A tale of two resorts on the Great Barrier Reef: Lady Elliot Island and Heron Island (reviews)

Last Updated on December 21, 2023 by PowersToTravel

Last fall as we planned our trip to the Great Barrier Reef from Rhode Island suddenly the airfare costs went up, just for the period we needed to fly (mid-September). Oh, No! What to do? Spend more money for the same adventure, or fly over early, paying the smaller amount to the airline, then spend more dollars having more adventures?

Since we are retired, the answer was clear! Go over early and do more. Since the Great Barrier Reef was our primary destination, I decided we should experience two different resorts.

I had previously researched the various ways to experience the Great Barrier Reef and had already emotionally committed to staying on a coral cay vs. staying on the mainland and spending hours in a high-speed boat to reach a snorkel/dive spot only to be forced to return to the mainland that same afternoon.

I had also researched the quality of the coral and the horrible bleaching events of 2016 and 2017 which had severely damaged coral in the north. I decided we should visit the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.

Originally, I had researched both Lady Elliot Island and Heron Island and found the islands and experiences to be different, according to reviewers and blogs. But how could I assess their comments? I don’t know the people and don’t know their expectations. They also didn’t go to both locations.

We decided to go to both! I’m here to tell you about them both, from one single perspective. You may not know me, as I didn’t know the other reviewers, but at least you’ll get a consistent perspective.

We stayed at Lady Elliot Island for two nights/three days, arriving on the first day around 9am after a forty-minute small airplane flight. We flew out around noon on the third day. We could have stayed until mid-afternoon but after having had such a wonderful snorkel that morning were ready to depart.

We stayed at Heron Island for four nights/five days, arriving on the first day around 11:30 after a two-hour boat trip. We left on the fifth day at 12:45, returning on the boat as well.

Here are links to both resorts:

• Lady Elliot Island
• Heron Island

Here are links to my slide-show music videos for each island, if you want to see more pictures:

• Lady Elliot Island
• Heron Island

Below, I’m listing the categories of differences in the resorts in descending order of importance to us.

Summary

We liked Lady Elliot Island best. I dream of returning to the Great Barrier Reef and it is Lady Elliot Island that fills my dreams!

Snorkeling Experience

We are intermediate snorkelers. We are not divers, so I can’t provide you with comparisons of the dive experience. We are a couple and snorkel together, so don’t need other people to assist us.

Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot Island won, hands down, in the category of Snorkeling Experience. Lady Elliot Island offers several different experiences, all of which are free with the overnight package.

The Lagoon

The lagoon is a huge basin between the very edge of the island and the coral reef at which the sea waves break, in the distance. The lagoon almost empties at low tide, but fills to a level of probably eight feet deep at high tide. This means that snorkeling is available for free, right from the shore for about four hours each day – two hours before high tide and two hours after high tide.

We entered the lagoon from right outside our tent. You can also enter the lagoon from the restaurant/bar area as well. Once in the water, you can experience the fish and coral close up and the water is deep enough that it is home to large (> five feet long!) turtles, and small black-tipped sharks. You have to be careful as it would be possible to kick the coral if you aren’t paying attention to your surroundings.

Due to its protected location the waves aren’t high and it’s easy to just float along. The water was very clear. We just loved snorkeling in the lagoon.

The great thing about the lagoon is that you can do free snorkeling, guaranteed, each day. I recommend you check the tide tables for your planned visit to see how much time you will be able to dedicate to the lagoon each day.

Here’s a link to the Queensland Tide Tables, which are published for the entire year. The port “Waddy Point” is closest to Lady Elliot Island, and gives you a good approximation of low and high tides.

As you get closer to your trip, you’ll find this link, Tide-Forecast to be most accurate for Lady Elliot Island itself. This site publishes tide data for the current month.

Lighthouse and Coral Gardens

Across the island, and a ten minute walk from the restaurant/bar area, is the seaward facing edge of the island. It is this edge that receives the brunt of the winds and waves. When we were there for three days, the wind was so strong the first two days that they closed both entrances to the sea. (“Closed” means they told you not to go there, and possibly posted personnel to ensure safety. It doesn’t mean there was physically a gate closed or anything!)

