hamilton Island & the whitsundays

Day 1 & 2: The travel days

Travel time to Australia really is no joking matter.

30+ hours later. 3 flights. A pit stop in Auckland, NZ, and Brisbane, AU, and we finally made it to our first stop: Hamilton Island. Debatably one of the most majestic parts of the Whitsundays is flying over and in to it. Bright blue water and a perfect view of the island chains. Make sure you get a window seat to check it out.

We were greeted and picked up by a man and his handy dandy golf cart to take us directly to our Airbnb. It was essentially like an UberX, except better because you could ride backwards. He dropped off us with our luggage, gave us our keys, and set us onto the starting ling of our own real-life Mario Kart game.

The bnb was a quaint little spot with everything we needed. Smelled a bit funky, but the rad view outside our bedroom window made up for it.

We spent the evening getting accustomed to the island in our buggie, speeding around at a whopping 10mph. We barley made it to the top of the mountain for drinks at One Tree Hill, a spot with epic views and delicious Passionfruit Caparinas that maybe go down a bit to easy.

Day 3: Hamilton Island: Whitehaven Beach & Sailing the Whitsundays

Still jetlagged, our bodies sprung up at the crack of dawn. So, obviously, like the crazy people we are, we put on our running shoes, and explored the un-seemlingly hilly island by foot. I can't tell you the number of hills Spence 'accidentally' went down and then back up.

The weather conditions were not in our favor when we first boarded our boat for Whitehaven beach; but after a glass or two of vino, we seemed to out run the clouds, and arrived right in time for perfect hues at Whitehaven Beach

Whitehaven beach is a national park with sand made up of 98% pure silica and nothing but a few campers on the beach. Majestic really, and probably one of my favorite beaches to date.

We arrived back to the Marina exhausted, and hangry after a day of sailing. So, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at MantaRay, a family friendly restaurant based off of the number of chitlins I saw there, and some TimTams and wine from the local grocery before calling it an early night in.

Day 4: Hamilton Island – Paradise Peak & the outer Great Barrier Reef

Waking at the ass-crack of dawn again, we decided to venture on the trail behind our bnb completely unsure where it would take us. Paradise Peak, was one of the main trails, and we (as in Spencer yet again) thought it'd be a brilliant idea to run the trail. Such jokes. 92 floors later, we finally made it to the top, fully regretting our decision to aggressively run on the rocky trails.

It was still way to freakin early by the time we got back, so like the real grandpa and grandma we are, we obviously took a snooze before lunch.

Note to future Whitsunday travelers: the outer reef snorkeling only goes out on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Saturdays – so book early! In a typical D&S fashion, we did not, so we were unable to make it out onto the real reef.

But, better a bit of the Great Barrier Reef than none of it at all. We signed up for a half day snorkel cruise to the inner reef. Conditions were not ideal with the wind raging, but we were glad we went anyways.

It took us about an hour to get to the inner most portion of the reef. You'd think you'd be able to get into the water in your bikini - nope. Crazy stingers are in these parts, so you have to wear full body stinger suits. Think wet suits but even sexier cause you got the snorkel mask goin' for you and all, too

Day 5: Travel to Burleigh Heads

Travel days always hit us like a bunch of bricks, so we spent our final day mentally preparing for the trek by taking pure advantage of the free - yes we love free - poolside lounging opportunities.

Before we plopped down by the pool for a good half of the day, we first picked up food for brekki at the Marina Café , and the, jumped over to the Bakery to grab lunch to-go for our flight. By this point we were gettin' a bit of island fever, cravin' wifi, and a bit more diversity in activities that did not involve dropping a shit ton of dinero.

Burleigh was going to be great for this reason. But first, we had to do one last passionfruit caparinia at the pool to soak in the bougie-ness of this place.