Where will I find the best experiences in Brisbane?
July 13, 2011 9:14 PM   Subscribe

I am about to spend the weekend in Brisbane, Australia. What can I do for fun? Where is the good coffee? What are the good restaurants? Quirky shops...? We won't have a car and are staying in the city. Open to all your suggestions. Thank you.
posted by MT to Travel & Transportation around Brisbane, Australia (12 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I like West End for cafes. The Three Monkeys on Mollison street is awesome, and there are a few other good ones nearby.

Walking by the river is fun too.

Public transport isn't bad, so don't let not having a car put you off. And lots of places are quite walkable. (I have walked from West End to the centre city, but it does take an hour or more).
posted by lollusc at 9:35 PM on July 13, 2011


Last time I was in Brissie I quite enjoyed just getting the Citycat up and down the river for a couple of hours.
posted by pompomtom at 9:41 PM on July 13, 2011 [2 favorites]


West End is definitely good for coffee and cafes. You could also check out the farmers markets in West End on Saturday morning. West End is across the river from the city.

You could also go to South Bank - also just across the river. There are markets there on the weekends and it is generally a nice park area where you can soak up the winter sun. The main art galleries are at South Bank and worth a look. There is a surrealism exhibition on at the Gallery of Modern Art at the moment that is good.

The main shopping in the city is the Queen St mall. I also like shopping at Paddington, which is a nearby suburb. Probably best to catch a bus there, but you could walk if you want, it isn't that far.

Taking a trip on the city cat is also a great idea, nice and relaxing and it stops at some nice park areas too.
posted by eclecticlibrary at 9:50 PM on July 13, 2011


Thirding the Citycat. Also, if the weather's nice, take the Citycat in the direction of Apollo Road to Bulimba, where you can take a stroll up Oxford Street (which dead-ends at the Citycat stop - impossible to get lost) to some boutiques and cafes, then spend some afternoon time hanging out at The Jetty, which is the riverside restaurant overlooking that Citycat stop.

The markets in Chinatown and Fortitude Valley are a good diversion on Saturday mornings, and run through outdoor malls one block apart. From there, walking east on Ann will take you to New Farm/Newstead, where a right hand turn down James Street goes through the James Street Precinct, which has a number of boutiques and restaurants, with a further walk south to Merthyr Village and New Farm Park (where you can pick the Citycat back up for a return to the city).

I guess my best advice is to get out and wander. The near suburbs are quite nice and safe, and well worth the visit.
posted by GamblingBlues at 9:54 PM on July 13, 2011


Three Monkeys is a nice atmosphere, but so-so coffee. Really good coffee locations include Blackstar in West End, and Brother Espresso in the City, on Margaret Street (towards the Botanical Gardens). The Gardens themselves are worth a little stroll if the weather is fine.

Fantastical cheap-ish restaurants I have recently patronised: Piaf in Southbank, very near the City, does excellently priced French bistro classics. Service is remarkably good. Continental Cafe in New Farm is an old favourite of mine, a little noisy and close, but a really welcoming atmosphere. Wednesday nights are offal nights. If you don't mind dropping a little money, Ortiga or Anise, also in New Farm, are my favourite high-end places. Anise is a small place, a little chapel almost, that takes food and wine pairing very seriously indeed. Ortiga is sort of a arcane take on Spanish peasant food.

As for shops - well, what sort of things are you interested in? I like science fiction, and so Pulp Fiction, in Anzac Square, is one of my favourite places in town: a specialty sci-fi, fantasy, and crime bookseller. Archives, in Charlotte Street, is a colossal rambling mess of a second hand bookstore, and wandering their creaky corridors is a great way to kill some time.

Other things...the Gallery of Modern Art has a interesting exhibition of Torres Strait art - check out the piece on the ceiling of one of the annexes particularly, sort of a Cthuloid take on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. They also have a surrealism exhibition going that's been well-reviewed.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 9:59 PM on July 13, 2011


Might be some ideas here.

Re: the public transport, be aware that it is increasingly difficult to buy paper tickets these days, and impossible to buy "return" tickets - everything is one-way and many conductors, be they bus or ferry or train, are extremely intransigent about tickets issued on a bus being used on a train and so forth. There's a terrible card-based ticketing system called the GoCard, and cards can be had at most newsagents. Info here if you can get the web site to load.

Transport is way overpriced. Brisbane and surrounds is broken up into "zones". About three feet away from Queen Street Mall you're suddenly in Zone 2, and it's more expensive, as you may have guessed, to travel between zones than it is to travel within a single zone. If you are going to be relying on PT for the entire weekend I would recommend getting (at least) a $30 or $40 pre-loaded GoCard, which comes with a $5 refundable deposit, though I don't know how you actually go about getting that refunded (my guess is a blood sample and six month wait). The system has been designed to allow you to "touch on" very easily - that is, activate the debit for your journey - but very frequently malfunctions when you "touch off", which means the debt keeps accruing. I've had my GoCard malfunction more than once. Especially memorable was the time a single short trip ended up costing me over $20. The way you get this money back is you don't.

But, y'know, have fun! Saturday mornings in the Valley you can check out the astounding array of footpath-mounted vomit art, it's quite spectacular.
posted by tumid dahlia at 10:54 PM on July 13, 2011 [1 favorite]


I thought the Breakfast Creek Hotel was pretty cool pub-wise. It's pretty huge, and seemed to get quite a few people there even on a Thursday night. Their "meat" order counter is impressive - it's pretty much a butcher's display where you pick your cut - good value too. They also have a more up-market restaurant.
posted by trialex at 11:04 PM on July 13, 2011


Just a word of warning, in case you're not actually in Australia right now: it's cold outside, especially during the night, and the forecast for the weekend of 16/7/11 is "showers". Pack some warm clothes.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 1:16 AM on July 14, 2011


I would go to the Spring Hill Baths, if it wasn't winter- Are they open in winter? I love walking around Spring Hill and the Valley.
posted by the noob at 4:12 AM on July 14, 2011


Ride the City Cat! All the way up and all the way down! It's a great way to see the city and have a river cruise for the price of a ferry ticket!
posted by tabubilgirl at 7:20 AM on July 14, 2011


Rent a car and drive to the Gold Coast. Nothing useful in Queensland besides the theme parks.
posted by Talez at 10:30 AM on July 14, 2011


I was fortunate to have spent some six months in Brissie. It's a great place! Stuff to do though...

1. City Cat. MUST do.
2. Rent car, drive out to Surfer's Paradise. SHOULD do.
3. Queen Street Mall, wander the bars, and listen to the musos.
4. Catch a rugger game, or if the State of Origin is still on, (I think it is done now) TRY to get tickets.
5. Eat at almost any of the cultural restaurants.
6. Go north to Kings Beach at Caloundra.

Agree 100% with aeschkarnos' comment about pack warm clothes. I was there in the winter, I'm a canuck and I work outside, and I froze my butt off! 9 degrees C with 95% humidity makes for a cold nite.
posted by fox_terrier_guy at 10:45 AM on July 14, 2011


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