What

Must Do Brisbane is the guide for discerning Brisbane residents and visitors who believe that life's too short to eat bad food, drink bad coffee, shop exclusively in malls, watch endless TV or waste time searching the web for what the alternatives might be.

Be it where to eat and drink, take a walk, a bike ride, see a show, shop, visit a gallery or a market, take in some history, entertain the children or roam with the dog, we have Brisbane covered, with over 1700 pages or three years of fabulous things to do and see, all tried and tested independently and anonymously by us.

Know where to find the Cypriot cheesemaker who sells from a factory in his house, the secret suburban boutique selling pre-loved Vivienne Westwood, the drive-in you can take the dog to or the coffee lounge in an air raid shelter? How about the latest laneway wine bars, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr's fave Brisbane restaurant in the hills or the BYO food beer den? Or fifty great budget places to eat out with children that don't start with Mc or Hungry, the best 15 family bike rides and the city's only Polish market? We do and they're all on the site along with plenty more gems where they came from.

How

Every week, rain, hail or humidity we trawl the streets of inner and outer Brisbane, on foot, bike, public transport (when we can afford it) and car, leaving no stone unturned and no tunnel un-burrowed to find the great stuff we know is out there, before reviewing and categorizing it so it's all only 2 clicks away. For the easily bored, this means new things are added to the site all the time.

Why

As a totally independent, non-government, no kick-back, no cash for comment website MDB is a bit unusual (and possibly a bit troppo) but what motivates us is a love for our city and an unwavering keenness to share all of the great things we keep finding out there.

When

We (one Editor and writer and a small posse of back-up creative pals) have been doing this for nearly three years now although it took us that long to hand craft and build the Must Do Brisbane website, which was launched in a secret Must Do location in late 2011 and went live shortly after.

Who

I'm Jodi Panayotov, the creator, editor and writer of Must Do Brisbane and in a past life a flight attendant, intrepid world traveller, author and freelance writer. I was born and fled from Brisbane at a tender age when it was illegal to walk five abreast in the street and in recent years I've returned to reacquaint myself with a city that bore almost no resemblance to the one I left.

I'm also a member of the Brisbane Times Bloggers Army so from time to time features from this site appear in Brisbane Times online. And I'm also lucky enough to appear on ABC Radio 612 on the first Saturday of each month to talk about Brisbane 'Must Do's' with Warren Boland and to be a sometime blogger for Gram Magazine, the new Brisbane café culture foodies mag which has just hit our streets fresh from its success in Melbourne.

While after checking out thousands of Brisbane places and things to do, I think I know a fair bit about the place, there's always a lot more to learn, so please send in any suggestions of great places and things to do if you don't see them on the site.

• Send your Brisbane events & suggestions here »