Airlie Beach: Gateway to the Whitsundays

After an overnight bus from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach, it was nice to get off the bus in a new sunny city ready to explore. James and I settled into our hostel and started into town to see what we could find in our home base for the next three days.

First we ran into the Saturday Market with all kinds of clothes, crafts, jewelry, and food up for sale right on the beachfront. Unfortunately with it being “stinger season”, going into the water at the beach is a no go, but as we continued along the waterfront we found a great alternative, a large lagoon style pool. Apparently lagoons are very common as multiple cities along the coast of Australia have them. It’s like a giant pool surrounded by sand and green space along the waterfront, free for everyone to use, including having lifeguards on duty for the majority of the day.

We continued our walk along the waterfront until we reached the marina at the far end of town. Along the way we passed a number of bright flowering trees featuring colorful parrots hanging out in the branches, you know, the type we in the US would purchase from a pet store. From there we turned back around and walked through the main couple of roads in town prior to settling in at the lagoon for a few hours of relaxation, a habit that would become a tradition.

From wandering around we realized exactly how limited Airlie Beach is. It’s quite compact! However, considering the town is pretty small, there are a number of restaurants, bars, shops, and more – a little bit for everyone.

While it’s not the most exciting city, it’s very relaxing and has a lot of local events going on, live music, and our hostel had nightly events too. Sunday evening in town they had a Christmas Festival going on and it was really strange to see all of the kids running around in their tank tops and skirts with Christmas hats on. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas!

We also met a couple of awesome Australians to hang out with at our hostel and we won our hostel’s Monday trivia night which landed us a free bottle of champagne. I guess all in all you could say Airlie Beach treated us well, but the highlight was of course taking a Day Trip to the Whitsunday Islands. They are absolutely beautiful and the main draw for going to Airlie Beach. Otherwise you only really need one day to explore the town.