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FrançaisTwo days in Brisbane is enough to walk the river, cross the bridges and give a full day to the Mount Coot-tha botanic gardens, and the itinerary below is the one we actually walked. Day one covers the CBD, South Bank, the Story Bridge, Fortitude Valley and New Farm on foot; day two is Mount Coot-tha and the gardens.
Brisbane has changed since we did it. The Queen’s Wharf precinct opened in 2024 and took the old Treasury Casino with it, a new pedestrian bridge crosses the river from Kangaroo Point, the Queensland Maritime Museum has reopened, and every public transport journey in the state now costs 50 cents. All of that is folded in below.
We flew into Brisbane at the start of a Queensland road trip and spent our first two days here before picking up a campervan. If you are planning the wider trip, our Australia vacation guide has the entry rules, seasons and costs.
Want to see the city differently? This night-time electric bike tour covers the main sights lit up after dark, plus corners you would not find on your own.
Getting around Brisbane costs 50 cents
Every journey on Brisbane’s public transport costs a flat 50 cents, and that single fact should shape how you move around the city. Queensland made the 50-cent Translink fare permanent across the state, and it covers buses, trains, ferries and the Brisbane Metro.
Two things follow. First, the CityCat river ferries, which used to be a paid alternative to the free red City Hopper, now cost the same 50 cents as a bus, so the old advice about carefully catching only the red boats no longer saves you anything meaningful. The City Hopper is still free; the CityCat is now nearly free and goes much further. Second, the airport train is the exception: the Airtrain is privately operated and charges its own fare, so do not expect 50 cents from the terminal.
Day 1: the CBD, South Bank, Fortitude Valley and New Farm
Day one is a long walk in a loop: CBD, across the river to South Bank, back over the Story Bridge into Fortitude Valley and New Farm, then a ferry home. Wear proper shoes and start with breakfast.
Breakfast at Sisco bcl
Sisco bcl is a small breakfast, brunch and lunch café in Spring Hill, and we ate there both mornings because the first one was good enough to repeat. It has been in the neighbourhood since 2007.
Everything is prepared fresh and the coffee is the kind that makes you order a second. I had the bircher muesli twice; my former partner had the açaí bowl. It seats maybe twenty inside with a few pavement tables, so it fills at peak.
King George Square and Brisbane City Hall
King George Square is the civic heart of the Brisbane CBD and Brisbane City Hall stands on it, which makes this the natural place to start a walking day. The square hosts markets and events and has bars and restaurants around it.
City Hall was built between 1920 and 1930 and is heritage-listed. Free guided tours run inside it and take in the main auditorium, the Father Henry Willis organ and the clock tower, and they need to be booked in advance. Tour times change, so check on the day rather than turning up on a schedule you read online.
The Museum of Brisbane sits on level three of City Hall and is free, with changing exhibitions about the city and the people in it. If you would rather not go in, the building is worth looking at from outside and is lit up in the evenings.
Reddacliff Place and the Wednesday market
Reddacliff Place is a public square between King George Square and the river, and on Wednesdays a farmers’ and artisans’ market fills it from 8:00 to 18:00. We walked there for the architecture and got the market by accident, which turned out better.
A band was playing and I had the best churros of the trip from a stand. It is not a large market, but it makes an excellent second breakfast.
Queen’s Wharf and the Treasury building
Queen’s Wharf is Brisbane’s newest precinct, a riverside development of hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and a casino that opened in stages from August 2024. It includes the Sky Deck viewing level and a pedestrian bridge across to South Bank.
The Treasury Casino closed permanently on 25 August 2024, days before Queen’s Wharf opened, so any guide that sends you to gamble in the old Treasury building is out of date. The two heritage buildings themselves, the former Treasury and the former Lands Administration Building, are still there and still worth walking past, with Queens Gardens between them. They are among the grandest Victorian public buildings in Australia.
Cross the Victoria Bridge to South Bank
The Victoria Bridge takes you from the CBD across to South Bank on foot in a few minutes, and since January 2021 it has carried buses, pedestrians and cyclists only. No general traffic, which makes it a much better walk than it used to be.
South Bank is Brisbane’s cultural strip along the south side of the river. The Queensland Performing Arts Centre, the Gallery of Modern Art, the Queensland Art Gallery, the State Library, the Queensland Museum and the Wheel of Brisbane are all here, along with Streets Beach, a free man-made lagoon you can swim in.
The Queensland Maritime Museum at the southern end is worth knowing about because it spent years closed: it reopened on 28 March 2025 after major works on the heritage-listed South Brisbane Dry Dock, with the Second World War frigate HMAS Diamantina as its centrepiece.
Decide in advance whether you are going inside any of these. We did not, and built our two days around seeing as much of the city from the outside as possible, which is the right call on a short trip but means you will not fit a museum in as well.
