Portside Whitsunday

More Amazing Views at Airlie Beach

by cnango

Airlie Beach is such a beautiful place with the clear blue skies, beautiful bush and pristine beaches. These pictures were all taken at different times and from different angles from our hotel balcony.

Tex Mex in Airlie Beach

by betska about Cactus Jack's

Good atmosphere and very nice frozen margaritas. The meals were very large. My tasting plate however was a bit cold. Mum's Barramundi was delicious.

The bill all out was A$54 they had some kind of deal with the frozen margaritas.

Happy hour 5 till 7pm daily with a good cocktail/mocktail list. Prices $5.50 - $10
Beer $4 - $6.50

Wednesdays - Margaritas & Coronas Cactus Hour Prices all Night I would go for the barramundi.

Knuckle Reef Cruise

by aussirose

Well a trip to the Whitsundays is not a holiday unless you do some snorkling, diving, coral viewing and plenty of eating & drinking.

And what better way than to book a day trip out to Knuckle Reef....a pontoon in the outter reef that has it all!!

Even if you have never snorkled before....the team there look after you and with the guide and plenty of float stuff....all you need to do is to look down and enjoy the coral and colourful reef fish :o)

We had a fantastic day out at Knuckle Reef with Cruise Whitsundays and I can totally recommend this trip!!

Knuckle Reef

by lou31

Knuckle Reef lies about 100 k's out on the Greater Barrier Reef. To get there you board the luxury liner Seaflight with Cruise Whitsundays for a full day of fun activities, great food and wonderful surroundings.
All meals including morning and afternoon tea plus a scrumptious lunch are included in the price. Free tea, coffee, milo and biscuits are available all day.
Some of the free activities on the pontoon are snorkling, reef viewing from a glass bottom boat and a semi submerged vessel. Swimming, sunbathing and there is a fun waterslide as well.
Added extras include skuba diving, helicopter flights and massages.
Seaflight leaves at 8am and returns at 6pm. Free coach transfers to Abel Point Marina from local destinations are also included.
Cost is $199 per person. This may sound expensive but with all food included plus a full days entertainment it is a bargain and not to be missed.

1st Leg of the Tour: Airlie Beach

by RachelSmith

"Airlie Beach"

Ok... just incase you didn't read the Queensland section, in brief, we came here with the parents for a surprise visit. What can i tell you??

Airlie Beach is the typical backpacker resort. Pretty much a main street filled with the obligatory bars, hostels and shops. We of course opted for a lagoon-front villa... which actually turned out to be not so much a villa than a budget motel-type suite. Ah well... we weren't there to stay in the room!!

We had a few options to chose from on seeing the Whitsunday Islands, but being from West Cumbria, we opted for one that concentrated on Whitehaven (for those of you that didn't realise, Whitehaven, England is where i was born and my parents married)... So after a bit of travel-desk research we decided on the Whitehaven Express trip. Well worth the $99. There were a few other options, but this was definitely the right choice. We had a full day out on the boat, stopping at Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach... had a nice BBQ lunch on the beach, then got a chance to snorkel on the fringing reef off one of the other islands. The view from Hill Inlet is absolutely stunning... and i can confirm that this has no resemblance to Whitehaven, Cumbria. I don't know what it was named after, but i would hazard a guess that if it was named by a 'Cumbrian deserter' , he would not be going back home!!! We only had about 20mins to enjoy the view from Hill Inlet, but you could literally look out for hours. Just beautiful (see pic below).

Anyway... as for Airlie... there's really not much to do if you're not part of the drink-every-night crowd... so given the lack of choice, we joined them. There was some rugby match on, so my dad opted for Beaches - an absolutely typical traveller bar... we were probably the only family in there... but my parents can be relatively cool, so we enjoyed it all the same!!! In fact, my mum and Ali went home early, leaving me and my dad with a couple of jugs of alcohol... and while i was in the loo, he proceeded to get chatted up by a drunken Austrian woman!!! All very amusing, but i suppose you'd have to be there.

There's not much else i can tell you about this particular visit, but there will be more on Visit 2!!

"Whitehaven!"

This is Whitehaven... and although this picture is pretty amazing, i actually don't think it does any justice.

"More Whitehaven!"

This is the view we had to put up with for 2 hours. Oh such torture!!!!!
Here's a tip that you'll probably hear a million times if you visit... if you have any jewellry, rub it with the sand and it will come up sparkling... something to do with the fineness of the grains... and it does work!!!