This accomodation was just perfect for our family holiday.We have a 4 year old and a 1 year old. The apartment was spacious and very child friendly,nothing they could break. The view was amazing. I had doubts about this hotel after reading reviews but was pleasantly surprised and will return.

To cut a long story short (as best as possible) we visited Hamilton Island 10 years ago and stayed at the Reef View Hotel (Coral Sea View) and it was absolutely beautiful then and although everything has changed for the bigger and better it was just equally as beautiful. This time (child in tow) we stayed at the Whitsunday Apartments (Coral Sea View 7th floor) and you couldnt ask for a better spot.
The room was tropical and spacious with king size bed and 3 singles and the kitchen made it very easy to eat in when exhausted from all that swimming!! :) We think a communal BBQ (out the front) might be a good idea to eliminate smelly odours hanging in the room and also to get to know other families. Our room was cleaned/serviced everyday....beds were made, dishes done and rubbish emptied. Now thats great service!! (you don't get that in a hotel room!)Everything in the hotel was maintained everyday and we think it is the perfect place to stay with your family. In the school holidays, pools are very busy with laughing children but if you are looking for a quieter time perhaps holiday around the school breaks.

We travelled to Hamilton Island for 5 days from 19.12.09, the island is beautiful, the staff great and very friendly. We were disappointed with the accommodation on the first floor of the east building of the Whitsunday Holiday Apartments, the floors felt sandy all the time, even when freshly cleaned when we checked in and after the room was serviced three days later, when you lay on a bed you had to brush sand off your feet first. The apartment has a small kitchen but very little cookware was available, it would have been impossible to cook much for a family of 4 including two teenage boys. The décor was very dated with the light above the dining table hanging by the wires, it didn’t look very safe. For a few days the apartment above us must have had small children staying in it as we could hear them running around and we were concerned that our boys might be disturbing the couple next door to us.

Hamilton Island itself was beautiful and a great place to go with teenagers, they loved the free non motorised water activities, the free shuttle buses work well but we learnt which bus stops to go to catch them as it was very busy and buses were often too full to take passengers. The main problem with the buses is the 45 minute wait for the next bus from the Golf Driving Range area.

Overall we had a good holiday but would have tried the Reef View instead if we had known more about the apartments, the kitchen was not worth having and the room did not make you feel that you were staying somewhere really nice, which you expect to feel when you pay $2270 for 5 nights accommodation (It was not peak season for our stay)

Stayed for four nights with my family, including two young children. We absolutely loved Hamilton Island but were very disappointed with the accommodation we chose.

The Good

Well organised pick up from the airport.
Staff were helpful and efficient when asked for something.
Gardens are wonderful.
Access to pools and other facilities (such as non-motorised water activities). Pools are plentiful and beautiful.
Breakfast included in price at numerous locations across the island, we loved the view and the atmosphere at Sails restaurant for breakfast.
Air-conditioning in room worked great.

The Bad

Expensive, but you have to expect that on an island resort.
The room itself felt grubby right from the beginning of our holiday.
No carpets on floor in bedroom.
No dishwasher (which I would expect for the price being paid).
Noisy plumbing that made loud "clunky" noises at all hours of the night.
Room only serviced every three days, with the outdoors being the main activities on the island and the consequential amount of dirt being bought into the room and the extra showering being done, this really needed to be done more often. (Extra towels were available on request).

If you were planning on doing nothing else but sleeping in this room it would be perfectly acceptable, but then you could pay less and book a hotel room rather than an apartment.

Our largest complaint was the lack of choice of apartment style accommodation on the island. We have since discovered more about the privately rented houses/apartments available and if we went back to Hamilton Island we would follow up this avenue.

Overall, we loved Hamilton Island, but hated going back to our accommodation each day.