Gold Coast is like a Bali in Australia. It has a looooooong beach and kinda tropical air. When I was there it's autumn but feels like summer! Gold Coast has many things to offer for a tourist like me, such as a special fare for amusement park admission ticket, public transportation and so on! 

Once you're in the airport, I recommend to visit the visitor center, as the perks are here! If you wander around much, I recommend to buy the Gold Coast "Go-explore" card, cause it would save you much money. For AUD 10 per day, you can use this card for any Translink tram and bus, just don't forget to touch on and touch off everytime you use one. I think it's better and cheaper than rent a shuttle service.

After that you could explore the beautiful gold coast. As I said before, the beach in Gold Coast is so long, you could explore some of the favorite beaches, but I think the most beautiful one is Coolongatta Beach near the airport (the one at the top of this post is Coolongatta Beach). If you're a surfer, get your surf board ready! While Coolongata being the most beautiful, but the most famous one is surfers paradise and broadbeach waters. 

Surfers paradise is an all-in-one spot, it's so lively and you could find so many food stalls and shops. If you're in the middle of quarter life crisis and searching for tranquility, then this one is not suitable for you cause it's quite crowded. The beach in surfers paradise is so near to the skyscraper such as the sky tower. You could take the good photo with this contrast view of beach vs skyscraper here—just like the one that we can see at most of the Gold Coast brochure haha