What Travelers Say About Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital of Queensland and Australia's third-largest city, spread along the wide, looping Brisbane River in the country's subtropical northeast. It began in 1824 as a harsh penal colony at Moreton Bay, on land that has belonged to the Turrbal and Jagera peoples for tens of thousands of years, and grew slowly into a sprawling, easy-going river city. For years it was written off as a quiet country town, but over the last couple of decades it has filled out with galleries, riverside dining, and a confident food and bar scene, and it is now preparing to host the 2032 Olympic Games.
The weather sets the tone. With warm, sunny days for most of the year, life here happens outdoors: swimming at the man-made Streets Beach in South Bank, walking and cycling the river paths, riding the CityCat ferries up and down the water, and climbing Kangaroo Point or the Story Bridge for a view. Locals are famously laid-back, and the pace is slower and friendlier than in Sydney or Melbourne.
It is also the natural gateway to southeast Queensland. The beaches of the Gold Coast are about an hour south, the Sunshine Coast an hour north, and you can meet koalas and kangaroos at Lone Pine without even leaving the suburbs.