Brisbane travel guide

Plan your trip, step by step

• Where to stay
  Choose which bend of the river to base on, and a hotel vs an apartment.
• Things to do
  Decide which wildlife visit, river trip and bay-island day to pre-book.
• Brisbane in 3 days
  Follow a plan that keeps each day on one bend of the river.
• Estimate your trip cost
  See what a Brisbane trip costs across budget, mid-range and premium styles.
• First-timer mistakes to avoid
  Sidestep the errors that trip up first-time Brisbane visitors.
• Brisbane on a budget
  See what a lean, comfortable or generous day really costs.

The neighborhoods at a glance

CBD & Queen’s Wharf

Known for the office-tower grid inside the river’s first bend — Queen Street Mall, the City Botanic Gardens, and the Queen’s Wharf riverfront entertainment precinct with its hotels, Sky Deck and dining on the old government blocks.

South Bank & South Brisbane

Known for the parklands laid out on the World Expo 88 site — Streets Beach (a free inner-city swimming lagoon), QAGOMA’s two gallery buildings, the Queensland Museum, QPAC and the restaurant lane at Fish Lane.

Fortitude Valley & James Street

Known for Brisbane’s designated entertainment precinct — live-music rooms and clubs around Brunswick Street, the Chinatown Mall, and the fashion-and-long-lunch end around James Street.

New Farm & Teneriffe

Known for converted wool stores, New Farm Park’s jacarandas and rose gardens, and the Brisbane Powerhouse arts centre — leafy riverside streets, each with its own ferry terminal.

West End

Known for the bohemian, multicultural side of the river — Boundary Street’s eateries, the Saturday Davies Park Market under the fig trees, and a riverside walk into South Bank.

Kangaroo Point

Known for the cliffs directly opposite the CBD, the Story Bridge overhead, and the pedestrian-and-cycle Kangaroo Point Bridge that now puts the city centre a few minutes’ walk away.

Deciding which bend of the river to base on? The where-to-stay guide turns these areas into a lodging decision.

When to go — month by month

Average daytime high (bars) and rainy days per month, from 5-year climate normals. Greener months are the most comfortable to visit.

Best months to visit: Apr–Nov

Destinations with a similar climate

Like Brisbane’s weather? These places have the closest year-round climate in our data — tap through for each one’s best time to visit.

• Gold Coast →
• Rio De Janeiro →
• Cairns →
• Nairobi →
• Sydney →
• Maui →

Know before you go

Currency

Australian dollar (A$). Displayed prices already include the 10% GST, so the shelf price is what you pay, and tipping is genuinely optional rather than expected. Cards and phones work almost everywhere.

Language

English. Brisbane sits on the lands of the Turrbal and Yagara peoples, and you will see Meanjin — the Aboriginal name for this place — used alongside Brisbane in arts programmes, on signage and in Welcome to Country openings.

From the airport

Brisbane Airport (BNE) connects to the city on the Airtrain, running roughly every 15 minutes into Fortitude Valley, Central, Roma Street and South Brisbane. It is privately run and is the one rail service excluded from the 50-cent fare: its City Fare works out at about A$17 each when two or more adults travel together, and children 14 and under ride free with a paying adult. Taxis and rideshare cost several times that.

Getting around

Every Translink journey — train, bus, CityCat ferry and the electric Brisbane Metro — is a flat 50 cents, and if you need two or three legs to get somewhere it still counts as one journey. Tap on and off with a contactless bank card, a phone or a go card — smart ticketing now covers the whole South East Queensland network, and you cannot pay cash on board.

Best time

May–October is the dry season — sunny days, cool nights, low humidity — and, counter to the northern-hemisphere instinct, it is also the busy, expensive stretch. November–March is hot, humid and stormy, with afternoon downpours that arrive almost on schedule. Late October into November adds the jacaranda bloom along the river and in New Farm Park.

Sun & swimming

Queensland UV is severe for most of the year — a hat and sunscreen matter even in July. There is no ocean beach in the city itself: Streets Beach, the patrolled lagoon in the South Bank parklands, is the city swim, and the surf coasts are about an hour south or north by train.

For the best months to visit and a day-by-day plan, see Brisbane in 3 days.