The riverside promenade runs almost the whole way to Captain Burke Park and it is the best walk in Brisbane.
Kangaroo Point and the bridges
Kangaroo Point Lookout, up the stairs from the riverside path, gives you the classic view back across the water to the CBD skyline. It is a short, steep climb and it is worth it.
How you get from here to Fortitude Valley has changed. We followed the road for about fifteen minutes to reach the Story Bridge, which is a dull stretch with little to look at. Since 15 December 2024 there has been another option: the Kangaroo Point Bridge, a 460 m pedestrian and cycle bridge running from Kangaroo Point straight across to the CBD, with viewing platforms, shade and cafés on it. It does not go to Fortitude Valley, so for this route the Story Bridge is still your crossing, but it is the better way back into town at the end of the day.
The Story Bridge is the one to walk. It is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia, spans 777 m, opened in 1940 and carried a toll for its first seven years. It is heritage-listed and lit at night, and the views from it over the river, South Bank and the CBD towers are the reason to cross on foot. Both footpaths were rebuilt and reopened during 2025 with new decking.
You can also climb it. The Story Bridge Adventure Climb takes you up a spiral staircase to the walkway under the Bradfield Highway, along to the southern pylon and then up to the summit platform for a 360-degree view as far as Moreton Bay, with the bridge’s history along the way. It now also runs an accessible climb that can take a wheelchair user. Book this tour.
Fortitude Valley
Fortitude Valley is Brisbane’s nightlife and independent-retail district, and the part worth walking is the network of narrow laneways off the main streets. You would not find them unless you knew they were there.
Bakery Lane, Winn Lane and California Lane are the three to look for, each a short run of small boutiques, cafés and bars. Google Maps also shows a Lucky Lane; there was nothing in it when we checked. The Valley is better for a drink and a bite than for sightseeing, and it comes alive after dark.
New Farm and Howard Smith Wharves
The New Farm Riverwalk is a floating boardwalk over the river between the Story Bridge and New Farm, and walking it is the point rather than what is at the end. New Farm Park is pleasant and unspectacular; the route is the attraction.
At the city end, under the Story Bridge cliffs, Howard Smith Wharves is a restaurant and bar precinct built into the old wharves. We stopped at Felons Brewing Co for lunch. The reviews were mixed, which normally means I keep walking, but we were hungry, there was nothing else nearby and the outdoor terrace over the river was too good to pass up. The big grain bowls were excellent. My ex was less impressed by the beer.
If beer is your thing, the XXXX brewery tour and tasting is the Queensland institution. XXXX is everywhere in this state. The tour runs 90 minutes through the heritage-listed brewery at Milton and ends with tastings.
Take a ferry back to the CBD
Brisbane’s river ferries are the best-value sightseeing in the city and the easiest way to end a long walking day. Catch one from Sydney Street ferry terminal, about ten minutes’ walk from New Farm Park.
Two services run. The red City Hopper is free and works the inner-city loop. The blue CityCat goes much further and now costs the same flat 50 cents as any other Translink journey. Check the map for where you want to get off; Eagle Street Pier is the first CBD stop.
Brisbane river cruises
A guided river cruise gives you the city from the water with commentary, which a commuter ferry does not. Three that other travellers recommend are below.
1. River cruise and Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. A 5.5-hour trip that cruises about 70 minutes upriver to Lone Pine, which bills itself as the world’s first and largest koala sanctuary, where you get around three hours on site. Queensland is one of the few Australian states where holding a koala is legal, so this is one of the places you can. Kangaroos, wallabies, owls and platypus are also there, along with a bird of prey show. The boat returns you to South Bank. Book this tour
2. Guided river kayak tour. Two hours on the water, starting with how to steer and moving on to the city’s landmarks from river level, which is a genuinely different perspective on the Story Bridge and the cliffs. Book this tour
3. Sightseeing cruise with morning tea. The gentle option, with commentary on Brisbane’s history and future while you drink tea, and photo stops at the Story Bridge and the cliffs. Book this tour
Queen Street Mall and dinner
Queen Street Mall is Brisbane’s pedestrianised shopping street and it is where you end up if you still have energy after a full day on foot. If you do not, go back to the hotel and shower.
For dinner, the Valley, Howard Smith Wharves, South Bank’s Little Stanley Street and Queen’s Wharf all have concentrations of restaurants within walking distance of the CBD. We ate somewhere quick and forgettable after arriving from Hong Kong the day before, which is the honest account of what a first evening usually looks like. Our Hong Kong itinerary covers the stop before this one.
Day 2: Mount Coot-tha and the Brisbane Botanic Gardens
Day two is a single destination: Mount Coot-tha, its lookout, a walk down through the bush and the botanic gardens at the bottom. Give it the whole day, because the gardens will take more of it than you expect.
