Brisbane & Queensland: Travelling Australia Solo & on a budget

Brisbane was my first stop on my 4-week East Coast of Australia solo adventure. It’s a cool city and the perfect base for exploring sunny Queensland. ☀️

Here’s what I recommend in Brisbane:

Where to stay in Brisbane

Selina Brisbane

For my first 4 nights, I booked a private ensuite room in Selina Brisbane, so I could sleep off my jet lag in comfort. My room was €85.98 per night – booking far ahead is usually the best way to get a good deal.

I was really happy with Selina! It’s perfectly located, the airport train stops just 2 minutes away at the Roma Street station and it is also close to the CBD and many attractions. Australian-style brunch is available every morning for A$15 (€9.18) and there are family dinners twice a week for A$10 (€6.12).

The kitchen is pretty decent and has an oven, which is rare in hostels. I was able to cook here without any issues. There’s also a coworking space if you need to do some work during your stay.

There was a social hour in the hostel bar every evening with free cocktails for guests which was an amazing perk. As you would expect in a busy backpacker spot, people pass through, and the crowd can vary a lot from day to day. 

One day I was the youngest person there (at 27). The next day I was the oldest and surrounded by young, wild and free backpackers who regaled me with tales of running away from drunk farmers on fruit picking farms in the outback. So many people there came to Australia on a working holiday visa for a year, and they are required to complete 88 days of regional work (often farm work) to be allowed to stay in the country. The hostel bar is definitely the place to go if you want to meet people from all walks of life and hear a few crazy stories!

Bunk Brisbane

For the rest of my stay, I moved to a cheaper option, Bunk Brisbane. I stayed in a 4-bed female ensuit dorm for €40 a night.

The best thing about this hostel is that it is very well-equipped for large numbers of backpackers. The kitchen is industrial size with literally hundreds of pots, pans, cutlery, and everything else – meaning you never have to wait for someone else to finish with something, as you do in other hostels. There are plenty of washing machines available to do your laundry.

The rooms are less fancy and it’s overall a good lower-budget option. I didn’t socialize much here, because I felt a bit old (I’m 27, most guests were 18-21), but I guess the crowd could vary a lot from time to time.

The one thing to note – Bunk is located in the Fortitude Valley area, which is notably scuzzier than the other neighborhoods. The positive things first – it’s right next to Chinatown which means there are good and cheap eats nearby, and it doesn’t take long to walk to the river or the CBD. It’s also well connected to other neighborhoods thanks to the Fortitude Valley train station.

However! It’s a rowdy area. It has a higher crime rate than other neighborhoods in Brisbane. Strip clubs, headshops, casinos, sleazy saloons and other dens of vice and sin abound here. The African preacher standing at the corner in a striking outfit screaming into a microphone about how the Lord will not forsake the sinner who turns to him only added to the vibe. This tireless preacher didn’t seem to get through to any of the laaads on tour, they kept on catcalling and gyrating like there was no tomorrow.

I don’t want to scare you off the neighborhood, it does have its charms! But I thought it’s good to share my experience so you know what to expect.

Transport & getting around Brisbane

🚂 Public transport in Brisbane – public transport in Australia was great! Go to any train station and ask the information desk people about getting a Go Card. The fares are cheaper when you use a Go Card, but it’s also possible to just tap your debit/credit card on most public transport. When you leave Brisbane, remember to return your Go Card to the train station, and they will return whatever money you have on the card, plus your 10$ deposit. I took the Airtrain to the airport then handed the card back there, to get maximum value out of it.

✈️Getting from Brisbane Airport to the city center is pretty straight forward. The Airtrain runs every 15 minutes (30 minutes in off-peak times). It’s best to pre-book your ticket, but I bought mine when I got there and had no issues. You can also pay with your GoCard, if you have one. The price was around 13 euros one-way.

Cheap Eats in Brisbane

I was on a budget on this trip, so I tried to cook at the hostel and grab cheap eats as much as possible. Australian malls are amazing and often have pretty cheap food options. However I did check out a few places:

Felons – Felons seems to be the most well-known bar in Brisbane. I went to check it out with some other solo girls from the hostel. It’s right on the waterfront at Howard’s Wharves, directly underneath the Story Bridge, so it offers great views of the bay and the CBD skyscrapers. It’s a bustling spot with plenty of locals and tourists there at any time of day. I tried a SMALL glass of mandarin peel fruity Australian wine for A$17 (€10.40). That price seemed steep, but going out drinking in Australia is pretty pricey. Either have a dry month or prepare to spend 🙁

State Library cafe – I visited the State Library, queensland Museum and ACOMA Modern Art museum on the same day. They’re located right next to each other on the South Bank. I had lunch in the State Library cafe as it was the cheapest option and I was pretty happy with my quiche for €5.53.

