayed — and what unfolded over the next six years gave us a perspective on this place that no tourist brochure could ever capture.

Six years on, Broadbeach is home. We live in the heart of it — close enough to hear the ocean on a still night, and close enough to know exactly which table at which restaurant fills up first on a Friday.

Broadbeach Through the Lockdown

During the height of the COVID lockdowns, we watched Broadbeach hold its breath. The Oasis Mall — normally packed with weekend shoppers, weekend brunchers, and the coffee-before-the-beach crowd — fell eerily silent. Whole weeks passed where you could walk through without crossing another soul. Beloved shops shuttered quietly. Restaurants that had been neighbourhood institutions for years pulled down their roller doors for the last time.

It was a strange, sobering time to call Broadbeach home. But it was also the period that showed us what the suburb was made of — the resilience of its community, the loyalty of the locals who remained, and the deep-rooted appeal of a place that was always going to bounce back.

The Suburb That Came Back Stronger

Fast forward to today, and the skyline tells an entirely different story. New towers are rising across Broadbeach and out to Nobby Beach. The dining precinct around Oracle Boulevard is arguably better than it has ever been — more diverse, more polished, and busier than before COVID ever arrived.

The Oasis Mall has new energy too. New faces, new concepts, and yes — our morning ritual: a Starbucks in the heart of the complex, where the baristas know our order and the tables are rarely empty. It is a small but telling sign of how thoroughly this suburb has reinvented itself.

How We Spend Our Days Here

Living in the heart of Broadbeach means daily rhythms shaped by the beach, the foreshore, and the community around it.

Every morning, we walk the Broadbeach foreshore walk — one of the genuinely underrated pleasures of the Gold Coast. The path runs along the coast past Kurrawa Beach, where the surf rolls in against a backdrop of the city skyline. On good wave days, we stop at the Kurrawa Surf Club café to watch the sets from a prime perch with a flat white in hand. It is one of those unhurried, uncomplicated pleasures that remind us, every single morning, why we chose to live here.

Six years in, the walk still does not get old.

Why We Built This Guide

After years of answering the same questions from visiting friends and family — “where should we stay?”, “what restaurants are actually worth it?”, “is Broadbeach better than Surfers?” — we decided to put everything in one place.

BroadbeachGoldCoast.com.au is not a corporate travel site assembled by writers who have never set foot here. Every recommendation on this site comes from lived experience: the hotels we have personally toured, the restaurants we return to regularly, the beaches we walk past every day.

If you are planning a trip to the Gold Coast and want honest, local advice rather than a recycled press release — you have found the right guide.