A Different Guide to Brisbane and The Best-Kept Secrets of The City

You’ll love our ultimate guide to off-piste Brisbane if you want to get away from the crowds of tourists or just want a more memorable and unique day out. Here are some day trips, things to do at night, and places to eat that will give your vacation a different flavor.

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Sunnybank Asian Food Tours

Chef Tony Ching takes people on monthly food tours to some of the best places to eat and buy fresh Asian food. The tours leave from Sunnybank Plaza in the morning and in the evening. During the three-hour tour, Tony will give you expert tips on how to choose the best food, what the most important ingredients are for your favorite dishes, and how to make them. You’ll try traditional Taiwanese desserts like red beans and milk-crushed ice at Meet Fresh and milk bubble tea with chewy tapioca balls at Easyway. The morning tours begin at 10 a.m. and end with a yum cha lunch at Landmark restaurant. The evening tours start at 3.30 p.m. and are set up so that you eat at several different restaurants. On both tours, though, each person gets a bag of treats worth $25 to take home.

Price: $68 per person
The morning tour and lunch are from 10am to 1:30pm, The afternoon tour and dinner are from 3:30pm to 7pm.

A Different Guide to Brisbane and The Best-Kept Secrets of The City — Brisbane | © jakhei89/Flickr

CityHoppers

If you want a more relaxed way to see the sights of Brisbane, you should skip the CityCat ferries and take a CityHopper instead. The service is free and uses remodeled Brisbane City Council ferries to cover a large part of the inner city around Kangaroo Point on the Brisbane River. The ferry has stops at North Quay, South Bank 3, the Maritime Museum, Thornton Street, Eagle Street Pier, Holman Street, Dockside, and Sydney Street. You can get on and off at any of these places. These old-fashioned red boats are a lot of fun.
Price: nothing
Times: every 30 minutes from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m., seven days a week

Island of Coochiemudlo

Brisbane is close to a number of islands that are easy to get to. Most people go to Moreton and the Stradbrokes, but it’s worth taking a ferry to Coochiemudlo Island, which isn’t as popular. Coochiemudlo doesn’t have any public transportation, so the only way to get around is on foot. There are a few businesses on the island that rent out canoes, kayaks, and aqua bikes to beachgoers during the day. Off the beach, the island has a number of nice places to eat if you want a quiet, romantic dinner. The ferry leaves the Coochie Jetty at 5 a.m. and the Victoria Point Jetty at 11:30 p.m. every day at 30-minute intervals.

Edible Brisbane

Check out the free public garden beds along the river at the northern end of South Bank for a really different way to eat lunch. All the plants and herbs are edible, so pick some basil, parsley, mint, or oregano, if it’s the right time of year. Even further away, you can use the Brisbane Public Harvest Google Map to find public land plots, vegetable patches, and herb gardens in, around, and just outside the city. People can pick avocados, mangoes, lillipilly, figs, guava, mulberries, and tomatoes from these fruit bowls.

Rooftop Cinema

Cinema

On Thursday nights at 7.30pm, new and old movies are shown from the top of the five-star, high-end Limes Hotel in posh Fortitude Valley. People can sit on pillows or couches, or they can jump into one of the two plunge pools. The bar opens at 5 p.m. and serves drinks and tapas. It stays open until midnight, even after the movie ends. Avoid the crowds at the multiplex to enjoy a truly unique viewing experience under the stars. Check the website for a full list of what’s showing now and what’s coming up.
The theater is open from 5 p.m. to midnight. Check the website for movie times.

Ride a bike along the New Farm Riverwalk

The 2011 floods did a lot of damage to the New Farm Riverwalk, but it is now back to being one of the best scenic routes in the city. The bike path winds all the way from Story Bridge to New Farm Park, which is a big, open park with picnic areas and places to have BBQs. It is a unique loop for wanderers with or without wheels that can end with a stop at the Jan Powers Farmers’ Market or the Moonlight Cinema if the timing is right.

Public Art Trails

Try one of Brisbane’s four public art walking trails to mix up the city’s unique art collections, perfect sunny weather, and love of outdoor activities. The “Cultural Heritage Public Art Trail” includes historic, heritage-listed, and modern artworks and monuments, while “Art and the River” goes for 2 km from the Maritime Museum in South Bank to the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. The “World Expo ’88 Trail” looks at 11 of the 13 artworks made in Brisbane for the event and might be the best of the four.

Topic: A Different Guide to Brisbane and The Best-Kept Secrets of The City

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