However, on the morning of the third day they opened up that side, and we hustled over there! You can read in forums, and signs in the dive shop will also tell you, to leave reef shoes at the far end of your snorkel. They will tell you what direction the seas are flowing, for example “Coral Gardens to Lighthouse.” That means you should leave a pair of reef shoes at Lighthouse for you to wear when you get out (there are no sandy beaches here!), and wear reef shoes to Coral Gardens where you enter the water. (Means you end up leaving a pair at the entrance you have to go back for, unfortunately!) It also means you need to carry two pairs. (That’s not a problem because there’s a mass of used reef shoes near the bar to borrow from.) Anyway, read the forums like TripAdvisor.

We arrived at the Lighthouse point of entry to the sea just as a small group was exiting. They asked if we were headed to Coral Gardens and we responded, “Yes,” to which a girl said that the coral here, at the Lighthouse, was tremendous and the best part of their snorkel. So we decided to avoid the runaround with the reef shoes, and just snorkel right there at the Lighthouse.

What a wonderful snorkel – easily the best snorkel of our trip to the Great Barrier Reef. The coral was high and complex, the fish quite colorful and numerous, yet the coral was close enough to get great pictures and let the filtered light shine on it. I even saw and photographed a Wobbegong Australian shark. (no danger)

Glass-Bottomed Boat

Also with our package came a trip in the glass-bottomed boat. We could see the coral through the boat glass on the way through the edge of the lagoon out to the open sea, but obviously the view of the coral from the boat was not nearly as wonderful as from the water.

Once out past the coral edge of the island most of the guests put on our snorkels and hopped out. We snorkeled as a group, however the water was just too deep here for good visibility. Possibly divers would have been quite happy, however the views down to the coral and fish were just too diffuse.

From the glass-bottomed boat we saw two manta rays, and that made up for the snorkeling inadequacies. One of the rays came right under the boat and we could see its “mouth” as it sucked in the water and filtered it for food. It was a tremendous experience and our only view of a manta ray while we were there.

From boats

We saw small trucks taking groups around from time to time. What were they doing? We think they were school groups, or other arranged trips. If we had been more motivated we could have checked in at the dive shop to find out if there was more / different snorkeling to be experienced, however with the Lagoon, Glass-bottomed boat, and Lighthouse/Coral Garden venues, we were quite busy. I’m sure if we had joined a group tour we would have had to pay for it; besides, we prefer not to snorkel in a group because the crowd can scare the fish away.

Equipment

Snorkel masks, fins and flotation devices were included in the overnight package at Lady Elliot Island. I rented a shortie wetsuit at Lady Elliot Island. The equipment functioned well, but in later comparison to the equipment on Heron Island, was of lesser quality.

Planning Summary

To plan for optimal time snorkeling, you want to snorkel when you can at the Lighthouse or Coral Gardens, and when you can’t you should snorkel in the Lagoon. For this, no up-front planning or reservations are required. Yes, check out the tide tables to see when you can go into the Lagoon, but it is the weather which really dictates your access.

Heron Island

Heron Island also offered snorkeling right from the beach, and from boats.

From the Beach

Along one side of the larger Heron Island, is a long coral “beach” from which you can directly enter the water. Once in, we snorkeled for quite a distance along the beach, however there wasn’t a whole lot to see underwater.

Yes, there were some clams, starfish and stray fish, but not much coral and certainly not the splendid variety as in the Lagoon on Lady Elliot, or in deeper waters. Basically, it was a nice swim.

As at Lady Elliot Island, you can only snorkel from the beach two hours before and two hours after high tide.

