The Island is magical especially when the weather is sunny and calm. We stayed for 4 nights and snorkeled twice a day with turtles, reef sharks, rays and amongst corals teaming with marine life. At night we walk along the beach, star gazing, watched turtles nesting and hatchlings heading out to the sea. There was a seagull nest right outside the restaurant and over our stay, we saw the baby seagulls hatched from the eggs!

The Island is also home to lots of birds and it can get smelly if you stay in the turtle rooms because it's situated amongst the trees. The reef room was okay, because they face the ocean and you get lovely sea breeze.

The Island being so far out from the mainland means there was no TV, telephone, nor Internet in the room. Reef room was also not air conditioned. There is no key to the room, so you can't lock the room. It was daunting at first, but we soon relaxed and stop worrying about our emails and phone messages. There is prepaid Internet available at the bar but I couldn't sent my emails via wifi connection. There are two computers at the bar which worked fine for web mails.

Live band at the bar at night was great, the bar is really family friendly, where you can sip cocktails while the kids can dance on the dance floor.

The dive and snorkel boat trip is highly recommended.

The food was fresh and well prepared. There were a good variety to suit most people's taste.

The guided walks are very informative and the guides are knowledgable and nice.

All the staff are friendly and helpful, with a relaxed attitude which rubs off on you.

We are a family of four with children aged 9 and 13, travelling with a family of 3 with a 8 year old. We all had a fantastic time and found the trip was great value. All of us in the group said we must go back again.

Well if you want to get away from the world, and the relatives...this is the PLACE TO GO.
Still so beautifully natural and unspoilt, with heaps of wonderful wildlife, birds and the beauty of the fish and coral of the Great Barrier Reef. We absolutely loved this place!
My husband and I had an incredible time, we went bird walking, snorkeling, swimming, sunset cruising...and more. And it was just so relaxing and stress free, just what the doctor ordered.
The rooms were great, nice and clean, and we got a globe replaced immediately when it blew out. The service was excellent, and the staff were extremely helpful and friendly, particularly the restaurant staff.
The food was mostly great as well, a lovely breakfast, substantial lunch that was different every day, and either a buffet or a la carte for dinner. Most of the a la carte meals were exceptional, and we certainly DID NOT receive any frozen seafood on the Seafood Buffet.
The birds are wonderful, but the mutton birds were a little noisy at night, so we did have to resort to wearing the ear plugs on a couple of occasions, which are supplied by the resort.
I even treated myself to a wonderful massage and spa treatment in the delightful spa area
My husband and I would go back to Heron Island anytime, it is so unique, special, enjoyable and laid back.

We only passed through on our way to Wilson Island, however the food was bad enough for my partner and to want to write.

We had two lunches on Heron Island, which at the buffet. The quality and selection of food was appalling. We would have been furious staying there and having to eat that food.

We walked around the island and went for a walk around the reef. I have to say the main beach on Heron is the most beautiful tropical beach I have seen in my life. Just stunning.

We borrowed a reef viewerd, which was fun, although it was quite scratched. There were black tip reef sharks (safe) swimming around, which was cool.

Unfortunately nearly all of the staff we encountered were abrupt and seemed annoyed with us. This was ver unpleasant to face coming back from Wilson Is, where the staff were so friendly and lovely.

The woman who walked us through our transit was incredibly lovely.

We caught the helicopter back to Gladstone as I was seasick on the way to Heron Is and didn't want to be seasick on my way back. The ride was fantastic, which was great as I was wary after reading a couple of reviews and because the cost is extortionist.

I forgot to put on my Wilson Is review that we had been advised we could buy Wilson Is stubbie holder on Heron, but we couldn't.

You can always tell the nubies off the boat. They’re the ones with the wrinkled up noses and a bit of a startled look on their faces. Yup, there are birds everywhere. They smell. They squawk incessantly. There is bird poo everywhere. Wear a hat. It will help. After the first day, you do get used to it.

This could be such a lovely place to stay. The setting is quite beautiful. The concept is good, the execution is cynical. Shame on you Delaware North.

We visited the island between Christmas and New Years. We read previous reviews about the island, thought we were prepared for the birds, and looked forward to our visit (One of our sons had spent time on the island while at University of Queensland and prepared us for the birds). Admittedly, this is a very busy time, but given that this is no surprise, (and as prices are higher in this season) one would have expected management to anticipate increased demands. They didn’t. We’re not terribly fussy travelers – didn’t expect luxury digs, but at the price we were paying for two rooms, 6 people, we expected edible food, a reasonably clean environment, and a great time snorkeling and diving. We got the snorkeling and diving. We arrived in our rooms to find one of them dirty - they had yet to be made up - dirty diapers from the previous guests were left in a hot room, stewing. It took hours for the room to be made up, perhaps would have been longer if we hadn’t talked with housekeeping directly, who once notified were pretty responsive. Once we cleared off the bird poo from the table and chairs on the patio we at least had a clean place to sit for the moment. . (We wound up throwing out the diapers ourselves and cleaned out the refrigerator. Housekeeping never did).

After our first night, we were moved to a better room, beach suite – for the rest of our stay. It had a much nicer view of the beach and water, and a lovely balcony we shared with the birds. (When we arrived at this room, despite assurances to the contrary, we found that it had not been cleaned, and in fact had a rather large pool of blood drying in the middle of the floor. This room did have a mini bar, which helped in-between, during and after meals.

The meals – the food in the dining hall was just dreadful. We’re all usually willing to eat just about anything and especially after a day of swimming, snorkeling and diving. There were meals we had difficulty finding enough edible. The breakfasts were usually the best – fresh fruit, fried eggs (if you’ll eat them rare) and bacon – other sides were pretty awful; pancakes and waffles when available were heavy and soggy (you can’t keep that sort of stuff in a chafing dish and let it sit. Really, what were they thinking?!?) cereal, toast coffee etc. available. Lunch was buffet and entirely uninspired. Dinner was always buffet and just the worst. Despite advertising the availability of an a la carte menu, it was never available during our stay. I think I read in a response to a previous review that the chef bolted the island during the time of our stay. Quite frankly, that’s no excuse. In fact, insulting. Not at these prices. And then knowing there is a major problem in the kitchen, don’t pretend there’s not! Give the guests a break on something –a bottle of wine with dinner, reduced prices on snorkeling trips, reimburse part of the cost to stay, something. To add insult to injury, the bar was out of potato chips and other nibbles. The blender was always broken…How can that be?? But, we discovered the pizza. It was the best thing to eat on the island, though the birds started to look enticing after a few days. Bring your own snacks. We were idiots and didn’t.

As advised, we went to the dive shop to arrange for snorkeling and dive trips as soon as we got sorted in our rooms. The staff was absolutely terrific. They were helpful, friendly, patient and knowledgeable. The snorkeling off the boat was lovely: the guide was quite familiar with the environment and seemed to love what she was doing. I have to say that on all of our trips on the various boats, we always found the crew able and took the safety of all on board quite seriously. The six of us represented a huge range of diving abilities from absolute beginners, certified decades ago and current certified and confident divers. The beginners took the beginners class, others took the quick refresher – and took multiple dives. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We saw a variety of rays, huge turtles, an array of fish large and small brightly colored and some not so much. We’ve snorkeled off of Magnetic Island further north – where the reef is in far better shape or was. This doesn’t have the same bright, astonishing colors, or life about the reef, but it was certainly worth seeing – and a good reminder that this incredible resource is truly in trouble.

Despite the considerable drawbacks, we had a great time - but we wouldn't come back.