Paradise Country theme park and Farmstay is located in Oxenford, on the Gold Coast, just behind Warner Brothers Movie World and the Australian Outback Spectacular. It is around a one hour drive from Brisbane CBD, once you allow a bit extra for traffic.
Paradise Country is a fairly small outback themed attraction that seemed to be aimed primarily at families with little kids. But, as we discovered, there is definitely something for everyone and we had a great time on our overnight stay.
Here’s what we got up to!
Arrival/Check In
The drive into Paradise Country is really cool, as you go past the movie studios where something interesting is usually happening. You’ll also pass the animals that perform in the Australian Outback Spectacular. Once you reach Paradise Country follow the signs to the farm stay. This is down a long driveway but it is clearly marked.
We arrived about an hour before the official check-in time of 2 pm but as our “room” was ready, we were able to check-in early. The reception staff were really friendly and told us all about the activities we were able to attend as Farmstay guests and helped us make sure we were signed up for the afternoon wine tasting session.
Our Glamping Tent
We booked one of the onsite Eco Tents with an Ensuite, as glamping is far more our style than camping. There are only a couple of these available, so if you are keen on it you will need to book at least a couple of months in advance. There are plenty of other accommodation options that can be booked at shorter notice including powered camping and caravan sites, onsite tents and eco tents without ensuites.
Our tent was private, with parking available right out the front. The tent had a deck with a table and two chairs, a very comfortable queen-size bed, a big ensuite with the best water pressure I have felt for a while. Best of all there was power available, so we had a fridge and kettle and could charge our phones.
Paradise Country Theme Park
Farmstay guests get access to Paradise Country during their stay and on the day of check out. If you are considering coming and bringing your family, definitely compare the prices of an overnight stay vs just a day trip as I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the cost of the farm stay is and IMHO you will have a more memorable experience by choosing the farm stay.
We spent a couple of hours exploring the park, seeing some shows, riding the tractor train and patting every animal we could find. For us, two hours was just about the right amount of time to spend looking around. However, if you have little kids, want to see every show or are keen on getting your photo taken with a koala or having a pony ride then you could pretty easily fill a whole day here.
Sirromet Wine Tasting
At 4 pm we headed down to the wine tasting area, which is located within one of the stables. There were six of us in total doing the wine tasting. There was a very vocal sheep who provided some good entertainment while we enjoyed the wines we were being served. We tried a total of 9 wines in 30 minutes and it was safe to say that by the end of it we all had a pretty good buzz happening.
From here, we headed up to the bar which is located inside the Farmhouse Restaurant as the next activity wasn’t until 5pm.
Twilight tour
After the park closes to day guests at 5 pm, there is a twilight tour available exclusively to Farmstay guests. This changes daily and can involve any of the animals in the park. I guess it depends on who’s hungry when it comes to tour time!
Our guide took us down to feed the kangaroos. They were pretty happy to see us and all of them were super friendly and tame enough to eat straight out of the palm of your hand. I was pretty drunk by this stage and tried to make friends with all the loner kangaroos who were hanging out down the back of the paddock.
Dinner
Paradise Country farm stay is the closest accommodation to the Australian Outback Spectacular and if you haven’t seen it before you should definitely go and see it while you are staying close by. You can book package deals that include your accommodation, tickets to the show and breakfast the next morning and these seemed to be pretty reasonably priced.
We have been to Outback Spektakky (as we call it) a couple of times, so opted to have a more chilled out night and had dinner in the on-site Farmhouse Restaurant. The food was nice and the service was good and we both enjoyed our Chicken Schnittys.
It is important to note that the Farmhouse Restaurant only offers dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, so if you are staying on other nights you will need to bring your own food or venture out a bit further to find dinner.
Camp Fire
Each night the campfire is on from 5 pm-9 pm and marshmallows are available to purchase in the Farmhouse restaurant if you forget to bring your own (like us). We took our camp chairs down to the fire and spent a couple of hours listening to the music, toasting our marshmallows and making people jealous of our $3 Kmart marshmallow roasting poles as they hunted for sticks to roast theirs.
Once the campfire finishes at 9 pm there are no more planned activities and everyone heads back to their campsites. We definitely enjoyed having the ensuite, rather than having to trek to the amenities block with everyone else. Although, I did go and check the amenities block out to see what it was like and it was very big and clean.
Breakfast
Breakfast was included in our package, so we headed back to the Farmhouse Restaurant. Breakfast used to be buffet style, but because of COVID it is no longer a buffet but a plated breakfast of all the things you would expect to be on a buffet (bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, baked beans, toast, tomatoes etc etc). We were also offered coffee, tea and juice.
The Marmoset enclosure runs along one side of the Farmhouse restaurant and we managed to grab the closest table to them. I loved watching them so much and forgot to take a photo of my breakfast!
Morning farmyard activities
Before the park opens to the public, there is a morning tour offered exclusively to Farmstay guests to help with getting the animals ready for the day. Our first stop was at the milking shed, where two very patient cows were waiting to be milked. There was also a 3-week old baby cow called Veronica roaming around close by who was super cute. Everyone is given the chance to milk the cows by hand (after a quick lesson to make sure we don’t hurt them) and then the milking machine finishes the job and lets the cows get on with their days.
The next stop was at the baby animal nursery where a bunch of baby goats were eagerly awaiting our arrival. We got to feed the goats by hand and also help to feed one of the very young goats who was still being fed with a bottle.
The final stop of the tour was up with some different cows who were also in need of some breakfast. Usually, the tour includes collecting the eggs from the chickens but the day we were there the chickens were in quarantine for some reason, so we didn’t get to do this.
We could have stayed in the park until closing time at 4.30 pm, but we had a few things on so we chose to head home after the morning tour.
We had a great weekend and hope you do too if you choose to go to Paradise Country Farmstay. If you’re keen you can check out what’s on offer here https://paradisecountry.com.au/farmstay/
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