Magical Whitsundays

I don’t even know where to start: with how stunning the Great Barrier Reef is, how magical snorkeling there is or how special Hamilton Island is…

For my second time in the Whitsundays the weather gods were on my side and for most of the trip they provided great weather.

Started off the trip in Airlie Beach and landed on Proserpine airport excited to revisit some places and discover some new ones.

On my first day I settled at my accommodation and then headed out to a sunset cruise, the same I took a couple years ago, when it was rainy and the sunset was not there at all. This time on the other hand, it was beautiful. To natures beauty it contributed connecting on the boat with a lovely elderly couple, Robyn and Fred, who shared their adventures travel stories with me and we enjoyed the sunset cruise together, followed by a lovely dinner back in Airlie beach.

To these days we keep in contact with Robyn and Fred and I’m sure we will meet again. Their invite to Orange is in the back of my mind and one day I’ll honor it.

For the dinner in Airlie Beach my friend Olesia joined as well and we were about to start our first time travel together.

Olesia is a great travel buddy but we needed a bit time together to adjust our travel style.

Probably one of our most memorable travel memory is flying in a helicopter above the Great Barrier Reef. Stunning is an understatement if I want to describe the view. I’ve never quite seen anything like that and I’d encourage anyone to do the helicopter tour prior to the sailing trip.

As I mentioned earlier: sailing trip. Well, that was quite an adventure. I spent two nights on a catamaran with a group of people, sailing around the Whitsundays. Most times the journey was smooth, expect sometimes quite rocky. I didn’t get seasick and I actually enjoyed the whole experience, although as usual, the water activities are always a bit out of my comfort zone. I was the only weak swimmer in the group, so I insisted having a vest while snorkeling. That just gave me enough confidence and comfort to go ahead and explore the wonderful sea world. The amount of colorful fish I’ve seen blew my mind away. The water was cold, but you quickly forget about it when you are distracted with looking at the beautiful coral and fish.

While on the boat, the lovely team looked after us, fed us healthy food and we all had a great experience. Sunbathing on the deck, sharing great travel stories and enjoying the stunning rainbow were just a few things that I cherish now.

One of my favorite memories from the sailing trip was going back to Hill Inlet lookout, where I’ve been a couple years ago but then it was cloudy and rainy, therefore I couldn’t experience the beauty of the colors I did this time. It was a beatiuful sunny day and the view was breathtaking.

It’s always nice to revisit places that once made an impression and Hill Inlet lookout is one of those places for me.

Wandering around Whitsunday Island and exploring Whitehaven beach, seeing up close the stingrays and so much more. Incredible!

But after the sailing trip, what was about to happen was just as amazing. That was Hamilton Island!

Olesia and I were ready for the most fun part of our trip! On our first evening on the island we got a lift in the buggy to One Tree Hill, where we witnessed a beautiful sunset that kept calling us back until the rest of the trip!

The atmosphere, with live music and complementary ice cream were magical. The palm trees with the sunset looked out of a fairytale.

The following day we had our own buggy to drive around and in a short time we covered pretty much the whole island, taking strangers for a lift when we had the chance. Driving around in the buggy was quite an experience and filled our hearts with lots of joy and with this opportunity I’ll give a shoutout to Olesia, who did the whole driving around with a smile on her face.

Pierre, as I named our buggy , took us around the whole island and we enjoyed it so much.

We had beautiful sunsets and sunrises, saw plenty of kangaroos and enjoyed the laid back Hamilton Island style.

We were fortunate to stay 2 minutes walk from Catseye beach, where we caught a beautiful sunrise on our last day and at the cafe had our morning coffee too.

In support of our lovely travel community we also hope that we brought a smile to Harriet, who was celebrating her birthday. We don’t personally know Harriet, but in the travel community we are all friends.

I won’t lie, it was not easy to wave goodbye to Hamilton Island. And I believe I’ll be back one day and maybe, just maybe, I’ll be driving around in another Pierre.

That being said, Hamilton Island and the Whitsundays were quite a good experience, considering that in the midst of all the positive, a bit of negative squeezed in too, in the form of a bad news regarding my on going visa battle. It will be all fine, I kept reminding myself, while enjoying as much as I could, but still having this in the back of my mind…

To summarize, I’d like to leave you with this: if Whitsundays and Hamilton Island are on your list, go sooner rather than later and definitely do a helicopter tour, push yourself out of your comfort zone and don’t skip snorkeling and if you have the chance drive around a buggy on Hamilton Island – these activities will not only give you amazing memories but will stay with you forever!