August 24th 2009
My husband and I chose to stay at the Apartments as opposed to a hotel just to give us a bit more room and the choice of dining 'in' if we wished. We did some research prior to booking and discovered that some of the rooms had recently been renovated. Of course it's all personal taste and whether you're bothered or not but we thought if we can secure one it would be so much nicer.
I found their direct phone line on their web page and spoke directly to their reception. We of course were not sure whether we would be lucky but our room was on the top floor and had been updated. It made a tremendous difference to us as we were aware that the apartments were graded as 3 1/2 stars and we liked 4 star upward - who wouldn't? We did have a peek in one of the rooms on a lower floor and believe me they were very old fashioned.
All the apartments have the same design and layout but having a renovated one meant that all furnishings and fittings were modern. The lounge/dining area was very roomy and led out to the balcony. Our modular sofa was extremely comfy as was the armchair and footstool. A great place to lounge and watch a DVD on the walled plasma TV. They had a channel devoted totally to the island explaining about all the activities, shops, restaurants etc. that went on around the Island.
The kitchen was at the other end and was compact but had everything you needed. We cooked two meals during our stay and felt a bit guilty when we left the dishes in the sink and found they had been washed, dried and put away by room service the next day.
The bedroom was off the lounge and had a king bed, wardrobe and a kind of day bed. This had drawers underneath that were deep and roomy to put folded clothes in. Opposite the bed was an alcove with a basin and shelves and also the hair dryer.
We also had a smaller plasma TV and DVD player that came in handy when we decided to watch a movie late one night.
The en-suite was off the bedroom and again very functional ,clean and fresh.
The balcony was were we spent most of our time when in the apartment. It was quite big having a table and four comfy chairs and two loungers. Being on the top floor the view was magnificent. It was panoramic and simply breathtaking. We overlooked Catseye Beach that went on forever to the Whitsunday Island in the distance.
We enjoyed a few glasses of wine out there. One thing you are warned about is the birds that land on the railings looking for food. They were beautiful rainbow lorrikeets and crested cockatoos. Very friendly and fantastic to watch as they swooped in front of you. We made only one mistake, once. We forgot to close the sliding door when we left one morning. When we got back later the room was full of birds enjoying a feast on bread, crisps and anything else they could find. They did leave a mess but it was quite funny really just watching them. Never made that mistake again!
There was a laundry on three of the floors. Although I don't like to think about washing when I'm on holiday it did come in useful a couple of times. We put a wash on on the way to breakfast and picked it up on the way back. You could use the drier if you wanted but we chose to hang everything on a clothes drier on the balcony, dried before the end of the day. And the iron and ironing board came in handy.
We had breakfast included in our package and this was a short stroll to the Reef Hotel next door. It was a full on buffet and you could just keep eating and eating!
There was a lovely tropical swimming pool just outside, amongst the gardens. But you could also use the Reef's pool if you wanted. There was also a pool close to the beach. But wherever you wanted to go the Apartments were in easy reach to everything.
We would certainly go back and definiately recommend it as a place to stay if you wanted more than a hotel room but with hotel facilities.
- Whitsunday Holiday Apartments Hamilton Island
- Whitsunday Holiday Apartments Hotel
