Heading to Rainbow Beach on an Aussie road trip? Here’s where to stay and what to do. Make sure you walk to Carlo Sand Blow for sunset and do some sand sledging!
Getting to Rainbow Beach
Still reeling from our Whitsundays experience, C and I ran blindly along a poorly lit road looking for the bus stop, with minutes to spare until our departure time. We had left all of our Tongarra friends sat in Beaches Bar at Airlie Beach, where some creepy men had left 50 dollars behind the bar for myself and C. Making out a figure in the darkness, we joined forces with a guy called Liam and made it to the bus in time, only to find out we were a day early! Luckily, that was the one travel arrangement that we messed up, and it definitely could have been worse! We boarded anyway, and Liam shared his sleeping tablets to make the 14 hour trip from Airlie Beach to Rainbow Beach go quicker.
Why go to Rainbow Beach?
Rainbow Beach is the gateway to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, and we spent a night there before our 4WD tour of Fraser, which is only a 15 minute ferry ride away. The sleepy village is in Tin Can Bay, Cooloola, and there are only a few hostels there. We stayed at Frasers on Rainbow Beach, as did the majority of people on our tour, and had games of pool and beers in the neighbouring hostel, Dingos.
Carlo Sand Blow
The main attraction at Rainbow Beach was Carlo Sand blow, an amazing natural wonder named by Captain Cook after one of his crew, which our hostel offered a free guided walk to. We set off just before sunset, and the 360 degree view of golden, sloping sand dunes is well worth the walk through the woodlands.
Sand sledging on the sand blow was so much fun! We had a competition to see who could go the furthest. Note to self: keep mouth closed in future sand sledging contests.
Sunset at Carlo Sand blow
We looked out over the bay for migrating whales, then tried out boomerang throwing, which is so much harder than it looks. I never knew there was a technique to it, but we were all dodging rogue boomerangs as the sun set. Another stereotypical Aussie experience checked off the list!
Another stunning sunset over Rainbow Beach.
Next stop – Fraser Island for a 4×4 tour and camping adventure! My Aussie backpacking experience was just surreal, and this was one of my favourite adventures.
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