Forty-eight hours at Broadbeach

A Broadbeach weekend works best when the bookings are done before the flight and the time between them is left loose. This is the shape that works for most guests: dinner in, show, floor, slow morning, Broadbeach, dinner, floor, sleep.

Check in, and the first hour is the pool deck on level five or a drink in the lobby bar while the room is finished. Do not rush the floor on arrival; it will still be there at eleven.

Friday night

Signature dining room at six thirty if the show starts at eight; the kitchen knows the pacing. If there is no show, eat later and take the window table at seven thirty when the light is still doing something.

After dinner, the floor. Friday is busy but not at Saturday's level, which makes it the better night to learn a table game. Budget set, two hours, then the lobby bar for the finish.

Saturday

Sleep in; the a la carte breakfast runs late enough. Late morning is for the beach two blocks east or the Broadbeach shops. Lunch across the park, not in the complex, so the weekend has range.

The weekend works because everything is a lift ride apart. You are never waiting on a car when the night is going well.

Saturday afternoon is spa hour or pool hour. Saturday night is the big dinner and the busiest floor of the week, when the complex is at full voltage.

Sunday

Late checkout is the booking that makes Sunday civilised. Brunch in, bags with the concierge, one more hour on the pool deck, car to the airport.

If the flight is late and the checkout is early, the spa day pass buys you a shower, a lounge and a place to leave the bags that beats the lobby.