Whitehaven Beach - Halbtägige Bootstour

Half day trip to Whitehaven Beach on a very average day which was overcast :(. Picturesque beach, although not dissimilar to may other beautiful beaches in Australia. Nothing to do there apart from a few beach activities/games and a long walk. Fortunately it was out of stinger season (May to October I believe they said) so you could go for a dip if inclined but they still did recommend wearing stinger suits. I was a little underwhelmed :( as it took an hour to get there, an hour back and 2 hours on the beach.

Karen and the deck team were amazing at helping my friend with special needs around the trip. Only a bit more shade available on the beach would have been great. Gorgeous spot. Busy place

Received two separate notifications that we missed our booked trip several weeks before the date we had actually booked for. A couple of days before the trip we arrived at Daydream Island and enquired about cancelling because of the weather forecast (at this stage we didn't even know if the trip was still booked). We were told we couldn't cancel and that the trip was still booked. To our surprise the sun came out on the day we were booked for. Hostess who greeted us was quite rude but we had a nice journey over to Whitehaven. Captain informed us of the bad weather that was coming in all the way there and said if the weather turned that we wouldn't be left on the beach for the 2 hour 45 mins stop duration. Before we got on the small boat to ferry passengers to the shore from the main boat it started raining and within minutes it was torrential and windy. After a couple of minutes we were all soaked through to the bone, the wind picked up and 90 percent of passengers took cover under the limited shelter available on the island. After 40 minutes sitting in the cold we checked in with the crew to see when the small boat would be back to collect us (it was back at the main boat) as the kids were freezing and all our spare clothes and towels were saturated. We were told that routine maintenance was being undertaken and it would come after that. 30 minutes later a different party went to check on the boat as still no news. The crew radioed the main boat and informed us it would be another 20-30 minutes as maintenance was still being done. They weren't prepared to collect us earlier. All in all we spent 5 minutes enjoying the beach before the torrential rain saturated even the most weather prepared folk and then almost 2 hours in wet clothes crammed in a small shelter with a bunch of strangers also wanting to go back to the boat (it was closed in so we'd at least be protected from the wind and rain). When the routine maintenance was complete it was then too rough and wet for the boat to get us immediately. When we did eventually get on the boat the catered hot drinks were a life saver however the trip back was horrendous. The swells were huge and stuff was flying all over the place. Our 8yo was terrified and so were some fully grown adults. The bar got a bit messed up too so I gather that was not a 'normal' journey. Crew did the best they could to keep everyone calm and looked after. When we finally got out of the open ocean it was much more comfortable. Unfortunately we then had a boat change at Hamilton with wet clothes, gear and upset children. 100% do not recommend this company or their tours. Not like it was a cheap trip either - almost $400AUD for 2 adults and 2 kids. Our trip should have been canned. Those on the afternoon trip were able to reschedule. Was a very miserable half day for 99% (I assume) of passengers on board for our tour. Plenty of other companies to go with - I recommend that you check them out.