Surfers Paradise - Blackpool in Australia?

Perhaps I'm being a but harsh - Surfers is much nicer than Blackpool, but it's a real sea-side town with a similar vibe, but much nicer people, restaurants, beaches and things to do!

We arrived mid afternoon on the Greyhound from Byron, and had, if memory serves, already booked a night at the Surfers Paradise Backpackers Resort (to give it it's full name) on the Gold Coast Highway. It got a good write up and was recommended by people we'd met. The had free laundry services, and fans in the rooms and nice looking facilities so we thought it'd do.

We ended up staying two nights nights, which was absolutely fine. We were in a 6 person dorm the first night, and had to move to another the second, as we'd only booked night by night, which wasn't a problem.

We spent our first day finding our way around - the hostel's really well located and there was a free bus to get you from the transit centre to the resort itself. The staff we really friendly, and helped us decipher the bus timetable to get out to Dreamworld (more on that to follow!).

For me, one of the best bits about Surfers was that it had a Hard Rock Cafe - if I'm in a city that has one, I HAVE to get there, I always buy a shot glass and at least one pin badge, a habit I started when I was 10 in Singapore (the badges, not the shots!). We didn't eat there, but found a nice cafe on the seafront and wandered for the rest of the afternoon, picked up some dinner and went back to the resort, where the kitchen facilities were top notch, and it was nice to eat outside, where a group of people were playing volleyball. At night we went out for a walk again, but decided against the hostel's organised pub crawl - we were off to Dreamworld the next day, and knew we'd need our sleep!