Having stayed in a palm bungalow on Hamilton Island January 2020
we decided to revisit January 2026
We arrived at Hamilton Island airport from Brisbane, standard daily flight
and everything went to plan.
Free transfer to the resort, no complaints there, Check in was smooth and no issues
We just had to wait for an hour or so for are bungalow to be ready, check in is after 3pm.
Sat in the bar and had a couple of beers while waiting, then received a text message to say are bungalow was ready.
Back to reception, pick up the keys, and the porter took us to our Bungalow in one of the many golf carts.
Initial inspection of our bungalow, not as good ad we remembered from 2020, the bathroom sink was cracked,
and the kitchen sink tap was lose and flopping around, everything else looked fine, All clean and tidy.
Shuttle bus to the harbour and the supermarket, to pick up a few bits, beer, wine, and snacks.
The kitchen is very limited on what food you can prepare your self, electric hob top, and microwave oven with a few pots and pans, if you fancy a fry up, also kettle and toaster.
There are Plenty of places to get an evening meal in the harbour area, fish and chips, pizza, burgers or dine in restaurant's, some will need to be pre booked.
Lucky for us we had breakfast included on this visit, and we must say, it really did pay off, great food at the buffet selection. No idea what lunch, or evening meals are like.
We did go into the new sails restaurant / bar venue, what a strange set up, and the best of luck trying to get a table, to get a number to order anything. We had a beer and left. We tried again another evening, this time a very rude female worker behind the bar would not even get us a beer unless we had a table, totally ridicules, we told her to forget it, and walked out. Also looking at the menu, its all sea food and very boring and pricey. This could be a great venue if properly organised and they had professional trained staff, not rude untrained teenagers, Would not recommend this venue to anyone.
Plenty of swimming pools to chose from, but if you want a sun lounger get one early on, as it gets packed out most days due to school holidays and not much room on the beach to sunbathe. January is a very busy time to visit and the weather is very unpredictable, tropical storms most days.
This resort has grown massively in size and lost some of its charm. If your elderly or disabled and you want a palm bungalow, go for the ones on the flat ground, some may have wheel chair access, you need to be fairly fit to get round the resort or harbour, very steep paths.
Unfortunately the weather turned and we had a fair bit of rain and storms, but we still managed to have good tour round the island on the free shuttle bus and spend time on the beach. We had planned on booking a helicopter tour, but the bad weather said no. Even the ferry transfers had to stop, due to bad weather.
Check out was straight forward, but luggage collection was very slow and we almost missed the shuttle back to the airport, so keep an eye out for your cases to be collected and ready to go with you back to the airport.
Airport check in no issues and a standard flight back to Brisbane.
Would we ever come back, no its way to commercial, and just like a giant Butlins, holiday camp, better options on Airbnb which sometime include the golf buggy to get around.
Pick small private accommodation if you can.
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