Our Stay @ Airlie Beach (NRMA Parks & Resorts)
NRMA AIRLIE BEACH HOLIDAY PARK - CANNONVALE - GIYA LAND
It was good to finally make it to Airlie Beach. I’d heard a lot about the resort town, being that it is the stopping off point for many on the way to the Whitsundays. Hamilton Island and Daydream Island are the two major islands a short ferry ride away from Airlie Beach.
Our itinerary had us staying 4 nights and we chose the NRMA Parks and Resorts location at Airlie Beach - technically just down the road from Airlie Beach (less than 5 min drive) at Cannonvale.
The park has a very tropical vibe with plenty of palms and ferns throughout the park. It has a huge selection of accommodation options from powered slabs and powered sites through to a large unpowered section with a big camp kitchen but then also various cabin options too.
Now for the ABC4 review… (A = positives, B = unique/special, C = needs improvement, 4 = rating, ✅ = additional tip)
[ A ] pool & central location. Alongside the tropical vibe is an awesome resort style pool at the back of the park (there is also a pool at the front, but we never swam there). It’s a lagoon style pool that our 3yo absolutely loved, except for the mosaic tile crocodile at the bottom of the pool (why would you do that?! ha). It’s large and plenty of room for all to enjoy. We also loved the central location of the park - it’s just outside of Airlie Beach but that also allowed us to get to the shops out of town easily enough too. In fact the park is right next door to Whitsunday Shopping Centre with a Coles and other specialty shops.
[ B ] amenities. The shower facilities in the middle of the park are definitely unique - it’s the first park we have come across that you get your own shower and toilet in its own section. It’s like having your own ensuite - you just have to walk to get to it. The downside is that they are very popular at peak times and twice I was not able to shower when I wanted to.
[ C ] site space. This is a weird one… you’re expecting me to write about there not being enough space at the site, right? Nope, it’s almost the opposite. The primary powered slab sites in the middle / main section of the park all have heaps of space, but the layout of the concrete slab meant you couldn’t make full use of the back section of your site as your van is parked at the very front against the slab. I’m sure there’s a reason for which we are missing, but we felt like it was just wasted space.
[ 4 ] 2.5 out of 4. I’m breaking out the decimal points again. Looking back at all the parks we have stayed at so far, I couldn’t rate this against similar parks at 3 out of 4. But it’s better than the middle of the road 2 out of 4. BRING OUT THE DECIMALS! 🙂
💰 $44 a night. A very reasonable price but one we got with two discounts - being an NRMA member and every 4 night stay, you only pay for 3.
✅ The amenity block at the front of the park has good clean facilities, albeit a little old. But when the “fancy” block is all full - just head to the front!
📌 we stayed on site 21
📅 10th to 14th May 2024
