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Great Barrier Reef
other resorts in the world can offer. There's a relaxed island lifestyle that sets Heron apart - here the emphasis is on exploring and discovering the natural attractions that have made the island famous around the world. You'll enjoy some of the world's best reef diving. There's a choice of spectacular sites just minutes from the beach; can you imagine a better place to learn to dive? Price from £581 per person for four nights at Heron Island, including breakfast, and return helicopter transfers from Gladstone.
Alternatively, for an even more Crusoestyle experience, stay on neighbouring
Heron Island
Wilson, a tiny, five-acre coral cay whose dozen guests stay in tented accommodation (but with proper floors, king size beds, bathrobes, hammocks, etc) and enjoy some of the finest snorkelling. Again the emphasis is on natural beauty, marine life, including turtles, and birds such as the reef herons that gave the island its name. Price from £983 per person for four nights on Wilson Island, including all meals and return helicopter transfers from Gladstone. When to go both islands can be visited year round, although they are at their best during Australia's summer, from November to April.
The best way to see Australia's Great Barrier Reef is from outer space. Sharing the same super phenomena league as the Himalayas, the Sahara and Grand Canyon, the 2000km long chain of reefs, cays and atolls off the mainland coast of Queensland is visible as a whole only through the porthole of a rocket. But there are rewarding compromises.
Of the hundreds of islands, only a score offer accommodation for visitors. Unlike the Greek or Caribbean islands, where there is usually a choice of places to stay, most of the developed islands here are single resorts. Apart from screaming cockatoos, manic lorikeets, brilliant butterflies, sea eagles riding high in the thermals and other resident fauna, there is no such thing as indigenous island life. We'd like to suggest four very different approaches:
The Island Retreat
On Heron Island, which forms part of the World Heritage Listed Reef itself, you can swim straight off the beach into an endless garden of coral where the waters teem with beautifully coloured fish and marine life. It's what you don't see around Heron that makes the resort so special. You won't see any buildings above the tree line. Nor will you bump into any day trippers, either. Heron is exclusively for guests, an experience few
Heron Island
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