Whitsunday Island, Australia

Words aren’t enough to describe the beauty of Whitehaven Beach. Unless you have touched the sand on this beautiful beach you can’t understand the feeling. Oh that feeling - soaking the sun lying on the pristine white sand beach which is 99% silica gel. Tell you a secret - the sand is best to exfoliate your skin and I exactly did that sitting on the beach, sipping my beer and scrubbing my feet hahaha!!!!

Whitsunday islands national park

I went there for a 3 day trip and here is what all you can do:

Accommodation:

You first need a good place to rest before getting ready to hit the road. I decided to stay at Airlie Beach as its more convenient than Hamilton island in regards to commuting and being able to explore places easily.

I stayed @ Whitsunday on the beach. Highly recommend this motel just not for the friendly staff, clean room but of its location. The famous Airlie Beach Lagoon is right behind the motel, pretty much like a private lagoon. I would just walk out the back gate, swim and get back to my room for shower. It’s centrally located with practically everything within walking distances. An awesome pub right opposite to it with live music, pool and great crowd. Supermarket is also nearby for all your grocery needs.

Link to Whitsunday on the beach: https://www.whitsundayonthebeach.com/

Now that the accommodation is sorted, here are the things I did:

Sea Kayaking

I am a big fan of kayaking and I do try and do sea kayaking whenever visiting a new place. This one is always going to be a special one for me. I not only spotted a few turtles but had a surprise visitor - a DUGONG. Their sighting is rare but I was one of the lucky ones woohoo!

For those who don't know what Dugongs are - they are also knows as sea cows and eat seagrass. They are very shy and curious. This one definitely was a curious bee and kept lifting his head out of water which initially gave me the scare coz I thought it was a great white shark (blame jaws for this) :D

It’s a 2 hrs unguided kayaking but the operator is very helpful and provides all the details of the route to be taken. You kayak towards an island and visit a shipwreck which has loads of sea grass and hence a perfect place for dugongs to wander and live.

And again, this is walking distance from our accommodation (Woohoo!!)

Google image

Coral Reefs

The ocean has never stopped to surprise me. It always has so much to show us, reminding us of our sheer existence and how tiny we as humans are on this planet. I feel sad to see how we humans are exploiting this beautiful gift we have and how we are ruining it.

We took Ocean Rafting as our tour operator and I must say they are one of the most fun tour operators I have been with. With only 35 passengers, high speed jet boat, music, wind blowing in my hair, it could just not get better :D

This tour has 2 options:

1)      2 snorkelling tours and short trip to Whitehaven beach, walk to Hill Inlet lookout

2)      1 snorkelling tours which gives you more time to spend at Whitehaven beach, walk to hill inlet lookout. Spot sting rays and tiger sharks in the water.

I chose option 1 as I wanted to snorkel more and spend more time at Hill Inlet.

The reefs were extremely beautiful with fishes in various shapes and sizes, and YES, I did spot a nemo :D

Hill Inlet lookout

Hill Inlet lookout

Cruise on Whitsunday

This is the only operating cruise in Whitsunday which takes you to the outer reef. It’s roughly a 3 hrs journey into the ocean where their pontoon is anchored. The ticket pretty much includes everything i.e. snorkelling, lunch, leisure time on the deck. One needs to pay extra for scuba diving, guided snorkelling tour. They also have a night stay on the reef, I couldn’t do it but have heard great reviews about it. Do read about it and see if you can fit it into your itinerary

And guess what - on our way to the pontoon we spotted a baby Hammerhead shark so keep a lookout for spotting marine life when on the cruise.

Link to Cruise on Whitsunday: https://www.cruisewhitsundays.com/

Walk around Airlie Beach at your own leisure pace

The place is so small one can pretty much walk around the entire area and cover the place in 1 day. Happy Walking :)

Hamilton Island

I never visited the island except overlooking it when our cruise had halted to pick a few other passengers but honestly in my opinion one must go there if you want to stay in nice resorts and just relax.

Link for more information on Hamilton island: https://www.hamiltonisland.com.au/en

Salty Sea Dog Kayaking

This looked to be an amazing experience but again I couldn’t do it due to lack of time. Here’s the link, hope it helps you guys :) - https://www.saltydog.com.au/