Whitsunday Islands
Whitsunday Islands
4.5
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Graham
3 contributions
Feb 2024 • Family
We took a day trip to Whitehaven beach on the Providence V sailboat.
Unfortunately, being a commercial vessel it can't go to the Beach, it goes to a cove north of Whitehaven, even the lookout can't see the Beach.
Whilst it was a pleasant swim at Betty's Beach, the fact that so many international visitors thought they had visited Whitehaven was a big disappointment.
On top of that we didn't sail! Despite a solid 12 kt wind we used the diesel all the way from Aierly Beach to Whitehaven Park and back again.
A much better option would be a half day cruise on a catermaran - saving both time and money.
Providence V is tiered boat with indifferent staff funneling tourists through with little regard for their experience.
Unfortunately, being a commercial vessel it can't go to the Beach, it goes to a cove north of Whitehaven, even the lookout can't see the Beach.
Whilst it was a pleasant swim at Betty's Beach, the fact that so many international visitors thought they had visited Whitehaven was a big disappointment.
On top of that we didn't sail! Despite a solid 12 kt wind we used the diesel all the way from Aierly Beach to Whitehaven Park and back again.
A much better option would be a half day cruise on a catermaran - saving both time and money.
Providence V is tiered boat with indifferent staff funneling tourists through with little regard for their experience.
Written February 13, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Gaile1958
Tamborine Mountain, Australia697 contributions
Aug 2012 • Friends
We had a boating holiday i the Whitsunday's via Hamilton Island, weather was good for winter, water to cold to swim in. In summer to many stingers so thats not the time to go either! Famous Whitehaven Beach whilst it looks great, go there when the tide is out and you will see a million stingrays. Hamilton Island is an extreme rip off also. Not sounding patriotic but I would rather go to Thailand or Vanuatu and not be ripped off.
Written September 24, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
bryonyaster
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia1 contribution
Sep 2017 • Friends
I came onto the notorious Atlantic clipper expecting full on partying with good music, booze, sex etc. But in reality it was more like going back to high school.
On my boat, the people were primarily 20-25 years old, and there was a balanced ratio between guys and girls. Almost everyone were on their working holiday visa mainly from Germany, UK, Ireland, and Canada. Half the girls were very sweet and embraced all the activities, the other half had their saggy tits sitting out with cigarettes in their hands. The guys were just a bunch of obnoxious little boys who don't know how to talk to girls. The one or two guys who were comfortable with flirting ended up being players. Be prepared for them to be flirting with you, making out with you, and even banging you, and then ten minutes later they will be onto another girl. You will have to be seeing him for the next 36 hours so think about that before consenting.
Then there would be times when the entire boat will be watching you getting close to someone on the dance floor because you're just having a good time, but they are green with envy. The next day you realize that you two were the only ones getting laid that night so everyone will be talking about it. Be prepared to hear endless subtle remarks the next day and you just need to be secure in your decision because consensual sex is awesome. We became their entertainment. Every time I walked towards him, or walked down the stairs by myself, or said i will be missing the after party, there would be someone commenting. It's so ridiculous but that was the maturity level I had to deal with.
My first night I woke up with two girls and a guy on my top bunk, which i found to be so so so funny. If thats not your thing, perhaps choose "the new horizon". Heard it was quite similar but less partying. Also, there is an after party on Airlie beach that night, so basically you should budget time to be on the beach the day before and the night after the boat.
I thought the boat was quite comfortable. However, there were multiple rooms with cockroaches and a friend of mine saw one in the kitchen. The boat was large and stable so sea sickness was not an issue. The staff were friendly enough. There was a LOT of downtime in the itinerary where people were just chilling on the deck. I think other boats would've gone to way more places and i guess in hindsight i would've preferred seeing more than to just chill there with people i do not care about.
On my boat, the people were primarily 20-25 years old, and there was a balanced ratio between guys and girls. Almost everyone were on their working holiday visa mainly from Germany, UK, Ireland, and Canada. Half the girls were very sweet and embraced all the activities, the other half had their saggy tits sitting out with cigarettes in their hands. The guys were just a bunch of obnoxious little boys who don't know how to talk to girls. The one or two guys who were comfortable with flirting ended up being players. Be prepared for them to be flirting with you, making out with you, and even banging you, and then ten minutes later they will be onto another girl. You will have to be seeing him for the next 36 hours so think about that before consenting.
Then there would be times when the entire boat will be watching you getting close to someone on the dance floor because you're just having a good time, but they are green with envy. The next day you realize that you two were the only ones getting laid that night so everyone will be talking about it. Be prepared to hear endless subtle remarks the next day and you just need to be secure in your decision because consensual sex is awesome. We became their entertainment. Every time I walked towards him, or walked down the stairs by myself, or said i will be missing the after party, there would be someone commenting. It's so ridiculous but that was the maturity level I had to deal with.
My first night I woke up with two girls and a guy on my top bunk, which i found to be so so so funny. If thats not your thing, perhaps choose "the new horizon". Heard it was quite similar but less partying. Also, there is an after party on Airlie beach that night, so basically you should budget time to be on the beach the day before and the night after the boat.
