Banora Point

Virtually a suburb of Tweed Heads on the NSW-Queensland border, Banora Point huddles in the Tweed River estuary and supports a lot of solid, middle-class homes in scrubbed and ordered surroundings.

Step outside this suburban sanctuary, though, and all around you'll find the delights of this holiday mecca.

Just half an hour up the road is the bold and brassy Gold Coast. There are great beaches on both sides of the border, fishing and water sports, beach river and estuary, and the famous club life of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta, which must have more poker machines per head of local population that any other place in Australia.

The Tweed coast is a 35km chain of largely unspoilt beaches which stretch south from the river mouth at Fingal to Wooyung, which lies just to the north of Ocean Shores and Brunswick Heads.

One of Banora Point"s other great attributes is the fact that it"s so close to the beautiful Tweed River Valley - with some of Australia"s best rural scenery - and the equally-delightful Gold Coast hinterland.

The administrative centre for the Tweed Valley, Murwillumbah, is a 30-minute drive south of Tweed Heads. If you like exploring the countryside by car, you'll be delighted by the diversity of this picturesque part of Australia and the many and interesting distractions it has to offer.