Here goes another late post. We traveled to Hamilton Island back in May to celebrate the bridal shower of a good friend. I’d like to dedicate this post to her because without her, this trip would not have happened :)
My girls and I have always talked about going on a trip together. We knew it would be amazing but we never just got around to the planning phase of it. We tried to plan small road trips here and there but this was our first big adventure. The fact that we had to book plane tickets and accommodation in advance meant that no one could bail out last minute. We had a rough plan of the what we wanted to do (beach day, games night, fancy dining) but we finalised it after we arrived. We booked two rooms at Whitsunday Apartments (3 in each room). We had a decent size bedroom and the living area was quite spacious which came in quite handy for our games night.
Where we ate:
- Pizzeria and Gelato Bar
- Popeyes Takeaway
- Pool Terrace
- Hamilton Island Wildlife Café
Day 1
I myself had a very rough start to the day as I had only packed the night before and had very little sleep. But I was too excited after seeing the girls and almost forgot about my sleep deprivation. We caught the 12pm flight and arrived around 2:30pm. We caught a shuttle bus to Whitsundays apartment. We were super hungry so our first mission was to find some late lunch or early dinner. We walked down to the shops area, shared pizzas and ended on a sweet note with gelato! Then we went to IGA to buy some nibbles and drinks. After heading back to our apartment, we set up our snacks platter and played games. We were pretty exhausted so we were in bed by 10:30pm.
Day 2
We woke up around 6 and left the apartment by 7. We checked in for our cruise to Whitsunday Islands National Park. As we had arrived ahead of time, we had plenty of time to kill which allowed us to capture some early morning shots. The view on the cruise to Whitsunday Islands was absolutely breathtaking. Happy to say, it got even better after we arrived at Whitehaven beach. The sand was so white! We could not get over how beautiful this beach was. I had been to a lot of beaches (in Australia and overseas) but I have never felt as comfortable being in the water (I’m not the swimmer type). The water was so crystal clear, you could see the fishes as they swam close to the shore. We later learnt that the sand is 98% pure white silica, which gives it a brilliant, near luminescent colour.
We also went on a short-guided bush walk where we learnt about native trees like Lily pilly, Soap tree, Pandang tree (can use in cooking to wrap), eucalyptus tree (very strong scent), waxy leaves and even a saw a ghetto! We had a slightly late lunch after returning to the island (with local seafood) and bought some more drinks on our way home. We then relaxed at the jacuzzi and had a small celebration in the apartment (with cake and read mushy letters) before heading to dinner. It was our last night here so the plan was to stay up and play games after we come back. But we had to retire after a few games because we wanted to get up on time to watch the sunrise.
Local seafood and salad (lunch) 
Salmon Nicoise salad (dinner)
Day 3
We woke up at around 5am. For some of us, it was a record to be waking up this early. As we were walking there, we realised, to our surprise that we were there ahead of time. It was definitely the most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen. I think this may have been my first one (excluding the ones where I was travelling).
Zen mode
Getting up early made us quite hungry so our next mission was to find breakfast. We found a Koala cafe and I will forever remember the poor koala I saw who was missing an eye. After a very satisfying buffet, we came back to our hotel and packed our bags. We still had one more activity left on our list which was to do a group painting. This took up some time and by the time we had finished, it was time to head off to the airport. On the shuttle bus, we were chatting to the driver and happened to mention that we hadn’t seen some parts of the island. He then asked us the places we had been to and he said we were missing some of the good ones. He offered us the chance to get off the bus while he was going around in a loop. We did this at two locations and managed to get some pretty good pictures.
Group painting
Overall, we had the most incredible time and this was a trip we will cherish for many years to come (or until the next one at least). We really wish we could’ve stayed longer but there’s always a next time! We joked about how one of us should get married here so we are forced to return. I’d love to go back with any excuse I have! For future travellers, I’d recommend staying for at least 4-5 days, visiting One Tree Hill and Whitsunday Islands National Park and make sure to get in the water at Whitehaven Beach (ranked #1 beach in Australia).
