Airlie Beach Off The Beaten Path

The sea around Airlie Beach can be off limits for some of the year (see Warnings and Dangers tip ) so the lagoon is the best place to spend the day, as we walked around the area we came across a number of these little statues depicting Australian wildlife.

We spent our fifth night at Cataran Bay, Border Island while on the boat. It was a great place to stop and do some snorkelling. The snorkelling was the best of the places we visited in the Whitsundays - the water was very clear and there were lots of fish.

We also stopped at Dumbell Island quickly on our way over to Whitsunday Island for another snorkel...

There are no camping or toilet facilities on Border Island or Dumbell Island...but you should have everything you need on your boat anyway. :)

We spent some time on and around Whitsunday Island... We anchored at Cid Habour, Turtle Bay, Whitehaven Beach and Tongue Bay. We also did some good hikes, fishing, snorkelling, swimming and relaxing there.

Whitsunday Island is the biggest of the islands and is well known because of the amazing Whitehaven Beach.

On Whitsunday Island you will find camping facilities, toilets, picnic areas and tap water at various locations around the island.

We stopped at Hook Island quite a few times while on our boat trip since it is such a big island...

We managed to visit Nara Inlet, Stonehaven, Butterfly Bay, Manta Ray Bay, Macona Inlet and the Hook Island resort/observatory.

We went into the observatory and fed the fish from the jetty...while we were there we saw "George" a huge Maori Wrasse fish along with lots of smaller fish.

Hook Island has some camping areas, snorkelling, fishing, beaches etc.

While in the Whitsundays make sure you go snorkelling somewhere around the islands or reef. We snorkelled around Whitsunday Island and Hook Island and saw some fantastic corals and fish!

I had never been snorkelling before but after a few minutes in waist deep water trying to get my breathing right, I was ready to go out to the coral... I never guessed it could be so beautiful underwater! I would totally recommend you give it a go!

Whitehaven Beach is a very famous and beautiful beach. It is 6 kms of pure white silica sand.

For the best view of Whitehaven Beach you should do the walk from Tongue Bay to the lookout but it is also nice to spend some time on the beach too. From the lookout we got a fantastic view of the beach and Hill Inlet - it was low tide so we got to see all of the sandbars and it was beautiful!

We spent one night anchored at Whitehaven and spent a lot of time on the beach. :)

South Molle Island is a very popular resort for families... It has a great pool, golf course, tennis courts, many hiking tracks, water sports, shops, bar & restaurants etc. It woud be my pick of those I saw if we went to a resort at the Whitsundays...

We spent our seventh night at Hamilton Island in the marina. We spent some time down at the resort pool drinking cocktails and relaxing then had dinner at a nice restaurant...

Hamilton Island was our first real brush with civilisation since getting on our boat. The sleep wasn't too good since the nightclub is right next to the marina and the music played till the early hours of the morning...but the water was calm and our ear plugs worked well... ;)