At the Jetty

Heron Island has a large jetty with a cleared channel through which the ships enter and exit. A large shipwreck, the first ever ship in the Australian navy, is also aground next to the channel. The jetty area is closed to snorkeling during working hours, but opens from approximately 6 to 8am, and from 5:30pm to sunset, tides permitting. It is not a coral snorkeling experience. Here as well it is important to plan well for the tides. When the tide is low, the water in the channel area to the wreck almost fully drains, so the snorkeling is less than optimal.

The unique experience here at the jetty is the variety and population size of rays – shovel-nose, cow-tail, spotted eagle and sting rays – and small sharks too (not dangerous). In the morning we found many of the rays quietly resting on the sandy bottom.

We went out at 6am, expecting it would be chilly (September) but found the snorkeling to be quite comfortable. We swam out to and around the wreck, encountering turtles, fish, rays and one shark. It was a remarkable experience.

Depending on the weather, there can be a bit of a current running across the channel which means you have to work extra hard to get out to and return back from the wreck.

From Boats

The major attraction here at Heron Island is boat snorkeling at $50 AUD per person per trip. About forty-five minutes of each trip you are in the water, snorkeling.

Snorkeling from boats has its pros and cons: less experienced snorkelers will appreciate the guide in the water and the boat nearby. Generally one does not have to snorkel against the current, as the guides figure out where the current is running and always drop you off at the right end! Guides can sometimes spot a great sight and let you know about it. It’s easier to get into and out of the water from a boat – no avoiding sharp coral as you try to remove your fins and get into your reef shoes.

However, with a group there is always a lot of water churning around, children accidentally kicking you in the head, and parents hovering around their children paying more attention to them than the others in the water. It can be a much less relaxing experience!

Not knowing how interesting the island would be, how tired we might get, I pre-arranged for one snorkel boat trip a day, which meant we would spend $100 AUD a day. (I’ll talk later about costs, as they are handled differently at the different resorts.)

We arrived at Heron Island in the middle of Spring Break – what a very bad decision! Luckily I had read that it was important to pre-book the tours, so had emailed them a month before our arrival in order to arrange for our boat trips. There were people who had arrived on the catamaran from the mainland with us who had not pre-booked, who decided to have lunch first to avoid the crush at the dive shop and found later that all the boat trips had been booked for the week! We don’t know if they were successful in snorkeling as “stand-bys”, but that seems like a stressful way to manage a vacation!

The boat trips go out to different snorkel sites. We went to “Coral Canyons” on the first trip, and the location was amazing. The coral here was outstanding – plate and branch and I can’t remember what-all, stacked so high, with canyons between them.

The next day out, we also were taken to Coral Canyons, snorkeling in the opposite direction since the water was flowing in the opposite direction. Once again, the coral was amazing, but the fish/wildlife were scarce due to the huge number of children thrashing about in the water.

Our final trip was to “Heron Bommie,” not far from the island itself. Apparently divers earlier in the day had had great experiences out there, but our snorkel was a different – it was just a vast flatland of branch coral – little beautiful stacking, few wonderful fish, no colorful coral either.

We found ourselves wishing we were on our own at Lady Elliot Island, at the Lighthouse.

Semi-Submersible

We did not pay for a trip on the Semi-Submersible, choosing to spend our money on snorkeling boats. However, we heard good reports from people with small children who were very happy to have gone out on the semi-submersible.

Equipment

Snorkel masks, fins and flotation devices were also complimentary at Heron Island, however, the equipment was newer. They also provided a net bag in which to carry it all. I rented a shortie wet suit on Heron Island. It was of higher quality than the one at Lady Elliot Island.

Planning for Snorkeling

Personal planning is much more important on Heron Island than on Lady Elliot Island. Since the best snorkeling is accessed from boats, it is critical that you reserve your snorkel trips ahead of time to avoid disappointment. I had arranged one boat trip a day, a morning one day, and afternoon trips the two subsequent days (thinking erroneously that the water would be warmer in the afternoon.) This meant that a great deal of time we would be doing other activities. But we found that there was only one walk/talk a day by a naturalist, and they didn’t publish the schedule ahead of time. The tide table dictated the access to the water directly from the island. Bottom line, we were more listless on Heron Island, wondering what to do.

