Horseshoe Bay, Peel Island
Tangalooma, Moreton Island
Bulwer, Moreton Island
Manly Boat Harbour
Scarborough Boat Harbour
Snorkel the Tangalooma Wrecks
Climb the Story Bridge
Swim at the South Bank Parklands street beach
Watch migrating humpback whales off Moreton Island
Hand-feed wild dolphins at Tangalooma Island Resort
South Bank Parklands
Moreton Island
North Stradbroke Island
Kangaroo Point Cliffs
Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast
The dry season from May to October brings the most reliable weather, with mild days, lower humidity and calmer seas for cruising Moreton Bay. June to November also overlaps with the humpback whale migration past the bay’s eastern entrance, making it a good window to combine cruising with whale watching. The wetter months from December to March bring higher humidity and the main cyclone risk further north, though Brisbane itself is rarely affected directly.
Brisbane Airport (BNE) is Australia’s third-busiest, about 13 kilometres northeast of the city centre with direct international connections across Asia, the Pacific and beyond. It sits close to the Brisbane River mouth and Moreton Bay, so guests can often be aboard within half an hour of landing. For a Gold Coast start instead, Gold Coast Airport (OOL) at Coolangatta is roughly an hour’s drive south.
Horseshoe Bay on Peel Island is a favourite, sheltered and close to Brisbane, with clear water for swimming. Tangalooma and Bulwer on the western side of Moreton Island both offer good holding and easy access ashore, Tangalooma for its wrecks and resident dolphins, Bulwer for its long white beach and jetty. Scarborough Boat Harbour, north of the city, makes a convenient staging point before heading out into the bay.
Three to four days covers Brisbane’s riverside city, a day snorkelling the Tangalooma Wrecks and a night or two anchored off Moreton or North Stradbroke Island. Extend to a week and it’s easy to add a run south to the Gold Coast’s beaches and nightlife, or push further into the Whitsundays for guests wanting a longer Queensland coastal itinerary rather than treating Brisbane as a single stop.
Riverfire, held on the first Saturday of September as the opening night of Brisbane Festival, closes the river to shipping for a fireworks display launched from barges and the Story Bridge, with a Royal Australian Air Force jet flypast overhead. Anchoring or mooring on the river for the best water-level view takes advance planning, since vantage points fill early, but it turns an ordinary evening on the Brisbane River into one of the city’s biggest nights of the year.
