As parents exhausted from our busy schedules of parenting, working, running a household and trying to manage some self-care too, we hope to look forward to a break, in a parenting kind of way, a break away to relax, recharge and make happy family memories.
Where shall we go? How many of us have Australia’s Gold Coast on our list of top family holiday destinations? I’m betting there’s a whole bunch of us! Without further ado let me introduce you to the best place to stay on your much anticipated trip to the GC!
The Ruby Collection
The Ruby Collection’s a redevelopment of the award-winning Paradise Resort Gold Coast. If you know where this is you’ll know The Ruby Collection is situated just a 10 min walk from Surfers Paradise beach and is the Gold Coast’s newest luxury family accommodation offering short term holiday rentals. Architecturally stunning with every detail considered The Ruby Collection certainly has you feeling like you’re pampering yourselves in luxury as you holiday under the sun, with kids in tow!
The new development will retain many of the family-friendly features for which Paradise Resort has become renowned, whilst delivering a brand new product that resort guests have been requesting for many years – self-catering apartments, premier food and drink options, shopping experiences and easy access to some of the best Gold Coast attractions!
Eventually the collection will consist of 4 towers, and tower 1 is ready for you now!
The apartments
Stepping away from the traditional hotel style accommodations to self-catering apartments is something guests have been requesting for years, and it’s no wonder! We all know that taking the family on holiday means we still have typical daily things to do amongst the fun and games. Washing, baths, 3 meals a day plus snacks, naps, maybe some quiet down time, and hopefully a reasonable bedtime. How perfectly practical to be in an apartment?!
We were greeted by our friendly ambassador Harley who helped us “self check” and took us to our fab apartment. Coming in a range of superb one, two and three bedroom apartments as well as a 3 bedroom villa your accommodation needs can be met whether you’re a family of 3, or 7, or managing a parents break away on your own!
Crisp white linen and comfortable beds to sink into each evening, and a clean serviced apartment with re-stocked bathrooms and fresh towels to look forward to every morning! Except Sundays, if you’re wanting your apartment serviced on a Sunday don’t forget to book it on your in-room tablet. I’m as keen on tech features as I am on fresh linen, comfy beds, serviced rooms and awesome views!
Each apartment boasts a modern lounge and dining room for the family to lounge and dine in, and with a full modern kitchen at your fingertips this is an easy possibility! If you’re anything like me I don’t like to eat out every single meal of every single day on holiday. It’s expensive, and… it’s expensive, basically. Truth be told there’s also a good chance of eating pizza, burgers, chips, and other fried food at every meal if I’m left to purchase them in cafes and restaurants, and both my wallet and digestive system could do without the overload despite being on holiday! At The Ruby Collection you can stock up the full size fridge/freezer and ample cupboard space with fresh food, kids super snacks and pre-dinner nibbles (with champagne if you’re being especially luxurious). If you are planning to whip up a meal or two, it’s easily done with all the kitchen utensils you may need. You might want to have simple lunches in or prepared for when you’re on-the-go, or breakfast at home should you not be making use of the continental breakfast available downstairs in the restaurant – the beauty of this kitchen is you get to choose what to do!
You can pack lightly knowing there’s a washing machine and dryer in each apartment to get the inevitable wash done, and if there’s a special outfit for a special night you can press your own garments before stepping out on the razzle dazzle.
Often on family holidays one of the top spots everyone’s battling for is the bathroom, and when you do finally get your turn it’s trashed after two kids have splashed like whales and two teens have done their make-up (hours of application applicable). Not here! The 2 & 3 bedroom apartments have an ensuite and bathroom, with an extra toilet for the 3 bedroom villa – which can sleep up to 7 guests over two floors with a roof terrace to boot I might add. This place really can accommodate all families requirements and needs!
Dining facilities
Stones Bar & Grill
When you’re wanting to treat yourself to meals out you can pop down to the restaurant for some fine and most delicious dining at Stones Bar & Grill offering the likes of seared North Queensland tuna, Coconut vegetable laksa, Eye Fillet with minted crushed kipfler potatoes, Lindt chocolate fondue, and crumbed Starfish & Chips with an ice-cream cookie sandwiches on the kids menu. Lunch at Stones Bar & Grill altered to a simpler menu but food still packed with fine flavour as found in the Salt and Pepper squid. I can personally vouch that every meal I had at Stones was worth every mouthful I took. We were spoilt by Chef Phil and Chef David with tasty perfectly cooked food bringing us back time and again to sample almost every dish on the menu!
The Terrace Café
Whether it’s breakfast or brunch, lunch or dinner the Terrace Café is open daily from early morning until late evening where you can relax at a table or ‘grab and go’ with quick and convenient options. Kick-start the day with freshly squeezed juices, protein shakes, smoothies, museli, or eggs ‘your way’ with an almond milk flat white. Sandwiches, salads and gourmet wraps, sweets and savouries to savour on the spot or back in your apartment with your feet up. Burgers, fish of the day and home-style pizzas can satisfy your appetite into the evening, and of course all of this deliciousness can be ordered via the in-room tablet to be picked up on your way out the door, or sent up to your room. I’m a big fan of room service, which is delivered with a smile by the friendly staff – best check on arrival what’s available from both dining facilities for room service.
