Travel

Australia Travel Diary: Airlie Beach and The Whitsundays

October 1, 2014
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I’m baaaaack with part two of my Oz adventure. In my first post I shared the first big trip of my travels… my skydive over mission beach! After the skydive we hopped on a 14-hour night bus to Airlie Beach. Yes… the 14 hour bus wasn’t too pleasant but it did have wi-fi and the bus stopped every so often for food, bathroom breaks and to give the drivers a break, so it really wasn’t the worst. I’ve definitely experienced a lot worse travelling through Asia with crazy bus drivers, pothole covered roads and pretty septic toilets. At the end of the day it’s journeys like these that you back on and just laugh.

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Anyway… Airlie Beach. What a beautiful little picture perfect town. It’s just so quaint, gorgeous and has a great surfer vibe… really relaxed and chilled out. It was stinger season when were traveling down the coast so going in the water sans stinger suit was a no-go. Most towns including Cairnes and Airlie Beach have lagoons right in the centre of the town, so you don’t have to risk your life to cool down… PHEW!

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As beautiful as Airlie Beach is, the main reason for stopping off here is to explore the breathtaking Whitsunday Islands (apparently Captain Cook discovered them on Whitsunday, hence the name – fun fact of the day). I think everyone has seen snaps of the infamous Whitehaven Beach. It’s one of the most photographed beaches in the world and it also has sand that is 98% pure silica (the purest in the world I believe – fun fact 2). Another fun fact about Whitehaven is that the sand is brilliant for polishing jewellery and you can also wash your hair with it and whiten your teeth (yes we tried this), but you know, shampoo and toothpaste will do the exact same thing too… it was fun/very weird to try though.

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There are so many different boats and types of trips to choose from to see the world famous islands. You can do day trips or stay out on the boat for a few nights, which is what we did. We got the party boat – The Clipper – and wouldn’t you know one of the crew was from Ireland…

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Outfit – all Penneys/Primark (Top similar here and here | Shorts similar herehere and here)

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The Clipper was amazing. The crew were great and really made an effort to keep us entertained. There was 54 people on our boat. The Clipper is the largest and oldest boat in the Whitsundays (it’s full name is The Atlantic Clipper and apparently it was used to bring Guinness from Ireland to the US way back when – last fun fact of the day). We had a really great bunch (of both couples and singletons) that mixed and got on so well together. We loved it and this was where we met most of the people we travelled the rest of the East Coast with (a lot of English guys and gals and a Canadian girl). Doing all of these trips is the best way to meet people and if they happen to be going in the same direction as you you know you will have a few familiar faces along the way. The Clipper is the party boat of the Whitsundays, so if you are looking for a nice quiet, relaxing trip it’s probably not the way to go. There are so many options though you are guaranteed to find something perfect for you. Sadly, we don’t have a group pic… I’m raging we didn’t get one but we were too busy having a damn good time.

On the first day we sailed out to sea, went for a bit of swim and docked for the night. The sunsets here were incredible… pictures really don’t do it justice!!

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The next day it was up early to head to Whitehaven Beach. It’s just so beautiful….

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Like I said, it was stinger season so we couldn’t get in the water without wearing a ridiculously attractive stinger suit. When we were cooling off in the waters of Whitehaven (it was sooooo hot and we had a few drinks the night before too) there was a few stingrays in the water with us… a little scary but kinda cool at the same time, and we all lived to tell the tale. 🙂

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Outfit: all Penneys/Primark (Top similar here, here and here | Shorts similar here, here and here | Bikini similar here and here)

After we left Whitehaven we set sail for an evening of snorkeling and swimming before having a mini “disco” on the boat that night. The next day it was back to shore and that night there was an after-party organised for us back in Airlie Beach. The after-party was a great way to get to know people even better on dry land. It was such a brilliant trip, we all really enjoyed and we met so many great people. One thing I really liked about was that the wifi wasn’t turned on until the last morning so we could find each other on social media. I thought this was great because you could completely turn off and actually get to know the people you were with.

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Outfit: Top – Penneys/Primark (old) | Shorts – Abercrombie & Fitch

Some of my top tips for this part of trip are:

1. Do not go out the night before you sail out to the islands. We made this mistake. It was Wednesday night and it was SUPER quiet. All of the boats were going out the next day, so everyone stayed in. If I was doing it again, I would stay in the night before trip and save myself for the next two nights on the boat and the after party.

2. Like I said in my last post, if you are planning your trip for the run up to Christmas, book in advance because the trips book out… especially The Clipper. We heard of so many stories of people leaving it too late and having to settle with a day trip, or that the boat they wanted was booked out. We even heard of a mix up with bookings. Thankfully this didn’t happen to us but we always rang ahead to confirm our bookings, so be sure to do this too.

3. Finally, if it’s a chilled out relaxed and luxurious few days at sea you are looking for, The Clipper isn’t the trip for you. There was hot showers, a bed, plenty of lovely food and great company, so we loved it. It was great fun, but it was not quiet and relaxing… but we weren’t looking for quiet and relaxing and I’d highly recommend it.

When our time in Airlie Beach came to an end, it was back on the bus for another 14 hour night  bus to Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island. Stay tuned for that post in the next few days…

I hope you guys are having a great week and are enjoying these posts. When I have all of my Oz posts done, I have one or two post from before I left Ireland to share and then I’ll give you a little update on my NYC life and start my NYC posts. Hopefully, I’ll be well settled in by then and will be reunited with my beloved camera. 🙂

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1 Comment

  • Reply Travel Diary: Fraser Island Australia October 16, 2014 at 4:43 pm

    […] in my last Oz post (you can see it here) I shared our trip to Airlie Beach and around the The Whitsundays. After a 14 hour night bus from […]

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