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| Hervey Bay to Mooloolaba |
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 I attended this years Travelscene American Express conference at Peppers Pier Resort Hervey Bay Queensland. Hervey Bay is situated on the Fraser Coast, about a 5-hour drive or 20min flight from Brisbane.
Peppers Pier Resort is new and every impressive. The deluxe self-contained 1, 2 or 3 bedroom suites all have beach views. Our accommodation for the 2 nights was a very luxurious and spacious 3 bedroom 3 bathroom suite. It had a large balcony with views over the pool and out to sea.
The resort is centered on a decked pool area, which includes a lap pool and a children’s pool with a small sandy beach. Even though all rooms have kitchen facilities the resort also has a restaurant and coffee shop. There are also a few restaurants just a short stroll from the resort.
Not knowing much about the Fraser Coast or the Sunshine Coast, I took the opportunity after the conference to spend sometime on the Sunshine Coast.
Getting from Harvey Bay to Mooloolaba by bus or train is easy, unless you need to make the trip on a Sunday afternoon. Then you only have one option and that’s by car. Luckily I found this out before I left Melbourne and was able to arrange pre-paid car hire through Driveaway Holidays.
I collected a little 4 door Hyundai Getz from Europcar at the airport and set of for a 3.5 hour drive. It’s pretty easy to drive from Harvey Bay airport to Mooloolaba, once you turn on to the Bruce Highway you just keep heading south until you find the Mooloolaba exit. This was a good thing as I didn’t notice until after I’d left the airport that there were no maps in the car. Unless you count the Sydney UBD that is! I was pretty pleased with myself when I managed to get all the way to the Caribbean Resort where I was to stay without the help of a map.
The Caribbean Resort is a great value for money place to stay. It’s only 100 meters from the patrolled beach. It offers 1, 2 & 3 Bedroom self-contained apartments, all with balconies or terraces. The reception staff are very friendly and helpful. The resort facilities are excellent and include a landscaped pool complete with spa and children’s pool, a games room, gym, steam room and there’s a roof top spa and Barbeque area. The resort also has free undercover security parking on site.
I really liked what Mooloolaba had to offer. With it’s white sandy beach and a good range of restaurants covering all tastes and budgets. Most of them even offer an extensive range of gluten free options. There’s even a bakery that has a range of gluten free breads.
You don’t need a car to get around because the bus network is pretty good and there are plenty of day and half day tours available. Having the car was convenient even though it didn’t get a lot of use. It did make it easy to get to Twin Waters Maroochydore for a round of golf, and to explore other beaches along the coast.
If you don’t want to spend all your time at the beach there are plenty of other things to see and do in and around the Sunshine Coast.
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