sportcw10

Hi,
I have looked at hotels for staying at the Great Barrier Reef and have decided on either of these two. The only problem is I can't decide between the two. Do I want to stay on an island or on land. The air conections in Cairns (for Port Douglas) are better than Hamilton Island but I heard that the islands are better places to stay. Please help. Thank you very much.
Colin Wixted

pat_woolford

What time of year - they're about 700 kms apart there can be quite a difference in weather.

Judy_in_Calgary

Colin, my vote goes to Cairns / Port Douglas. I think the mainland offers way more variety than an island does. From Cairns / Port Douglas, you have access to the ocean (GBR and all that good stuff). Yet you also have access to the the fabulous rainforest between the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation, you can get up onto the Atherton Tableland, where the climate, vegetation and scenery change rapidly from what is down on the coastal plain, you can get to the Undara Lava Tubes, and on and on.

We went on a marvellous cruise around the Whitsunday Islands, and THOROUGHLY enjoyed it. However, I think a big factor in our enjoyment was that being on a yacht kept us on the move, and we saw a variety of scenery. We snorkelled in more than one coral reef, we hiked on more than one island, we saw whales and dolphins more than once, and so on.

Furthermore, our cruise was in September rather than June. (I think you're going in June, judging by one of your other posts.) Our weather was absolutely glorious in September. I think the Whitsundays are far enough south of Cairns that their weather may not be as nice as that in Cairns / Port Douglas in June, a point to which Pat has alluded.

Prior to joining our cruise, we went on a flight over the Great Barrier Reef in a small plane that took off from Airlee Beach, one of the two mainland towns that are closest to the Whitsundays. (By the way the plane trip over the GBR, and I highly recommend doing one, whether you do it from the Whitsundays or from Cairns / PD.) Anyway, in addition to the pilot, there was one other couple in the 6 seater plane with us. They were going to be staying on Hamilton Island so, after flying over the GBR and before landing back at Airlee Beach, the pilot landed on Hamilton Island to let this other couple off. Quite frankly, while the accommodations on Hamilton Island may be perfectly lovely, I suspect the island as a whole would reach its "use by" date pretty quickly, at least I suspect it would for me. As I said before, one of the things I enjoyed so very much about the cruise was the opportunity for variety.

Far North Queensland has so juch variety to offer, I hope you won't short change yourself there. Six days is what I would consider to be a minimum stay for FNQ, and you very easily could keep yourself meaningfully occupied there.

I also saw in a previous post of yours that you were planning to go to Melbourne and Adelaide. I saw other posters trying to dissuade you from those notions, and I do hope they've succeeded. I lived in Melbourne for 2.5 years and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a lovely, lovely city in which to live. However, both it and Adelaide have winters that tend to be drizzly, cool and windy. I don't see the point of subjecting yourself to those conditions when another part of Australia, namely FNQ, can offer you something so much better during that particular season.

In addition to that, quite aside from considerations of weather, Australia is BIG, and you'll be doing so much hopping around.

Here are some southern hemisphere equivalents of places in the northern hemisphere. Melbourne is at the same latitude as San Francisco (so to get an idea of Melbourne's June weather, think of San Francisco in December). Cairns is at the same latitude as Belize (south of Mexico). Cape York, at the northern tip of Queensland, is at the same latitude as the Panama Canal.

One more thing: I saw in one of your Caribbean posts that you enumerated a long list of restaurants at which you had eaten. If that's important to you, it didn't seem to me as if Hamilton Island offered a great variety in that regard. (Mind you I wasn't consiously on the lookout for that when our plane landed, and that was in September 1999, which is a while ago now. Still, that is my recollection.) The Cairns / PD area would offer you much more variety in the dining department.

Hope this helps.

alchemy

Hey it also depends on your age. Hamilton Island is for the well groomed, pearl wearing mother. Port Douglas is for the layback wine on the beach mum. Generally speaking of course!

Rose79

Well I have been to both and even though Cairns and Port Douglas were great its just not the same as staying in the Whitsundays. Hamilton Island has well over 10 Restaurants and over 5 types of accomodation choices.. its pretty much up to you on how much you do when your on the isalnd. From Hamilton you are able to go and visit some of the other Islands like Daydream, Hayman and South Molle just to mention a few as well as go out to The Great Barrier Reef.