Trip to Brisbane and Gold Coast: Hilton Surfers Paradise

• Introduction
• To Brisbane
• Hilton Surfers Paradise 

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I was deciding between the Sofitel or the Hilton for this trip and opted for the Hilton mainly due to Hilton Q4 free night promo and better overall reviews of the Hilton and it's location on flyertalk and tripadvisor. The decision to stay at the Hilton in Surfers Paradise turned out to be the right one as this is one of the nicer places we have stayed in before.

The "Tiny" Hotel Entrance

 The Hilton at Surfers Paradise is unique in that it is both a hotel and also a high end condo that you can purchase or rent. In addition to the "normal" hotel rooms, it also offers apartment style rooms equipped with a fully equipped kitchen and laundry facilities. We decided to book a one bedroom apartment thinking it would be fun (and possibly cheaper) to cook some of our meals during the stay.

We were checked in even though we arrived super early at 6 am. During check-in, I was informed that I had access to the executive lounge which serve continental breakfast, afternoon tea and evening cocktails and internet would be complimentary as well since I was a Gold member. The Hilton consists of 2 buildings and I was assigned to the Orchid Tower which was the same building as check-in. The executive lounge was also located in the same building but was only accessible via different elevators so we had to come down to the lobby and back up again if we wanted to go to the executive lounge. I believe the building itself is split between the "normal" hotel rooms and the apartment style ones which explain the different elevators.

We were pleasantly surprised that we were upgraded to a two bed room apartment since there were three of us. My sister was already planning to sleep on the couch. The apartment was nice, new and clean. Felt like we might have been the first ones staying here before!

Master Bedroom

Balcony

Second Bedroom

View from the room

The hotel comes with a bunch of facilities. The main outdoor pool was long and big enough to do laps on and the water was heated which was appreciated since it did somewhat chilly. There was also a smaller plunge pool and a kids pool. If that wasn't enough, there also also an indoor pool, a spa and jacuzzi! There was also a fitness center but we did not visit it.

Main Pool

Plunge Pool

The executive lounge is one of the larger Hilton executive lounges we have visited before. There's plenty of seats although it never filled up when we visited.

The selection of the continental breakfast was somewhat limited with a selection of breads, pastries, cheeses, cold cuts, yogurt and fruit.

 The selection during the evening cocktail was pretty good. There was a good selection of different Australian red and white wine and best of all, a sparkling wine as well. In addition to cold options like salads, cheeses and dips, they also served some hot options like a soup, rice and a meat (it was a lamb stew on one day and a chicken curry on the other).

The hotel is located right smack in Surfer's Paradise and about a 5 minute walk down to the beach. Parking is not complimentary and costs $15 AUD a day. There's plenty of shops, bars and restaurants nearby. There are some complains on tripadvisor on the noise from the bars and clubs right across the hotel but it wasn't an issue for us albeit it looked to be a slow couple of days when we were there.