Day tours
Small-group day touring out of Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, plus mystery tours and fully bespoke itineraries for clubs, workplaces and families.
Featured tour
Nine hours, all ages, minimum 12 passengers. The full run from the Gold Coast down to Cape Byron and back along the southern beaches.
Two hours to explore Byron Bay township on foot — Jonson Street, Main Beach and the Cape Byron Lighthouse precinct, where you can stand at the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. The lighthouse walk takes about thirty minutes at a comfortable pace.
Then a stop at The Farm at Ewingsdale, just outside town: a working farm with a nursery, market garden, bakery and animals close enough for children to meet properly. It is the best food stop on this side of the range.
Heading north we cross into Queensland at Point Danger, where the state border runs through the lookout and you can photograph someone standing in two states at once. The view runs the length of the Gold Coast beaches. On the way back we pass Rainbow Bay, Coolangatta and Kirra — three of the best surf breaks on the east coast, usually with someone worth watching in the water.
Lunch is an Australian barbecue, included in the ticket.
| Passenger | From |
|---|---|
| Adult (13–64) | $89.00 |
| Pensioner (65+) | $79.00 |
| Child (5–12) | $69.00 |
| Infant (4 and under) | $59.00 |
Departs and returns Gold Coast Transit Centre. Byron Bay and Northern Rivers pickup available for groups of 12 or more.
One person in the group — the organiser — plans the day with us. Everyone else finds out where they are going as they arrive. It works particularly well for retirement villages, social clubs and workplace reward days, because nobody has to negotiate the itinerary and nobody has to drive.
You set the budget and the broad shape of the day. We handle the route, the bookings and the timing, and keep the destinations to ourselves.
Plan a mystery tour
Tell us who is coming, roughly what they enjoy and what you want to spend. We come back with a written itinerary, realistic timings and a fixed price.
Common briefs: a hinterland loop through Bangalow, Federal and Newrybar; a brewery and distillery run; a whale-watching day between June and October when the humpbacks pass Cape Byron; or a slow food day through the Northern Rivers markets.
Brief usAfter dark
Hens and bucks nights, birthdays, formals, work Christmas parties and the run between venues that always goes wrong when everyone drives themselves.
Party vehicles carry 10 to 45 passengers with lighting, sound systems, poles, Bluetooth, screens, air conditioning and floor space. Some carry karaoke. Pricing is hourly and depends on the vehicle, the night of the week and how long you need it — we quote it in writing before you commit.
Party buses are operated by our sister brand, PartyParty Bus. Alcohol on board is at the driver's discretion and may require a cleaning bond. Under-18 bookings are strictly alcohol-free.
Hour by hour
Nine hours, one coach, one driver. Times shift a little with traffic and the season, but this is the shape of it.
Depart Gold Coast Transit Centre Southbound on the Pacific Motorway. Groups of 12 or more collected from a Byron Bay or Northern Rivers address instead, which changes the running order below.
Arrive Byron Bay Drop in the town centre. Two hours on foot — Jonson Street, Main Beach, the shops and coffee.
Cape Byron Lighthouse Optional. The walk up from town takes about forty minutes; those who would rather not walk stay in the township and we collect everyone from the same point.
Depart for Ewingsdale Ten minutes inland.
The Farm Market garden, bakery, produce store and animals. Around an hour.
Barbecue lunch Included in the ticket. Dietary requirements catered with 72 hours' notice.
North to the border Back up the highway toward Tweed Heads and Coolangatta.
Point Danger The border lookout, the Captain Cook Memorial and the view up the length of the Gold Coast beaches.
Rainbow Bay, Coolangatta and Kirra A slow run past the three point breaks, with a stop if the surf is worth stopping for.
Return Back at the Gold Coast Transit Centre, or your Northern Rivers pickup point.
It is a general-interest coach day, not a hiking trip. There is one optional walk, a lot of coastal scenery, a food stop and a border novelty. It works well for mixed-age family groups, social clubs, retirement villages and visitors who want the region's greatest hits without hiring a car.
Anyone hoping for a lot of time in the water, or a deep dive into one place. If your group wants three hours at a brewery or a full day in the hinterland, say so and we will quote that as a bespoke charter instead — it will be a better day and often not much more expensive.
The town centre section is flat and easy. The lighthouse walk is not — it climbs steadily and has stairs. Point Danger has a short walk from the coach on a sealed path.
Tell us about mobility needs when you book. The tour works perfectly well for someone who skips the lighthouse walk, and we will make sure the timings and drop points suit.
