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If you’re unfamiliar with Hamilton Island it’s located in the Whitsundays, an archipelago off the coast of Queensland, Australia, that ideally serves as a base of operations for those wanting to see the Great Barrier Reef. The entire island, and neighboring Dent island, are owned and run by the Australian winemaking family, the Oatleys.
Hamilton Island is non-motorized, other than official vehicles, and the main means of transport is either foot or shuttle. You do have the option of renting a golf cart, which is pricy, but ultimately worth it – you’re on vacay in the middle of the ocean, off the coast of Australia, for goodness sake!
There are 4 hotel choices
- Qualia
- Beach Club ( $600+)
- Palm Bungalows ( $250+ )
- Reef View Hotel ( $250+ )
They’re sorted from the most luxurious to the least, but nothing on the island is cheap. In fact, everything is intra-connected, so when you go to the harbor to eat dinner, you can charge to your room. It’s really an incredible concept that I’m extremely grateful to have experienced both at Qualia and at Palm Bungalows.
Why we chose Palm Bungalows
The Palm Bungalows are individual cottages set adjacent to the Reef View and across the street from the Beach Club. When we were booking, the Palm Bungalows were roughly the same price as Reef View, and almost half that of Beach Club, and we’d already booked two nights at Qualia on the other side of the island. We knew Qualia would be insane, and we were splurging big time to experience it, so we were primarily looking at Reef View and Palm Bungalows.
The Bungalows seemed far more quaint, but also nicer, than the accommodations at Reef View, and we were right. Unless an ocean view is imperative, I’d choose the bungalows over reef view, all things considered.
Paying for the trip
There is a fee to use American Express so for that reason only we utilized our Chase cards that earn us 3x points on Travel: The Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink Business Preferred.
The Deets:
- When: April 2018
- Where: Hamilton Island Australia
Check-in
The Palm Bungalows check-in is a part of the Reef View hotel, and it was an absolute madhouse. We arrived from the tranquility of Qualia to an explosion of guests checking out at Reef View. Bags lined up, guests dashing here and there. We were snapped back to the reality of travel that keep people from traveling…chaos.
The Bungalows
I loved our little Bungalow. While we were in the middle of the pack, we didn’t share a wall, and judging by how packed the hotel was, I can imagine that there were a lot of kids running up and down the hallways in the Reef View. We felt “in the action,” but we also had privacy and some space to ourselves.
Each one is fit with a hammock at the entrance, high ceilings, and a small little kitchenette. It was very well maintained with a little porch, and a place to plug a golf cart if you rented one.
A small bathroom with shower
Renting a golf cart
While you can certainly make do with walking everywhere or taking the shuttle, I think your experience on the island is immensely improved with your own transportation. Here’s a look at prices.
You can walk over to the beach as well
Neither the Reef View nor the Bungalows are on the beach ( that’s only the Beach Club in this area of the the island ) so grab your flip flops, towel, and lotion and head on over. The islands popping out of the water are simply a breaktaking backdrop.
Taking a hike to Passage Peak
If you head past the Reef View Hotel the road will narrow and end at the start of the trail. In total… I believe it took us about 2 hours bungalow to peak to bungalow.
Check Out
We needed to be out of the room at 10am. Yeah…pretty early, but the hotel does have a lounge where you can hang out, or as we utilized, lockers. While we were a bit concerned leaving our bags outside while we went to the harbor to eat lunch, we also didn’t want to carry our laptops, etc. We scurried over and easily nabbed a place to lock our stuff up while we mosied around.
Overall thoughts
Hamilton Island is someplace I’d highly recommend visiting. You can check out more thoughts and ideas on visiting, but if you’re looking for accommodations on the island that are private, nicely appointed, and get the most bang for your buck – I’d go with the Palm Bungalows.
The next installment on this series will feature touring the Great Barrier Reef by helicopter. Helis aren’t always worth it, but for this great wonder…it absolutely was worth every penny.
- How I found and booked 2 Qantas First Class Tickets
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- Review: Qantas First Class LAX-MEL
- Review: Qantas Business Class Lounge Melbourne
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- Intercontinental Sydney
- How to spend 2 awesome nights in Melbourne
- Review: Qualia – Hamilton Island
- Review: Palm Bungalows – Hamilton Island
- Why you should add Hamilton Island to your Australia adventure
- What it’s like taking a helicopter to the Great Barrier Reef
- Review: Sofitel Gold Coast
- Review: Qantas Business Class Lounge Brisbane
- Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class A350 Brisbane to Hong Kong
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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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