Hamilton Island Travel Guide

Australia is the greatest country in the world. Beautiful beaches, deserted islands, and gorgeous Summer climates are just a few of my favourite things about the incredible country I'm lucky enough to call home.

Last month I visited the beautiful Hamilton Island, one of the Whitsunday Islands, for the first time, and it was hands down the prettiest part of Australia I've encountered.

2017 was an extremely stressful and crazy year for me, as I transitioned from high school to university, started fashion school and multiple internships, and truly made super huge changes in my life. I was desperate for a holiday to start off an expectedly busy 2018 as relaxed and calm as possible, and Hamilton Island was the perfect destination. There was literally a moment where I was sitting on Catseye Beach listening to Ed Sheeran mixed with the sound of the ocean, hooked on finishing a Liane Moriarty novel that I thought, "Yep, I've never been this relaxed in all my life".

Hamilton Island is definitely a destination you need to visit with your partner at some stage in your life. I expected it to be super busy like Noosa, with children and adults crowding the beaches, but this was so far from the truth. There was never more than 30 people at the beach, and at night, it was so quiet. John and I ate late each night and were shocked by how empty each restaurant was, with people tucked into bed before 9.

The biggest highlight for me from my Hamilton Island trip was definitely visiting Whitehaven beach. I had never seen a beach with whiter sand in my life that also had such blue water. It looked straight out of something you'd see in a movie or imagine whilst reading a book. We took a 40 minute boat tour from the Island's marina and then did a walk through the national park to get to the beach and it was worth every minute. It's something that you just have to see and experience in real life, photos do not do it justice.

I was only there for 4 days but I seriously could have spent a week there. You don't even have to do something everyday, just sitting on the beach with a good book was more than enough for me personally. If you were thinking of going I thought I'd write up this post for you guys to experience the best of Hamilton Island there is.

Where We Stayed:

We stayed at the gorgeous Whitsunday Apartments, and it was absolutely perfect for the two of us. Staying in an apartment meant that we had a fully-equipped kitchen to cook meals if we didn't want to walk down to the marina and eat, but mostly just used it for breakfast. The view of Catseye Beach from our balcony was absolutely incredible. Palm trees, white sand and the beautiful blue ocean was amazing to wake up to each morning. Staff were extremely friendly and attentive, with free bus' going to and from the marina every 15 minutes. The shuttle bus was our best friend, as neither of us were able to hire a golf buggy because we were under 21, and the walk up the hill and down the marina became a bit of a trek. One downside of the hotel was the lack of wifi in the apartments, it was only accessible down in the lobby area. I think that the Whitsunday Apartments are amazingly priced for what you get.

Where We Ate:

As a self-titled foodie, having a wide range of good restaurants is extremely important. Whilst Hamilton Island doesn't have many restaurants, there is still quite a few different cuisines to choose from.. There wasn't one meal that I thought wasn't worth the cost, however.

Romanos

If you love Italian food as much as me, you'll love Romanos. I recommend here if you want to go for a fancy dinner whilst you're on the island. Their bread basket and bowl of mussels was my personal favourite, and John's linguini looked amazing.

Cocachu

Ok, so, Cocachu was definitely my favourite restaurant on the Island. We saved here for our last night because all my family friends had told me it was amazing and it certainly did not disappoint. Our waitress here was incredible, super lovely and helpful and didn't force us to order heaps of food. However, we were so obsessed with the menu that our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomach's, and we were in a serious food coma after. Pork buns and the crispy porn and prawn wontons were the best I've ever had. Thai lovers, this is a must for you.

Manta Ray

We went here on our first night and it was amazing, and definitely one of our faves. The seafood pizza is a must to order, drinks are reasonably priced and extremely delicious, and staff were super friendly and attentive.

Marina Cafe

Perfect if you want to order a sandwich or bagel for lunch, although quite expensive for small portion sizes. Do try their caramel iced lattes though, best I've ever had.

Bakery

I was so excited to try the Hamilton Island Bakery's famous pies, and I was not disappointed. Although tip from the wise: do not eat outside at the tables looking out to the marina, because lorikeets and cockatoos will jump up on your shoulder and steal your pie, just saying.

What We Did:

Hamilton Island offers some amazing tours. We did both the Whitehaven Beach tour and the Hook Island Snorkelling tour and they were awesome.

Whitehaven Beach was definitely our favourite because there was a lot of freedom in what you wanted to do. You could do the walk up to the look-out to see the incredible Whitehaven landscape, or head straight to the beach. Only downside was that we had to wear a stinger suit into the water, which made us look absolutely ridiculous but everyone was in the same boat so it was no biggie.

As for the Hook Island Snorkelling tour, we probably wouldn't do it next time. Ideally we wanted to go to the Great Barrier Reef but the tour's don't happen on a Monday and we were leaving the next day, which was so annoying, but none-the-less the Hook Island snorkelling adventure was fab and we still got to experience swimming with fishies and seeing the beautiful coral.

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Thanks for reading...

With Love,

Madyson

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