I definitely recommend that you check the tides, and plan for boat trips out when the tide is low, so that you have alternative swimming/snorkeling possibilities when the tide is high. I also recommend you perhaps book morning and afternoon snorkel trips to keep yourself busy. Since there are multiple sites around Heron Island, it is unlikely that you will become bored. One result of this approach will be a more costly experience, as you have to pay for each snorkel trip.

Summary for Snorkeling Experience

The weather has a greater impact on your experience at Lady Elliot. If the other side of the island is closed, then the Lagoon is all you can do. That is great, until you’ve done the lagoon twice and you begin to wonder what to do?

As long as the weather isn’t too terrible, and you are willing to pay for it, you have a more consistent expectation of snorkeling at Heron.

However, we LOVED the snorkeling at Lady Elliot and kept wishing we were still there, even when we were on Heron Island!

Accommodations

At both locations we opted for the most expensive sleeping accommodations. It isn’t that we are the most exclusive of people, it is just that to meet our criteria we ended up at the best! Let me explain our criteria:

• Single mattressed queen or king sized bed. No twin mattresses stuck together pretending to be a king, and certainly no bunks!
• Ventilation – we traveled in September, which is the Queensland spring, so didn’t expect terribly hot weather, however wanted to be sure we could get cross-ventilation in the rooms.
• En-suite bathroom – no wandering the reef in the middle of the night for us!
• One bedroom – there’s only two of us after all.

Summary

Lady Elliot edged out Heron Island by a nose.

Lady Elliot Island

We stayed in a “Glamping Tent.”

With large screened windows running the length of the tent and a ceiling fan overhead our tent was well ventilated. A queen-sized bed, a huge glass patio door, covered patio, and en-suite bathroom completed our paradise. The tent did not have air-conditioning, but we had no need of it.

The tent was set in a grove of eucalyptus shrubs. It was nesting season for the Grey-Headed Noddies and the shrubs were full of them. We felt surrounded by the chattering flock and while it made for a somewhat chatty sleep environment, it made me feel so in-tune with nature. In spite of the fact that the human neighbors appeared close, as seen from the picture above, we never heard them.

During the day, I could lay in the bed for a siesta, with the side screened windows down, and just watch the birds in all of their activity. I could also look directly out to the sea edge beyond. Two lounge chairs at the water’s edge also contributed to the feeling of owning one’s own paradise.

The Glamping Tents were the furthest from the bar/restaurant area, and very quiet, that is except when the planes landed during the day! Due to the small size of the Lady Elliot Island resort, the walk to the restaurant was no hardship, but we were happy to have brought our flashlight.

Heron Island

At Heron Island we stayed in a Point Suite. I believe we would have been just as happy in a less expensive unit, however none of the units at Heron Island have screens. I just can’t comprehend how people can survive without cross-ventilation, in rooms without screens and without air-conditioners in a tropical environment with birds and insects!

I chose a Point Suite because they are the only ones which have air-conditioners. I didn’t expect to need A/C for coolness due to the season, but we used it each night because we couldn’t open the patio doors. In a way I resented the fact that we had to pay so much more, just for ventilation. I had read about the screen situation on a forum and even emailed the resort and they confirmed that the other units did not have screens.

Along with the air-conditioner came closing the patio door and windows at night which removed us from our feathered friends and the buzz of the tropics. (The naturalist did tell us that in October the shearwaters would arrive. These birds sing, that is, make weird moaning sounds, all night long. Some people don’t like the noise and would be happy then to be living in an air-conditioned unit!)

The Suite also included an en-suite bathroom, dressing room and a comfy sofa and chairs. These amenities I was happy to pay for. The bed however, was a “zipper-king” which means that while the mattress didn’t separate under me, it was somewhat uncomfortable. I would have much preferred a queen bed.

The view from the Point Suite, while it was as advertised, was not private. A huge lawn and walkway at the edge of the water meant that other guests wandered round our back lawn area quite freely.

