Main Beach empties out over Christmas and stays that way through the week that follows, the crowds and the carparks drawn south toward the bigger festive drawcards, and the two acres of garden and the private marina at Contessa do a quieter version of the same thing all December. HOTA, on Bundall Road, is where the City of Gold Coast stages its Mayor’s Christmas Carols each December, free and open, a fifteen-minute walk to the nearest G:link stop and one tram ride north for anyone after the bigger night out. Broadbeach Mall’s gingerbread village, a short drive south and running daily across more than a week each December, is the easier outing with grandchildren along: cookie decorating, Christmas craft and a Santa’s post office for letters. Both are free; the only real cost either way is the drive or the tram fare.
Christmas lunch, cooked at home
Of the 124 residences in the building, only ten are released for holiday stays, each shown on the site by its own apartment number and photographs rather than a stock image and a category, so a family can see the actual rooms they’re booking before they arrive. Every one runs to at least 178 square metres, room enough for three generations to sit down at the same table rather than eating in shifts. A kitchen built for more than reheating means a proper Christmas lunch doesn’t need a restaurant booking or a hotel buffet, and the wraparound balconies give the meal somewhere to spread to once the table’s full. A Superior Three-Bedroom runs to 203 square metres, for the years the whole family wants to be under one roof rather than split across two apartments. The garden below is there for the walk it takes to make room for dessert.
The building’s own quiet
The indoor and outdoor pools, the sauna, the gym and the full-sized tennis court fill in the days either side of the 25th without anyone needing to leave the grounds, and the marina keeps the noise of a Gold Coast December at a genuine distance. Boats sit moored along the timber dock under mature riverside trees rather than the traffic and carpark queues that build up around the coast’s bigger festive events, and a quiet stretch on the tennis court or a lap of the indoor pool works as well as anywhere for shaking off a big lunch. The sauna suits the cooler evenings that sometimes still turn up in the middle of a Queensland December, and the outdoor pool stays open through it regardless of what the weather’s doing. Check-in runs 2 to 5 pm, check-out 8 to 10 am, and full payment is taken 48 hours before arrival rather than at the time of booking.
A stay that opens before the 25th and runs on gives room for a slow Christmas week rather than a single crowded day. Anyone not departing straight after the presents are unwrapped has New Year’s Eve fireworks at Surfers Paradise to stay on for, a tram ride away rather than a walk.
Check the six apartments and reserve yours, or read more about the residence and its facilities. HOTA confirms each year’s Mayor’s Christmas Carols line-up on its official site.