I thought the boat was quite comfortable. However, there were multiple rooms with cockroaches and a friend of mine saw one in the kitchen. The boat was large and stable so sea sickness was not an issue. The staff were friendly enough. There was a LOT of downtime in the itinerary where people were just chilling on the deck. I think other boats would've gone to way more places and i guess in hindsight i would've preferred seeing more than to just chill there with people i do not care about.
Written October 30, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Whitsundaylover
2 contributions
I have been around the world a fair bit and just love the whitsundays!! It is safe, small but not too small, friendly and whe you are out on the water you can actually go to bays and inlets and have the whole place to yourself. We actually get a bit annoyed when people pull up near us!!
Great value for money and any boat trip is a trip of a lifetime. Highly recommend it to all walks of life!!
Great value for money and any boat trip is a trip of a lifetime. Highly recommend it to all walks of life!!
Written November 20, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
pikasil8
Los Angeles13 contributions
My friend and I just got off Wings 3 a couple days ago and it was by far the funnest thing we've done in Australia. I don't know about any of the other boats but I am glad we chose this one. It was pretty hard to decide on a boat because there wasn't that much info out there or comparisons between the boats. If anyone has any questions about Wings 3, just email me and I can try to help you out.
Anyways, Airlie Beach--not much there to do at all.
Wings 3 is the newer boat vs Wings 2. I believe the only difference is that Wings 3 has a hot tub on the deck? It was 2 days and 2 nights. I thought for sure I was gonna get sea sick but as long as you stay outside when the boat is going fast through choppy waters (maybe an hour a day when they were trying to reach the area where we were going to sleep), you will be fine. The staff was super nice, kept asking me and my friend if we were ok and needed water or ginger tablets.
I was a little unsure about choosing this boat because I read reviews that said it was a diving boat mainly and my friend and I only wanted to snorkel. But half of our boat only snorkelled and I didn't feel any pressure at all to go diving. Someone said they were hard selling the diving but I didn't get that at all. Right at check in when you fill out waivers and health questionnaires, one of the staff asked me if I dived before. I said yes and didn't really like it. But all he said was 'then you were diving with the wrong people. Why don't you listen in on our presentation later on and I'll put you down as a maybe?" that was all the pressure i got. But maybe I should have dived because the divers saw more things than i did snorkelling. I was kind of disappointed with the snorkelling here because the water was very clear. I did see a ton of different types of coral and quite a bit of fish but not the 'Nemo's'. the divers saw them though.
We had 5 crew with us and a full boat of 26 people. Harry was the skipper-super happy, funny guy. There were 2 diving instructors: Adam and Dylan. Adam was really funny and Dylan was really nice. A couple of the reviews I read here said he was obnoxious or something and trying to force people to dive, so I was kind of apprehensive and hoping we wouldn't get this guy. But we did and he was actually the nicest guy there!! We also had Tiffany and Ian as our cooks. They were new and learning the ropes I guess. Tiff was really friendly and Ian was kind of shy or quiet.
The food was not bad and they fed us enough. There were about four 'rooms' that had doors on them and our room had one single bunk and 2 double 'bunk beds', I shared a double with my friend and there was plenty of room and I had the best sleep on the boat. I did have earplugs, that might have helped, although others that didn't have them said they slept very well too. There were 2 toilets and 2 showers and everyone was limited to 1 min showers, which sounded really strange at first but they only have a limited supply of fresh water on board, I only had time to out conditioner in my hair and wash my face. But it was ok because you're going into the water and getting wet all day anyways so you never feel dirty.
Anyways, it was really fun and I was sad when it was all over and we had to leave the boat. :(
Anyways, Airlie Beach--not much there to do at all.
Wings 3 is the newer boat vs Wings 2. I believe the only difference is that Wings 3 has a hot tub on the deck? It was 2 days and 2 nights. I thought for sure I was gonna get sea sick but as long as you stay outside when the boat is going fast through choppy waters (maybe an hour a day when they were trying to reach the area where we were going to sleep), you will be fine. The staff was super nice, kept asking me and my friend if we were ok and needed water or ginger tablets.
I was a little unsure about choosing this boat because I read reviews that said it was a diving boat mainly and my friend and I only wanted to snorkel. But half of our boat only snorkelled and I didn't feel any pressure at all to go diving. Someone said they were hard selling the diving but I didn't get that at all. Right at check in when you fill out waivers and health questionnaires, one of the staff asked me if I dived before. I said yes and didn't really like it. But all he said was 'then you were diving with the wrong people. Why don't you listen in on our presentation later on and I'll put you down as a maybe?" that was all the pressure i got. But maybe I should have dived because the divers saw more things than i did snorkelling. I was kind of disappointed with the snorkelling here because the water was very clear. I did see a ton of different types of coral and quite a bit of fish but not the 'Nemo's'. the divers saw them though.
