Couran Cove Resort South Stradbroke Island

After a week on the Gold Coast at Surfers Paradise it was fantastic to get away from the hussle and bustle and finally settle down to a little bit of relaxation at Couran Cove.

Located on South Stradbroke Island, it took us about half an hour to travel to Hope Harbor from where we caught the boat to Couran Cove. 40 minutes later we were on the Island and unpacking our bags.

Couran Cove was built in 1998 as an “eco-tourism” resort.

It covers quite an extensive area and has many different facilities available.

They have a good web site which covers everything they offer and I'd recommend having a look as we did not try everything during the week we were there.

Check it out here:

I also like this map overview of the resort:

We stayed in what the resort refers to as a “two bedroom lodge” (I’d prefer to call it an upmarket bungalow), located on the marina.

I should explain that I was there with my wife and two small children (aged 5 & 8), and staying next door was my brother with his wife and three kids (3, 4 & 6).

The lodges / bungalows were fantastically located. Our kids spent a lot of time playing out the front on the beach. My brother and I also enjoyed throwing a fishing line in. They are available for hire and we managed to catch a few fish, though most were quite small. Not that this mattered - it was more about the beer than the fish anyway!

We had been worded up before heading to Couran Cove that it was a good idea to stock up on food items as there is only a general store on the Island. Not totally necessary as the general store is quite well stocked - however if you have special requirements, particularly for children, then definitely take it with you. You'll also save a few dollars if you do this. Good wine in particular is expensive.

One disappointing aspect to our stay was the quality (& quantity) of cooking utensils in the rooms. Both of our rooms were supplied with one small saucepan, which made cooking enough pasta for 9 people in one go impossible. Neither room had tongs for a BBQ - which again made it frustrating when trying to turn the snags and roll over the leg of lamb we cooked! The one knife supplied was blunt, and the magnetic seal on our fridge was losing it's stick so keeping the beer icy cold was a challenge!

None of this was disastrous - and certainly didn't ruin our stay, however it does say something about the place. It's ten years old and starting to show it! When Couran Cove was built it would have been absolutely leading edge - it's now just starting to show it's age a little bit.

This shouldn't discourage anyone from visiting - it's a fabulous place - but don't be fooled by the glossy images on their web site.

Eating out opportunities are limited to The Restaurant, the Boardwalk Bar & Cafe, the Surf Club and the Poolside Cafe. You can also order pizzas to your room.

The pizzas were great - good quality ingredients and well cooked. Perfect for a night in with the kids.

The poolside cafe offered a good buffet style breakfast. We also had lunch here a few times and one dinner. Nothing spectacular - just good solid quality food.

The night we ate at The Surf Club they were offering a buffet style dinner. I was surprised at the quality of food on offer. Buffets are a challenge at any time and this was good. I had a good steak & great vegies. There was a wide variety of other things on offer such as fish, roast lamb, sausages, salads, etc

The Boardwalk Bar & Cafe was a very nice spot for a relaxing drink taking in the view over the marina. We didn't try the food here though.

Now for The Restaurant.

This is billed as Couran Coves "Signature Restaurant".

It must be a challenge to get good staff at any resort and I would have thought you'd have your best staff in your best restaurant.

Maybe we just got one of those nights....

We had a waitress look after us who was lovely - said all the right things, was attentive, really nice.

But, we also had a waiter looking after us - his job was to serve us our food. He was so bad at doing this that after we got over the initial shock it actually became quite funny.

On his first approach to the table the exchange went something like

Waiter:         "Are you guys table 46?"

Us:            "We don't know"

Waiter:        "ok - so whose is this?" - offering a plate of food which was not easily identifiable.

Us:            "What is it"

Waiter:        "I don't know"

At which point the waitress appeared to rescue the situation. They both burst out laughing, served the food and left.

Anyway, this went on all night. At the end of it we decided that he'd been out the back smoking something he shouldn't have been. He had certainly forgotten any training he'd received from the restaurant.

For $100 a head the food was ok. Nothing spectacular for the money. I had smolked salmon for entree and a veal shank for my main which was a little bit dry and fatty, but ok. The deserts were great. Very nice Lemon Delicious. Excellent Cheese Plate. Great bottle of Leuwin Estate "Sibling" Shiraz over the meal. Everyone else at the table said their meals were good, but nothing over the top.

One aspect to the resort which we loved was the fact that there are no cars.

There is a regular Shuttle Train which takes you to various spots around the resort.

Bicycles are available for hire and this was a great way to get around. There are over 1,000 bikes available and they come in all shapes and sizes. Kids bikes are available and for the really little ones who can't ride you can pull them behind your bike in a buggy!

There are lots of tracks to ride or walk on. They were safe enough for us to allow our older kids to go off on their own and have a ride around.

The rainforest walk is nice, and we managed to spot a rather large Goanna ambling through the forest.

You'll also see the occasional wallaby at the resort. There was one which hung around the pool area and at one stage manage to stick his nose into my wife's bag and steal an apple!

I think one of the things that we loved about Couran Cove was how kid friendly it was.

One clever activity they have is a coloring in competition every day. This meant we could keep the kids occupied while we went and had a swin, ate some lunch, whatever. On the last day my brothers eldest daughter badgered the reception desk so much as to who was the previous days winner that they gave the prize to her - much to my daughters disgust as her coloring in was "so much better". Kids!

The Kids Club was well run and we utilised it a couple of times. Again, good activities such as painting t-shirts and a mini olympics competition.

A babysitting service is available, however we didn't try it.

There is an enormous kids pool which is also shaded to protect everyone from the sun.

A 25 metre lap pool is also available.

There are lots of other facilities and activities available, such as surfing, bocce, two gymnasiums, Indoor soccer & cricket, a timed sprint track, tennis, long jump, basketball, kayaking, lawn bowls, archery, beach volleyball, golf putting/driving, jet ski hire, banana boat hire, wakeboarding, water skiing, fishing, kayaking, parasailing, sailing etc.

As you can see, there is plenty to do, or you can just chill out by the pool with a book.

Jet skiing is a personal favorite of mine. We took a couple of the kids out with us and had a ball. It was too windy for a sail - any day over 15 knots and you're not allowed to take the cats out, which was a pity!

The banana boat was an interesting experience. It terrified two of the kids, and my wife managed to damage a ligament in her knee!

She didn't make a big thing of it at the time, however a couple of hours later I decided to see if there was a doctor on the Island. Upon reporting it to reception the response we got was excellent. Within 15 minutes we had a male nurse apppear at our bungalow, together with a security guard who wanted to know all the details of the incident. In short, their response was spot on.

This, of course, necessitated my wife needing endless treatments in The Day Spa, which she said was very good!

So, in a nutshell - we loved Couran Cove.

Great place for a holiday with or without kids and would also be good for a corporate conference.