Airlie Beach

What is the perfect day made of?

Finally I reached one of my major point of interest on my journey across Australian east coast, Airlie Beach. I must have been too excited to read the signs because only when I arrived, I noticed that there is additional i in the word; before I Always read it like Arlie =D
Airlie beach is relatively small town, surrounded by cannonvale and other suburbs, but incredibly busy, thanks to nature. In Airlie beach there are not many things to do for free, but for a few hundred dollars you will have the time of your life. As a budget backpacker I took advantage of free Airlie lagoon and cheapest accommodation, Magnums backpacker hostel. Where Coffs harbour's Hoey Moey charged 30 AU$ per night, I paid only 57$ for 3 nights at magnums making it 19$ a night (8-dorm). I have not been paid to advertise it, but should you make your way there, I highly recommend Magnums. Their dorms are clean on their side being cleaned daily, however backpackers are seemingly dirty (except I:) and there could be clothes on the floor around. No bedbugs and every dorm has ensuite and air conditioning which is absolutely lovely! Their accommodations are located behind the main street, in a small palm forest which was just amazing. Good location makes it easy to take evening walk around the town or as I did, enjoy the lagoon.

Magnums accommodation yard

Airlie lagoon

Main street at 8pm

In Airlie beach there are many activities to do: scuba dive, snorkel, skydive, airplane/helicopter over the reef and 3-day boat trips to name a few. I Had decided before that I want to get to the whiteehaven beach and go snorkling corals. After comparing the prices and offers, I ended up buying my full-day cruise from TravelBug agency. My trip with Cruise Whitsundays was 189$ and worth every dollar. Full day trip in my case meant departure at 7 AM and arrival around 6:20PM.

My perfect day

Yesterday I had quite a perfect day. The day started from Airlie marina at 7:15 AM when we started boarding in the Cruise Whitsundays' full day -cruise ship "Orca", sort of catamaran. After roughly an hour via daydream and hamilton island It landed us straight on the legendary whitehaven beach with an expandable bridge. It's true that whitehaven has white sand, which feels and looks just amazing. It doesn't heat by the sun as typical yellowish sand does and makes it lovely to walk, play beachvolley or lie on.

Orca

These waters have possibly lethal marine stingers, Irukanji and box jellyfish, at this time of year and we had to wear full body stinger suits. It's similar to Morphsuit if you have ever worn one. Makes you feel a sausage x)

Latest fashion: stinger suit

We were divided in two groups and I had the chance to be in the second group which I found out better. While group one went snorkling corals I jumped in my stinga suit and went swim for a while. The water is clear and smooth however in my opinion too warm =) in about 1,5 hours the first group came back and group 2 hopped in a 225 horsepower powered, about 5 meter long boat.
Snorkling area was not very big, but still there were plenty of corals to see and fish were everywhere. I think the corals were more colourful in ads but good enough. Being only 2-3 meters deep,  it was easy to dive and spend 10-20 seconds roaming through submerged forest. I bought supercheap action camera so I recorded as many corals and fish as I could. I think we had too little time to snorkle: an hour only. I could have spent entire day there. Anyways the next destination was also worthwhile.

Hill Inlet lookout is the place where postcard pictures are taken from. Breathtaking landscape is amazing as you see it with own eyes. You better have your camera ready because this is the place to take perfect facebook cover & profile photo. Friendly staff can assist you taking pictures of yourself. By the way Tyler if you're reading this, thanks for the pics one more time!

Hill inlet lookout, Whitehaven beach going left

After Hill inlet we had time to spot some baby sharks in one bay. They are quite impressive although just half a meter long.
After all this we went back to whitehaven beach and I joined in few guys who were playing beachvolley. Oh boys it was nice! I got only slightly sunburn on cheeks.

What Is your perfect day made of?