Miso Hungry – I tried out this chain and it was pretty tasty. The regular chili chicken meal was only around €7 which I thought was decent value. 🙂

Peach Cafe – this very cute spot is a little out of the center but worth the visit. I had the Mr Potatohead Breakfast Burger and it did not disappoint this little potato head. I also tried their famous peach-matcha milk for A$6 (€3.70) and it was delicious! The desserts looked great and were about 3x bigger than expected.

Supermarkets – I just searched for supermarkets near the hostel and grabbed supplies on my way home. Aldi, Coles and Woolworths seem to be the cheapest options. There are convenience stores like 7/11 scattered around which of course cost a little more. Also random fun fact, but Coles supermarkets have pick’n’mix MOCHI? Don’t miss it if you’re a mochi hoe like me.

Kangaroo Cliffs Walk

The hostel I was staying in, Selina Brisbane, was ideally located for doing the Kangaroo Cliffs walk I’d heard about. If you only have one day to see the sights in Brisbane, this is the thing to do. Mustdobrisbane.com explains how you can do the full walk and see as many sights as possible.

I wasn’t following the route exactly and was just ambling along. I walked for a few hours (stopping lots of times) and managed to see the following:

Botanic Gardens

You can easily head on to the City Botanic Gardens if you’re following the Kangaroo Cliffs Walk!

Note there are 2 botanic gardens in Brisbane, the City Botanic Gardens, which is really central and easy to get to, and the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens ones which are a little further out and accessible by train from the center. If you go there, make sure you hike Mount Coot-tha too as it offers great views of the city.

I only had time to visit the city gardens, and I’d definitely recommend lazing around there for an afternoon. Local volunteers offer free guided walks of the gardens every day at 11am and 1pm (more information here). In typical laidback Australian fashion, you don’t need to prebook the tour at all, it’s fine to just rock up. There’s no set tour, each guide just shows you their favorite places. So if you’re really into botanic gardens, it’s probably worth visiting more than once, so you learn new stuff from another guide.

Our guide showed us the bayhan tree which reinforces itself by growing extended roots all the time, the ‘drunk Parrot’ tree (so-called because parrots like snacking on its very alcoholic fruit, then they pass out drunk on the lawn), the pride of Bolivia (my favorite – it looks like something from a fantasy novel), some tall ass trees Aboriginal men were expected to climb as part of a ritual to prove they have become a man, and many more.

If you want to see the colorful water lilies in bloom, come before midday as they close up for the day then.

South Bank & Museums

South Bank seems to be the most happening area in Brisbane. It’s home to some beautiful parklands and a great place for a walk at any time of day. Here you can also find the city’s only manmade beach ‘Streets Beach’ and plenty of eateries.

The South Bank’s Cultural Precinct boasts several free museums and is definitely worth visiting. The Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), the State Library of Queensland, the Queensland Museum, and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre are all located right next to each other so you can easily visit them all in one day!

Overall I would say the museums are very modern, family-friendly and well laid-out. There isn’t a TON of stuff in any of them, they’re a lot more manageable than oldschool museums I’ve been to. They’re totally free, so I highly recommend making the rainiest/coldest day of your trip a ‘museum day’ 🙂

Shopping & other nice spots in Brisbane City

Vintage shopping in the West End – I visited a few cool secondhand shops in this neighborhood and got some new-to-me clothes at great prices. Mustdobrisbane.com has a good overview of a ‘crawl’ you can do to hit as many of them as possible. My favorites were Lifeline Vintage Revival (108 Boundary Street) and Serendipity Op Shop (Russell Street) – the owners are really friendly and you’ll also meet their cute dogs 🙂

West End Markets – sadly I missed these as they’re only on Saturday mornings, and I was in Stradbroke Island at that time. Everyone recommends them, so try to check them out if you can. More info here.

