Hotel Review: La Costa Motel, Bilinga (Gold Coast)

Located a short walk away from the Gold Coast Airport, the La Costa Motel is a perfect option for those who have an early flight (or late arrival) from the airport.  The motel itself is a lovely motel with a long history on the Gold Coast.  Built in the 1950’s it has a great charm and has been lovingly restored.

We stayed at the La Costa Motel for a night as we had the early 8:40am departure with Air Asia from the airport the next morning so wanted somewhere nice and close.

Location:

The motel is located right across the road from the Gold Coast (Coolangatta) Airport, it is located on a small side street just off the Gold Coast Highway. The location is really quite handy for a number of reasons, being just off the highway means you avoid most of the traffic noise.  It is also a short walk to the airport, or the Motel can actually drop you off depending on when you are leaving.

It is also only a short walk to the beach and close to a number of great restaurants.

Accommodation:

The La Costa has 4 room types, an upstairs One Bedroom Apartment, the Standard Queen Bed Room, Twin Rooms, and a Deluxe room featuring Queen and King Single Beds.

We booked the Standard Room which was perfectly suitable for the two of us.  The room was small but functional.  TV and DVD player, along with a small table and chairs.  There is a sink and fridge along with a Toaster/Microwave.

The fridge has a few minibar type items as well as some fresh milk for coffee/tea.

The owners also supplied a lovely “Breakfast” pack in the fridge which was some toast, yoghurt and juice.  This was a lovely touch as usually with such an early morning departure we miss out on a good breakfast.

The standard by which I judge my rooms is the shower and I am happy to report that despite being small the bathroom was really well laid out and the shower temperature was perfect and pressure good as well.

Overall I can’t fault the rooms for their functionality.  I didn’t get a chance to check out any of the other rooms but I would be interested in seeing the upstairs apartments.  Whilst they are not large in size I would feel comfortable staying here for at least a few nights.

Dinning Options:

Due to some horrific traffic getting here from Brisbane we were both starved so dinner was first thing on our mind.  The owners referred us to a fantastic burger place just a short walk/drive away.  If you are looking for a fantastic place to eat definitely check out – Burger Lounge – located Corner of Musgrave and Douglas Street, Kirra.  I can recommend the Sweet Potato Fries! I had the Beef and Bacon Burger and my wife The Kekovich (Lamb) burger – both were cooked well and tasted amazing.

The whole beach stretch is actually filling up with great restaurants and cafes so you will certainly find something that interests you.

Sleep Quality:

Unfortunately this is the part that let the hotel down.  Being a busy time of year the motel was obviously quite full – the unfortunate part for us was a large group of people from out-of-state who decided to sit outside their room and get drunk at 12am-3am they were loud, swearing, yelling and generally just causing nothing but a disturbance.

We didn’t feel safe going outside to tell them to keep it down, and it appears that perhaps wherever the owners sleep they didn’t hear it or perhaps didn’t care.  But it absolutely ruined our stay, we couldn’t get any sleep at all.

The rooms are not soundproof so virtually every word they said we heard, every footstep on the floor we heard.   The only karma we got was at 5am when I heard one of them quite hungover throwing up in the toilet (Yep that is how much the sound travels through these old buildings!)

Price:

Rates at the Motel range between $99.00/per night to $170/per night in standard times.  Compared to others around it this is actually quite good value.  Many of the other motels have tried to capitalise on their proximity to the airport and put up prices accordingly (without putting up their quality at all).  So La Costa is a great value option.

Overall:

All in all – the La Costa Motel is a great little motel run by some lovely owners, however unfortunately for us the lack of soundproofing and the actions of the other guests tarnished our opinion of the place.  I would love to stay here again but I honestly wouldn’t want to take the risk of not getting any sleep again.

If you are looking for a funky little motel that is different to most of the others on the coast the La Costa is your place.

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