Mount Coot-tha Lookout
Mount Coot-tha Lookout is a concrete viewing platform at the top of the mountain with a long view over Brisbane to Moreton Bay, and it is the city’s standard panorama. There is a restaurant and free public toilets up there.
Getting there matters. A car or a taxi takes under 20 minutes from the CBD; the bus takes about an hour and a half. There is parking at the top. If you have not looked up walks in advance, the trail map is posted at the lookout.
Walk down to the botanic gardens
Walking down from the lookout to the gardens takes about an hour and turns a viewpoint into a morning. Several trails run down the mountain and they connect, so you can pick a route at the top.
We had planned the Summit Track to JC Slaughter Falls, but it was closed for maintenance, so we took the Mahogany Trail, which runs parallel and is only 50 m shorter. It is graded moderate on the map and we both found it easy going downhill: the path starts narrow and widens, and it is even dirt rather than rock. The falls themselves had dried up when we reached them, which they often are outside the wet season, but the picnic area is a good stop.
From JC Slaughter Falls it is a 15-minute walk to the entrance of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mount Coot-tha.
Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mount Coot-tha
The Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mount Coot-tha are free to enter and are, for my money, the best thing in the city. They are named for the mountain to distinguish them from the older City Botanic Gardens in the CBD.
One warning, because it catches people out: there is a small strip of planting right by the entrance road, and if you look no further you will leave disappointed. The real entrance is higher up, behind the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium.
Inside, the gardens are divided by theme and by geography: fossil plants, fruit trees, bamboo, Australian rainforest, eucalypt and bunya forest, plus a Bonsai House, a Japanese garden and a lagoon. There are lookout points throughout and a playground for children. Wide concrete paths connect the sections and walking all of them takes most of a day. We arrived before noon and did not leave until around four, and it was the highlight of our two days.
Signage guides you between sections but says little about individual plants. Free guided walks leave from the visitor information centre, and they do not run on public holidays or from mid-December to late January. Check current times on the day. Groups can pre-book a walk, and themed walks around a particular plant group can be arranged.
The on-site restaurant surprised us. We expected the captive-audience treatment and got a proper menu of cake, quiche, sandwiches, salads and mains at reasonable prices. Drinking fountains and free toilets are dotted throughout the gardens.
The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium at the entrance is free to walk into, though its shows are ticketed. We meant to do it after the gardens and ran out of day, so plan it first if you want it.
Getting there: there is a bus stop by the planetarium and the garden entrance, and several free car parks with plenty of space.
Brisbane City Botanic Gardens
The City Botanic Gardens sit on a bend of the river at the edge of the CBD and feel more like a park than a botanical collection, which is the point of the contrast with Mount Coot-tha. There is a stage and two cafés.
They began as a public garden on this site in 1855, making them Brisbane’s first botanical gardens, and the location was the problem: eight floods swept through between 1870 and 1974, destroying plantings each time. That is why the second garden was established up at Mount Coot-tha, out of the river’s reach.
Day trips from Brisbane
Brisbane sits within an easy drive of the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, the bay islands and the Scenic Rim, so a third day is easy to fill. A guided day trip removes the car hire and the logistics.
Tamborine wine and distillery tour. An eight-hour trip with pick-up from CBD accommodation, visiting four wineries and a distillery on Tamborine Mountain with six to ten tastings at each, plus a two-course lunch and an optional cheese stop. Book this tour
Moreton Island dolphin and snorkel cruise. A full day in Moreton Bay Marine Park looking for dolphins, dugongs and loggerhead turtles, with humpback whales passing through between June and October, and guided snorkelling over the Tangalooma Wrecks, a line of ships deliberately scuttled to form a breakwater. A marine naturalist provides the commentary, and meals, gear and marine park fees are included. Book this tour
North Stradbroke Island day tour. A full day on Minjerribah, the second-largest sand island in the world, including a 40-minute crossing of Moreton Bay, a swim in a tea-tree lake, the North Gorge headland walk and a good chance of seeing dolphins, manta rays and turtles from Point Lookout. Book this tour
For more, GetYourGuide is an authorised ticket seller for most of what runs in and around the city.
Brisbane city tours
If you would rather have a guide than a map, two city tours cover the ground in this itinerary faster than your feet will.
The best of Brisbane bicycle tour rides South Bank, Kangaroo Point, the Story Bridge, New Farm Park, Teneriffe and the City Botanic Gardens with a local guide giving the cultural and historical background. You can choose a 2-hour or 3.5-hour ride, and both include the bike, a helmet, water and sunscreen; the longer one adds a picnic stop. Book this tour
The express Segway tour covers the city in 90 minutes with a live guide, a safety briefing, practice time and a helmet included. Book this tour
Where to stay in Brisbane
Stay in the CBD, Spring Hill or South Bank, because all three put this itinerary within walking distance and Brisbane’s transport radiates from the centre. Spring Hill is the quiet, slightly cheaper option a short walk uphill from the city.
