Grab your boardies, sunnies, and get ready to slip, slop and slap (Aussie jingle for being sun safe). The Sunshine Coast is a beach haven serving up plenty of surf, sun, and natural beauty.
Rainbow Beach - Sand dunes and sunshine - Start this journey off north, in Rainbow Beach, where you will find a quiet town with a massive beach and sand dune section that expands south as far as the eye can see. Spend a day exploring the dunes. Release your inner child and roll down the dunes into the beach below. If your lucky enough to have a 4x4, you will be able to access some amazing camping anywhere along the beach. If you don't have a 4x4, drive up north a bit and stay and one of the many campsites along Inskip Road.
Noosa - Right point breaks and national park strolls - Noosa Heads is home to some of the friendliest right handed point breaks in QLD. If you're luckily enough, you will be able to get some amazing rides here though, I recommend a long board. If you're looking for more high performance rides, check out Granite Bay and Sunshine Beach on the south side of the headlands. If surfing isn't your thing, there are plenty of trails to rock pools and more secluded beaches than you will find in Noosa's main beaches. One of our favorite places to relax and surf was at Sunshine Beach. It was always amazing to us that once you drove to the south side how little people would be at the beach. Noosa is a tough place for sneaky van camping. So, be careful and check out our guide to sneaky free camping.
Sunshine Coast - Beach towns and mountains - After a few days exploring Noosa head, an 45 minutes or so down south the the Sunshine Coast where you will find an array of friendly surf and classic Aussie surf towns. Start at Coolum Beach. Walk up Mount Coolum (more of a hill) for some amazing views of the Sunshine Coast. Head down the coast checking out all the small shops and cafes on your way. We recommend posting up at Kawana Beach for the night, where we had no problems and met some amazing locals. Wake up check the surf and then head out to the Glasshouse Mountains. You'll find easy to difficult trails here. If you're looking for something easy, check out Mt Ngungun for amazing views of the mountains. The brave can head to Mt Tibrogargan for a rock scramble up to the top. After this hike, you can head down and check out the Australian Zoo, which was home to to the late great legend, Steve Irwin.
From here, Brisbane is just a short drive South. We wouldn't recommend much in Brisbane it's a pretty boring city, in our adventurely opinion. We say that you just power through and head to the Gold Coast for more options.