Best day trips from the Sunshine Coast: your guide to south-east Queensland

The Sunshine Coast's day trip geography extends from the Glass House Mountains to the south, to the Cooloola Recreation Area and Fraser Island to the north, and the Blackall Range and South East Queensland hinterland inland, creating accessible natural diversity within two hours of the coastal strip.

Glass House Mountains — the volcanic plugs rising from the Sunshine Coast hinterland 45 minutes south of Caloundra provide the Mount Tibrogargan and Mount Ngungun walks (60-90 minutes return, no technical climbing required on Ngungun) that deliver the panoramic coastal and hinterland views that reward the modest effort the climbs require. The Lookout Road car park provides the photogenic mass-formation view.

Fraser Island (K'gari) — the world's largest sand island is accessible by barge from Rainbow Beach (2.5 hours north) or by air from Maroochydore. The Lake McKenzie, the Maheno shipwreck, the Central Station rainforest, and the Champagne Pools (rock pools washed by the ocean) create a single island day trip of extraordinary natural variety.

Noosa Everglades — the Noosa Everglades section of the Cooloola Recreation Area (one of only two everglades systems in the world) provides the kayak and canoe tours through the tea-coloured waters and the paperback and she-oak forest that create the most ecologically distinctive day trip accessible from the Sunshine Coast by water.

Mapleton and the Blackall Range villages — the range road through Mapleton, Flaxton, Montville, and Maleny delivers the heritage dairy country, the rainforest lookouts (Kondallila Falls National Park), and the artisan food and craft culture that the hinterland villages have built for the day-tripping coastal population over 40 years.

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