The best family friendly walking holidays

Want to swap screen time for green? Queensland is a must-do destination for getting outdoors and exploring walking trails with the kids, where waterfalls rush, rainforests cool down the air, and coastal trails lead to secluded beaches to enjoy in the sunshine. Added bonus? Hiking is pretty budget-friendly, too.

Uncover these family walking holidays across Queensland, where you can fill your days with beauty along hiking trails – and find plenty more activities to burn off energy and indulge your adventurous side.

1. Cairns

Planning a trip to the tropics? There’s so much more to Cairns than the wonder of the Great Barrier Reef – so if you’re a family of nature lovers, don’t think you’ll run out of things to do after your Reef snorkelling day trip.

Cairns is wrapped in the soothing blanket of the Wet Tropics Rainforest – a UNESCO World Heritage area home to the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforests on Earth. Visiting feels like stepping into a living museum, and you can explore all corners thanks to national park hiking trails and visitor centres.  

An easy day trip from Cairns is Barron Gorge National Park. Home to rugged peaks, thundering waterfalls, deep gorges and dense rainforest, walkers can enjoy the views and wildlife from both sides of the gorge. Book tickets for the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway for a truly memorable experience – you’ll soar above the canopy in a gondola before touching down at the discovery centre where you can wander the boardwalks, take a guided tour with a park ranger, and take in the views of Barron Falls from The Edge Lookout. Skyrail is ideal for families, with wheelchair access to gondolas and a Hidden Disabilities program, and the boardwalks are suitable for strollers and wheelchairs too.

Dreamed of the Daintree? Daintree Discovery Centre is an incredible place to explore on your Cairns holiday, with the opportunity to learn and explore along trails, aerial walkways and exhibits, including a 3D hologram experience where you can go on ‘walkabout’ with Kuku Yalanji man Juan Walker as he introduces you to First Nations culture on country.  

How to get here: Fly into Cairns Airport.

Where to stay: Scoop up a family-friendly stay in Cairns suitable for all budgets.

Fill your days: From wildlife parks to croc-spotting, there’s endless fun to be had on a family walking holiday in Cairns. And if your legs need a rest, spend a day driving the lush Waterfall Circuit. 

For bonding time with nature – and each other – you can’t do better than a holiday on the Sunshine Coast, where family-friendly walks will lead you from the beach to the hinterland.

Craving some deep greens? The walk to Kondalilla Falls is popular among families, with a circuit track that winds from the top of the falls down through rainforest to its base, with lookouts and wildlife to spot along the way. The rock pool is a great way to cool off before tackling 300 stairs to get back to the top. While this is a moderate walk, it’s suitable for most families, clocking in at 4.8km and taking roughly 1.5-2 hours. For something a little shorter, Picnic Creek Circuit is a 1.7km easy walk offering valley views from a lookout point.

Firmly planted by the beach? Take a break from the surf and follow Noosa National Park’s famous Coastal Walk. Tracing the coastline and surrounded by bushland, the 10km return walk takes about 4 hours to complete. But the beauty of this trail – apart from the scenery – is that if you don’t have time or energy for the full walk, just go as far as you want and turn around when needed. If you make it to Dolphin Point, post up here for a while and try to spot turtles, dolphins and perhaps even whales breaching (June – November), or peer into the trees in search of koalas snoozing through the afternoon.

The first section of this walk features a sealed, barrier-free path to Dolphin Point, suitable for strollers and assisted wheelchairs.

Nature doesn’t stop here in this UNESCO Biosphere: from 4WDing along remote Rainbow Beach to kayaking through the unique Noosa Everglades there’s so much to discover.

How to get here: Fly into Sunshine Coast Airport or drive two hours from Brisbane.

Where to stay: Take your pick of Noosa accommodation from beachside resorts to camping or hinterland stays.

Fill your days: Discover the best things to do in Noosa with kids, or let us curate your escape with this family itinerary. Travelling on a budget? No worries - here's how to explore without having to loosen the purse strings.

3. Mount Tamborine, Gold Coast

In the misty hills of the Scenic Rim lies Mount Tamborine: a vibrant pocket home to Queensland’s first national park, a bustling artsy village, coffee plantations, wineries and outdoor activities galore. The landscape here is a lasting legacy of volcanic eruptions that took place around 23 million years ago, and today Tamborine is a haven of biodiversity waiting to be discovered.

