Best Things to Do in the Sunshine Coast: Beaches, Hinterland and Pure Queensland Magic
The Sunshine Coast sits about 100km north of Brisbane, and it wears its name honestly. This stretch of Queensland coastline — stretching from Caloundra in the south to Noosa in the north, with the Hinterland ranges rolling away to the west — is one of the most effortlessly enjoyable places in Australia. It’s not as frenetic as the Gold Coast, not as cosmopolitan as Brisbane, not as self-consciously cool as Byron Bay. It’s something better: genuinely relaxed, spectacularly beautiful, and packed with excellent food, world-class surf, and an increasingly strong arts and food culture that has evolved quietly over the past decade.
I’ve visited the Sunshine Coast many times, and what always strikes me is how easy it is to be here. The pace is gentle, the people are friendly, and the combination of great beaches and beautiful hinterland countryside gives you options for every mood and energy level. Whether you want to surf pumping beach breaks, hike through subtropical rainforest, eat extraordinary fresh seafood, or just sit in a café watching the world go by over a very good flat white, the Sunshine Coast delivers.
📋 TL;DR – Best Things to Do in the Sunshine Coast
- ✅ The beaches are excellent: Noosa Main Beach, Mooloolaba, and Coolum all offer outstanding swimming, with varying levels of surf.
- 🌿 The Hinterland is magical: Montville, Maleny, and Mapleton are beautiful small towns in the Glass House Mountains and Blackall Range — great for a day trip.
- 🦁 Australia Zoo is one of the best wildlife parks in the country: Steve Irwin’s legacy lives on at this extraordinary wildlife facility.
- 🍽️ The food scene has really lifted: Noosa and Mooloolaba both have excellent restaurant scenes; the local produce — particularly seafood and tropical fruit — is extraordinary.
- 🏄 Surfing is a big deal here: The Coast has consistent beach breaks and a strong surf culture, from Mooloolaba to Coolum to the famous Noosa points.
- 🚂 The Eumundi Markets are brilliant: One of Queensland’s best regional markets, held Wednesday and Saturday mornings in the charming hinterland town of Eumundi.
🏖️ The beaches of the Sunshine Coast
The Sunshine Coast has over 100km of beaches, ranging from sheltered family-friendly strips to powerful open-ocean surf beaches. All of them are patrolled by surf lifesavers in peak season, and all offer the quintessential Queensland beach experience: golden sand, warm water, and that particular quality of light you only get this far north.
🌅 Noosa Main Beach
Noosa Main Beach is the glamour destination — a sheltered, north-facing crescent of pale sand in the shadow of the Noosa National Park headland, backed by the restaurant and boutique-lined Hastings Street. The water here is unusually calm for an open ocean beach because the headland provides shelter from the prevailing south-east winds; this makes it ideal for families and anyone who prefers swimming to surfing. Noosa also has First Point — a famous right-hand point break just around the headland that, on a good day in the right swell, offers long, perfectly peeling waves that attract surfers from around the world.
🌊 Mooloolaba Beach
Mooloolaba is the liveliest beach town on the Coast south of Noosa — a strip of restaurants, cafés, and bars running alongside a long, gently curved beach with reliable, moderate surf. The Esplanade is perfect for a morning walk followed by breakfast at one of the many excellent cafés. Mooloolaba also has a harbour with fresh seafood available direct from fishing boats, and SEALIFE Mooloolaba — an excellent aquarium that does justice to the extraordinary marine life of the Queensland coast. The nearby town of Alexandra Headland (Alex Heads to the locals) has great surf breaks and a more residential, less touristy feel.
🏄 Coolum Beach
Coolum is the Sunshine Coast’s best-kept beach secret — a beautiful, moderately sized beach town with excellent surf (the beach gets more swell than anywhere south of Noosa), a very good main street with great cafés and restaurants, and the distinctive backdrop of Mount Coolum — an ancient volcanic plug that you can hike to the top of in about 45 minutes for sweeping views of the entire coast. Coolum has a slightly more alternative, community-focused feel than the other beach towns; it’s where the locals go when they want to escape the tourists.
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🦁 Australia Zoo
Australia Zoo, founded by the Irwin family and located near Beerwah on the Bruce Highway about 45 minutes south of Noosa, is one of the best wildlife parks in the country. Steve Irwin’s legacy is everywhere here: the Crocoseum hosts daily live shows where you can watch crocodile demonstrations, snake handling, and interactions with native wildlife from the grandstands. The zoo is home to an enormous range of Australian and international animals — koalas, wombats, Tasmanian devils, cassowaries, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants, and (obviously) hundreds of reptiles.
What makes Australia Zoo different from a typical zoo is the emphasis on hands-on experiences. You can hand-feed kangaroos, get a photo with a koala, and book premium behind-the-scenes experiences that get you up close with animals you’d never normally approach. The zoo is genuinely passionate about wildlife conservation, and the Wildlife Warriors Foundation (the Irwin family’s charity) does serious work in Australia and internationally. Budget a full day — there’s more here than you can comfortably see in half a day.
