Australia has no shortage of incredible beaches.

We visited beaches in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Byron Bay and elsewhere during our trip.

But if you asked our family to pick one place to go back to?

Noosa.

And it wouldn’t be particularly close.

We drove north from Brisbane for a day on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, expecting another beautiful Australian beach town.

Instead, we found somewhere we’ve talked about returning to ever since.

Lush green rainforest.

Warm tropical water.

Turquoise-blue ocean.

A beautiful beach.

Great restaurants.

Boutique shopping.

And a compact town where almost everything you want to do is within walking or biking distance.

Noosa felt like paradise.

Driving the Sunshine Coast

The drive from Brisbane to Noosa takes you north toward the Sunshine Coast, leaving the larger city behind for increasingly tropical surroundings.

When you finally arrive at Noosa Heads, the setting is almost absurdly beautiful.

The town sits between the ocean, the Noosa River and Noosa National Park, which means development is surrounded by an enormous amount of protected green space.

That matters.

Unlike some Australian beach destinations where high-rise buildings dominate the coastline, Noosa feels like the landscape is still in charge.

Trees surround the town.

Rainforest-covered hills rise beside the ocean.

And then there’s the water.

Noosa Main Beach

Noosa Main Beach was our favorite beach stop of the entire trip.

The water was warm.

The ocean was an almost tropical turquoise.

Behind us was a wall of green.

And despite being steps from restaurants and shops, the beach still felt relaxed.

This was the Australia we’d pictured before traveling there.

We didn’t need an elaborate plan.

We put our things down.

The kids played.

We got in the water.

And for a few hours, we did absolutely nothing.

Sometimes that’s the best possible itinerary.

There was just one thing everyone else on the beach seemed to know that we didn’t.

What’s That Beach Tent Everyone Has?

After sitting on the beach for a while, we started noticing something.

Everyone had the same beach canopy.

They were colorful, square-shaped and seemingly everywhere we looked.

And as we sat under the Australian sun, we increasingly understood why.

They were CoolCabanas.

We didn’t have one.

We really wished we did.

The design is ridiculously simple: a lightweight beach canopy that provides a large area of shade without requiring the engineering degree normally associated with assembling beach tents.

Noosa was the perfect advertisement.

We later learned that CoolCabanas originated in this part of Australia, which suddenly made their dominance on the beach make considerably more sense.

We came home to California and bought one almost immediately.

Years later, I still think it’s the best beach canopy on the market by miles.

Australia gave us kangaroos, koalas, Bluey and Vegemite.

But bringing home the CoolCabana may have been our most practical discovery.

Lunch at Noosa Heads Surf Club

Eventually, the beach made us hungry.

Fortunately, you don’t need to go far.

The Noosa Heads Surf Life Saving Club sits directly at the eastern end of Main Beach, between the sand and Hastings Street.

If you’re visiting Australia from overseas, eating at a surf lifesaving club is an experience worth having at least once.

These aren’t simply restaurants borrowing a beach theme.

Australia’s surf lifesaving clubs are part of the country’s beach culture, supporting the volunteer lifesavers who patrol the coastline.

And this particular one happens to occupy an incredible piece of real estate.

We grabbed lunch and drinks overlooking Noosa Main Beach.

Cold drinks.

Beach views.

Kids happily exhausted from playing in the water.

Perfect.

And then I ordered a ginger beer.

The Ginger Beer

This deserves its own section.

Maybe it was the heat.

Maybe it was spending several hours in the sun.

Maybe Australian ginger beer is simply better.

But the ginger beer at Noosa Surf Club tasted like someone had actually remembered that ginger beer is supposed to taste like ginger.

Spicy.

Cold.

Refreshing.

Actual ginger flavor.

It hit the spot.

There are meals you remember because they were elaborate.

I remember this one because I was sitting above one of the most beautiful beaches we’d seen in Australia, drinking an ice-cold ginger beer while looking over turquoise water.

Travel doesn’t always need to be complicated.

Hastings Street

After lunch and a few more hours enjoying the beach, we wandered onto Hastings Street.

