Whitsunday Islands – Australia’s beach paradise simply luxurious

You may remember my reports from Hawaii, where the persistent rainy and cool weather annoyed me more and more from week to week. Just at that time, I received an email from Tourism Queensland asking if I would like to experience my Australian premiere as part of an international media trip at the end of August. Perfect timing! So my bikini purchase wasn’t for the taker – Queensland is the “Sunshine State” after all. And at this point one thing in advance: Queensland was indeed fantastic weather-wise. Despite the winter season, we were able to enjoy pleasant 25°C to 28°C, lots of blue skies and some photogenic fair-weather clouds. A dream, I’ll tell you!

At the end of August, beginning of September, I travelled through parts of Queensland for ten days with an international group of bloggers and journalists. As a prelude to my Australia series here on the blog, I show you one of the most beautiful island landscapes of the Eastern Australian coast – the Whitsunday Islands. We were given the opportunity to try out both low-cost and more expensive, “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences during three days on site. So you will find a suitable tip for almost every travel budget here. But beware, scrolling on might awaken your wanderlust.

50 Shades of Blue on the way to the Whitsunday Islands

As a prelude to our three-day stay in the Whitsunday Islands, one of these “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences awaits us at Whitsunday Airport near Airlie Beach. At the small airfield, GSL Aviation takes off with Cessnas for panoramic sightseeing flights over the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef in front of it. And exactly such a sightseeing flight is now on our program. There is a window seat for each of us and after a short safety briefing by the pilot, we take off. For the next 60 minutes, I almost press my nose against the window and take pictures like crazy. We fly from Airlie Beach first via Long Island towards Hamilton Island, then pass the famous Hill Inlet and make an arc along Whitehaven Beach, where we will camp the following day.

Then the Cessna turns east, flies over the open sea until we reach the reef belt of the Great Barrier Reef. The photo highlight here is the Heart Reef, the crossing of which the pilot announces with “three, two, one”, but unfortunately I don’t understand at one moment what exactly it is about. I seem to be the only one on the plane who has never heard of Heart Reef, let alone seen a picture. Well, yes… now I know that the heart-shaped reef is one of Australia’s most popular photo subjects. But I don’t mourn the missed Heart Reef, because the Great Barrier Reef can enchant me in other ways. Those blues and those textures! Beautiful! The cost of the one-hour sightseeing flight is 229 Australian dollars (around 150 CHF) and is therefore of course a veritable budget item – but it is worth it.

Airlie Beach – Starting point to the Whitsunday Islands

Back from the sightseeing flight, I use the remaining time of the afternoon for a stroll through Airlie Beach. The lively small town is the gateway to the Whitsundays. From here, the day and multi-day tours to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef start. Most of the shops and restaurants are located along Shute Harbour Road. Here you can stock up on provisions for the upcoming days in the Whitsundays, as long as you will explore them individually and not with all-inclusive tours. Right in front of it is the Airlie Beach Lagoon. In this palm-fringed green area with a public outdoor pool, you will meet both locals and tourists splashing in the water or chilling on the lawn.

Airlie Beach is not only wonderfully relaxed, but also has one or two nice restaurant options up its sleeve. We recommend the seafood étagère at Fish D’vine – although the portions are so huge that it’s best to share them with two or three. Another great choice is the Clippers Restaurant at the Coral Sea Resort. The pier right in front of it is considered the best sunset spot in Airlie Beach.

Boat tour to Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach

From Airlie Beach, various tour operators offer day trips to the Whitsunday Islands. We spent a day on the road with one of the small boats of Ocean Rafting and visited the viewpoint “Hill Inlet” at the northern end of Whitehaven Beach and made a detour to Border Island. While we admired the beautiful sandy beach of Whitehaven Beach from the Cessna, the Hill Inlet offers the well-known postcard motif over the bay, which shimmers in all imaginable turquoise nuances. From a photographic point of view, it is particularly interesting at low tide, as this is when the sand structures come into their own.

Hill Inlet Lookout and Whitehaven Beach are part of the Whitsunday Islands National Park. Accessibility to the national park is regulated – only a limited number of tour operators are allowed per day. A day trip with Ocean Rafting costs 159 Australian dollars – plus 16 dollars extra for lunch (as of 2018). By the way, the buffet set up on the boat really surprised me. Ocean Rafting offers an all-round carefree package that gives you a good overview of the most beautiful and popular places on the Whitsunday Islands in one day.

My highlight of the tour with Ocean Rafting was the stop and the short hike on Border Island. There are not the classic photo motifs here, but lonely (and no less beautiful) beach bays. Alternatively, these remote bays can also be approached individually with a bareboat charter or with a kayak (and corresponding paddling stamina).

