So off to the Gold Coast!

As The Mole’s Gen Y reporters, we thought that going to the Gold Coast would be a great first trip for us as and it appeared that me, Hannah A-J that surprise, surprise I would be taking the role of the fixer.

The other bonus for our first gig for TravelMole was that the Gold Coast was somewhere that was not too far, with heaps of things to do and theme parks – Gen Yers love theme parks!!

An even bigger surprise for the Mole was that we decided not to go on a regular scheduled flight, but William Borglund, one of our trio, in a very Gen Y way, happens with his father to have his own plane, so it was off to Coolangatta in our very one plane with Borgie at the wheel or whatever you steer a plane with! 

How Gen Y is that and it is rather typical of Gen Yers that we sometimes have access to such things as private planes!

In any case, leaving Camden, midday on Monday with the Gold Coast in our sights, the intrepid trio of Natalie Chapman, Hannah Alwyn-Jones and William Borglund’s plans were somewhat changed with an unscheduled stop in Ballina, because the weather on the Gold Coast was too bad for us to continue. 

A quick call to back to Mole HQ asking, “The weather is bad in Coolangatta, so can you fix a car for us in Ballina to drive to the Gold Coast”, only to call back in ten minutes later saying, “Don’t worry its all fixed, the weather has cleared and we are back in the air!”  The amazing thing was that we hadn’t realised that with Borgie at the wheel, it was only a 14 minute hop from Ballina to the Gold Coast!

Red Spot Car Rental had generously loaned us a car for the three day break and after tying the plane down, we set off in Red Spot Car Rental’s Nissan Tida, just a tad “granny like” with a boot, we called it the “nanamobile”, but Red Spot do allow under 25’s to rent cars and the Tida, the car that they give under 25’s goes really well, has absolutely everything you need, with great music and is great on fuel. 

I also checked out their prices and are they hot!  Have a look at www.redspotrental.com.au and they include everything you need and that is good for Gen Y’ers as we don’t like beign ripped off with all those extras – give us one price and you will get the booking!

The Red Spot guy was also really fantastic, he even gave us directions to the hotel, also giving us a street directory and the car was spotless – well done Red Spot!

The great thing we found about travelling around the Gold Coast is that it is pretty easy getting around, because you really only go north or south and as we were not going south, north it was and off in the fantastic Red Spot “nanamobile” to the Vibe Hotel Gold Coast, who had kindly agreed to put us up for few days.

The Vibe was easy to find, basically turning left out of the airport and the next thing after about 15 mins, we were pulling into the entrance of the Vibe, and our first impression unfortunately was that the welcome was pretty poor, because when we pulled up at the entrance nobody asked if we were checking in or whatever, and hey, us Gen Yers expect good service. 

By the way, expect us to tell you what we think as we discuss our travel on social interaction/blog web sites and tell our friends on line what we think so expect comments from consumers not just travel writers.

The reception was pretty lax too and I suppose that after the great Red Spot service, a hard act to follow, the welcome at the Vibe was pretty average, no welcome introduction or anything, not even the receptionist saying the restaurant and bar are here and the pool is there, etc, – hey Gen Yers like to know what’s happening and feel involved, so we thought that as this hotel is supposed to specialise in Gen Yers, the welcome needs a bit of attention!

Get your act together Vibe Gold Coast and deliver the Vibe from the beginning or it affects the whole visit!

In any case, movin’ on!

Where Vibe did deliver is that my room was really cool, spacious and had everything I needed, with a really, really comfortable king size bed [strange though there was no valance around the bed and you could see the mattress!], a sofa that converted into a bed and fabulous from a girlie point of view, mirrors everywhere, so I could see every angle of everything………..oops, must get that spray tan touched up!

Vibes colours are very funky in the lobby and public areas, but they didn’t appear to carry through to the room, with while the room was very nice, it was not as funky as I thought it would be, but that bed was amazing and the bathroom smashing with a luxurious full length bath tub, great for those lazy pre dinner baths!

The Vibe pool was pretty cool with a little bridge over it and an outdoor eating area – that wasn’t open though, but the hot spa was great, with really intense jets that worked wonders on our tired bods.

So what’s for dinner was the next thought and although we were very tired, we had researched on the net [as you do!] and decided to go to Chang Mai Thai in the Crown Towers, much more than your average Thai restaurant, with the Chang Mai, really well themed, serving the best Thai food we had ever eaten, or was that because we were sitting on chairs carved like elephants! 

Our tip at the Chang Mai is the Beef Green Curry, which was fantastic, really hot and really good and the prices were good to, which with the atmosphere and theming making it a really great night, we could not fault.

On the way back to the Vibe and that king size bed we nearly went bungy jumping, but decided that night time bungy jumping was not for us, or at least not with stomachs full of Thai food and it was also $120, which seemed pretty expensive, so Nat and I managed to drag Will away!   

We also thought it looked a bit touristy, perhaps a bit of a rip off and appeared to be aimed at schoolies.

In any case time for that fantastic bed to get some sleep in before Wet’n’Wild in the morning………..now that sounds like fun!

I also didn’t take many pictures during the evening, as being a typical Gen Y, my Louis handbag – genuine, of course – was too small even for my tiny little camera.

More tomorrow from Wet’n’Wild and OK some pics -I will take a bigger bag!!

The Gen Y Moles reporting on location from the Gold Coast