You could spend a month exploring the magical string of towns, walks and beaches from the Gold Coast to Byron Bay. But it’s a magical weekender too. Whether you need a quick getaway or you’re a local looking for something new, here’s how we’d get the most of the Tweed Heads region over two short but jam-packed days.
Day one
Ask Burleigh Heads locals how to start the day and they’ll point you to Burleigh Baker. Breakfast at the bakery’s James Street cafe could be mushrooms and pesto on the long-fermented house sourdough, croissants filled with scrambled eggs and Gruyere, or banh mi with all the trimmings. Plate cleared, stroll two minutes down the road to Quest Coffee Roasters for one of its organic single-origin brews.
Time to drive to the Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre. It’s a collection of galleries in a striking tin shed-style building designed by Brisbane architect Bud Brannigan with an unbeatable vista of the Tweed River below. Headlining more than a dozen exhibitions (all of which are worth exploring, if you have the time) is Claude Monet’s 1890 painting Meules, milieu du jour, which depicts a field of haystacks rendered in Monet’s signature hazy, dreamlike style. It’s on loan from the National Gallery as part of its Sharing the National Collection initiative, and will be joined by three more pieces by Australian artist Margaret Olley and one from Italian painter Giorgio Morandi in early March.
Spend the rest of the afternoon sampling farm-to-bottle rum at Husk Farm Distillery and picking through the bar’s mostly-local menu. Everything at Husk is done on site, from growing and processing the sugarcane used to make the rum to distilling and ageing. The distillery also makes gin, so grab a house cocktail or flight of your preferred spirit and watch the cows stroll by in the afternoon sun. If you’re driving, pop into the cellar door for bottles to take home to drink in the comfort of your hotel.
Return to the coast and Halcyon House in nearby Cabarita Beach. The beachside boutique hotel is a glistening, white 22-roomer and is home to acclaimed restaurant, Paper Daisy.
Day two
Check out early and shoot up to Fingal Head, a stretch of secluded beaches not far from Tweed Heads. Start at Dreamtime Beach, renowned for its ancient basalt rock formations and crystal-blue waters, before heading inland for breakfast and a much-needed cup of coffee at Next Door Espresso.
At Next Door the beans come from Moonshine Coffee Roasters in Byron Bay, and the breakfast menu includes modern cafe classics done well. There’s egg, bacon, cheese and barbeque sauce on a milk bun; bagels with smashed avo and poached eggs; and something called a “crump cake”, which is somewhere between a crumpet and pancakes, served with whipped honey ricotta and banana.
Then you can hit the local Tweed Heads Market and work up an appetite again. It runs every Sunday and features a mix of locally grown produce, clothing stalls, preserves, coffee vans and more.
Next, it’s back to Burleigh Heads. Dressed in pastel pink, this outpost of Byron Bay’s Light Years is an eclectic Asian diner and bar not far from the Burleigh foreshore with flavours as bright as the decor. Grab a few dishes to share, like the mud crab, prawn and scallop dumplings; miso caramel eggplant; and master stock pork belly with charred pineapple.
Finally, we’re off to HOTA, the Home of the Arts, a sprawling gallery on the Gold Coast that hosts modern art, cinema, theatre, dance, talks and more. Stroll through the exhibitions to find HOTA Collects: Material World, which explores the unique materials used across different artworks. You’ll see ceramic clouds, giant metallic sculptures and even ancient rainforest shields painted with natural ochre.
Broadsheet is a proud media partner of the National Gallery.