We had 5 crew with us and a full boat of 26 people. Harry was the skipper-super happy, funny guy. There were 2 diving instructors: Adam and Dylan. Adam was really funny and Dylan was really nice. A couple of the reviews I read here said he was obnoxious or something and trying to force people to dive, so I was kind of apprehensive and hoping we wouldn't get this guy. But we did and he was actually the nicest guy there!! We also had Tiffany and Ian as our cooks. They were new and learning the ropes I guess. Tiff was really friendly and Ian was kind of shy or quiet.
The food was not bad and they fed us enough. There were about four 'rooms' that had doors on them and our room had one single bunk and 2 double 'bunk beds', I shared a double with my friend and there was plenty of room and I had the best sleep on the boat. I did have earplugs, that might have helped, although others that didn't have them said they slept very well too. There were 2 toilets and 2 showers and everyone was limited to 1 min showers, which sounded really strange at first but they only have a limited supply of fresh water on board, I only had time to out conditioner in my hair and wash my face. But it was ok because you're going into the water and getting wet all day anyways so you never feel dirty.
Anyways, it was really fun and I was sad when it was all over and we had to leave the boat. :(
Written November 4, 2010
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Pink_sky125
London, UK109 contributions
Oct 2014 • Friends
White sand, crystal water, so beautiful. It's a great place to come to for the day and you will not be able to get enough of this place. Dreamy...
Written August 1, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
SouthAfricaMargie49
Johannesburg, South Africa77 contributions
Mar 2014 • Family
We took a day trip package out from Airlie beach for breakfast on Daydream Island and lunch on Hamilton Island. Unfortunately there was a cyclone on its way so the weather wasn't great. Daydream Island consists of a resort and I think it would be lovely in good weather as there are many pools and beaches. We had a lovely buffet breakfast then wandered round the resort for a while then it was off to Hamilton Island. Hamilton is a much bigger island and once we got there we hired a golf cart to whiz around on. The beaches are really beautiful and the hotels looked lovely. The street along the Marina has some very nice shops and restaurants. There is also a little wildlife park where you can hold Koala bears
Written March 17, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
carolina g
Victoria, Argentina19 contributions
Oct 2016 • Friends
We went on a 2 day 2 night tour in the hammer. It had a special promotion for 299 AUD.
The place is unbelievable! Is a must do for everyone.
The crew was amazing, and so was the food. The places we visited were beautiful, and certainly worth your money.
Don't expect though a party environment, our group seemed more of a couples retreat than anything else. If you want to party def go to the clipper.
All in all fantastic tour!
The place is unbelievable! Is a must do for everyone.
The crew was amazing, and so was the food. The places we visited were beautiful, and certainly worth your money.
Don't expect though a party environment, our group seemed more of a couples retreat than anything else. If you want to party def go to the clipper.
All in all fantastic tour!
Written November 12, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PerthRetireds
14 contributions
May 2016
We all disliked Whitehaven Beach (north end). Too many planes, helicopters, boats and even drones. Daytrippers all over the place. Why go on a 3 night boat trip on one of the better boats, only to go where all the daytrippers go? It was 2 hours of boredom in the hot sun, with mosquitos. Even the swimming was bad – cloudy water. We only had two full days on the boat, and a full day was wasted at Whitehaven – no snorkelling at all on that day. This is completely unacceptable – to have such a large chunk of a Great Barrier Reef trip without any reef interaction. And there must be thousands of beautiful secluded beaches in the Whitsundays – instead we get dumped on the most commercial (and overrated) beach.
Squeaky white sand beaches are not uncommon in Australia, and there are many beaches wider, less populated, and much nicer (and without beer cans washed up on the shoreline).
Squeaky white sand beaches are not uncommon in Australia, and there are many beaches wider, less populated, and much nicer (and without beer cans washed up on the shoreline).
Written May 19, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
KAC
Queensland, Australia229 contributions
Sep 2014 • Couples
We took our boat up and cruised the Whitsundays for a month, it was magic. September was perfect weather (they say it's the best time to go) and every few days we would book in for a night at the Hamilton Island Marina to refuel, stock up with groceries and water. There are lots of walks and islands and beaches to explore, lots of reefs to snorkel and dive and plenty of places to hide from the wind. Getting the "100 Magic Miles" book, is a must however. It has all the information you need for boating in the whitsundays. Loved everything about this place. Will be back next year!
Written September 19, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
April to October is best time to visit
Written May 15, 2019
I've booked a sailing tour on.the 26th of March.. but every where i read that it's a bad time to go there:(((( I can't cancel the tour but is it really that the weather is really bad and I can't go in the water without a stinger suit?
Written December 10, 2018
Sorry I just got this. Haven't been to Daydream. Hamo is nice with good restaurants. Very developed hotel area but some nice private rentals. Lots to do and easy tours. We are sailors so have mainly just sailed around various islands and an hoed or moored and stayed on the boat.
Hope what ever you decide turns out great. Whitsundays is a beautiful part of the world!
Written July 22, 2016
Does it get busy regularly and what are the peak times?
Written March 5, 2016
Is it a good place to go with under 14's?
Written March 5, 2016
Looking at booking a Prestige Suite, but wondering if these are all on the high floors. Would hate to spend the extra money and be close to the street and noise, with limited view.
Written October 1, 2015
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