Camping on Queensland’s most beautiful beach

If you have more than just one day for the Whitsundays and don’t mind a bit of Robinson Crusoe feeling, I recommend a tent night on the most beautiful beach in Queensland. At the southern end of Whitehaven Beach there is a campsite with minimal infrastructure (two biological toilets), which is the ideal base to experience the dream beach when all the day-trippers and tour operators are long back in the harbour of Airlie Beach. Since it is a campsite in a national park, you have to book a permit for it. This costs 6.55 Australian dollars per person/night. If you don’t bring your own camping equipment to Australia, you can rent a complete camping kit for two to three people from Whitsunday Island Camping Connections (cost 50 Australian dollars for the complete kit – 25 dollars per additional night). The same company also offers boat transport from Airlie Beach out to one of the camping spots (including kayak transport if desired). In addition to the campsite at Whitehaven Beach, there are another eight campsites on the Whitsunday Islands. If you are fit and don’t shy away from some action, it’s best to plan a week and paddle with the kayak from one dream beach to the next.

The one night at Whitehaven Beach made me really “happy” for this adventure and I thought it was a pity that we returned to Airlie Beach the next day. The most beautiful moments at Whitehaven Beach are definitely those when all the day visitors are gone, the last rays of sunshine make the white beach glow red and then you cook something fine in the light of headlamps.

The next morning we set off on the 3.5 kilometre long Chance Bay track, which leads across the island to another beautiful bay. This hike takes a good two to three hours – if you want to refresh yourself in the water in Chance Bay, you may be on the road longer.

Relaxing on Hamilton Island

For our last day in the Whitsundays, we head for Hamilton Islands. While Whitsunday Island with Whitehaven Beach is free of any commercial infrastructure (except for the toilets and the tour operators who anchor in front of the beach with their ships), Hamilton Island with its resort facilities including golf course, marina and various restaurants forms the total contrast. The accommodation on offer ranges from self-catering bungalows to classic hotel rooms and the multi-award-winning luxury resort “qualia“. We spent one night at the Reef View Hotel, whose architectural appearance doesn’t convince me from the outside – just a typical “hotel box”. However, at the sight of the spacious and beautifully designed rooms and especially the really great view from the upper floors, I have to revise my opinion. First impressions don’t always count.

Hamilton Island is the ideal place to relax for two or three days and read an exciting book on deck chairs in the shade of the palm trees. If your stomach is rumbling in between, then you can do everything right with a detour to the Manta Ray restaurant. There are really good drinks (in a price range that probably only Zurich residents don’t shock) and delicious – not quite so expensive pizzas (cost around 25 Australian dollars).

Ach ja; so richtig kitschig schöne Sonnenaufgänge kann Hamilton Island natürlich auch!

Tipps für deinen Aufenthalt auf den Whitsunday Islands

• Der nächst gelegene grössere Flughafen ist Proserpine Airport (auch Whitsunday Coast Airport genannt). Dieser liegt gut zwei Flugstunden nördlich von Brisbane. Ich bin von Zürich aus mit Thai Airways via Bangkok nach Brisbane geflogen und danach mit Virgin Australia von Brisbane nach Proserpine. Hamilton Island hat einen eigenen Flughafen – die Flüge dorthin sind aber vergleichsweise teuer.
• In Airlie Beach haben wir im Airlie Beach Hotel übernachtet, das mit grosszügigen Zimmern und gutem Wi-Fi überzeugt. Die Kosten fürs Standard-Doppelzimmer betragen rund 160 CHF.
• Alternativ zu Ocean Rafting bietet auch Cruise Whitsundays Tages- sowie Halbtagestouren zum Whitehaven Beach an. Beachtet, dass in der Regel nur die Tagestouren den Abstecher zum Hill Inlet Lookout mit dabei haben.
• Das Camping-Permit könnt ihr online über die offizielle Seite der Queensland Nationalparks buchen.
• Die verschiedenen Camping-Spots in den Whitsundays sind hier im Detail aufgelistet.
• Mehr Informationen zum Kayak-Tourenangebot findet ihr bei Salty Dog Kayak.
• Extratipp: nehmt Mückenspray mit, wenn ihr auf den Whitsunday Islands zeltet – die Sandfliegen sind sonst gnadenlos.

Hinweis: zu dieser Recherchereise wurde ich von Tourism and Events Queensland eingladen. Vielen Dank hierfür. Alle Eindrücke und Meinungen sind wie immer die meinen.