🌿 The Sunshine Coast Hinterland
The Sunshine Coast Hinterland — the range of hills and valleys immediately behind the coastal strip — is one of the most beautiful and underexplored parts of Queensland. A series of small towns perched along the Blackall Range offer views, waterfalls, rainforest walks, excellent food, and a distinctly alternative, artsy community that feels a world away from the beach towns below.
🏘️ Montville and Maleny
Montville is the most visited of the hinterland towns — a perfectly preserved village of heritage buildings now housing galleries, boutiques, cafés, and restaurants. It’s touristy, yes, but charmingly so; the views from the escarpment edge over the coastal plain below are worth the drive alone. Maleny, about 15 minutes further along the range, has a more down-to-earth community feel — a working town with excellent food co-ops, independent bookshops, and a strong local arts scene. The Maleny Dairies (which you can visit for tastings) produce some of the best fresh milk in Queensland.
🌊 Kondalilla and Mary Cairncross Falls
The hinterland is threaded with walking trails, and two stand out as particularly rewarding. Kondalilla National Park, near Montville, has a beautiful falls walk that takes you through subtropical rainforest to Kondalilla Falls and the swimming hole below — a perfect cool dip on a hot day. Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve in Maleny protects a pocket of intact subtropical rainforest with walking trails and a natural history museum that’s particularly good at explaining the ecology of the region. Both are free to enter.
🌋 Glass House Mountains
The Glass House Mountains — a cluster of dramatic volcanic plugs rising abruptly from the flat coastal plain between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast — are one of the most distinctive landscapes in south-east Queensland. Named by Captain Cook in 1770 (he thought they resembled the glass furnaces of his native Yorkshire), these mountains are sacred to the Jinibara and Kabi Kabi peoples and feature prominently in traditional stories. Several of the mountains have walking trails to their summits — Mount Beerwah, at 556 metres, is the highest and most demanding; Mount Ngungun offers the best views for the least effort (a 1.5-hour round trip). The views from any of the summits — across the flat coastal plain to the ocean in one direction and back into the hinterland in the other — are extraordinary.
🛒 Eumundi Markets
The Eumundi Markets, held every Wednesday morning (8am to 2pm) and Saturday morning (7am to 2pm) in the charming hinterland town of Eumundi, are one of Queensland’s genuine cultural institutions. Over 600 stalls spread across the town’s parklands and streets, selling fresh produce, handmade crafts, art, jewellery, clothing, and food from around the world. It’s larger than you’d expect and has a brilliantly eclectic, artisan feel — far removed from the commercial market atmosphere you find in the city. Live music plays throughout the morning. Budget at least two hours, wear comfortable shoes, and go on Saturday when the market is at its biggest and most vibrant.
🍽️ Where to eat on the Sunshine Coast
The Sunshine Coast food scene has quietly become one of the best in regional Australia over the past decade. Noosa is the culinary capital — Hastings Street and the surrounding streets have a concentration of excellent restaurants that would hold their own in Melbourne or Sydney. Sum Yung Guys is consistently cited as one of Queensland’s best restaurants (Asian-influenced, excellent sharing plates, hard to get a table on weekends). The Spirit House, about 20 minutes south of Noosa near Yandina, is a legendary Thai restaurant set in a tropical garden — it’s been running since 1993 and shows no sign of losing its magic.
Mooloolaba’s wharf area has excellent fresh seafood — buy oysters and prawns directly from fishing boats if you want the best value. The Bokashi café in Coolum, the Publican in Noosa, and the amazing hinterland cafés in Montville and Maleny all contribute to a food scene that rewards exploration well beyond the obvious tourist strips.
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🚣 Water activities and adventures
Beyond the beaches, the Sunshine Coast has an impressive range of water activities. The Mooloolah River (known locally as “the river”) provides sheltered waterways for kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, and river cruises — particularly good for families and anyone who prefers calmer water. Kayak tours of Noosa’s national park coastline — paddling through the calm turquoise water past dramatic headlands and watching dolphins play in the bow wave of passing boats — are one of the region’s most popular experiences. Further afield, the Pumicestone Passage at Caloundra, a narrow waterway between the mainland and Bribie Island, is excellent for fishing, birdwatching, and kayaking in a sheltered environment.
💡 Practical tips for the Sunshine Coast
- 🚗 A car makes the most of it: The Coast is spread out and the hinterland is inaccessible without your own transport. Hire a car if you can.
- ☀️ The UV index is extremely high: SPF50+, reapply every 2 hours, and seek shade in the middle of the day. The Queensland sun is serious.
- 🐊 Check for stingers: In summer (October to May), marine stingers (box jellyfish) can be present in the water north of Noosa. Swim in patrolled areas and use stinger suits if available.
- 📅 School holidays are extremely busy: Queensland school holidays (particularly the 2-week January holidays) see the Coast at its most crowded and most expensive. Come in autumn or winter for better value and quieter beaches.
- 🌊 Learn the surf flags: Red and yellow flags mark the safest swimming zone. Always swim between the flags on patrolled beaches.
The Sunshine Coast is one of those destinations that grows on you with every visit. Discover it for the first time and you’ll find a beautiful, relaxed beach destination; return a few times and you’ll begin to appreciate the depth of what’s here — the brilliant food, the extraordinary hinterland, the wildlife, and a community that genuinely loves where it lives. That love is contagious.
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