Ciao! I'm Laura.
  • Journal
  • About
  • Writing
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Journal
  • Books
  • Podcast
  • About
    • Writing
  • Contact

Ciao Amalfi

Travel Inspirations · April 13, 2010

Travel Inspirations: Australia’s Gold Coast

 

For this week’s Travel Inspirations series we’re off to Australia with travel writer and photographer Cecil Lee who shares with us one of his most inspiring travel destinations. Travel photography fans, be sure to check out Cecil’s photo blog Travel Feeder to travel around the world in images. Welcome, Cecil!

____________________________

 

I love Gold Coast. I love the weather, the people as well as the environment. Though it was a few years ago when I visited this theme park capital of Australia, many memories  on Gold Coast are still well kept in my mind. Why? Not only was it my honeymoon trip, Gold Coast had also inspired me a lot in my future travel and also my blogging tour then after.

Gold Coast is to most travelers the attractive city located in the Southeastern corner of Queensland. Its sub-tropical climate with bright sun all year long, surfing beaches, high rise resort apartments on the shore, 60 Km of beautiful sandy coastline, and happening nightlife have made it so popular to, not only foreign visitors, but also the local Australians. If you look at the statistics, out of those over 10 million visitors to Gold Coast each year, 40% are from domestic travels. So it is also an inspiring local getaway destination. Why is it so attractive?

 

 

My first impression when I arrived in the city was its liveliness. Everything in Gold Coast seems to be full of energy all the time that I couldn’t find any weary moment. The sky is superbly clear and bright without any hint of air pollution. You could get fresh air everywhere and perhaps this is the reason why I felt like traveling more than ever before! If you think it’s too hot for you, drive up to the rainforest mountain hinterland in the West of the city to have a cup of mountain tea with breezy weather. It had made me an avid traveler!

How it had inspired me? I started blogging about travel not long after my visit to Gold Coast. This tourist city of Queensland Australia has everything for me to blog about. From good to bad, there are so many different aspects of travel I experienced during this trip. The people here are extremely friendly that you can always think of a topic and start talking to a stranger. They are also too honest to cheat anyone including tourists! The city is so safe that you could wander around the downtown or back lanes to explore the inside stories without worrying being disturbed. The driving culture is very healthy as motorists do behave themselves most of the time, which is great for pedestrians especially when cars and bikes are the most common transportation around the city (motorists will even stop their cars in favour to any crossing pedestrians even under green light!).

 

 

For a travel photo blogger like me, Gold Coast had also given me tremendous photographic inspiration. There are almost too many photo opportunities in the city attractions, including surf beaches, various theme parks such as Dreamworld, Sea World, Warner Bros’ Movie World, various wildlife park like Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Lone Pine Santuary, World heritage mountain range in the Hinterland and also off course the 60 Km long beautiful sandy beaches including Main Beach, Surfers Paradise, Broad Beach, and other canal cruising.

Perhaps I have seen only the best part of Gold Coast, but the travel inspirations I got from it was priceless.

Cecil Lee is an avid traveler who is also a passionate travel blogger and travel photographer living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He writes about travel for MNUI travel insurance and on his own travel photo blog, Travel Feeder.

Posted In: Travel Inspirations · Tagged: Australia, Guest Post, my menu, Travel Inspirations

You’ll Also Love

Mayfair in London Fortumn and MasonSmitten with Mayfair!
Villa Cimbrone - Romantic Spots in RavelloWhere to Propose on the Amalfi Coast
The Traveling Writer

Comments

  1. Travel Feeder says

    April 13, 2010 at 19:04

    Thanks Laura. It looks perfect! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Scintilla @ Bell'Avventura says

    April 14, 2010 at 09:46

    I have many photos of the Gold Coast too as we took a couple of weeks break there a few years ago on my Frequent Flyer points amongst other places in Queensland. Beautiful sandy beaches. Early morning was busier than a city street, so many people walking.

    Reply
  3. Laura says

    April 23, 2010 at 18:06

    Ciao Cecil! Thanks for sharing your travel inspirations! 🙂

    Ciao Scintilla! It really does look like a gorgeous place, and I didn't know anything about it before reading this guest post. Love learning about new places!!

