[Back to the blog](/experience/blog/) # The Pan Pacific Masters Games' 14th edition, watched from the quiet side of Main Beach > The Pan Pacific Masters Games returns for a 14th edition, 6 to 15 November 2026, drawing competitors from every Australian state and more than 30 countries to venues including five held over from the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Contessa's own boutique apartment collection sits a ten-minute drive from the entertainment hub. --- Fourteen editions on from a 1995 pilot in Townsville, the **Pan Pacific Masters Games** has grown into a ten-day, city-wide fixture across **42 sports**, **6 to 15 November 2026** this year, with no qualifying standard beyond the minimum age for a chosen event, typically 30, though the field genuinely spans 18 to past 90. Growing interest from Japan, the Americas and across the Pacific saw the event renamed in 2002, and by 2024 the Gold Coast edition drew over 15,000 participants and 20,000 supporters from every Australian state and more than 30 countries, taking out the city's Sporting Event of the Year. Five of this year's **42 venues** were purpose-built for the **2018 Commonwealth Games**, among them the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Gold Coast Sport and Leisure Centre, Coomera Indoor Sports Centre and the Gold Coast Hockey Centre. The Games is backed by Experience Gold Coast and the Queensland Government's Tourism and Events Queensland, and features on the state's "It's Live! in Queensland" calendar, the kind of institutional weight that keeps a ten-day, city-wide event running smoothly around it. ## A Games built for more than one generation There is no separate junior or senior division to navigate: the same minimum-age rule that lets an 18-year-old debut also lets a grandparent still be competing well into their nineties, which makes the Games a genuinely multigenerational trip rather than one built around a single competitor. A Non-Playing Official category exists for the coaches, managers and scorers a team brings along without themselves stepping onto the field, and a separate Supporter entry covers anyone there purely to watch. More than 1,000 volunteers keep the ten days running, most of them stationed at the entertainment hub and the check-in centres helping arrivals collect their registration kit. The 2018 edition alone added 84,000 visitor nights to the Gold Coast, and 2026's expected 16,000-plus athletes already exceeds 2024's field of over 15,000. ![Private marina on river with moored boats, timber dock and mature riverside trees](/assets/photos/facilities/marina.jpg) ## Ten minutes from the entertainment, two acres from the noise Pan Pacs Central, the Games' nightly entertainment hub at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, is a ten-minute drive from Contessa, close enough for the six themed nights and the opening and closing ceremonies without putting the noise on the doorstep. Two acres of garden and a private marina sit between the property and the rest of the coast, the kind of buffer that matters after a day spent following a relay heat or a bowls final across a spread-out venue map. The nearest G:link stop is a fifteen-minute walk, connecting north and south along the coast without a car. ## Ten apartments, presented as they are 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. It suits a Games trip better than most bookings: multigenerational groups need the space of a genuine two- or three-bedroom apartment, not a hotel room split two ways, and the indoor and outdoor pools, spa, sauna and full-sized tennis court give a family somewhere to unwind between the day's events. ![Tennis court with white lines, net and tall pine trees lining the perimeter](/assets/photos/facilities/tennis-court.jpg) ## Reserve the stay 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. [**Check the six apartments and reserve yours**](/accommodation/), or read more about [the residence and its facilities](/stay/). Entry deadlines run sport by sport, confirmed on the [official Pan Pacific Masters Games site](https://www.mastersgames.com.au/). ## More from the journal. ### [The Gold Coast Show 2026: a day out, an evening on the river](/experience/blog/gold-coast-show/) Travel tips ### [Ten years of Crafted Festival, and a quiet address to come back to](/experience/blog/ten-years-of-crafted-festival/) Travel tips ### [BLEACH Festival, reconsidered: a choir to open it, a quiet close eleven days later](/experience/blog/bleach-festival-opening-night-main-beach/) Travel tips ### [Groundwater 2026: a free Broadbeach festival, a quiet Main Beach base](/experience/blog/groundwater-2026/) Travel tips ### [Gold Coast 500 2026: a balcony that looks down on the track](/experience/blog/gold-coast-500/) Travel tips ### [The Gold Coast Marathon from Main Beach, with room for the whole crew](/experience/blog/gold-coast-marathon/) Travel tips