The Pantry
The Pantry is a brilliant concept. “Convenience at your fingertips”! If you run out of a holiday essential, be it sunscreen, a shaver, chocolate, picnic produce or… chocolate, you can restock at The Pantry with pretty much anything your hearts and bellies desire. If this calling happens upon you after-hours just order from the on demand mini-bar and have it delivered to your room.
Bar
You can enjoy a fantastic selection of wines, beer or hand crafted cocktails at the Ruby Lounge Bar. Similarly to the dinner menu I can vouch for a number of the hand crafted cocktails being worth every single sip! If you’re having a midday cool bevy or a pre-dinner drink you can get cozy in the lounge or remain poolside under a sun brolly snapping pics for the family ‘gram!
Facilities
If you’re wanting to rev up before relaxing by the pool or kicking back in your room watching a movie you can a) brave the heat for a beach run, or b) hit up the gym, followed by the Sauna and Steam rooms to keep the heart pumping! The Ruby Collection also offer a number of activities from cocktail mixology, to live music and Zumba classes – subject to availability with some classes charged. We didn’t partake in any classes due to spending so much time sampling the menu, walking on the beach and shopping till we dropped, but we did see some kiddies get amongst the diving game at the pool. The pool is a delicious dipping pool, perfect to get the heat off, and shallow enough in the shallow end for the kids, though it wasn’t swamped by all our little ones who had access to The Paradise Resort’s awesome waterpark and pool at their wrinkling fingertips! You’ll have to have one set of eyes on them of course but this waterpark keeps the kids occupied in kid bliss for hours!
Kids Club
Originally not planned until Stage 3 of The Ruby Collection development, the doors of The Junior Kids Club are now open – music to the ears of parents with small kids! “While parents have been able to access the Kids Club at Paradise Resort, we realised that we really needed to provide a service for the really small kids right here at Ruby” said the Ruby Collection CEO David Brook. For a charge you can allow yourself some small kid free time if you’re wanting to enjoy some poolside reading without concern for the littlies safety, or a meal without constant interruption, or even to take the older kids to the theme parks or beach without tending to a baby in a buggy in the Gold Coast heat. This option is a welcome godsend!
Opening June this year The Ruby Collection Kids Club catering for child from 3-12 will also open. Featuring a 3D theatre, rocket science lab and galaxy sports court, plus interactive programs designed to entertain and engage. It’s an additional feature of the complex at an extra charge, and it’s one that’s a real benefit for the kids who want to have more entertainment when the parents are wanting to do less entertaining, and have some poolside relaxation or get some fuss free shopping done instead without our water worries and worn out patience popping out!
Attractions
In a 10 minute walk, with kids in tow, you have the fairly gentle beautiful white sand beach with flagged swimming spots supervised by the infamous Gold Coast Surf Life Savers. You can spend many mornings walking beside the breaking waves, and a few hours making sandcastles and body boarding with the kids, or even book them a surf lesson! You’ll find those and other GC activities to book at an info desk at the Surfers Paradise shops a 15 minute walk from The Ruby Collection. If you’d rather a tranquil kids park, a cafe coffee and little splash at the waters edge of the canals (we wouldn’t suggest swimming), Buds Beach is just a 2 min stroll to the end of the street, perfect for a more shaded and less sandy picnic. The shopping meccas are Pacific Fair mall and Harbour Town retail outlet. Pacific Fair is a 15 min drive away or you can just as easily catch the tram from the Surfers Paradise North Turnback station (make sure you don’t get on a tram that’s turning north though!) to Broadbeach South. Harbour Town is most suited to hiring a car as it’s about a 20 min drive away and you’ll need ample car space to fit all your best buys in! We had the helpful Jade at Hertz arrange this and we thoroughly recommend their car hire from arrival to departure. The GC is not just infamous for its great weather and beautiful beach but also for its super selection of theme parks too! The main parks being Movie World and Wet ‘n’ Wild, Dream World and WhiteWater World are approximately a half an hours drive away to an awesome day of exciting family fun! One last attraction of the many not even mentioned here is Currumbin Zoo, 30 mins in the other direction is the land of OZ and it’s cute and not-so-cute animals. A wild life sanctuary of koalas and kangaroos, wombats and wallabies, reptiles and amphibians – every critter you’d think to have in an Aussie wild life sanctuary cobber.
At only a 3 hour flight away it’s easy to see why Australia’s Gold Coast is a popular spot for Kiwi families wanting to enjoy a fun filled family holiday overseas. The weather predictably warm and sunny for the “most part” makes it a reliable destination for an “any-season” sunny break. Expect the heat to crank up, as well as the humidity, in the summer and the crowds to be bigger during the school holidays. Abound with a gorgeous white sand surf beach, super shopping and the ultimate kid friendly attractions, the GC ticks the boxes for a fabulous family experience and the ease of getting there and getting about makes this destination hard to beat. The Ruby Collection offers you a respite from the buzz where you can kick off your jandles and laze into your relaxing retreat. It’s a win win for all and a wonderful family holiday.
What did your family spend time doing on holiday in the Gold Coast?
Written by Ronnie Swainston
Online Producer & Experiences Editor Ronnie’s mum to two spirited kids keeping her on her toes. With a love for travel, film, tv, photography & (eating) food keeping her wishing for more time, & with a curiosity meaning she’ll give almost anything a go making her, and her family, game for the job!
Favourite place to be: On an adventure
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