    Reply
  4. Garry says

    May 29, 2010 at 11:13

    Thats really beautiful and inspiring to travel there, Should take a chance if expected for Gold Coast
    http://www.cheapticket.co.uk/australia.aspx

    Reply
  5. Laura says

    May 31, 2010 at 10:28

    Thanks Garry!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Next Post >

A Welcome Sheep and Goat Invasion

Ciao!

My name is Laura and the Amalfi Coast is my passion and my home. I’m a writer and photographer who is endlessly inspired by the incredible beauty of the Amalfi Coast. Welcome to Ciao Amalfi!

Ciao Amalfi

  • Journal
  • Moon Amalfi Coast
  • Newsletter
  • Contact

Amalfi Coast

  • Amalfi
  • Positano
  • Ravello
  • Amalfi Coast

Explore

  • Travel
  • History & Culture
  • Food & Drink
  • Shopping

Laura Thayer

  • About
  • Writing
  • Book Reviews
  • Work with Me

Latest on Instagram

Celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with a newsl Celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with a newsletter inspired in part by this beautiful song by @samantha_whates & @mgboultermusic. While I could never decide on just seven bookshops for my whole life, I’m sharing about seven remarkable indie bookshops I visited earlier this month in Bath and London. The link is in my bio, but swipe through the photos here for a look inside - each bookshop is tagged if they’re on Instagram. But definitely give them all a follow: 
@persephonebooks 
@mrbsemporium 
@toppingsbath 
@sherlockandpages 
@huntingravenbooks 
@hatchardspiccadilly 
@lrbbookshop 

Long live the independent bookshops! 📚
Thanks Amalfi … I needed a little reminder of th Thanks Amalfi … I needed a little reminder of that this morning. 🩶
Magic to watch the reflections dancing on the wate Magic to watch the reflections dancing on the water. Magic when they’re frozen in time. Just so much magic all around. I could spend a long time in moments like these. ✨
While it’s been a beautiful Easter Sunday in Ama While it’s been a beautiful Easter Sunday in Amalfi, I’m still processing all of the incredible experiences from my trip to England last week. And, thanks to “Square Haunting” by @francescawade, I am still very much haunting the streets and squares of London. Her book opens with this marvelous quotation from Virginia Woolf’s diary written 100 years ago today on April 20, 1925 (photo 1). It captures just what it felt like I was doing days ago - including a saunter through Bloomsbury Square (photo 2). Diving into this book over the weekend has felt like I’ve been able to linger even longer in those rare April days of spring blooms and blue skies in London. 

This book caught my eye immediately at the ever so charming @sherlockandpages in Frome (photos 4 & 5). How could it not when it was surrounded my one of my all time favorite books (“Letters to Camondo” by @edmunddewaal) and one of the best books I read last year (“All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me” by @patrickbringley)?

Hope that your Easter weekend has been a lovely one - with a little bit of “street sauntering & square haunting” wherever you may be!
Just had an unforgettable spring day visiting the Just had an unforgettable spring day visiting the Jane Austen House in Chawton as an early birthday present for myself.(Quite a bit early as it’s not until June.) But earlier this year I decided to have a Jane Austen theme for the year, especially since 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth in 1775. I do love a theme! Seeing the place where she wrote all of her novels, her tiny twelve-sided writing table, a quilt she made, and sitting in the garden listening to the birds sing is altogether something I’ll never forget. ✍️
Watching the colors of the sea and the fish swimmi Watching the colors of the sea and the fish swimming and thinking of the deep connections of old friends. And this poem by Mary Oliver. Hold tight to the friends who always find a way to say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment.

Mysteries, Yes 
— by Mary Oliver

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
Mary Oliver wrote in a poem that “happiness isn’t a town on a map.” But when the little bit of wisteria blooms in Amalfi, I’m not so sure. 💜
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Disclosure

Copyright © 2025 Ciao Amalfi · Theme by 17th Avenue