Airlie Beach QLD

About Airlie Beach

For all those people who do not fly into Hamilton Island airport, Airlie Beach is the entry point to the complex mixture of islands and resort towns known as the Whitsundays. This booming holiday town lies between Cannonvale and Shute Harbour; is ideally located at the bottom of the Conway Ranges beside a beautiful tropical beach and extensive marina; and is ideal for people planning to take a boat from Shute Harbour or Airlie Maritime Terminal out to the Whitsundays.

Airlie Beach township is a strip of holiday gift shops, eating places ranging from fast foods to quality restaurants, pubs and bars, and a wide range of accommodation catering for everyone from backpackers to upmarket holidaymakers. The township has a distinctly tropical ambience and at night it is driven by the huge numbers of backpackers who fill the pubs along Harbour Road (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Roadtrip to Airlie Beach – Sarina overnight

Leaving Yeppoon we travelled to Sarina for an overnight stop then onto Seabreeze Tourist Park in Cannonvale (Airlie Beach) (maplink) for a week stay. It rained from Yeppoon to Airlie but cleared up on the 2nd day there (had us a bit worried).

The caravan park in Sarina was one of the neatest parks we have ever been in. If you are ever looking for a great CP then you cannot go past Sarina Palms Caravan Village – Dennis, who runs the park, went out of his way to make our stay a nice one. Sorry – no photos as it was raining the whole time!

Airlie Beach Caravan Park

Seabreeze Tourist Park has heaps of Blue Tiger butterflies flying about with lots of different bird types – in particular these weird birds called Curlews (check out this YouTube video example), they make the scariest calls during the night which sounds like a child crying.

A visit to Shute Harbour

Cyclone Debbie totally destroyed the Shute Harbour facilities in 2017 with gusts over 250 km/hr. The reconstruction of the Marina is underway. It’s a massive project and you could see that there is still a long way to go.

Dingo Beach & Hideaway Bay

A great day trip is out to Dingo Beach & Hideaway Bay, about 63kms from Airlie Beach (maplink).

Dingo Beach Pub

Lunch at the Dingo Beach pub was great and we also entertained by a couple of singers. Nice afternoon chillin’ to great food, beers and music. A walk after lunch to burn off that huge “dingo burger” I had!

Hideaway Bay – Montes Resort

Montes Resort was unfortunately closed but the manager actually let us have a look around and a couple of drinks looking over the beautiful views from their deck. We’ll return here in the future after all of the Covid crap has passed us.

Airlie Beach Bicentennial Walkway

We took a beautiful walk from Seabreeze Tourist Park into Airlie Beach. It’s called the Airlie Beach Bicentennial Walkway which travels alongside the waters edge into town. The coastal walkway was practically destroyed during ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie in 2017 but has been rebuilt since.

We had a “pit-stop” at the Sorrento Bar & Restaurant for a couple of cooling ales before continuing into town. Brilliant views over the harbour.

Summing up…

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