Best Rooftop Bars on the Gold Coast

The Gold Coast stacks its best drinking nineteen floors up. Nineteen at The Star in Broadbeach sits on the 19th floor with an infinity pool and skyline views, open evenings (check current days). The Island Rooftop in Surfers Paradise is the city's largest open-air rooftop bar, free to enter, with live music Thursday to Sunday. Cocktails run roughly A$20 to A$26 across the coast as of mid-2026, and most rooftops peak between 8pm and 11pm before the precinct's 3am last drinks.

That is the short version. The longer one matters, because "rooftop bar" on the Gold Coast covers three very different nights: a dressed-up sky-high lounge, a free Californian deck with a stage, and a daytime pool club that runs into the evening. Pick the wrong one and you will be in swimwear at a champagne bar or in a button-down at a beach-volleyball pool. Here is how to read each.

What is the best rooftop bar on the Gold Coast?

Nineteen at The Star is a rooftop lounge bar and restaurant on the 19th floor at The Star Gold Coast in Broadbeach. It has the height nothing else on the coast matches: an infinity pool that reads like it spills toward the Pacific, floating VIP booths, daybeds, and panoramic views over the high-rises and the ocean. The bar runs evening sessions, though the exact days shift, so check The Star's current What's On before you head up. A late-afternoon arrival turns the terrace into the city's best golden-hour seat.

Expect to pay for the view. Cocktails sit at the top of the coast's range, A$25 and up, and prime daybeds or booths carry minimum spends. Dress smart-casual to dressy; The Star runs its own dress standard and ID scanning at the door, so leave the thongs and singlets at the apartment. If you want one rooftop that justifies a proper night, this is it. Book a table rather than chancing a walk-in on a weekend.

Surfers Paradise rooftops worth your time

Surfers is where most visitors stay, and it has the loudest, most accessible rooftops. The Island Rooftop, atop The Island hotel, is billed as the largest open-air rooftop bar in Surfers: a Californian-coastal deck heavy on greenery, with a stage for live music and DJs Thursday to Sunday. Entry is free, which is the headline. You pay only for drinks, with cocktails around A$20 to A$26 and schooners roughly A$10 to A$14. The trade-off is the crowd. From late afternoon on a Saturday it fills fast and the railing spots with the best outlook go first, so get there before sunset.

A short ride inland, The Exhibitionist Bar is a rooftop bar on Level 5 of the HOTA gallery, the coast's arts precinct. It looks across the Nerang River waterways to the hinterland rather than the beach, and the cocktail list literally changes with each major exhibition. It runs daytime into the evening alongside the gallery, so check the current days before you go, and the crowd skews arts-and-aperitivo rather than pub-crawl. Casual dress is fine. This is the rooftop for a calmer first drink, not a 1am dancefloor.

The third Surfers option is a different animal entirely.

Cali Beach: rooftop pool club, not a wine bar

Cali Beach is a rooftop pool club at 21a Elkhorn Avenue in Surfers Paradise, a large multi-pool deck with multiple bars, a beach-volleyball sandpit and an outdoor cinema. General walk-in entry is free, though some daytime sessions carry a small cover (around A$20 from late morning to early evening on busier days as of mid-2026), and the venue makes its money on cabanas and daybeds that come with a minimum spend.

The energy here is day-into-night: house and commercial DJs, swimwear poolside in the afternoon, smart-casual once the lights drop. If your group wants a pool-party rooftop rather than a quiet sundowner, this is the Surfers answer. It is also a strong pre-game before the Orchid Avenue clubs, since you are already on the strip. For a wider look at the late-night side of town, our Gold Coast nightlife guide maps the club row and the precinct rules.

If the pool-club format is your thing, it is worth comparing the three big daytime venues, because they target very different crowds and budgets.

Beach clubs and pool clubs compared

Venue	Area	Vibe	Entry / cost
Cali Beach	Surfers Paradise (Elkhorn Ave)	Free-entry rooftop pool party, multiple pools, DJs	Free walk-in; cabanas/daybeds with minimum spend
Isoletto Pool Club	The Star, Broadbeach	Polished rooftop pool club, skyline views	Poolside access; cabanas with minimum spend
Haven Pool Club	Mondrian, Burleigh Heads	Third-floor pool and sunset bar above the beach	Reservations; dining and cabanas, smart resort-wear

Isoletto Pool Club is the Broadbeach counterpart to Cali Beach, a rooftop pool club at The Star with skyline views and a more upmarket, resort-wear crowd. Haven Pool Club opened in 2025 on the third floor of the Mondrian in Burleigh Heads, Australia's first Mondrian hotel, and its sunset bar sits right above Burleigh Beach. Haven is the one to book if your priority is the ocean and a sundowner rather than a DJ and a dancefloor.

Broadbeach and Burleigh: the grown-up end

Broadbeach is the polished half of the coast, built around The Star, and it carries the best of the high-end rooftop drinking: Nineteen for the view, Isoletto for the pool, and a tram line that drops you a short walk from both. It is the smarter night out, lighter on the chaos that defines Surfers after midnight.

Burleigh Heads is the locals' end, a surf town with a tight bar strip around Justin Lane and the headland. The rooftop story here is smaller but real. Justin Lane is a multi-level pizzeria and bar with a popular rooftop, an easy starting point for a Burleigh crawl, while Burleigh Pavilion on Goodwin Terrace is the beachfront drinking institution, a 600-capacity bar where the headland sunset is the whole point. Neither is a sky-high rooftop in the Nineteen sense, but for a relaxed evening above the beach they beat anything in Surfers. Venues here close earlier than the Surfers precinct, so plan an earlier night. If craft cocktails are more your speed, the best bars on the Gold Coast covers the Nobby Beach speakeasies and Burleigh wine bars in detail.

When to go, what it costs, and getting home

Sunset is the move for almost every rooftop on this list, so aim to be seated by 5pm to 5:30pm in summer. The drinking window is short by big-city standards: the Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach Safe Night Precincts run last drinks at 3am, no shots after midnight, and venues can apply a 1am lockout, so if you plan to roll from a rooftop into a club, be inside your final venue before 1am.

On price, budget roughly A$20 to A$26 a cocktail, A$10 to A$14 a schooner (happy hours on the strip can drop schooners to A$6 to A$8 between about 3pm and 6pm), and remember tipping is not expected anywhere in Australia. The high season runs September to February, peaking December and January, and the coast hits its loudest during Schoolies in late November, roughly 21 to 27 November in 2026, when Surfers is saturated. If you want a calm rooftop in that window, head to Broadbeach or Burleigh.

Getting home is the last call to plan. The G:link light rail connects Helensvale, Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach but stops around midnight most nights with later Friday and Saturday service, so for a post-3am exit, rideshare is the default. A short Surfers-to-Broadbeach trip typically runs A$15 to A$30, with surge spiking hard at closing and through Schoolies. Use the marked ranks, carry physical photo ID for the door scanners, and you will get the height, the views, and a clean ride back.