Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Has anyone been to Monkey Mia?

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone here has been to Monkey Mia & if you thought the travel was worth it? We are thinking to spend the month of July traveling around & this is one location that I've kept in the back of my mind. I was wondering if flying from Sydney to Perth & then driving from Perth, hitting some towns on the way & ultimately spending time at Monkey Mia was a worthwhile adventure, any thoughts?

TIA

I've been there as part of a 7 day backpacker trip from Perth to Exmouth (and back). You're really talking about some sparsely populated parts of Australia when you get up in this direction. I went out on a boat for a few hours and didn't see one dolphin. I thought one of the best parts of the trip was actually some of the terrain out there, including the Kalbarri National Park and Cape Range National Park. I put the photos from that trip up on a free web page, haven't updated it in years, and surprisingly it's still on line here (http://www.geocities.com/tom911/westcoast.htm)

Look at some of the itineraries of the backpacker tours if you're going to do this yourself, and just follow their routes (though some of the travel requires 4WD..you'd need to work around that if you didn't have 4WD).

Thanks for the response... I was definitely thinking to make this a seven day trip... It certainly does look rural out there :D

What were your thoughts on Monkey Mia itself? More hype than worthy? Or more worthy than hype?

What were your thoughts on Monkey Mia itself? More hype than worthy? Or more worthy than hype?

We could have skipped it entirely and I would not have missed going there.

We could have skipped it entirely and I would not have missed going there.

Very interesting! Did the dolphins not come in that day?

On an aside, I'd love to hear any comparisons you could make in Mooloolaba/Maroochydore vs. Noosa for a three or four week stay... any sugestions? I'd like something very central to daily needs.... We've stayed in Noosa on Hastings, but I'd have no idea where the grocery store was & the accomodations were definitely more.. but we absolutely loved Noosa... Mooloolaba may be more central, but I've not been there personally... any suggestion?

In Noosa, the supermarket is in Noosa Junction, up above Hastings Street and past the parking lot that all the buses pull into. It's a block behind the main street there (maybe all of a mile from Hastings Street..all uphill). If you look at this map (http://www.noosa.qld.gov.au/content/libmap.html) , the grocery store is next to the primary school. There's a movie theatre in that part of town, as well as an internet cafe and some other shops. It will take you all of 5 minutes to walk the entire shopping area there.

I've never stayed in Mooloolaba, so my comments in the other thread are just based on day visits there. There's plenty of beach there, as there is in Noosa (Sunshine Beach, on the other side of the national park, is very nice).

I can't recall seeing any dolphins in Monkey Mia, though there seems to be one in one of my photos. I don't think I ever saw it while there, though.

I can't recall seeing any dolphins in Monkey Mia, though there seems to be one in one of my photos. I don't think I ever saw it while there, though.

I guess for the dolphin experience it's just easier & a bit cheaper to go to Moreton Island....

Thanks for all the comments, it helps in making our plans... by the way, any experience in Darwin??

No, haven't been up that far.

I can't recall seeing any dolphins in Monkey Mia, though there seems to be one in one of my photos. I don't think I ever saw it while there, though.
I was there in June 2001, and the dolphins did come up close to the beach, etc. Monkey Mia was nice - however I thought that there were other parts of WA that were more interesting.

I was there July last year (PER to top of Cape Ranges and back). We did Monkey Mia because we were going to camp in Francois Peron park (great if you have 4WD which is strictly necessary if going past the homestead). 1st day, there were several dolphins including a baby (the infants apparently rarely ever go near humans). None the 2nd day.

I think Bunbury 2-4 hours south of Perth has dolphin possibilities. A flag's raised if dolphins are visiting.