📍Mt Tamborine Tree Top Challenge: An Honest Review Of The Thunderbird Park Activity In The Gold Coast Hinterland.
LOOKING FOR AN IN-DEPTH REVIEW OF MT TAMBORINE’S TREE TOP CHALLENGE?
The illustrious Gold Coast is one of Australia’s most iconic destinations. Renowned for its stunning golden beaches, vibrant nightlife, and a long list of thrill-seeking activities and adventures that perfectly embody its “Famous For Fun” slogan, this, thankfully, doesn’t just extend to the city. Nestled in its picturesque hinterland at the region’s most popular countryside getaways, Mt Tamborine, and part of one of its best attractions, Thunderbird Park, lies one of the Gold Coast’s best and most unforgettable engaging outdoor endeavours: The Mt Tamborine Tree Top Challenge.
This exhilarating experience offers a unique twist on the classic outdoor escapade, using the natural low-mountain bushland setting as the perfect shady setting for the adventurer’s fun and physically demanding canopy adventures.
As the country’s biggest and best Tree Top Challenge, intrepid participants have 8 exciting ropes courses to conquer, each designed to test your courage and balance. Kicking off the whole she-bang with beginner-friendly pathways and levelling up through the three other levels of increasing difficulty where there are two of each, there’s something for everyone with this epic choose-your-own ending adventure.
I embarked on this iconic activity with my dad, where we took on the bushland, navigating the wobbly bridges, shaky nets and flying along the zip lines (the best bit). Here are all our thoughts about tackling this adventurous hinterland outing and what you need to know before undertaking the unforgettable Mt Tamborine Tree Top Challenge.
Mt Tamborine Tree Top Challenge.
- Australia’s biggest tree top challenge.
- 8 exciting ropes courses to conquer.
- Fantastic for couples, family & friends.
Tree Top Challenge: Review Overview.
In this detailed review of the Mt Tamborine Tree Top Challenge, I highlight all my favourite aspects of doing the ropes courses while not forgetting to mention the areas where I felt it could use improvement. I cover online booking, checking in, the safety briefing, the challenges and staff conduct.
Is Mt Tamborine’s Tree Top Challenge Worth Doing?
Yes! Australia’s largest tree top challenge at Mt Tamborine is a fun, engaging and thrilling solo, couples and groups activity that many people of different ages and physical capacities can enjoy, thanks to the 4 levels of difficulty across the 8 courses.
It’s great because it starts off fairly easy, where from then on out it’s a choose-your-own-adventure course, covers a whole morning or afternoon, is fantastic for exercise, and you can go at your own pace.
Honestly, I think it’s one of the best things to do at Mt Tamborine, especially if you’re a couple looking for a unique bonding experience or going as a family unit with tween to teen kids who are often complaining or being bored and need an interactive way to get them off their devices.
Online Booking & Checking In.
✔️ Pros.
- Very easy to book online.
- It’s nice that it wasn’t too expensive.
- Checking in was super simple. We just had to sign a waiver.
❌ Cons.
- If you’re a decent-sized family unit, it can be expensive for everyone to participate.
Gearing Up & Safety Briefing.
✔️ Pros.
- Getting harnessed up was a super quick procedure. We just had to step into the ones they had already laid out on the floor and pull it up around us. The staff then strapped us in and gave us a helmet. Then we got free rein to pick gloves from buckets that had various sizes.
- The safety briefing was also quick. We watched a short video and then had the guide go over it just to emphasise any points we may have missed. He was also a bit of a larrikin, which made us feel relaxed and raring to go!
- The instructions were fairly easy to follow.
❌ Cons.
- N/A.
Tree Top Challenges & Ropes Courses.
✔️ Pros.
- It is a little confusing getting the rope line attached for the first time, but easy afterwards after you can see and understand the mechanics of it first-hand.
- The challenge is a great choose-your-own-adventure experience and you can do as many as you like as many times as you can fit in, so it’s fantastic for everyone of all ages and fitness abilities. And with a total of 8 courses, two for each difficulty, there is a lot of things to test yourself on.
- You start off on the easiest course to learn the ropes and how to safely travel them, with the guides assisting you at the start.
- There are guides scattered throughout in case you need assistance. My dad needed help on the first one, and the guide standing at the end of the course was excellent help.
- I really enjoyed the variation, and that I was using my whole body and many different muscles to conquer. My favourites are the ziplines and the gappy bridges.
- My 68-year-old dad also really enjoyed trying the challenge, except for the plank one, more on that below, which was a b*tch.
❌ Cons.
- Once you’re attached to a course, there is no going back. You have to complete it. Luckily, they aren’t super long.
- However, if you are stuck behind someone traversing slowly, you just have to wait them out.
- We started with the right-hand side for the first course, which is supposed to be the easiest, and it mostly was, but the section I call the plank was HARD! It’s several single-file planks that you traverse across lengthways, one after the other, holding a single rope. The first half wasn’t too bad, but in the second half, you’re walking on an incline, the slightest breeze makes it sway, and the gaps between planks get bigger at the end! Dad had trouble with this one, and I definitely thought it was the hardest part of the several courses I went on. I still enjoyed the challenge, but I didn’t know what it was doing on the easiest one. The guide who kindly helped Dad also said it was the most difficult and the one that gets most people. So, just a word to the wise.
Staff & Guides.
✔️ Pros.
The staff were excellent. They were friendly and super helpful. Special shoutout to the guy who helped my dad when he was stuck on the plank one.
❌ Cons.
- N/A
Overall Experience & Recommendation.
We loved doing the Tree Top Challenge. It was fun, interactive and great value for money. I enjoyed tackling the different courses and testing my prowess with some being more difficult than others, which felt great to accomplish. It is definitely one of the best ways to spend time at Mt Tamborine. And great value too, offering a whole afternoon of activity that we could do at our own pace and level up or down where we wanted to or repeat the same courses if that interested us. The staff were also fantastic and nicely complemented the experience.
Who Would The Mt Tamborine Tree Top Challenge Not Appeal To?
- Families looking for fun & engaging activities that most members can enjoy.
- Couples who like adventure dates.
- Solo travellers who want to test their physical prowess.
Who Would The Challenge Not Appeal To?
- Those who don’t like heights.
- People who struggle with balance or gripping.
- Wheelchair users.
Conclusion: Honest Gold Coast Tree Top Challenge Review.
The Mt Tamborine Tree Top Challenge is a fantastic way to incorporate fun and unique adventure into your Gold Coast hinterland escape. Its 8 engaging rope courses of various difficulties, featuring moving bridges, net climbs and exhilarating zip lines, provide the perfect opportunity to bond with family, friends or your significant other, encouraging them to tackle the suspended mid-air obstacles while also pushing yourself both physically and mentally.
