Let’s Go Mum reviews… Jupiters Hotel, Gold Coast!

In the swim at Jupiters Hotel!

I always choose the hotels we stay in very carefully, and our latest trip to the Gold Coast was no exception. Over the years I’ve stayed in some really great hotels – and the odd awful one – but Jupiters Hotel & Casino has become our brand-new favourite! It’s a great place to stay, especially if you have kids!

Located on Broadbeach Island, Gold Coast, Jupiters Hotel is central to just about everywhere on the Gold Coast, but for us, it was especially handy to the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre where I was attending an event during our holiday. There’s a covered walkway that runs right from Jupiters to the Convention Centre doors – perfect.

Jupiters Hotel & Casino, Gold Coast

Before booking I surfed the net for the best rate (as I always do – who doesn’t?!), and after searching through a few of the travel hotel comparison websites I found that the best rate by far was a Qantas frequent flyer special, which I quickly snapped up – we were all set!

Traveller Quick Tip: Whilst useful for reference, search beyond hotel comparison websites – they do not contain all hotel rates, or always have the best discount hotel rates – sometimes the cheapest room prices are on the actual hotel website – so shop around!

Jupiters Hotel foyer

Upon arrival at Jupiters we parked our hire car (you can read my airport hire car review here) in the free underground car park and checked in. Our Superior Room was a generous size for myself and the two kids, with two queen beds and a nice view of the beautiful hotel pool and the mansion-lined canals of Surfers Paradise. We were up on the 14th floor, and could see for miles – we could even watch distant hot-air balloons from our windows one morning.

Our Superior Room was a generous size

I had originally decided on Jupiters so that we had a convenient, decent place to lay our heads each night, but by the end of our four-day stay, Jupiters had became a place we actually wanted to spend a lot of our free time at – so we did!

The connecting walkway to the Gold Coast Convention Centre was a safe and direct path, perfect for my two excited kids who always wanted to run all the way back-and-forth, up and over the surrounding canal and busy road between the two complexes. So getting between the Convention Centre and the Hotel was a far more relaxed affair for me – and fun for the kids – run, run my little wilder beasts!

The covered walkway from Jupiters to the Convention Centre – I only ever saw the backs of the kids on it!

Unfortunately, the great hotel room rate I had got on our room didn’t include breakfast, so I had to work out how I was going to feed the kids each morning.

I didn’t really want to pay the $30 a head ($90 total) for all three of us to have breakfast in the hotel dining room every day, or have to go trouping across the road to the surrounding eateries either – especially when it can be such an effort just to get the kids up and organised.

Luckily the breakfast problem was solved on our first morning with a call to the very accommodating Mark from Jupiter’s Room Service. Each morning, he arranged for us to have breakfast delivered to our room within mere minutes of my tardy orders. These $23 Continental Breakfasts were a bargain, with more food on one large tray that all three of us could eat – cereal, a huge fruit bowl, toast, gorgeous warm pastries, juice and even a take-away coffee for Mum – because he could tell that we were always in a rush to get out the door!

The kind gentlemen delivering said breakfasts also knew who they were feeding, and by the end of our stay, the kitchen was sending extra cutlery, super-full glasses of orange juice, and were even bumping up the toast count. We were not in the best rooms in the hotel, yet we felt as though we were, as we were being treated like queens! It’s personal attention like this that really makes you want to return to a hotel – and nope – they had no idea that they were being reviewed!

Jupiter’s Spinner’s Café proved to be a great place for lunch. They were so convenient for a quick meal – plus having to smell the delicious food every time we went in or out of the hotel made it a must! Their Kid’s Menu suited both children (it’s a miracle!), plus you could sit there and watch the fascinating, bustling atmosphere of the hotel foyer of a 24-hour Casino at the same time!

In the swim at Jupiters Hotel pool

But all-in-all though, I would have to say that the biggest Jupiters attraction for the kids was the amazing pool. What kid doesn’t love a pool? Jupiter’s has an huge one, and the second the kids caught sight of it out of our room window, there was no question that we were swimming!

Horror-of-horrors – I realised that I had forgotten to pack our swimmers – argh! I contemplated crossing the road to the huge shopping mall Pacific Fair to buy some new ones, but this would blow a lot of our precious spare time – then I realised with a bit of quick improvisation, we DID have swimmers. One crop top, black undies and leotard later, the kids were in the pool (realising that we would be spending a lot of time in the Jupiters pool, I did buy some proper swimmers the next day at Sea World). 

Surrounded with other smaller pools, fountains and jacuzzis, the Jupiter Hotel swimming pool is set in gorgeous tropical gardens. Throw in a room service phone that delivers in minutes and doesn’t charge the earth ($4.50 for a coffee delivered to the pool) and you’ve got parent relaxation heaven!

We actually spent a lot of time at the Jupiters pool when we probably should have been touring elsewhere in Surfers Paradise and beyond! But frankly, a big part of our trips is finding a happy medium for all of us. If I want to be a mad tourist, but the kids are clamouring to spend the day swimming or playing, we usually compromise so that everybody is happy. That way, the kids are a lot more willing to do things with me that they’re not so keen on. Perhaps we swim in the morning and go out in the afternoon – or vice-versa. At Jupiter’s pool, I was quite happy to trade away more time than usual, because it was such a lovely, peaceful place to be, and the children were in pool-heaven! Make no mistake – happy kids = happy mum! 

An evening dip in Jupiter’s pool was a hit with the kids!

On the day that we went to Sea World, the kids got to swim in the evening in the beautifully lit pool – they thought this was so thrilling! The water was beautifully heated so that they didn’t get cold with the chill creeping into the air as the sun went down. In July, Queensland does get cool at times! 

Three theme parks and a whole lot of Gold Coast fun later (you can read our theme park reviews here), it was time to head back to the cold South – we were all sorry to leave sunny Queensland.

The kids already are asking when we will be returning to Jupiters, and the hotel has been a big feature when people ask us what we enjoyed the most in Queensland – hopefully we’ll be visiting Jupiters again soon – this time with even more time to relax by that beautiful pool!

All prices are correct at 25 July 2014

You can read all of our Gold Coast holiday reviews, including the Big 3 theme parks and hire car reviews here

Have you stayed at Jupiters? Tell us about your favourite Gold Coast hotel in the comments!