Last Friday night, myself and a friend decided to get out of Brisbane and take the train to Nerang, then head into Surfer's Paradise for the night market where we were meeting some friends.
The travel time to Surfer's Paradise, using public transport, is about 1 hour and 45 minutes from Central Station and travel options can be found on the Translink website
here.
Beachfront markets are held every Friday and Wednesday night from 5.30pm to 10pm along the Esplanade in Surfers Paradise.
We arrived at about 8.30pm and, while there was a great crowd of tourists in the area, the markets were not too congested and there was a general relaxed feel about the market.
The beachfront markets are about a kilometre long, with around 100 stalls. They offer the typical touristy products such as arts and crafts, colourful picture frames with 'Surfer's Paradise' branded across them, memorabilia, leather products and jewellery (my favourite is the stall where the rings and bracelets are made out of spoons).
There are also large numbers of food stalls offering treats such as popcorn and delicious looking cupcakes - but don't get these confused with the stall that offers scrumptious-looking soap products.
For about $20 children can get a braid put in their hair, and $40 will get you a reading from the local tarot card reader. Massages and palmology are also on offer.
For $10 you can get your photo taken with a snake or a lizard, and we just couldn't resist this opportunity. We chose the snake and had it draped across our backs. The skin feels amazing and you can feel it's muscles crawling in its underbelly as you hold onto it. A little disconcerting, however, was the brown sack on the floor which seemed to be moving around. Perhaps there was a back-up snake in there but either way, we were a bit scared it was going to jump out at us.
If heading to Surfer's Paradise from Brisbane via public transport be sure you don't miss the last train at night, and have cash ready as it is too tempting not to grab a bite to eat or a cheerful souvenir from one of the stalls.