The Ahhhh Factor

While the sofa at Heron Island was an added bonus, the location and paradise-quality of the Lady Elliot Island Glamping Tent stood out.

Heron Island is a much larger resort, and its shear size and the volume of guests negate the image of paradise. The housing area on Heron Island is somewhat congested. There is much less an ambiance of a quiet tropical island, as on Lady Elliot Island, and much more a feeling of urban cell-block apartments.

Food

Lady Elliot Island won the star for food and presentation, over Heron Island, for an unexpected reason.

First we must mention that we do not prefer to eat at buffets. On the one hand, I do like buffets for the variety, and the ability to try new foods without committing an entire meal to the experience. However, we hate going to a buffet to find the food cold, pawed over, with empty heater trays.

Lady Elliot Island

I had studied the forums and knew what to expect – for lunch, either buffet or a la carte meals from the bar, and then buffet for dinner. They advertise that if you pre-book your lunch buffet it is less expensive, however I was uncertain how much it would cost and whether we would like buffet both lunch and dinner, so I decided to wing it with the a la carte bar menu.

Lunch was just fine – there were sufficient fresh, made-to-order choices on the a la carte menu and it was certainly less expensive than the buffet. I can’t remember how much the buffet cost for lunch but my memory is that it was more than $20 USD.

Dinner was ok. Yes, there was a buffet, but the staff kept up with the demand and there was sufficient choice. We were free to arrive at dinner when we liked. One night we were disappointed with our chosen meats and ended up discarding them, but we managed to find plenty to eat otherwise. Staff kept the tables clean, the food replenished and overall, the experience was satisfactory, but not stellar.

Heron Island

One of the reasons I had originally chosen to spend more time at Heron Island was the food. It was advertised to offer an a la carte dinner menu, and various reviewers had been happy with their food.

Several circumstances led to extreme disappointment. When we first arrived on the island they assigned our first dinner time as 7:30pm and said that at our dinner we could chose the dinner times for the subsequent days. We generally eat at 6pm, but accepted the first 7:30 time with good grace.

However, when we arrived for dinner and tried to schedule the subsequent evenings, they informed us that 7:15 was the earliest we could arrange. What? Apparently everyone else, having obtained an earlier first day dinner time had proceeded to schedule earlier subsequent days. We felt disappointed by both the front desk staff who didn’t instruct us well, and the restaurant staff who would not let us book earlier, even after hearing them that I am a diabetic and Greg also has digestive issues and we can’t eat that late. Instead of being treated as people who had spent a great deal for this resort package, and who were on a “bucket list” experience, we felt we were treated as if we were eating at Denny’s. In addition, five minutes later, once we had been shown to our table, we found that no a la carte dinners would be served that week, due to the crowds!

The buffet was horribly crowded, there were few clean tables in the dining room, and I looked over a sea of dirty dishes as I ate the few items I selected, all for $45 AUD per person.

I need to make our sad food story short, and the short story is that we immediately spoke with the front desk, argued to get our special “package” changed to remove the food. Then we ended up eating lunch left-overs for dinner most nights, which is a sad state of affairs when you don’t have a microwave in your room!

Potential guests should be aware that based on occupancy the resort can unilaterally remove the a la carte service and replace it with buffet, and that even then they do not have the staff or coordination to manage a buffet. I guess the bottom line is that although they can fill the resort to capacity as far as beds are concerned, they don’t seem to be able to satisfy that volume in other important ways.

Access to the Island

Access to the two resorts differed. Depending on your personal circumstances you may find one resort preferable.

Lady Elliot Island

Small airplane is the only access to Lady Elliot Island.

This was concerning to me as a diabetic on a long vacation (> 40 days) because I had to carry and protect a great deal of insulin and medical supplies. The size and weight limitations of the suitcases was a hardship for me. We would be carrying not only my medical supplies but our laptop, cameras, toiletries and clothing.

