Whitsundays

Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island is the image most people arrive with: about 7km of pure white silica sand curving towards the swirling tidal channels of Hill Inlet, with no buildings in sight. Around it lie dozens of quieter coves on the national park islands, and resort beaches such as Catseye Beach on Hamilton Island. The water stays warm all year, roughly 23°C in winter and 29°C in summer.

The catch is that the good beaches are on the islands, not the mainland. Airlie Beach has a large free swimming lagoon on the foreshore because its own shore is shallow and muddy, and crocodiles make mainland creeks unsafe. From about November to May, box jellyfish and Irukandji mean wearing a stinger suit in the sea. Winter, from June to September, is the most comfortable time for a beach day.

Eating here is easy-going and built around the rhythm of a beach vacation rather than a reason to come. Airlie Beach has a strip of casual cafés, pubs, fish and chips and modern Australian bistros with water views, and the islands add resort restaurants, some polished, on Hamilton and Hayman. Local prawns, reef fish and tropical fruit from the farms around Bowen and Proserpine are the best things on the menu. There is no distinct regional cooking, markets are small, and a long stay soon repeats itself.

There is very little to see in the way of museums or historic buildings. The islands were home to the Ngaro people, and a few rock art and cultural sites can be visited along the Ngaro Sea Trail, with small heritage displays in Proserpine and Bowen. Otherwise this is a place of sea and islands, and visitors who want sights should look elsewhere.

Airlie Beach is the only place that goes out. Its short main street is a backpacker hub, with big pub bars, cheap drinks nights, open-air decks and a couple of late venues that fill up after the sailing trips come back. It is loud, young and fun for a few nights but small. On the islands evenings mean a resort bar, a marina pub on Hamilton Island and an early night before the boats leave.

This is one of the great sailing grounds in the world: 74 islands, most of them national park, set in sheltered water inside the Great Barrier Reef, with steady trade winds and anchorages in hooped-pine coves. Visitors charter a yacht themselves or join a two- or three-night sailing trip, snorkel fringing reefs, kayak between islands or take a seaplane over the outer reef and the heart-shaped coral of Heart Reef. Diving and snorkelling on the outer reef are a day's boat ride.

On land, the Hill Inlet lookout, the Ngaro Track on Whitsunday Island and the rainforest of Conway National Park behind Airlie give good walking. Humpback whales come up the coast to calve from about July to September. Summer brings heat, rain and the risk of cyclones.

Most outings are boat trips to reefs, beaches and lookouts, which are about nature rather than places. As separate visits, ferries link Airlie Beach with Hamilton Island's marina village and the resort of Daydream Island, and the small coastal town of Bowen, with its own beaches and mango farms, is about an hour's drive north. Mackay is about two hours south, but there is little else of interest to go and see.

Families do best on the resort islands. Hamilton Island has a calm beach, pools, a small wildlife park with koalas and kids' clubs, and children love driving around in the golf buggies that replace cars. Daydream Island is compact, with a large outdoor coral lagoon full of reef fish, sharks and rays. In Airlie Beach the free netted lagoon on the foreshore is the safest swim for small children.

The complications are the sea and the distances. Stinger suits are needed in the warmer months, crocodiles rule out mainland creeks, and Whitehaven and the reef mean several hours on a boat, which suits older children better than toddlers. Winter is the easiest season.

Airlie Beach is a small, walkable town, and Hamilton Island has its own airport with flights from the big cities, while Proserpine airport serves the mainland about half an hour inland. Regular passenger ferries connect Airlie with Hamilton and Daydream islands, and on Hamilton you get around by buggy or free shuttle. Everything else, from Whitehaven to the reef, means a booked boat trip or a charter yacht, so days follow departure times and the weather. A car helps only for the mainland.

Shopping is limited to swimwear, resort clothing, surf gear and souvenirs along the Airlie Beach main street and around the Hamilton Island marina, plus a weekend craft market on the Airlie foreshore. Nobody comes here to shop.

This is an expensive place to spend a vacation. Airlie Beach has hostels, self-catering apartments and campgrounds that keep a budget stay possible, but eating out costs what it does elsewhere in Australia, and the things people come for, sailing trips, reef days and scenic flights, add up quickly. The island resorts, especially Hayman and the top end of Hamilton, are priced as luxury escapes, and even simple meals and drinks on the islands carry an island premium.

Live music means cover bands and acoustic sets in the Airlie Beach pubs and resort bars. The town holds an annual music festival on the foreshore, and Hamilton Island has occasional events, but there is no theatre, concert hall or performance season to plan a trip around.

There is no bathing culture here, but the pace on the islands is slow, and the region is built for switching off. The luxury resorts on Hamilton and Hayman islands have serious day spas with treatment rooms set into the bush or facing the sea, and smaller spas operate in Airlie Beach. A few days on a quiet island, or on a yacht anchored in a still bay, do the restoring better than any treatment. Airlie itself, with its backpacker noise, is the least restful base.