Taking It Easy At Rainbow Beach // Great Sandy National Park (QLD)

Looking to get sunkissed? Longing for sand between your toes and salt water to gel your hair? Look no further than Rainbow Beach in the Great Sandy National Park.

Hit The Beach

Warmer days are around the corner, and what better way to spend them than at the beach?! Not far from Fraser Island (the world’s largest sand island) located in the famous Great Sandy National Park, a mate and I packed up our gear for the long weekend. We were headed to Inskip Point — S.S Dorrigo campsite (2WD accessible) about 10 minutes from the centre of Rainbow Beach.

Although this campsite is super convenient and close to food, it was packed with visitors, probably due to the long weekend. So we parked up for the night, got the drinks out and relaxed by laying on the beach watching the sunset. Sun down, camera’s out is how it goes hey? We were lucky enough to have a cloudless and moonless night to capture some astrophotography from the beach. Honestly, I’ve never seen the milky way so bright! Surreal.

The days average around 27-28°C in spring, perfect beach weather! The sand was hot, but not too hot.

The next day we took the time to walk up and down the ‘Rainbow Beach highway’ (the beach), considerably busy even by 8.00am, it didn’t stop us exploring the beautiful sand dunes, coffee rocks and the clear and incredibly calm water. For once I was happy I traded the mountains for the coast — you don’t hear me saying that often!

Carlo Sandblow

Next we took the hike up to Carlo Sandblow. Carlo is a huge, beautiful sand patch looking out towards the Pacific Ocean, with amazing views of the coastlines and its huge cliffs — I had flashbacks to my time in Cinque Terre, Italy.

From here we could watch the 4WD’s cruise down the highway from 100m above sea level, and see paragliders take flight (which looked insanely fun). What a spot to lay down and take it all in. We droned, took photos and just relaxed. That’s what long weekends are for, right? If you’re looking for a coastline adventure over spring or summer, get up to Rainbow Beach.

Distance Covered

Camped about 5m from the car. Hike to Carlo Sand Blow is about 1.2km return.