Adelaide -> Brisbane -> Whitsunday Coast (Proserpine)
2 days does not sound like it would be sufficient time to spend in such a stunning part of Australia, however it totally can be.
My friend and I arrived on Friday morning and left on Sunday morning. We flew from Adelaide to Brisbane on the Thursday night, then from Brisbane to Proserpine on Friday morning.
Here’s what went down:
Friday:
- Arrived at Whitsunday Coast airport (smallest airport I have ever been to, it almost did not feel real). There were 2 gates.
- Bus to Airlie beach – 40 minute journey. No need to book in advance. $35 pp.
- checked into hostel – Magnums backpackers. Wasn’t awful, wasn’t great – our air-con was rather temperamental – not fab when it’s 30+ degrees and extremely humid.
- Wandered about the area – there was a market on when we arrived – picked up some cute sea life anklets.
- Found a place for lunch – food and drink for $15…. Turns out the drink was a schooner which wasn’t quite what us Scottish gals were wanting – where the pints at? Still, decent deal as most places were quite expensive for food.
- Post lunch chill at the lagoon: You aren’t allowed to swim in the sea so the lagoon is where everyone’s at. The lagoon was bliss, but also hilarious. Everyone looked like they were crocodiles. It is so shallow you can’t really swim properly in it and so just kind of float around, like crocs ready to pounce. It was such a perfect temperature – literally like being in a bath.
- Dinner: Chinese
- Ate too much food to deal with drinking more, and wanted to feel good for our boat trip the next morning, so a cocktail and quiet night it was.
NOTE: Airlie beach is TINY – it is literally one street. It can be seen rather quickly!
2nd NOTE: None (or at least pretty much none) of the restaurants are facing out onto the water – bit of a shame when you want a drink but don’t want to be stuck in a bar/looking out to a street. Something that could be improved upon!
Saturday:
Boat trip: Camira (it was a purple catamaran. I like purple.)
1 day trip (8am – 6pm)
Booked through Peterpans Travel.
This day was amazing. Despite only doing a 1 day tour we saw so much.
– 7:30am arrive at marina for departure of boat at 8am.
– Depart. Safety briefing, tea/coffee/soft drinks/biscuits, stinger suits and snorkels. Sailing out to reef for snorkelling.
– Make it to reef. Disembark catamaran and get in the sea!!!
Snorkeling was, again, a fail on my part. Similar to when I went swimming with dolphins, I forgot that to snorkel you do not face down. Consequently, I repeatedly got water in my snorkel so bad I could not breathe and may as well not have been wearing a snorkel at all. That aside, it was incredible. It was such a beautiful day that the visibility in the water was great. I loved seeing schools of fish swimming past – some of the fish were just SO tiny! The Dory fish were my favourite. Unfortunately, there were no turtles or Nemo fish to be seen. The reef was just amazing!!!!!! So much intricate detail, so many different colours, all hiding beneath the sea.. LOVED it.
I felt as though we had been in the water for about 10 minutes when they told us it was time to get back on the boat. It had in fact been more around 50 minutes. Luckily, we were quick off the mark and were part of the first group of people to get into the water therefore getting the most time to snorkel – be ready to go. Get in the water asap because time FLIES.
- 11am – back on boat. Bar opens and snacks available. En route to Whitehaven beach.
- Approaching Whitehaven beach: Beautiful.
- Made it to Whitehaven beach where we were free to do what we pleased for around 1.5 hours. Swim (still wearing stinger suits as it was stinger season!), take photos, have a walk, chill on the beach.
The water was crystal clear. The sand pure white. Awesome fact about the sand: it is silica sand, therefore does not retain heat – perfect on a roasting hot day like the many they get in the Whitsundays. The beach is so long and stunning. It is quiet because it is mainly just tour boats that take people there, and ours appeared to be one of just a few there. Despite there being tour boats, it did not feel like a total tourist trap as it was such a peaceful and chilled out spot.
- Back on boat. Bbq lunch.
- The next couple of hours were just for chilling out on the water enjoying the sunshine and beautiful scenery. In other words, we sailed around all the islands (74 islands – so many!) while enjoying the unlimited complimentary supply of beer and wine (Jacob’s Creek wine apparently became my favourite drink here….). Music playing, sun shining – dream.
- 6pm – arrived back at Airlie beach.
- Grabbed some food for dinner then headed back out to the hostel bar for pitchers of cider (none of this schooner nonsense!). Pretty chilled night despite all day drinking!
Sunday: Bus picked us up around 9am – so not enough time to achieve anything before leaving. Note: need to organise this bus transfer to the airport at least 24hours in advance.
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SO is it possible to spend only 2 days at Airlie Beach/Whitsunday coast and feel as if you’ve seen enough? Definitely.
Of course, there were things there was no time to do – a couple of my top misses being the skydive over the Whitsunday Islands, and the scenic flight over the islands. Having the chance to do a 2 or 3 day boat trip would have been even more amazing – more time for snorkelling at the reef, and time to do the walk to the lookout point at Whitehaven beach (unfortunately we missed out on that).
All in all, 2 days is enough time to see pretty much everything (just not quite DO everything), but if time and money permits, I’d recommend perhaps 4 days here.
But really, definitely visit Whitsundays!
