Tangalooma Resort
 

I've been meaning to do a write up about my stay at Tangalooma resort for some time.

I spent 4 nights at the resort in the summer of 2005.

High Points:
Moreton Island is a beautiful island.

Dolphins. Good to see wild dolphins

Accomodation: passable. Nothing too fancy but it was ok. We had a hotel room. I suppose I'd call it 3 star.

Low points:
The staff at this resort are incredibly rude, unprofessional and impatient. Looking at this pristine Island it's difficult to understand how anything could go wrong but the staff of Tangalooma resort quite easily managed to ruin our stay.

Here's what you can expect from the staff at Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort...

1) Snide remarks said under the breath or bitching about you to other staff members (while you're standing there) if you have trouble understanding something a staff member has told you. - This may be a particularly frequent occurance if, like me you have a hearing impairment or like many tourists English is not your first language.

2) Staff members getting annoyed and actually yelling at you as if you're a school kid... if for instance you are riding a quad bike for the first time and you're a bit cautious about taking a left turn down a 70 degree slope.

3) Staff members laughing at you and mocking you for following the instructions provided by the resort and volunteering to forgoe your dolphin feeding tickets on the grounds that you are feeling sick.

On the ticket it clearly states that you're not to feed the dolphins if you are sick because it is possible to infect the dolphins with whatever has infected you. We were had become ill.

Island: Pristine
Accomodation: Satisfactory
Activities: Pretty ordinary
Service: Pathetic

I'd recommend Moreton Island as a great 4WD and camping weekend... but in future I will steer well clear of Tangalooma Resort

Hi

Thanks for your review. I was surprised as a friend stays there quite often and likes it. Then I focused in on the Date - 2005. I think it is a bit much to be criticising a resort three years after you stayed there.

What difference does it make? It was only a couple of years ago. It is still a place I won't be returning to and would never recommend to anyone.

What a pity you had a bad experience at Tangalooma Resort. My wife & I visited some 6 years ago, and found the staff to be polite and helpful, but then I guess there is always a turnover in staff.
The one thing that annoyed me there was the lack of things to do, apart from feeding the dolphins at night, sliding down the sand dunes, diving around the wrecks, and that was about the extent of our holiday, except for those pesky little sand flies, even the pelicans were scratching down near the jetty. Yes the accommodation is ageing.
Personally, I prefer North Stradbroke Island instead of Moreton island. Good to take your car over to Straddie, stay in a nice self contained unit, then you have Main Beach to surf, or cylinder beach (the latter being my favourite), also good fishing around the island. Lakes to visit, and now they have some nice restaurants & cafes, and a new Hotel has been built to replace the old one at Point Lookout.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm probably the only person on earth who managed to live in Brisbane for 26 years without ever visiting north or south stradbroke Islands. Have visited Fraser/Moreton and obviously Bribie.

I may consider stradie for my next trip back to Australia.