The stops, in detail
The lighthouse was completed in 1901 and first lit that December. It stands on the most easterly point of the Australian mainland, and it is the most powerful light in the country — visible far out to sea on a clear night. It was staffed by keepers and their families for most of the twentieth century and automated toward the end of the 1980s; the keepers' cottages are still there.
The cape itself was named by James Cook as he passed in 1770, after John Byron — a naval officer and circumnavigator, and, as it happens, the poet's grandfather. The headland sits inside a state conservation area, and the walking track loops through littoral rainforest, open grassland and clifftop before returning to the beach.
What people remember is not the building. It is standing at the easternmost railing knowing there is nothing between you and South America, and, between June and November, watching whales pass close enough that you do not need binoculars.
Eighty acres, ten minutes from the beach, run as a working farm with the public walking through it. There is a market garden you can walk the rows of, a bakery, a produce store, a flower operation, chickens, cows and pigs, and a restaurant that grew out of the farm rather than the other way round.
For a coach group it is unusually good: sealed paths, room to spread out, food that copes with forty people arriving at once, and animals close enough that children get something out of it. It is the one stop on this itinerary that people ask to go back to.
Cook named this one too, on the same voyage, after nearly putting the Endeavour onto the reef off it. The state border between New South Wales and Queensland runs across the headland, and the line is marked — which is why every group photographs somebody standing with a foot in each state.
The Captain Cook Memorial sits on top, a concrete tower carrying a light, built around the bicentenary of Cook's passage. From the lookout the view runs north up the whole length of the Gold Coast, with the towers of Surfers Paradise stacked at the far end of the beach.
One practical note: the border is also a time zone boundary during daylight saving. Between October and April, New South Wales is an hour ahead of Queensland, and you will cross that line twice on this tour. Your phone will handle it. Your watch will not.
Three beaches in a row on the Queensland side, and between them one of the most famous stretches of surf in the world. Sand carried around the points from the Tweed forms a single long right-hander that, on the right swell, runs an extraordinary distance from Snapper Rocks toward Kirra.
You do not need to care about surfing to enjoy this part of the day. On a good afternoon there are a hundred people in the water at Snapper and the whole thing looks less like a beach than a stadium.
June to November
Humpback whales winter in the warm water off the Great Barrier Reef and summer in the Antarctic, and twice a year the entire population swims past this coastline to get between the two. They head north through June, July and August, and come back south — slower, and often with calves — from September into November.
Cape Byron matters because of its shape. As the most easterly point of the mainland it pushes out into the migration path, so whales that would pass several kilometres offshore elsewhere come close in here. From the lighthouse track in good conditions you can watch blows, tail slaps and breaches without a boat, binoculars or a booking.
Late September and October are our pick. The southern migration is running, the whales are unhurried, calves are travelling with their mothers, and the weather is better than in the depths of winter. It also happens to be the easiest time of year to get a coach.
Usually as a bespoke charter rather than the scheduled tour. A typical shape: an early start to be on the headland while the light is low and the water is calm, two to three hours around the cape and the lighthouse, lunch in town or at Ewingsdale, and an afternoon at a second vantage point further along the coast.
Some groups add a boat. We will drop at the marina and collect afterwards — worth doing as a charter rather than driving yourself, because a morning on the water and an afternoon behind the wheel is a poor combination.
Bespoke itineraries
These are starting points, not fixed products. Every one of them gets rebuilt around the group, the budget and the season.
Two breweries and a distillery, with lunch between the second and third stop. The distillery sits up at McLeods Shoot on a rainforest-regeneration property, which makes it as much a walk through subtropical planting as a tasting.
We hold the vehicle for the full day rather than dropping and returning, because these places are twenty minutes apart on narrow roads and the whole point is that nobody drives. Six to seven hours is the usual shape.
Bangalow, Federal, Newrybar and the Coolamon Scenic Drive, with a long lunch somewhere in the middle. If it falls on the right Sunday, the Bangalow market anchors the morning.
Vehicle size is the constraint here — the scenic drive and several of the properties do not take a full-size coach. For groups over 30 we usually run two midi coaches, and we will tell you that before you commit to the route.
An early start for sea kayaking or a dive at the marine reserve off the cape, a long lunch afterwards, and an afternoon somewhere warm and flat. Dolphins are close to a certainty on the kayak; turtles and rays are common on the dive.
Tell us it is a water day when you book. Wet groups and salt do things to upholstery, and we send a vehicle we can hose out rather than one we cannot.