In retrospect, I should have contacted the resort and discussed my issues and perhaps they would have made an exception for me and allowed me to bring an extra carry-on, however I did not. Instead I chose to spend only two nights at Lady Elliot Island, and four nights at Heron Island, packing the minimum for Lady Elliot Island, and leaving valuable medical supplies in our car parked at the airport. (Lady Elliot did say we could leave excess at the check-in desk at the airport, but we decided that the trunk of our car in the airport parking lot would be safer. Note: We had no incident and all was there on our return.)

Although the luggage constraints were a downer, the arrival by air was a magical experience! The plane was small, with perhaps twelve passengers, max. When we arrived near the island, the pilot circled around first, so all passengers could get great pictures, then set us down on the grassy runway.

Traveling to an island by air was obviously more expensive than arriving by boat.

Once you are on the island, you become aware that there are flights arriving and departing throughout the day. The planes are noisy, and the runway not far from the glamping tents. I state these facts, but actually the planes didn’t bother us at all – we were busy snorkeling or walking the beaches.

Heron Island

Access to Heron Island is via high-speed catamaran, helicopter and sea-plane, the latter two being very expensive.

Due to my luggage concerns, the catamaran proved to be a wonderful choice. Yes, there were some weight and size constraints, (you have to pay for more than one piece per person), but the size allotment was much greater than that on a small airplane. I was able to bring everything I needed for five days.

Sea sickness is a major concern, however, for me with the catamaran. I had read reviews and knew that the catamaran does travel on open seas and when the seas are rough the experience can be bad. I packed my non-drowsy Dramamine, even Transderm Scop patches, and hoped for the best.

The day of our crossing was predicted to be sunny and calm, so I didn’t pre-medicate and the trip went well. The catamaran is large and multi-decked; we were quite comfortable in our airline-style seats in the lower cabin, with large viewing windows. We even saw dolphins near the island.

Many forum members have commented on the fact that there is only one arrival a day at Heron Island on the catamaran (some days none), vs multiple planes/arrivals on Lady Elliot Island. I just couldn’t assess what impact that difference would have.

Now I know. As I mentioned earlier, the continual flights were noisy on Lady Elliot, however the noise didn’t bother us. The continuous small arrivals meant that the staff were never overwhelmed with a mob, and guests such as ourselves not aware of crowds.

At Heron Island approximately 150 people would arrive or depart at the same time. Paths would be filled with luggage carts, huge lines formed at the front desk and at the dive shop. We were so much more aware of the volume of people being processed through the island. It made the island feel less special and the experience more like the first day of school.

Other Experiences

In going to a coral island in the Great Barrier Reef, access to the water is the major experience, however both islands offered additional adventures.

Lady Elliot Island

Daily the naturalist(s) conducted complimentary Reef Walks, Island Walks and Bird Walks. Due to the magnificence of the snorkeling and the shortness of our stay, we did not participate in any of the guided activities. We did attend a lecture on the Manta Rays which was excellent. The resort has a museum area for such lectures.

The island has a pool, however it was too cold when we were there in September for pleasant swimming.

Heron Island

I had read that there were more activities on Heron, and that was one of the reasons I had decided to spend the greater amount of time there. However I found that the amount of activities for adults was almost identical to that on Lady Elliot: Complimentary Bird Walk one day, Reef Walk another and Island Walk the third.

Heron Island however, did offer a Queensland University Research Station Tour for an added $10 AUD per person, led by a University staff member. It was a fine tour, with a lecture about the turtles, a touch-and-feel marine sea tank and an introduction to some of the climate-change experiments being conducted there.

The real difference for the two islands lay in the activities for children. Heron Island seemed to have a lot of Junior Ranger type activities for children, however Lady Elliot did not, at least to our eyes. (Granted, we don’t have children and therefore don’t pay attention to children’s activities, unless they are obvious!)

The Islands Themselves

There is no “winner” here – just differences.

Lady Elliot Island

The Island is smaller, bisected by the airstrip. On the resort side you find the restaurant, bar, museum, pool, dive shop and housing. The other side is home to the Lighthouses (two of them), staff quarters, maintenance facilities and resort gardens.

