Those things, often food-or-beverage based, will keep travellers returning to the area as much as the sun, sand and surf will, and they'll soon spend as many days in the coast's hinterland as they do on the beaches of places such as Mooloolaba.

As with most things touristy, a good place to start is with a reliable guide, and you could hardly do better in this case than with Josh Donahoe, owner of Creative Tours and Events.

At least you'll probably end up having a fine beer or ale with a decent meal, but the Sunshine Coast has good enough craft breweries to require a separate story.

Visitors can start their tour, as I did, with a caffeine boost at Tim Adams Specialty Coffee, which isn't really hinterland but instead occupies an out-of-the-way semi-industrial location between Mooloolaba and Caloundra.

Tim shares a name with a famous winemaker from South Australia's Clare Valley, but in his own right is an Australian barista champion and a self-confessed coffee crazy.

He regularly blends his own coffees, visits plantations in remote tropical areas, and is well worth sharing a brew with.

I'll gladly leave the last words to Tim: "Visiting a place like Honduras is so humbling and makes you want to be a better person, to keep driving our business forward so we can help those producers have a better livelihood."

And so say all of us.

Then it's on our four wheels and into the real hinterland.

Look, every tourist area needs its own wine producer, no matter how unsuitable it is for making great wine, and the Sunshine Coast is no different, though Montville's Flame Hill does have a couple of things going for it.

Firstly, its location and outlook are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

Secondly, its management realises that the sub-tropical climate is far from ideal for producing first-class table wines and sources most of its product from the much more suitable Granite Belt to the south.

The total experience, tasting included, is divine.

The next port of call on Josh's itinerary - Maleny Boutique Cheeses - is completely ridgy-didge and an integral part of the area's historic dairy industry.

Let's just say that their product is unimaginably good and creamy. And that their presentation and story are both sublime, and put the district's changes into perspective.

It's a great yarn - and a great tasting.

And then it's on to lunch at Maleny's Brouhaha Brewery, but, as said earlier, that's another call and a separate story.