And the best way to discover it is on foot. There are nine walking trails in the national park that lead to lookouts, cedar groves, palm-filled rainforest and waterfalls. Among the most popular includes the 1km Curtis Falls Track, a wander through the forest before reaching the cascades where you might spot turtles and platypus in the water. For a waterfall you can swim at, join the locals on the natural waterslide at Cedar Creek Falls, which requires a 900-metre trek (the 500-metre track from the carpark to the lookout above the falls is suitable for strollers and wheelchairs).

For a unique experience, head to Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk, where walking trails lead to sky-high bridges and lookouts among the trees.  

How to get here: Mount Tamborine is approximately one hour’s drive from Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Where to stay: Thunderbird Park offers the best family-friendly accommodation in the area, ranging from a campground to glamping tents and cabins at Cedar Creek Lodges.

Fill your days: Older kids will get thrills along the 13 ziplines, canyon flyer and adventure courses at TreeTop Challenge, while Thunderbird Park has mini-golf, horse rides, laser skirmish and more. Here’s a guide to the region.

A destination that could fill every moment of your day with trail time, O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat in Lamington National Park is the ultimate base for your next family holiday. Perched around 1000-metres above sea level in the hills of the Gold Coast Hinterland and surrounded by Gondwana Rainforest, this is the spot to tune in nature’s vibrations for a few days – whether you’re pitching a tent in the campground or kicking back in lodge accommodation.  

Here, you’ll have quick access to the 320km of walking tracks in Lamington National Park that range from accessible short walks to half-day treks and full-day adventures. Kids will love exploring the tree fern gully to the enchanted Wishing Tree (2.4km), strolling to Morans Falls (4.6km) or listening for bowerbirds along the Centenary Track (1.8km). Longer walks will lead you to even more waterfalls and lookouts throughout the valley. However, the must-do is the Tree Top Walk, where nine suspension bridges soaring up to 16-metres above ground offer a birds-eye view into the canopy (and prime bird watching, too).

A host of activities are waiting in between walks, from daily bird feeding to Segway safaris, an eco-rangers program for the kids and an infinity pool overlooking the valley.

How to get here: Drive 90 minutes from the Gold Coast or two hours from Brisbane.

Where to stay: O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat

Fill your days: Discover these family-friendly things to do in the Gondwana Rainforests. 

5. Carnarvon Gorge, Capricorn

For the adventurous family, a walking holiday among the dramatic landscapes and ancient rock art of Carnarvon Gorge is not out of reach. This is a hiker’s paradise, where you’ll wander below towering sandstone cliffs, through moss-covered gorges and prehistoric plants, crossing creeks and climbing ladders into giant rock formations.

Carnarvon Gorge has one main long track called the Main Gorge Walking Track (9.7 km one way). While the full 20km return walk may be more suited to families with older kids, there’s plenty of adventure to be had along Main Gorge thanks to a range of smaller tracks that branch off it to points of interest. Most families aim to walk as far as the Art Gallery (around 5km each way) to enjoy highlights including the vibrant Moss Garden, the Amphitheatre’s dwarfing sense of scale, and the 2,000+ engravings and paintings in at the Art Gallery, the park’s most important Indigenous site.

If you’re here for a few days, join a night safari with Carnarvon Gorge Eco Tours to experience the park after dark, when nocturnal wildlife come out to play.

How to get here: Drive 8-9 hours from Brisbane, or 4.5 hours from Rockhampton.

Where to stay: BIG4 Breeze Holiday Park is just outside the park entrance, while around an hours’ drive away Wallaroo Outback Retreat offers adventure on a 72,000 acre cattle property, home to its own nature walks and days that end around the campfire, roasting marshmallows.

Fill your days: Use this Carnarvon Gorge guide for families. 

6. K'gari, Fraser Coast

Combine a family walking holiday with an island escape on K’gari (formerly Fraser Island). This unique UNESCO World Heritage Site is the world’s largest sand island, and nature truly triumphs here with massive sand dunes (some taller than the Sydney Opera House), 250km of beaches and over 100 freshwater lakes, among hundreds or bird and wildlife species.

The WiFi is weak, but the adventure is strong. K’gari is one of Queensland’s most iconic camping and eco-tourism destinations, and 4WD-access will lead you to endless adventures – including the family-friendly 4km walk from Central Station to Pile Valley which explores the only place known on earth where towering rainforest grows on sand dunes. A number of other short trails and day hikes lead to K’gari landmarks including the ancient Valley of the Giants and Lake Wabby, but be sure to stop for a float down Eli Creek and a dip in Lake McKenzie.

How to get here: Drive 4 hours from Brisbane to River Heads near Hervey Bay, where a barge will cruise you across the Great Sandy Strait to K’gari.

