Lord Howe Island (airport code LDH) was the highlight of our trip. Roughly an hour and a half flight from Sydney, LDH is a small island with 350 residents and a maximum 400 tourists. Since we were there in the off-season there were only about 75 other tourists on the island and many of the residents were on vacation so it felt like we had our own, personal island paradise. Among the notable highlights, are a well-protected lagoon, the cleanest beach in Australia, and mountains rising straight out of the ocean. Since the water was a bit cold I only snorkeled briefly but those in the know say it’s comparable to, if not better than, the Great Barrier Reef. From my experience, I’d say that there’s a better variety of interesting fish but that the colors may be somewhat more impressive further north (cool bit of trivia: Lord Howe Island is home to the world’s southern-most coral reef).
Lagoon of Lord Howe Island on approach to LDH
View of Mount Gower from edge of LDH lagoon near CBD
Ned’s Beach, the cleanest beach in Australia. Snorkel and wetsuit rentals are available on the honor system.
View of island from Kim’s Lookout, lagoon is clearly visible and you can appreciate how narrow the island is in the middle, less than one kilometer.
View of Ned’s beach from Malabar Hill
The island has about 20km of paved road (maximum speed limit, 25kph) and it’s fairly easy to walk or bike almost anywhere you’d want to go. If I had to do it over again, I probably would’ve rented a bike as soon as I got there in order to make getting around a bit easier but we did just fine walking everywhere. There is a bit of a hill in the center of the island so you’ll want to take that into consideration when determining where you need to go. We stayed at Lorhiti Apartments on the top of the hill near Ned’s Beach and it was about a ten minute walk to the “CBD” downhill and maybe a few minutes more uphill. Most restaurants offer return transportation to your accommodation in the evening and there are also a few rental cars for those who don’t like to walk or bike.
One of the main roads through the island
I used some orphan AA miles for our tickets to the island which I felt was a pretty good investment given that tickets seem to start at about AUD330 one way from Sydney. Flights are offered by QantasLink Dash 8-200 series aircraft. Be aware that there is a one bag, 14 kilo limit for checked baggage and that passengers and bags are often weighed when leaving LDH due to the short runway (this did not happen to us, probably because our flight was only half full).
LDH airport, note solar panels, and lack of security, baggage claim, etc.
QantasLink Dash 8 arriving from SYD to take us back to the mainland
Be warned, that unlike many higher-end destinations, people on Lord Howe don’t bend over backwards to accommodate to tourists. Business open at odd hours and will occasionally close if they’re not as busy as they’d like. Since it was the off-season, there was rarely more than one or two restaurants open for dinner any given night and books were essential to ensure they’d be open when you wanted to eat. For those who prefer a more luxurious experience, the island has several all-inclusive properties which I suspect provide their guests with more pampering than those of us who try to go it alone receive. So be warned, but don’t think about not going!