We spent 3 nights at Hayman Island and thought is was just wonderful. I highly recommend snorkeling at Blue Pearl Bay II, it was the highlight of our trip to Australia for sure. We stayed in a room on the lagoon side and it was wonderful. The rooms were very nice and the beautiful resident cockatoos would come right up onto your patio to visit.
This is definately a place to come to relax and enjoy the ocean...the choices for shopping and eating are limited. When we were there, one of the 4 restaurants was closed. Lunch options are a hut by the lagoon pool or room service. For dinner you pretty much all eat at the same place, as usually only one or two places are open per night. There is an italian place, a chinese place and the main place where you eat breakfast at everyday has a $100+ seafood buffet once a week or so. The food is expensive, as are drinks and everything else...except snorkeling :) I recommend a massage at the spa...prices are pretty in line with other spas.
We took a helicopter over to a secluded island in the Whitsundays for a picnic champagne lunch. We also took the free catamarans out and got stuck in the middle of the ocean with no wind...so watch that. The swim back was not so fun.
We were lucky that our American Express package covered almost all of our expenses (we kind of won it)...otherwise this would've been a $10,000 3 day vacation for sure.
Enjoy the ocean, free water sports, pools and visit the freezing cold library/bar for cocktails...you will see that on orientation night..there are games, books, etc...enjoy the scenery---go snorkeling for sure...you have to make a visit to the Great Barrier Reef if you are coming to AUS...it is a must, even if you don't go here.

My husband and i just got back from spending 1 week at Hayman Island. Let me tell you we have been to other islands but nothing compares to Hayman! From the moment you step onto this island you will not want to leave! I cannot describe just how beautiful Hayman is, you really have to go there and experience it yourself. Yes the Island is expensive but worth the money believe me. We were also upgraded to a pool access room where we had stairs from our balcony leading down to the beautiful hayman pool. The hayman pool is breathtaking, you must get a room at the pool wing, lagoon wing didnt look that very nice. Was amazed at the young people that work there they are so nice and friendly nothing is too much trouble for them. The food is absolutely delicious we found the oriental & azure restuarant the nicest. I cant believe the negative comments people have made about Hayman on this site i did not hear one bad thing from anyone staying on the island, everyone loved it! All i can say if your thinking of going to Hayman GO THERE dont be put off by the negative comments like i was , is ideal for families, couples and honeymooners young or old. I LOVED HAYMAN ISLAND AND DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE!!

I spent 4 days at Hayman Island, and it was an extremely beautiful resort, I would loved to stay longer,

Most of the Activities are quite expensive as is the food, we (2 people) spent $3000 AUD in four days not including the accommodation, we didn't go crazy either, we spent plenty of time doing the free things such as going for walks and lazing on the beach,

That being said, just the seaplane and snorkelling was about $850 for both of us, and that we thought was worth every cent, it was spectacular, and the reefs were beautiful! absolutley magnificent.

We decided to pass on the fishing which would have been about $500 for both of us to just go on the boat and have rods, a bit overpriced we believe.

Breakfast was the most expensive as the only option was the buffet, and all i wanted each day was eggs on toast.

The dinner seafood buffet was a highlight!! really excellent and highly recommend you try it.

Dont go to the beach pavillion for anything except a cocktail,
it took well over an hour and a half for lunch to arrive, and they told me it was because i had a special order... which i wouldn't have minded except that I had just requested a slightly different sandwhich.

Stayed in a lagoon room which was beautiful, kept clean and tidy and the view from the balcony was great.

The staff were all extremely lovely (except for the staff at beach pavillion when we complained about lunch taking a long time)
and really polite and helpful. We got the impression (also from hearing someone else complain at the guest services and a few other things) That the staff were extremely good in making sure that things ran perfectly and smoothly, but were really not so good if something managed to go wrong, they didn't seem to know how to handle it.

Would really highly recommend if you are there for romance to have the romantic secluded dinner. This was beautiful, romantic and tasty. It was really a highlight of my trip, and so beautiful and lovely, can't recommend it highly enough.

Overall I would definatly visit this resort again, Really lovely, and the minor problems were more than made up by the beautiful resort, the activities, the room and the lovely staff.
Absolutly picture perfect, and recommend it to anyone considering it.

We stayed here for 1 week as part of our Honeymoon. We had a palm wing room. The room was very nice but the communal areas outside, whilst clean and tidy, were a little utilitarian. The balcony was OK but looked out over a dozen Perspex skylights (our room was over a public area between the shops) However, the room had air con, fan, mini bar, TV was cleaned daily and was more than adequate. If I were going again I would stump up for a Pool or Lagoon wing room.

The boat transfer is excellent. The pick you bags up from the airport and you don’t see them again until they deliver them to your room. You can check in on the boat and have free champagne and canapés. Its about 1 hour on the boat and we saw hump backed whales.

Plenty of activities on offer but the ones that stood out the most were the outer reef trip. You are taken by boat for an hour to a private pontoon where you can snorkel, scuba dive, take trips in glass bottomed and semi sub boats, drinks and food all in. Also, the sunset island drop off. You are taken with a champagne picnic to the neighbouring island (really just a sand bar) and left until sunset. We were the only 2 people on the island (with a very persistent sea gull!).

The restaurants are generally good. The fancy French one, La Fontaine was nothing special but the Italian and Oriental were very good. Not all the restaurants are open every night. The sunset Barbeque was also very good.

I do echo the previous comments about the conferences. The main pool was closed to guests from 2pm whilst they set up for a conference activity. There were loads of delegates hanging about and we were disturbed one night by a loud open air delegate party. This is still the subject of a complaint to the Leading Hotels of the World Group.

It is expensive. We were there Bed and Breakfast (which is excellent by the way – watch for the Cockatoos, they love croissants!) We did an activity most days and had a combination of restaurant meals and room service plus other bits and bobs in the day (nothing silly but we enjoyed ourselves). We spent (2 of us) £1000 in 7 days (plus the accommodation etc)

Yes it is expensive. Yes, it could do with a little “spit & polish” in some areas, but the location is fantastic, the staff friendly and enthusiastic, the facilities very good and the activities are very well planned, but for us anyway, this was a once in a lifetime trip and we are glad we did it and hope someday to go back.