Source – TripAdvisor

Queen Street Mall – this well-known mall has tons of interesting shops. Australian malls have massive sales in June because that’s the end of their financial year.. I was really pleasantly surprised by the deals I found!

North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah)

North Stradbroke Island is stunningly beautiful and you should absolutely visit it if you are in Brisbane. Fun fact, it’s the 2nd largest sand island in the world (its neighbor Fraser Island is the largest – fun fact: the top 5 are all in Australia). It’s also a significant place for indigenous people for various reasons.

The island is very serene with a population of just over 2,000 people. Cutest fact – there are twice as many koalas on this island as people!

How to get there

Option #1: Guided Tour

I took a small-group guided tour with Hit the Road tours, which I booked on the GetYourGuide platform. The trip left central Brisbane at 08:30am and brought us back by 6:30pm. Bus, ferry, a guide to show you around, and some snacks are included. It was around 80e which I thought was totally worth the money as I didn’t want to stress about catching buses and ferries. Most people on this tour were solo or young couples and very friendly. I had great chats all day and enjoyed the day a lot more than I would have alone.

Option #2: Bus/Train and ferry

If you do want to go solo, the easiest option is to rent a car. If that isn’t an option, you can catch the bus or train from central Brisbane to Cleveland, a nearby port town. You can see the full ferry schedule here. There is a public bus on the island which hits some of the tourist spots. Tickets are A$5 per adult, or A$10 for a day pass (more information here). GoCards (the public transport card you use everywhere else in Brisbane) aren’t accepted so remember to bring cash.

Take note that the last ferry is at 6:25pm, so you should aim to be back at the ferry well before that unless you want to get stranded on the island overnight 🙂

The Brown Lake (Bummiera)

Our first stop was The Brown Lake (Bummiera). The lake is surrounded by tea trees, their leaves and oil soak into the water which gives it its distinctive brown hue.. and also makes it antiseptic. Indigineous people used to belive this lake was sacred and could heal illnesses.. and it sometimes actually could do that, the tea tree oil is antiseptic and helps disinfect any wounds or scars!

I hate to sound like a white woman who buys healing crystals from Amazon, but I could see why the Aboriginal people considered this place holy. It was so peaceful, and tranquil.

And as an added bonus… I spotted my first wild koala in the forest near the lake! These are a bit hard to find as they’re gray and fuzzy, so they’re well camouflaged high up in trees. These layabouts live the lazy girl’s ideal life and sleep around 20 hours a day, meaning you’ll have to look up high and really peel your eyes to see one.

Point Lookout (Moolomba)

Our next stop was Point Lookout, where we followed the walkway. I’m not a hiker at all (I don’t even like climbing stairs) but even I found it an easy walk, so don’t be put off by this even if you’re not very active. It took around one hour walking at a leisurely pace and stopping multiple times, so extremely easy as far as scenic walks go.

We had amazing views of the Coral Sea. Even from the cliffs, we could clearly see turtles, dolphins and even whales! We also saw a lot of indigenous plants that I had never seen in my life, and some wild kangaroos. These ones see tourists all the time and didn’t seem to mind people stopping to awe and squeal at them, but apparently outback kangaroos have significantly more attitude and will attack you if you come onto their territory. They’re over 2 metres tall and jacked, so maybe don’t go on to their territory!?

Cylinder Beach, Amity Point & Capembah Creek

Our third stop was Cylinder Beach. We grabbed some tasty prawn and avocado wraps from The Prawn Shack for A$15 (9e) and ate them on the beach. Cylinder Beach is one of the island’s most iconic surf beaches and is very protected from prevailing winds, meaning you can surf even on colder, windier days. We saw around 20 dolphins in the distance, which was amazing!

Capembah Creek is a quick stop on your tour, the area is quite small and can be covered quickly. It’s still worth a walk around as the views are stunning!

At Amity Point we saw a very regal cluster of pelicans and watched the sunset over Moreton Bay. The wide open sky was so beautiful and the clouds tinged violet. It was so calming and the perfect place to end the day as it’s a short distance from the ferry.

