The big chill

The Whitsundays is the sort of place you fantasise about when in lockdown, or sitting bleary eyed on a commuter train. You picture shallow blue water and sunshine, mangoes for breakfast, and all day in bare feet. You imagine finding Nemo on a reef, snoozing under a palm tree, and ice tinkling in cocktails as the sun sets.

The Whitsundays is a great escape valve. Only eight of its 74 islands are inhabited, and most lie within national park, so finding a beach or bay to yourself isn’t hard. At the same time, the region is easily accessible, with an airport on Hamilton Island and at Proserpine on the mainland, and a ready choice of accommodations from ultra-luxe retreats to hotels and holiday homes. If you favour exclusivity, Hayman Island has an InterContinental resort that attracts honeymooners and those celebrating significant anniversaries. Diminutive Daydream Island, which underwent a $140-million refurbishment just before the pandemic, has a more family-oriented resort.

Hamilton Island is the most developed of the Whitsundays, though that’s not to saying much. The airport is tiny, nature reserves cover three-quarters of the island, and the loudest noise is the hum of the golf buggies that are the only form of transport. Still, this low-key island does supply holiday distractions from go-karting to mini-golf, spa retreats to a wildlife park. 

The main beach is Catseye, a clichéd curve of white sand under leaning palm trees where you could spend happy days splashing across the sand flats, snorkelling in the gin-clear water or turning a languid page of the latest paperback.

Bushland provides an opportunity to stretch the legs and further destress – early risers should hoof up to the island’s high point Passage Peak for lurid sunrises. Meanwhile golfers will want to hop over to Dent Island, which has a superb (but challenging) 18-hole, par 71 championship course designed by five-time British Open winner Peter Thomson. Strong winds, bushland and rucked terrain test your skills, although spectacular scenery is compensation.

Those inclined towards more variety and worried about being marooned on an island should consider staying on the mainland. Gateway Airlie Beach sprawls around several bays and is a lively resort town with no shortage of tour companies to take you on scenic flights, ocean kayaking adventures, jet-ski safaris and fishing tours. You still have day-trip access to islands such as nearby Hook, Long and South Molle, which are attractively draped in rainforest where emerald doves flutter and goannas lurk.

More to the point, the surprisingly overlooked hinterland is a patchwork of rainforest, mango orchards and sugarcane fields surrounding slow-paced towns such as seaside Bowen and farming centre Proserpine. Hike up Mt Whitsunday for its panorama, putter through coastal wetlands or along the Proserpine River by boat to spot crocodiles, and take a refreshing dip beneath Cedar Creek Falls. Keen walkers could tackle the three-day, 30-kilometre Whitsunday Great Walk.

Wherever you stay, the classic day excursion is Whitehaven Beach, where impossibly blue sea fizzes against a fabled beach of blinding white sand so icing-sugar powdery it squeaks underfoot as your toes curl in pleasure. Bring a bottle of chilled champagne and some prawns – this place is worthy of a celebration, if not a marriage proposal. Small wonder Whitehaven features regularly on bucket lists of world’s best beaches.

Take a scenic flight, because Whitehaven Beach from the air is a staggering swirl of white and blue wonder. From the windows of your aircraft or helicopter, blues in every shade unfurl like a mad abstract painting – pale turquoise shallows, a peacock sheen over reefs, navy depths in the ocean. You’ll also make a pass over iconic Heart Reef, embedded in blue-green water like an improbable Fabergé jewel.

The Whitsundays, entangled in the Great Barrier Reef, are just as marvellous below the water. Turtles, manta rays and harmless reef sharks are the most eye-catching creatures, but whether you snorkel or scuba-dive you’ll be surrounded by shoals of blue-and-marigold damsel fish, parrot fish and angelfish with supermodel pouts and trailing fins. Below are forests of coral studded with anemones, sponges and carbuncled giant clams that open up to reveal mauve flesh dotted with electric blue.

Don’t care to get wet? Reefsuites pontoon moored at Hardy Reef provides Australia’s first underwater guestrooms whose floor-to-ceiling glass walls allow guests to commune with glittering shoals of minnows, larger surgeonfish and fusiliers, and perhaps a passing visit from George, a three-metre Queensland grouper. Wake up in the morning and you’ll feel like a mermaid as pouting fish wander past beyond your bed.

Another alternative accommodation option is to charter a crewed yacht from Hamilton Island. If you don’t know starboard from stern never mind – just loll on cushions like a pasha and let the skipper do the work. Meander past deserted beaches and leap into water blue as a Hollywood swimming pool, where batfish and purple-lipped wrasse swim sedately past. Anchor overnight in an undisturbed bay. Nothing beats sunset from the deck of a trim yacht as you tuck into a seafood dinner. Time seems to slow, stress peels away, and the only sounds are seabirds’ calls and the pop of a wine cork. Then lie back, listen to jazz music and let the stars dazzle you. As getaways go, it could hardly be better.