Gold Coast to Toowoomba drive: Distance, time & best stops

The best stops on the Gold Coast to Toowoomba drive include Dreamworld, the Kholo Botanic Gardens and Lockyer National Park. By car, the distance from the Gold Coast to Toowoomba is 179km, and the driving time 2h5m.

The Gold Coast to Toowoomba drive connects Queensland’s main holiday strip to the state’s largest inland city.

The Gold Coast offers jet boat rides, sunset cruises, parasailing and amphibious vehicle tours.

Toowoomba, however, is more about gardens, parks and heritage steam trains.

Gold Coast to Toowoomba distance and driving time

The distance of the drive from the Gold Coast to Toowoomba is 179km. That makes for a Gold Coast to Toowoomba driving time of about two hours and five minutes.

This is the time and distance as measured from Surfers Paradise. Both will vary slightly from elsewhere on the Gold Coast.

Gold Coast to Toowooma road trip: Theme parks and Logan River

You’ll pass the famous Gold Coast theme parks on the way north towards Brisbane. Oxenford has the highest concentration of them, with Warner Brothers Movie World, Paradise Country, Australian Outback Spectacular based here.

Dreamworld and Whitewater World, however, are in Coomera a little further north.

However, you branch off the M1 before reaching Brisbane, switching to the M6 at Loganholme. This vaguely follows the Logan River, past Riverdale Park and Noffke Farm Park.

Gold Coast to Toowoomba drive: Drewvale to Ipswich

JJ Smith Park and the Berinba Wetlands are a little further along, and around Drewvale, the M6 becomes the M2. This cuts through the south-western chunk of Brisbane’s suburban sprawl, past the Lake Parklands and several golf courses, then joins the Ipswich Motorway.

This goes past Moggill Ferry Park on a bend in the Brisbane River and morphs into the Warrego Highway.

Heading around the northern edge of Ipswich, you’ll go past the Blue Gum Reserve on the Bremer River and the Kholo Botanic Gardens.

Attractions between the Gold Coast and Toowoomba: Marburg to Gatton

The landscape west of Ipswich turns agricultural, with Marburg and Minden having little to hold the attention.

Hatton Vale has a golf course and Plainland has a decent pub. It’s also home to the Big Red Elephant, should collectors of Australian roadside kitsch be interested.

Laidley, a little to the south, offers 1930s-style Das Neumann House and watersports on Lake Dyer.

Entering Toowoomba

The highway then skips north of Gatton, where you’ll find the Queensland Transport Museum. The Lockyer National Park and Lockyer State Forest are to the north.

You’ll come off the highway to the west of Helidon Spa and join the Toowoomba Connection Road.

Just before entering Toowoomba you’ll go close to the Table Top/ Meewah hiking area, Redwood Park and the Picnic Point Lookout.

Attractions in Toowoomba include the Botanic Gardens in Queens Park, steam train tours at the DownsSteam railway museum and the National Carriage Collection at the Cobb & Co Museum.

Top Toowoomba accommodation recommendations

The best Toowoomba accommodation options are:

For central location and undercover parking at a 4.5 star with a pool: Oaks Toowoomba.
For well-equipped apartments: Athena Motel Apartments.
For a holiday park with plenty for the kids: Big4 Toowoomba Garden City.
For a surprisingly good motel at cheapish rates: Applegum Inn.