North Tamborine

Not to be confused with Tamborine Mountain upon which it is perched, North Tamborine is a suburb in its own right and plays to its own tune. It’s easy to see why the rolling green hills, just 30 minutes from the Gold Coast, attracted early settlers who grew maize and grazed dairy cattle here.

In 1889 the first guesthouse was opened and a tourist road up the mountain in 1924 etched North Tamborine firmly into the Australian psyche. While a section of the Tamborine National Park known as The Knoll protects forests in these parts, North Tamborine is much more than that. There’s a mountain distillery, vineyards, winery, cheese factory and even an Irish bar here.

Adventurous types will adore the Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk, the Mount Tamborine Adventure Park and Glow Worm Caves. Visitors are spoilt for choice with a huge range of high-quality guesthouses and bed and breakfasts where roaring fires and bubbling spas are the order of the day. Perhaps Bob Dylan was onto something when he sung about those jingle jangle mornings, Mr Tambourine Man.