This is essentially Noosa’s main street—and one of the reasons the town works so well.

The beach is on one side.

Shops, cafés, restaurants, galleries and hotels are on the other.

You can go from swimming in the ocean to shopping in a boutique in a matter of minutes.

Hastings Street is polished without feeling overly formal.

There are surf shops and casual cafés alongside Australian designers, boutiques, galleries and higher-end restaurants.

And because everything is concentrated along a relatively compact strip, Noosa is remarkably easy to explore on foot.

Park the car.

You may not need it again until you leave.

Noosa vs. Byron Bay

We visited Byron Bay on the same Australia trip, so comparing the two was inevitable.

We loved Byron.

But they’re different.

Byron Bay felt more bohemian.

Backpackers.

Surf culture.

Independent shops.

A little hippie.

A little chaotic.

A little expensive despite pretending not to be.

My description of Byron was a high-end backpacker town.

Noosa felt different.

It was smaller.

More polished.

More family-oriented.

And considerably calmer.

Where Byron feels free-spirited, Noosa feels effortless.

You can walk from your hotel to breakfast, from breakfast to the beach, from the beach to lunch, and from lunch to shopping without getting back into a car.

With two young children, that matters enormously.

Noosa also felt especially bikeable.

It’s the kind of destination where I could imagine arriving, parking the car and spending the next week moving around primarily by foot and bicycle.

That’s increasingly rare.

The Rainforest Meets the Ocean

But the thing that really separated Noosa from other beach towns we visited was the landscape.

The ocean doesn’t exist separately from the surrounding environment.

Noosa National Park rises immediately beside town, with rainforest extending toward rocky headlands and secluded beaches.

Even from Main Beach, the green headland frames the water.

That’s the image I remember most.

Green.

Turquoise.

Sand.

Blue sky.

There are plenty of beautiful beaches in the world.

There are fewer places where tropical-looking forest comes right down to water that looks like this.

Noosa has both.

We Should Have Stayed Longer

Our biggest mistake was making Noosa a day trip.

We drove up from Brisbane.

Spent the day at the beach.

Ate lunch.

Walked Hastings Street.

Shopped.

Then eventually got back into the car and drove away.

I didn’t want to leave.

There are destinations where a day feels sufficient.

Noosa had the opposite effect.

A few hours there made us want a week.

Maybe two.

We’ve legitimately discussed flying all the way back to Australia and spending one or two weeks just in Noosa.

Consider what that means.

We live in California.

Australia is not exactly a convenient weekend getaway.

We’re talking about crossing the Pacific Ocean and dealing with an enormous time change just to sit on the same beach again.

That’s how much we liked Noosa.

What We’d Do Next Time

Next time, I wouldn’t create much of an itinerary.

That’s sort of the point.

I’d stay somewhere near Hastings Street.

Wake up early.

Get coffee.

Walk to the beach.

Swim.

Take the coastal trail through Noosa National Park.

Come back for lunch.

Let the kids play in the water.

Ride bikes.

Shop.

Have dinner outside.

Repeat.

Maybe take a boat onto the Noosa River.

Maybe explore another beach.

Maybe do absolutely nothing.

And this time we’d bring the CoolCabana.

Final Thoughts

There are places you visit because there’s something you’re supposed to see.

A monument.

A museum.

A famous building.

Noosa isn’t really that kind of destination.

Noosa is somewhere you want to be.

That’s different.

We didn’t leave talking about a particular attraction.

We talked about the water.

The beach.

The rainforest.

The ginger beer.

Hastings Street.

How easy everything felt with the kids.

And how much we wished we’d stayed longer.

Of all the beach towns we visited in Australia, Noosa was our favorite.

Not because it had the biggest beach.

Or the most attractions.

Or the wildest nightlife.

It was simply the place where we most wanted to stop traveling.

Put down our bags.

Take off our shoes.

Open the CoolCabana.

And stay awhile.

Sometimes paradise isn’t the place with the most things to do.

It’s the place that makes you wish you had nowhere else to go.