The Park Hotel Brisbane, formerly the Watermark Hotel Brisbane, is where we spent three nights, on Wickham Terrace in Spring Hill about 15 minutes’ walk from the CBD. Our room was spacious with a large bathroom, a desk, a fridge and a kettle. There is an on-site restaurant we did not try, free Wi-Fi throughout and an outdoor pool. On-site parking costs extra. View prices on Booking.com
Queen’s Wharf added a substantial block of new hotel rooms to the CBD when it opened, which has widened the choice at the top end. Search what is available, and for an apartment with a kitchen, Vrbo is where I look.
How to get to Brisbane
Brisbane Airport handles international and domestic flights and sits about 15 km north-east of the CBD. We flew in with Cathay Pacific, whose Premium Economy we reviewed on that trip: read our Cathay Pacific Premium Economy review here. Routes and airlines change, so check current prices and options before assuming a connection still exists.
From the airport, the Airtrain runs directly into the CBD and on to the Gold Coast. It is privately operated, so it is the one Queensland service that does not cost 50 cents. Rideshare and taxis also serve both terminals; the rideshare pick-up point is signposted but genuinely hard to find, and we were sent the wrong way by someone who should have known. Head for the domestic pick-up area.
If you want none of that, you can pre-book a transfer and have a driver meet you in arrivals.
Frequently asked questions
Is 2 days enough for Brisbane?
Two days covers the CBD, South Bank, the Story Bridge, the Valley and a full day at Mount Coot-tha. It is not enough to add a museum or a day trip, so budget a third day if you want either.
What is the best free thing to do in Brisbane?
The Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mount Coot-tha, which are free, take most of a day and are the best thing in the city. Streets Beach at South Bank, the Museum of Brisbane and the City Hall tours are also free.
How much is public transport in Brisbane?
Fifty cents per journey, flat, on buses, trains, ferries and the Metro, under Queensland’s permanent 50-cent Translink fare. The red City Hopper ferry is free. The Airtrain from the airport is separately operated and charges its own fare.
Is the Treasury Casino in Brisbane still open?
No. The Treasury Casino closed permanently on 25 August 2024 and gaming moved to The Star Brisbane at Queen’s Wharf. The heritage Treasury buildings still stand and are worth seeing from the outside.
Can you walk across the Story Bridge?
Yes. Both footpaths were rebuilt and reopened during 2025, and the walk gives you the best views in Brisbane. You can also climb the structure on a guided adventure climb.
When is the best time to visit Brisbane?
April to October. Brisbane’s winter is mild, dry and sunny, in the low 20s °C (around 70°F), while summer is hot, humid and storm-prone.
Do not forget travel insurance
Travel insurance covers what you cannot plan for, and on a trip built around a campervan and a coastline that is worth having. A cancelled booking, an illness, an injury or a broken camera all cost more than the cover does.
I have carried rolling travel insurance since I started travelling, which makes sense at several trips a year. If you travel once or twice, insure each trip separately instead.
Do not have travel insurance yet? Check out SafetyWing. Their plans are flexible enough to start once you are already on the road.
WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips
Five things we would tell a friend landing in Brisbane next week are listed below.
- Every journey costs 50 cents, so stop optimising. Queensland’s flat Translink fare is permanent and covers buses, trains, ferries and the Metro. The old advice about catching only the free red City Hopper and avoiding the blue CityCat is obsolete: the CityCat now costs 50 cents and goes much further.
- Do not plan a night at the Treasury Casino. It closed on 25 August 2024 and gaming moved to Queen’s Wharf. The heritage buildings are still there and still worth a look from the outside, which is what we did anyway.
- The real botanic garden entrance is behind the planetarium. There is a thin strip of planting beside the entrance road that looks like the whole thing and is not. People turn round there and miss the best free attraction in Brisbane.
- Give Mount Coot-tha the whole day and go up by car. The bus takes about an hour and a half from the CBD against under 20 minutes by car or taxi. We arrived before noon and left at four, and we still did not walk every path.
- Use the new Kangaroo Point Bridge on the way back. It opened on 15 December 2024, runs 460 m across the river from Kangaroo Point to the CBD with viewing platforms and cafés on it, and it did not exist when we walked the same route along a dull stretch of road.
About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the itinerary above is the one she walked over two days in Brisbane at the start of a three-week Queensland road trip. The team covers Queensland for independent travellers, including the tours, hotels, campervans and travel insurance worth booking, and updates this page when venues, bridges and fares change.
