Happy Newlywed Wednesday! Alec and I were on vacation this past Labor Day weekend in Seattle and just got back a day ago so our video isn’t quiiiiite ready but it should be up by the end of the week!
Today I wanted to share with you a travel guide from our unreal honeymoon! On our honeymoon we went to Hamilton Island Australia, Sydney Australia, and Maui Hawaii. The longest time was spent on Hamilton Island though so I wanted to share all of the fun deats! Neither of us had been to Australia before but it was always Alec’s dream to visit there so it wasn’t a hard decision! It was just ugh, seriously, such a dream come true and I would recommend it to anybody!! I’ll share all of the travel, hotel, food, & activities below! Also, here is my OG post on Hamilton Island right after we returned! (If you guys like this travel guide, let me know and I will make more!)
GETTING THERE:
We took off from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) the day after our wedding. We flew Virgin Australia and had seats in premium economy which was a GAME CHANGER. They weren’t the business class ones that go all the way flat like a bed, but they still reclined a lot and had a tonnnn of leg room. We also chose the back row so nobody was behind us! They gave us tons of food and drinks AND they had a snack bar that we could get things from throughout the entire flight! I think it was a combo of being exhausted from the wedding the day before and our spacious seats, but I slept for 9 hours STRAIGHT which was major on a 15 hour flight! Once we got to Sydney, we had to take another 3 hour flight up to Hamilton Island (HMI) in the Great Barrier Reef, also through Virgin Australia.
WHERE TO STAY:
We stayed at the Reef View Hotel. After a few little mix-ups with the room (they gave us a room with two beds, lol #honeymoon), we had an amazing room on the 15th floor that looked directly out on the water and Catseye beach. The only real negative is that we had THE noisiest neighbors EVER and my biggest regret of the trip was not calling to change rooms again haha. Oh well! We were out at the beautiful pools and beach and on adventures during the day anyways!
A few other options are the Palm Bungalows, which are really pretty and renovated and private and there are little kangaroos jumping around you, but you don’t have a view of the ocean. Beach Club, we almost stayed here but the price went up a lot from the Reef View. This hotel is literally right on the beach and has private access to their own beach. Then there is Qualia which is like, unreal. It is rated as the number one resort in the entire world. T Swift rented out the whole resort for her crew after her last tour. It’ s a big deal. As you can imagine, it is quite expensive and it is totally secluded on it’s own side of the island. But if you have $$$, go for it!
WHERE TO EAT/ GETTING AROUND:
There are a ton of options on the island because there is a cute little town by the waterfront filled with restaurants, activities, markets, and even a flower shop lol. You can either rent a buggie (aka golf cart) while you are there to jet around in (we did this on our last day so we could explore a bit more), wait for a shuttle to bring you around (they are running almost constantly), or you can walk around (at least to the town) because the island really isn’t that big.
Here is everywhere that we ate on the island (also, with our hotel package we got free breakfast every morning from Pool Terrace, Sails, or Koolah Cafe):
Coca Chu: Asian inspired cuisine with an Australian twist! Our favorite dishes were the pork belly buns and twice cooked beef!
Beach Club Restaurant: Contemporary, seasonal menu with a gorggg view that was off the chart. One of our favorite meals for sure.
Marina Tavern: This has more pub-style foods. We ate here after jet-skiing! And they serve kangaroo here!
Sails: This was the first place we ate when we got to the island because we were starving!! It is a really casual little restaurant right on the beach! We ate here a few times for breakfast buffets and lunchtime fish and chips!
TAKO: OMGGG honestly this was my favorite hahah it is just a little casual Mexican food place but the food was to die for. We went here twice and I seriously wish we went every day. The crunchy tostadas were life changing. One of the best things I have ever eaten in my life.
Manta Ray: We got a pepperoni pizza and went back to our room and drank champagne that our nice flight attendant snuck to us on the plane as a congrats. Honestly, I think we liked the champagne more because that pizza wasn’t quite the way Domino’s makes it….
One Tree Hill: They have lots of bars and lounges on the island but the absolute best and most breathtaking is One Tree Hill. It is, well, on a hill (I did see more than one tree, however) and the views while sipping on some fruity drinks was crazy beautiful. We went there quite a few times! They served this one drink with passion fruit pulp and I think it was Alec’s favorite that he’s ever had!
WHAT TO DO:
Sunset Sail: This was an amazing way to start our trip on our first day! The sunset was unreal, they food and drinks were FREE, and I really felt like I was living my best life laying on that net, watching the bright blue water splash below me, the bright orange sky above me, and my new hubby next to me!
Helicopter to Whitehaven Beach: Okay if there is one thing you ever do in your life….DO THIS. Honestly, I told Alec that I think this was one of the best days of my life….going to Whitehaven Beach was absolutely breathtaking and I don’t know if it is always like this or if we got lucky, but we were completely alone on that giant beach!! The helicopter pilot left to go to her little bungalow for an hour and a half while we ate the picnic they brought us and popped the champagne on the softest, whitest beach in the world! It was a once in a lifetime day for sure! I go into more detail about this experience on this post!
Scuba Dive the Great Barrier Reef: This was a crazy experience too! Alec and I both love to scuba but we decided to just do the half day experience since the full day required a three hour boat ride each way and my stomach just wasn’t going to like that! We had a semi private dive, with us two and another couple and our instructor since we aren’t officially certified yet for some reason lol. We saw sooo many fish and the most giant and colorful coral ever. But it was unfortunately pretty merky in the water that day so I feel like we didn’t get to experience the FULL impact. Still very cool and 100% recommended!
Hold Koalas: oooooookay. I mean, if I’m flying 15 hours to Australia, I am going to hold some koalas. We had breakfast at the koolah cafe and sipped our tea just staring at the sleepy guys in the background. Then we got to hold them for a photo (for all of about 10 seconds, lol) but it was still super cool!
Jet Ski: I actually think this was one of Alec’s favorite things!! We went around the entire island with our guide and it was such a hot day and the water was warm and crystal clear and the wakes got pretty big out there so Alec thought it was just a blast to fly over them with me hanging onto him for dear life.
Paddle Board: We got up early (jet lag) basically every day and went down to the beach and paddle boarded out in the cove because they were included in our resort fee! I saw the biggest turtle I had ever seen in my life and got to enjoy a bit of the sun before it became unbearably hot by the afternoon!
Heather Fern 