Sometimes you can be in the most exotic places on earth, where wall-to-wall offerings of water-based activities, tennis, golf, hiking through pristine wilderness areas, and late-night dancing are all waiting to be discovered and experienced, and all you feel like doing is pretty much nothing.
The Whitsundays has all those things and many more. You can slip into a scuba suit in the morning, paddle yourself to within an inch of your life in the afternoon, and play three sets of tennis all before sunset cocktails. Or, you can take the soft option and laze by a pool, sip cocktails of various shapes and sizes, and tuck yourself into bed early.
The Tourism Whitsundays, VirginBlue, and mice.net educational to the stunning region recently, attended by just over a dozen meeting and event planners from around the country, was thankfully not an adrenalin-charged affair where we were running from one experience to the other. There were plenty of options to get the heart racing, and thankfully, there was also a fair amount of time reserved for slowing down and soaking up the relaxed atmosphere of one of Australia’s most internationally recognised tourist destinations.
What this group learnt during the long-weekend program was that the Whitsundays is pretty much made for conferencing, incentive travel rewards and special events. A three-or four-day famil is enough time to give meeting and event planners a great insight into what can and has been done in the destination. And, with plenty of new product online, it’s also a great way to see first-hand why this region rates so highly both nationally and internationally.
And what better place to start than on Hamilton Island. But before I even mention that island and what’s new, it would be remiss of me not to speak of the flight on VirginBlue. Welcoming our small posse on board was a nice touch and is something that VirginBlue can arrange for any conference group with a little bit of forethought. I can’t speak for the other famil members but it certainly made me feel kinda special.
And so back to Hamilton Island. If you haven’t been there then picture this: an island surrounded by blue water, a harbour full to the brim with boats of the rich and infamous, and a variety of accommodation ranging from the lower end of the scale right through to six-star luxury. A haven for weddings, and with a purpose-built conference centre, Hamilton has been the base for lovers, leaders and launches, for celebrities, politicians, and everything in-between for many years.
As our keen-as-mustard group discovered during our golf buggy convoy, Hamilton has one more feather in its cap with the launch and opening of Qualia, a new level of luxury pretty much unsurpassed anywhere in Australia.
Constructed at a cost of around $80 million, Qualia is expected to bring a new level of clientele to Hamilton and the Whitsundays – one whose guests most probably have unlimited resources and no concern at the $1000-plus per night price tag that comes with the territory.
This is indeed a stunning property, and our group ooh’d and ah’d in all the right places.
Our accommodation was at the lower end of the Hamilton scale but was certainly no slouch. The Reef View Hotel has been a perennial favourite of the corporate meetings market for many years, and its most recent refurbishment has ensured it remains a fresh option for groups who still have one eye firmly on the bottom line.
As our group experienced, the beauty of Hamilton is its variety of dining options and the ease – even fun – of getting around. We had dinner in Mariners overlooking the marina and its million-dollar pleasure craft.
A Whitsundays experience is apparently never complete without a visit to Whitehaven Beach which is exactly what we did with Fantasea Adventure Cruising. If this isn’t one of the prettiest beaches in Australia then it has to be close.
It was then off to Club Med Lindeman Island for our second night, and for those in the group who felt like a little bit of exercise an opportunity to play golf, tennis, paddle, swim or, as a couple of our braver members experienced, fly on the trapeze. A cold beer beside the pool sounded like just the ticket for this jaded writer.
Club Med Lindeman Island is the kind of place that wouldn’t appeal to everybody. Staff are encouraged to get involved with guests. This can mean coming up and sitting down beside you at breakfast, lunch or dinner for a chat, and socialising wherever and whenever the urge takes them. But its popularity must be indicative that this kind of interaction is more welcome than not with the majority of guests.
As part of the Club Med group, Lindeman follows the all-inclusive mantra. For the one price you can eat or drink to your heart’s content without any fear of how much the bill will be at the end of your stay.
Club Med also has a nightclub that apparently goes off pretty much seven days (or nights) a week although the writer of this report couldn’t confirm that to be true, instead sensibly choosing an early turn in instead of any late-night shenanigans. Besides that, we were under strict instructions to be at the top of the resort by 10am for our helicopter (Aviation Tourism Australia) transfer to the Great Barrier Reef. Missing the flight would mean losing touch with the group for much of the rest of the day.
Thankfully, we all made it aboard and took one of the most beautiful rides out to Knuckle Reef, passing Heart Reef and flying low over sea turtles, sharks and even a whale or two. Lunch on board Seaflight, operated by Cruise Whitsundays, was followed by an offer for a massage, a scuba dive or a snorkel. A number of our group – obviously the braver ones – went scuba diving, with at least one rating it the best experience of her life. Other group members grabbed a book, some shut-eye, and generally embraced the half-day reef experience, apparently hugely popular for conference groups.
Our final stop was to the stunning Hayman which continues to uphold an enviable reputation within the conference and incentive market, not only attracting clientele from Australia but internationally as well. During our whistle stop visit a New Zealand wedding party was having a very good time indeed.
The island is lovely, as is the accommodation, and the cuisine. A brigade of 50-plus chefs are based on the resort, and they don’t disappoint. Our group experienced a wonderful barbecue dinner on the beach that was great because it was simple and elegant.
What is the stand out on Hayman, apart from the food and the setting and the accommodation, is the service. Staff are outstanding and a credit to the management.
Comments from our group were favourable to say the least.
One participant who did brave the scuba diving said the highlight for them “has to be the scuba diving. I didn’t think I could do it. Thanks to the dive team, I did!”
Another participant said: “The way the Tourism Whitsundays team (Michelle and Trevor) worked with all the different suppliers to organise everything was fantastic. Having professional suppliers who work together to make things happen gives you peace of mind when organising corporate events. And the whole team led by example!”
 Another participant only had one criticism: “Increase the duration [of the famil] to at least a week. And then take us all back there again.”
Hard to argue with that…
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