Nimbin, Minyon Falls and Crystal Castle, roughly an hour inland. Minyon Falls drops around a hundred metres off the escarpment in Nightcap National Park and the lookout is a short walk from the car park. Crystal Castle at Montecollum is a large gardens property that reliably wins over groups who expected not to like it.
This is a full day and a long one. Roads are narrow and winding the whole way, so plan for a smaller vehicle and more travel time than the map suggests.
Group touring
The itinerary matters less than the pacing. These are the four group types we run most, and how the day changes for each.
Our most frequent tour booking, and the one with the most specific requirements. What matters is not the destination list: it is the number of comfort stops, the walking distances between the coach and the attraction, the step height getting on and off, and having lunch at a sensible hour rather than a fashionable one.
We plan these with a stop roughly every ninety minutes, drop as close to entrances as the vehicle can physically get, and allocate a vehicle with a lower first step. Mystery tours work particularly well for this group — one organiser plans it with us and nobody else has to negotiate.
Usually a fixed budget per head and a firm return time, because the coach is one part of a wider programme. The useful thing here is that we can work backwards from your number: tell us the per-head budget and the group size and we will build a day that fits inside it, rather than quoting a day you then have to cut down.
Regular bookings go on a standing arrangement so the same driver runs your trips. Groups that travel monthly notice the difference.
The brief is almost always “something that is not a conference room”, and the thing that ruins it is transport that runs late and eats the afternoon. We build these with slack in the schedule and a hard published finish time, because people have children to collect.
The brewery and distillery run is the most-booked version. The hinterland loop suits groups that want conversation rather than activity. If there is any drinking in the plan, the whole point is that nobody drives, so we hold the vehicle for the day rather than dropping and returning.
Wide age ranges are the challenge: grandparents who cannot do the lighthouse walk and eight-year-olds who need to be somewhere they can run. The Farm at Ewingsdale does more work than any other stop for this group, because it accommodates both at once.
Tell us the age spread and whether anyone needs a child restraint or help boarding. It changes the vehicle we allocate and the order we run the day in.
The tour runs in rain. Most of it is on the coach or under cover, and the headland is arguably better in weather. We cancel only for genuine safety reasons — road closures or a severe weather warning — and you are then offered a new date or a full refund.
Planning notes
The best months to bring a group, and not a close contest. Warm enough for the coast to be pleasant, quiet enough that the car parks and walking tracks are not congested, and easy enough on availability that you can book a coach a fortnight out rather than a season out. September and October have the southern whale migration running as well.
Cold on the headland and genuinely worth a jacket, but this is peak northern whale migration and the light on the cape in winter is the best of the year. Bring a warm layer and enclosed shoes; the lighthouse track is exposed for most of its length.
Beautiful, and hard work. Every attraction on the itinerary is at capacity, parking is a genuine constraint, and coach availability effectively disappears in the last week of December and the first three of January. If you want a tour in that window, book it in October and accept that the walking sections will be busy.
We generally advise groups against day touring across these. Road conditions across the whole shire change, timings become unreliable, and the coach you want is committed to festival shuttle work. Move the tour a week either side and it is a better day.
Whatever the month, tell us the group's age range and mobility needs when you enquire. It changes the vehicle, the pacing and sometimes the order we run the stops in — and it is much easier to build that in at the start than to work around on the morning.
Sunscreen, water and enclosed shoes cover almost every problem people have on a day tour in this region. The headland has no shade at all, the walking tracks are uneven in places, and the coach is air conditioned while the outside of it, in February, is not.
Everything else — tickets, entry fees, lunch, timing, parking, where the coach waits and how long you get at each stop — is our problem rather than yours. That is the point of booking a tour instead of driving yourself around a town where the car parks fill before breakfast.
Before you book
No. It runs on demand with a minimum of 12 paying passengers. If your group is smaller, we can either add you to an existing departure when one is running or quote the same itinerary as a private charter.
The scheduled departure and return point is the Gold Coast Transit Centre. For groups of 12 or more travelling together we will collect from a Byron Bay or Northern Rivers address instead — say so when you book.
Yes, a barbecue lunch is included in the ticket price. Tell us about allergies, vegetarian, vegan, halal or gluten-free requirements at least 72 hours before departure and they are catered for at no extra cost.
That is the bespoke option below. Give us the group, the date, the budget and the general idea, and we will come back with a route, timings and a fixed price.
The tour runs. Most of it is on the coach or under cover, and the headland is arguably better in weather. We only cancel for genuine safety reasons such as road closures or a severe weather warning, and in that case you are offered a new date or a full refund.
Tell us the group size, the date and roughly what they would enjoy. We will suggest something that fits and price it before you commit.