The trees on Lady Elliot are shorter. We later learned that at one point most of the vegetation had been removed (I feel really dumb in that I can’t remember why!) In any case, the vegetation is primarily very tall shrubs and palm trees. An interesting result of the shorter shrubs is the closer proximity of the birds to the humans. You lived WITH the birds. I found them fascinating.

Here are some views:

In about an hour we walked around the entire island, on the beach.

Heron Island

Heron Island is much larger. The vegetation has not been razed by humans, and the trees are quite tall.

Along with the tall trees come a few more interesting birds – a sea eagle, for example. We saw a kingfisher and a dove too, along with the usual cast of characters: Buff Banded Rails, Bridled Terns, Grey Capped Noddies.

Heron Island is also home to many egrets. We were informed that the island is mis-named. The first “naturalist” to the island thought the egrets were herons and named the island accordingly but erroneously.

There is sand on Heron Island as well, and it is home to many green sea turtles.

If you are wanting to see the turtles nesting or hatching, Heron is the place to go! In addition to turtles, the Shearwaters (birds) also make their burrows here. They are noisy but I’m sure a very interesting addition. Sadly, we visited in September and missed both species.

We walked partway around the island by ourselves and on the naturalist’s Island Walk. There is simply more to see at Heron Island.

An Unexpected “Pleasure”

At both resorts they provided a laundry room. Guests could purchase laundry soap and do their own laundry. What an unexpected bonus which neither resort advertised! If I had known that I might not have brought so much with me to Heron and I might have balanced my days more equally between the two resorts.

Last but not least – the Cost

Lady Elliot Island was less expensive for us as a couple than Heron Island.

Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot Island charges a per-person / per-night rate which is published on their website. This rate includes the room, breakfast, dinner, one glass-bottomed boat trip, snorkel equipment daily (but not wetsuits) and complimentary naturalist tours.

You must add onto that the round trip airplane fare, also published on their website. We flew from Hervey Bay out to the island.

Then you must add the cost of lunches and snacks, and wetsuits.

Because we stayed a different number of nights at each resorts, I’m showing you the costs per diem, plus transportation:

Per night per person: Room cost: $367 AUD, lunch and snacks: $21 AUD, wetsuits: $16 AUD, for a total of $413 AUD.

Airfare: $349 AUD per person round trip from Hervey Bay.

For a two night trip, that averages to $587 AUD per person night. For a four night trip, that averages to $500 AUD per person per night.

Heron Island

Originally we purchased a “package” which included the room, breakfast, dinner, snorkel equipment (but not wetsuit) and naturalist walks. However after we experienced the first disastrous buffet dinner we rebelled, had them take us off the package in order that we might pay for our dinners separately, then ate only one dinner at the buffet and ate more at the bar.

It would be impossible to translate that situation in to an apples-to-apples cost model, so I’ll interpolate what it would have cost us if we had eaten the dinner buffet each night.

Per night per person: Room cost: $432 AUD, lunch and snacks: $24 AUD, wetsuits: $15 AUD, snorkeling and research center tour: $52 AUD, dinners: $45 AUD for a total of $568 AUD.

Round-trip catamaran fare: $138 AUD per person.

For a two night trip, that averages to $637 AUD per person per night. For a four night trip, that averages to $602 AUD per person per night. Remember that we only arranged for one snorkel boat trip a day; if you want to snorkel more, you’ll need to pay more!

Bottom Line “Gotcha”

Do not, I repeat, do not go to a Great Barrier Reef resort during a Queensland school holiday. Realize that even if you have checked the holiday schedule for a different area of Australia, each area is different. Do beware!

Here’s a link to the Queensland School Holiday Schedule.

Final words

Whatever you decide is right for you and your family, a trip to a Great Barrier Reef island in Australia is definitely a trip of a lifetime and one you won’t soon forget, if ever!

Last but not least, here’s a picture of my Wobbegong shark, at Lady Elliot Island: