Half bus and half boat, the amphibious vehicles used by Quack'R'Duck offer a novelty tour of the Gold Coast that travels by road before driving straight into the water and continuing as a boat. Departing from the heart of Surfers Paradise, the trips take in the high-rise strip and surrounding suburbs before splashing into the canals and waterways that thread through the region. The vehicles trace their lineage to military amphibious designs, and the moment of entering the water, known to operators as the splashdown, is the highlight of the trip for most passengers. Once afloat, the tour cruises the canals lined with waterfront homes, giving views of the mansions and the city skyline that are hard to reach by ordinary road tour. Guides keep up a light commentary throughout, mixing local history, facts about the canal estates and the inevitable duck-themed jokes, and passengers are often handed quacker noisemakers to join in. The format suits families with young children, tour groups and visitors who want a relaxed overview of the area rather than a high-speed thrill. The Gold Coast's extensive system of artificial canals, dredged from low-lying land in the twentieth century to create more waterfront property, makes it well suited to this kind of land-and-water tour. The trip provides an easy way to appreciate just how much of the region's appeal is built around its waterways and beaches. Running on a regular schedule and lasting around an hour, the duck tours have become one of the more recognisable sightseeing options along the strip. For first-time visitors getting their bearings, the combination of a road circuit and a canal cruise in a single quirky vehicle offers a memorable introduction to the holiday city. Tours generally run several times a day from the Surfers Paradise base, and seats are booked ahead, especially during school holidays when families fill the vehicles. The novelty of the splashdown and the chance to see both the beachfront strip and the hidden canal estates in one outing have made it a favourite for visitors travelling with children. While it is a light-hearted rather than adrenaline-driven experience, the duck tour gives a genuinely different angle on a coastline most people only ever see from the sand, and the amphibious vehicles are a talking point wherever they go.

Type: Activity

Address: 7 Elkhorn Avenue, Gold Coast, Australia