How Will Gold Coast Masters Games Affect Family Holiday

We were wanting to know how the Gold Coast Masters Games might affect our family holiday.

We booked our Gold Coast holiday before we discovered your website and now see that it is at the same time the Masters Games is on.

We are staying in Broadbeach. The site says 10,000 participants for the Games will be on the Gold Coast.

How will that impact a family of 2 adults and 2 children enjoy normal Gold Coast holiday things while the games is on?

Annie answers
Hi, yes the Masters Games are on in the Gold Coast every 2 years. This year it is 6th to 14th November 2010. You can check calendars for other years below:

Gold Coast Events Information Year to Year

* Events may be cancelled or rescheduled at anytime for any reason.
It is highly recommend you check dates with the event organizer before booking your trip.

Guide to Gold Coast Events

In my opinion it should have very little impact on your family holiday for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, mostly the athletes are... well how can I say this politely.... mature !?! Masters sports in general start around 35 years old and range upward to an almost dizzying 90 plus. As you can see not likely to interfere with your family holiday much at places like the Gold Coast theme parks or other family venues.

Secondly, although 10,000 sounds like a lot, the Masters Games venues are spread out all over the Gold Coast depending upon the sport, so the spread of atheletes and associated officials is quite broad.

Broadbeach does have quite a few of the visitors mainly because they prefer the more sedate atmosphere and restaurants of Broadbeach and because the Convention Centre is where they set up the "Masters Games Village" and is where the athletes come to register and there is an expo and entertainment on some of the nights.

None of this is unusual for Broadbeach and the convention centre, on any given week there would be one or many conventions, conferences or expos that would attract and cater for similar numbers of people.

I would say your biggest impact is likely to be in the cafes and restaurants in Broadbeach! But there are plenty!

I must admit, I haven't really ever considered it to be an event that warranted a warning to avoid or exercise caution for families (not like Gold Coast Schoolies or Gold Coast 600).


My husband has competed a couple of times, and the other athletes are often very dedicated to their sports, take it pretty seriously, but also enjoy to kick back and enjoy the company of their fellow friends in their sports.

In fact if you are interested in any sports it is a great place to take the children to show them that you can enjoy sport throughout your life. It is incredibly humbling and inspirational to sit in the stands at the athletics track and watch an 80 plus year old do a 400m run, or a 95 year old throw the hammer.

So, to sum up, personally, I think you will have little to no impact to the enjoyment of your family holiday on the Gold Coast because of the Masters Games being on at the same time. At any given time you could end up in an apartment or hotel room next to the roudiest participants, but that can happen any time of the year and for any circumstance.

The profile of the athletes is not exactly for them to be going to the tourist attractions, many of them visit every two years and it is more of a meeting of friends than a "let's do Surfers" kind of event.

The Gold Coast hosts thousands upon thousands of visitors every week and I cannot see this being much different.

I hope that answers your question. If you are still unsure, perhaps speak to the reception of your accommodation to find out their past experiences with Masters Games.


Annie from Gold Coast Australia Travel Tips

PS:: I think the Gold Coast theme parks will most likely be relatively quiet at that time, because the profile of athletes means rooms are taken by athletes not families with children! Great opportunity to sneak into the parks and have a ball! Here are the latest deals for Gold Coast theme parks. Oh, and please let me know what you thought of my answer by rating it below Thanks ;-)