I had a wonderful time on the island and highly recommend it! As you can tell by my meager follower count, I am no influencer and definitely not being paid by GetYourGuide, but I do recommend doing a guided tour as it lets you hit a lot of places in a relatively short time. They also have tours to Moreton Island which I heard pretty mixed reviews about. But if I had more time to kill in Brisbane, I would for sure have checked them out.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary & Australia Zoo

When I told people I was going to Brisbane, several people recommended I go to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Australia Zoo (yes, the one from the Crocodile Hunter TV show, it’s a real place!).

I wasn’t that interested in going because I’m not usually a fan of zoos. I know they’re important for conservation and all, but they just never interested me that much. I only went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary because patting a koala was the main attraction for me, and it has the added benefit of being easy to reach from Brisbane (just get a Go-Card at any station and take the 430 or 445 bus).

Koalas only live on the east coast of Australia, so this is the only place in the world you can see them in the wild. Conservationists estimate there are only between 95,000 and 238,000 of them left 🙁 Their habitat is being destroyed, they have high rates of chlamydia and sickness, and they’re just little guys in a big scary world (they get killed by other animals, hit by cars, etc).

I did the ‘koala encounter’, which is where you meet a koala chilling on its tree and are allowed to pat it and take photos. You need to pre-book your koala encounter a few days in advance.This encounter costs $35 (21.45e) but the koala handlers kindly offer to take pictures for free, using your phone. If you want a professional photo, you would need to prebook that. 

I can confirm, they are as FUZZY as they look.

Koalas are precious divas who sleep 20 hours a day and animal protection laws say they can only legally ‘work’ 30 minutes a day (their work here is being patted). A bell rings every 30 minutes telling the koalas to go off-shift, and if the next koala is NOT feeling like dealing with people today, another one comes out. It’s an ideal job in most respects.

The other option is to book a ‘koala hold’, where they let you hold the koala. This costs slightly more.. If you really want to hold one, be warned, they’re heavier than I thought at around 15kg (33 pounds) but they are very DENSE and bottom heavy. You interlock your fingers and the koala sits on your hands. One girl I met in the hostel said it was doable but it did strain her wrists to support such a “thicc booty”, so something to note.

The second biggest attraction for me was being able to handfeed kangaroos and wallabies. You can buy a baggie of kangaroo food for $2 (1.23 euros) and then stroll around the plain rustling it until your kangaroo food baggy brings those pouchy boys to the yard. Wait for them to approach you and do not go in for a pat unless you buy them dinner first.

They vary massively in size, the pretty-faced wallaby is ADORABLE and onyl around a meter tall (3.3 feet), but the Red Kangaroos are a lot more intimidating at over 2 meters tall (6’6 feet), and they are jacked like thugs who got into bodybuilding to seek vengeance once they get out of prison. No lie, they are very beefy animals. Luckily I managed to attract only the cutest, goofiest looking ones 🙂

You can see a wide range of Australian and international wildlife at this park, including dingoes, wombats, Tasmanian Devils and more.

So is it worth the visit? It seems a little pricey, but I think the experience is fairly unique. Since it’s at least an hour from the city center, it’s worth going for a few hours and booking an animal encounter. There are cafes with nice views and a ‘blogger’ area at the park where you can chill out and make a day of it 🙂

Gold Coast

Gold Coast is a smaller city down the road from Brisbane, famous for its beautiful beaches and ‘Miami’ vibe. It’s a popular day trip option and very easy to get to.

Getting there – regular buses and trains run from Central Brisbane to Gold Coast. I opted for the train (schedule here), because it goes every 30 minutes, and that meant I didn’t need to commit to a time in advance. The round trip cost was around 20 euros. You can pay using your normal Brisbane public transport card. If you book in advance, Greyhound buses will be the cheapest option.

What to do in Gold Coast – Many other backpackers warned me there isn’t much to do in Gold Coast, so I did this on my last day, when I was anyway kind of tired and lazy. It became well-known in the 1960s when ‘surfer culture’ took off, and it’s become kind of a trashy, plastic tourist spot since then.

So I just visited the famous Surfer’s beach and walked about 8km along the beaches, which was beautiful. I spent most of the day reading on the beach, then checked out the local thrift stores before heading back to Brisbane. Not a bad day at all! But if you’re short on time in Brisbane, and planning to visit other beaches in Australia, you can probably give this a miss.

Where to go next

I was flying on to Airlie Beach for the next part of my adventure.. but if I was doing it again, I would have done a night or two in Sunshine Coast, then got the bus up to Airlie.