Airlie Beach – Gateway to the Whitsundays & Great Barrier Reef (Australia)

Categories: Travel reports, Oceania, Australia

Today our journey along the east coast of Australia continued from Bisbande to the small coastal town of Airlie Beach on the Great Barrier Reef

Airlie

The Days
140 - 0
of our Trip around the World

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Our flight from Brisbane to Proserpine

Brisbane welcomed us again with wonderful weather and we made our way to the airport in the late morning with the airtrain. At 1.30 p.m. our plane went with Virgin Airlines to Proserpine. 1.5 hours later we landed at Whitsunday Coast Airport. At the airport in Proserpine we got our car from Avis for the next day and our trip to Cairns. We have booked this with all insurances via DERTOUR. From Proserpine we drove to Airlie Beach, 25 km away.

Disposable rental in Australia: In the run-up to our world tour, we have researched for a long time which car rental companies we take for our rental car in Australia. The problem here is the one-way rental, if you don’t want to return the car in the same place. Since we wanted to drive from Proserpine to Cairns, there would be a one-way rental every time. And depending on the provider, this can be several hundred euros. We have requested several offers via different booking portals – but in the end a one-way rental was added. And DERTOUR seems to be one of the few providers where, under certain conditions (length of rental period, etc.), there is no one-way rent in Australia. In any case, we did not have to pay a one-way rent on our routes and also the service packages (all inclusive) and the general prices for the car were absolutely fine, so we can really recommend this.

Our Airlie Beach Hotel

For three nights we had booked a room at the Airlie Beach Hotel and were very satisfied. The staff at the reception were very nice. The room was clean and well equipped. There were even dishes. Pool towels can be rented free of charge at the reception. Internet is free and worked perfectly. The hotel offers free parking on the first floor. The location is great, to the nearest restaurants it is less than 2 minutes. A large supermarket is a 5-minute walk away. All in all a decent hotel where we would stay at any time.

On our balcony in the hotel we also saw white cockatoos from time to time. At first it was just one… but after a short time the second and third cockatoo swelled. And at some point we had the whole balcony full. The cockatoos are relatively trusting and of course speculate on a treat 🙂

Here is a video of the white cockatoos on our balcony:

The coastal town of Airlie Beach on the Great Barrier Reef

Airlie Beach is a small tourist resort with just 2800 inhabitants on the east coast of Australia, which is considered a starting point for tours of the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The place has many small shops, restaurants and hotels and is mainly aimed at the many backpackers. From the harbour, a 3 km long beach walk runs along the shore. Since life-threatening jellyfish can arise in the sea depending on the season, the city has built a very nice lagoon on the beach, where you can swim for free, simply sunbathe or even barbecue. We really liked that.

Die Cedar Creek Falls & der Conway Beach

About 20 minutes drive from Airlie Beach are Cedar Creek Falls, which we also wanted to see. Since it hasn’t rained here for days, unfortunately there was no waterfall to be seen. A little further is Conway Beach. Here we have seen mainly a few black cockatoos in the trees.

All travelogues from Australia (2015)

With the entry to Australia the 2nd half of our 6-month world trip started for us. During our stay in "Down Under" we experienced a lot on the east coast, in the south and in the interior of the country: We visited the big cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Cairns, explored one of the country's most famous landmarks - Ayers Rock, held a sugar-sweet koala in our arms, experienced kangaroos in the wild, drove along the Great Ocean Road, went on a diving cruise on the Great Barrier Reef and experienced a breathtaking scenic flight over Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven Beach. We enjoyed our trip through Australia very much and the country has enchanted us from the beginning.
Route Australien 2015 » New South Wales: Sydney - Tourist Attractions, Things to Do & Photo spots
» Northern Territory: Ayers Rock (Uluru) & the Kata Tjuta (Olgas)
» South Australia: Adelaide - Holding a Koala at Gorge Wildlife Park
» South Australia: Adelaide – Tourist Attractions, Things to Do & Photo spots
» Victoria: The town of Hahndorf & Kangaroos at Cape Bridgewater
» Victoria: The Great Ocean Road – 12 Apostles, Parrots & Koalas
» Victoria: Melbourne – Tourist Attractions & Dendy Street Beach
» Queensland: Brisbane – Tourist Attractions, Things to Do & Photo spots
» Queensland: Airlie Beach – Gateway to the Whitsundays & Great Barrier Reef
» Queensland: Airlie Beach – A sightseeing flight over the Great Barrier Reef
» Queensland: Airlie Beach – Whitsunday Islands & Whitehaven Beach
» Queensland: Cairns – Scenic flight over the Great Barrier Reef
» Queensland: Cairns – Snorkel, Dive & Cruise the Great Barrier