Our Relaxing Holiday

My husband and I have just spent a week at North Stradbroke Island. It has been over two years since we had a holiday anywhere, apart from the odd night away. Because of Covid, we decided not to go anywhere interstate, or anywhere that required a plane trip. We wanted to avoid our travel plans being disrupted by lock-downs as our state has some of the tightest border controls in Australia.

North Stradbroke Island, or Straddie as it is affectionately called, is only a 45 minute ferry ride from Brisbane. All up it only took a couple of hours to get there from our Gold Coast home. I can’t believe that we had never been there before. One thing that this pandemic has done is force people to holiday close to home, and many are traveling within Australia for the first time.

I love staycations so it suits me to stay close to home. We rented a house for a week and were pleasantly surprised by how clean and well equipped it is. We’re used to AirBNBs being quite dodgy but this was really nice. We were close to cafes, shops and the beach.

The Local Attractions of North Stradbroke Island

We loved seeing some of the wildlife, especially the kangaroos and birds that visited. There is a curlew family living under the verandah. Kangaroos can be seen in the bush and on the beach – they are very friendly and live in close proximity to people. We saw one large koala at the top of a gum tree.

Every day we walked along the many tracks and the beach. There are boardwalks to keep humans safe and prevent the natural habitat from being damaged. The views from the top of cliffs were stunning. We tried our hand at fishing but I only caught a couple of bream. It was nice to be outside enjoying the fresh air. There was only one day where the weather was unpleasant – but even the rain didn’t stop us from having a bushwalk.

Some of the best things to explore were the many beautiful beaches, a freshwater lake, art and craft galleries and rock pools. We were a few weeks too late to be able to spot whales – you can see the migrating whales from the clifftops during the season. We did see dolphins frolicking in the waves though.

Our Recommendations for a Holiday at North Stradbroke Island

We feel very refreshed after a week relaxing. It’s a destination we will come back to because it has everything we enjoy. You can be as active or lazy as you like. I would recommend visiting Stradbroke Island in the off-season though. The influx of visitors on the weekend and holidays makes this little sleepy place a bit too crowded for my liking.

There are a few small shops that sell everything you need. I would recommend the fresh local seafood including the largest king prawns I’ve ever tasted. Each one was the size of my husband’s hand. There are cafe’s, icecream shops and a few licensed venues. We mainly ate at home.

Being able to chill out and relax was so good for the soul. I took some hand-weights and resistance bands so I could still do workouts and yoga on the lovely verandah at our AirBNB. The local TV was really limited so I managed to do a lot of reading. We played board games and watched DVDs in the evenings.

As Australia begins to return to normality, we will be able to travel further afield. For now I’m just happy to stay close to home and enjoy the beauty of Southeast Queensland.

If you enjoyed this, these are some other articles I have written:

• How to Make the Most of Your Staycation
• Be a Tourist in Your Own Town
• A Weekend in the Lamington National Park

Shared to Life This Week Linkup on Denyse Whelan’s blog