Think long and hard; What’s your favourite place that you’ve ever been to while travelling? Chances are it wasn’t a typical ‘bucket list’ destination or even somewhere that you’d particularly wanted to go before. It might be the dirtiest Asian city but for some reason you found yourself amongst the chaos, or it might be the smallest beachside town with nothing to do but the people you met there really made it special.
Great places aren’t just great because of what’s there: You might be in the most beautiful place in the world but for some reason you’re just not feeling it. That’s why one person might love a place and the next person hates it. To put it in a nutshell, it all comes down to a place’s vibes at the time that you’re there and for me, there were no bad vibes in Noosa.
Where is Noosa?
Noosa is a small beachside town on Australia’s East Coast. It’s often referred to as Byron Bay’s classier sister so think, chilled bars, fancy restaurants, speciality cafes and bohemian style shops. What I really liked about the town was its natural beauty. The beaches are stunning and there’s a fantastic coastal walk and other walking trails that you can do so it’s the perfect balance of civilisation and escapism. I’m not going as far to say that it’s my favourite place that I’ve been to but it was a place that I really felt connected to, primarily because I went into holiday mode there so spending a few days walking, swimming and loosening my budget was a nice little break from just being a ‘backpacker’.
Noosa National Park Coastal Walk
There’s not really a lot to do in Noosa so I won’t write a whole, ‘things to do post’. But like I said, the coastal walk through the national park is fantastic and really worth doing: Don’t let the hot weather put you off. The walk is around 7k in length is paved most the way so it’s really easy to do in flip-flops. There are loads of lookouts and opportunities to stop along the way so bring your swimming stuff and some lunch and make a day out of it.
My highlights included Alexandra Bay which is a really lovely, long beach to chill on and also spotting wild dolphins swimming from one of the viewpoints. We had planned on going to the Fairy Pools too, which are little tidal pools that you can bathe in, but we somehow managed to walk past them and were too tired to turn around. Ce’est la vie.
Other suggestions for Noosa:
Accommodation: We stayed in Nomads Hostel in Noosa. It was really good with a nice pool, bar/club and its only a 10 minute walk from the bus station and 10 minutes from the beach.
Veggie/vegan food:
Grill’d: Grill’d do fantastic veggie/ vegan burgers with vegan cheese, mayo etc and it’s fairly cheap for food out.
Acai Brothers: I only stopped here for coffee but there grab and go acai bowls looked great for to take to the beach.
A taste of Spice: This restaurant didn’t look like much from its decor but it was such a hidden gem. It’s an Asian fusion restaurant serving takeaway and dine in food with really cheap prices. The veggie Pad Thai was one of the best I’ve had outside of Thailand.
Passport Please 