bensyd

Heron Island is definitely at the more basic end of the resort spectrum. It's a different sort of GBR experience. The whole resort runs on diesel generators which probably explains why they don't have air conditioning.

beachfan

I didn’t hit the lottery this week otherwise I’d go to Lizard Island.

mechteach

I'm hoping to get both some specific and more general advice. We've been lucky enough to go to Australia a number of times before, and have just booked a trip back there for this coming mid-March with the United mileage ticket sale. All of our previous trips to Australia have been for 2-3 weeks. This one is for just a week (shockingly short), but it is all we can do with school schedules. Fwiw, our family is *very* lucky in that we seem to constitutionally handle time zone changes/jet lag fairly well - we've done a similar weeklong trip at that time of year to Japan and South Africa, for example, and had a great time. (We live in the middle of the U.S. right now.) Our previous trips have been:

2007: Sydney (incl Blue Mountains) up the coast to Noosa; with kids (Australian summer)
2009: Melbourne and surroundings; with kids (summer)
2016: Tasmania; with kids (summer)
2019: Whitsundays incl. night out on the GBR, Adelaide to Darwin (the Ghan; also some time around both areas on either end), Uluru/Kata Tjuta; without kids (winter)

The aforementioned "kids" are now 17 and 20. So, we saw some things as parents last time that they missed. The one that they are most interested in is the Great Barrier Reef. We are flying into and out of Brisbane due to the FF ticket availability, and are not inclined to do a bunch of plane hopping around the country due to the limited time, though we are happy to treat BNE as a connecting point - fly to somewhere else immediately upon arrival, and then have a night or two in BNE on the way back, for example (we found it to be really charming when we were there 16 years ago).

So, my first very specific question - we have avoided the northern coastal areas during stinger season in the past. I know if we go out to the Reef, they aren't really prevalent there, but what about in the Whitsundays? We are okay with bringing stinger suits with us, but there is a load of difference between having to wear a suit just in case versus having to wear a suit so that we aren't in agonizing pain and needing to be constantly worried about that for any exposed skin. Would you still do the Whitsundays? Another island instead? You can see that we have occasionally splurged in the past (the trip on the Ghan), but we are usually much more midrange travelers, for context.

Second more general question - is there a part of Australia that we have missed that you would highly recommend? Obviously, Western Australia, but that is such a far flight from Brisbane that I hesitate for this short trip. Would it still be worth it in your estimation? I know that this is an entirely personally dependent type of question, but that is still valuable to me. Would you just stick with the Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast?

Thank you for any input!

JClasstraveller

On a short trip, WA is a long way although it’s beautiful that time of year.

Kangaroo Island might be an option, Adelaide and surrounds is quite nice if wine and food are your thing. Beautiful areas around Adelaide too.

Whitsundays is a better bet for GBR than Cairns/FNQ that time of year though we expect a very hot summer coming.

It might depend on your kids. If they want a bit of life in the evenings, Whitsundays will be pretty quiet.

beachfan

Any places on the whitsundays you recommend for diving (and snorkeling).

we looked at Heron Island but no air con and we are going in January.

I looked at Hamilton island but it’s not far out enough to avoid stingers it seems.