Where to stay: Check into Kingfisher Bay Resort so your days can be bookended by swimming pools and junior eco ranger activities. Families who prefer to go completely off the grid with their rig should try beach camping (4WD necessary).

Fill your days: This family-friendly guide has your adventure sorted, and these tours will bring you to the best of K’gari. 

7. Girraween National Park, Southern Queensland Country

Forget searching for swings and slides on the next trip: Girraween National Park is an adventure playground in its own right, where gravity-defying granite formations tower over the landscape, and a range of short trails and longer hikes set the scene for unforgettable family walking holidays.

Let little legs wander along the Granite Arch circuit, a 1.6km loop through open blackbutt and stringybark forests that passes right through a natural granite arch.  In springtime, the wildflowers burst into bloom here, leaving a sweet smell through the bush. There are also a number of longer walks where you could spend days exploring rocky outcrops named after iconic shapes like The Sphinx, Turtle Rock and Castle Rock. If your group is up for a short but sweet challenge, tackle The Pyramid – the park’s most famous, leg-burning walk that scales the granite to reach Balancing Rock, and panoramic views across the national park. It’s not suitable for the really young ones, but it’s sure add some memorable photos to the family album.

How to get here: Drive 3 - 4 hours from Brisbane.

Where to stay: Stanthorpe offers a range of accommodation, but you could camp under a blanket of stars in the national park or soak in outdoor hot tubs after your walks at Girraween Environmental Lodge.

Fill your days: A treat for the parents – the vineyards and farm gates of the Granite Belt are a short drive away. Break up the drive back to Brisbane with another great family-friendly walk to Queen Mary Falls.

8. D’Aguilar National Park, Brisbane

Brisbane’s ample green spaces is a big part of what makes our outdoors-loving capital so alluring for families. From walks through the bushland at Mt Coot-tha to the surrounding mountains, conservation parks and national parks, adventure is never too far away.

And you’ll discover one of the best starting just a 30-minute scenic drive from the city, within D’Aguilar National Park . There are tracks suitable for kids of all ages and abilities that wind through the rainforest, green eucalypt wood and to lookouts overlooking the Moreton Bay region. From the Maiala day use area, the 2km Rainforest Circuit is ideal for first time visitors, while side-tracks to Cypress Grove and Greenes Falls are well worth extending the journey to 4km.

No park visit is complete without a stop at Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre, which will introduce the kids to reptiles, amphibians, fish and mammals – and you can even join the park rangers at daily feeding sessions. The Discovery Centre runs school holiday activities programs, while swimming and kayaking is available just a short walk away at Enoggera Reservoir.

How to get here: D’Aguilar National Park’s attractions are within 30-minutes to 1.5 hours’ drive from Brisbane.

Where to stay: South Bank is the best place to stay with kids in Brisbane City, close to the riverside parklands, playgrounds and inner-city beach. Camping is available in D'Aguilar National Park, and there’s also a range of holiday accommodation around Mount Glorious, Samford and Dayboro for those seeking a country escape.

Fill your days: There’s so much to do with kids in Brisbane, but if you’re after a true nature-filled escape a visit to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is a must – as is a day-trip over to Moorgumpin (Moreton Island), where wreck snorkelling, massive sand dunes and more walking tracks are waiting.  

9. Agnes Water, Gladstone

If you just can’t say no to a beach holiday, Agnes Water & 1770 is a coastal destination that strikes a balance between time on the trails and time on the sand.

The 3km Red Rock Trail offers walking and wading opportunities, following the coastline along rocky trails from Springs Beach to the far end of Red Rock Beach. You won’t regret throwing a beach towel in your backpack, especially once you discover the nearby rock pools. For an afternoon walk, make your way to 1770 Headland, where a series of easy trails lead to Wave Lookout and Bustard Bay Lookout – a prime whale-watching spot during migration season.

The Paperbark Forest Boardwalk is a fun tree change close to town, and the kids will love hopping along the wooden stepping stones through the forest.  

How to get here: Fly into Gladstone Airport and drive 2 hours to Agnes Water, or drive 5.5 hours from Brisbane. 

Where to stay: Agnes Water Beach Holidays is just steps from the sand with caravan sites, apartments and glamping accommodation.

Fill your days: Learn to surf, ride the LARC to reach remote corners, and day-trip to the Southern Great Barrier Reef. During early autumn, keep your eye out for green and loggerhead turtles hatching along the beach.

Passage Peak, Hamilton Island, The Whitsundays