HotelChatter

Initial Impression
We were so hyped up on Hayman Island before getting there. First, there was the prestigious T+L mention and the photos on the website are killer. Then, a cabbie told us the weather there is 10 degrees hotter than Sydney and with more humidity. So we were pretending to spend our days there practically naked by the pool. Add all this to the fact that we were headed to the Great Barrier Reef and scheduled for some amazing water activities, we were rightfully pumped up.

We landed at the Great Barrier Reef on Hamilton Island after a harrowing flight from Sydney. We fly a lot and typically, it takes a lot to freak us out. But we were spooked after our bumpy ride on JetStar. Making it worse, the pilot only came on once during the entire two and a half hours to tell us that we were hitting turbulence.

Yet once we landed, a Hayman island representative awaited us and several other couples to tell us that our bags were being taken care of (no waiting at the baggage claim) and that we should head over to the Hayman Island cruiser boat which would take us to the island. On the boat, we were greeted by at least four people and handed champagne which they kept filling up. The sun was shining, although clouds were in the midst, and the temperature was just as our cabbie described. All was right with our honeymoon trip again!

Room Reaction
The boat ride was about 45 minutes and when we touched land again we were at the private island resort. A mini-van took us up to the main resort grounds where we had booked a pool access room. Each couple had their own hotel rep to show them around their room and ours was delightful. What wasn't delightful was our room.

The initial once-over was fine, including the bed you see above. However, we discovered that the paint was chipping off the doors that led out to our patio, which allowed you to directly swim into the hotel pool. We loved the idea of jumping out of our patio into the pool, but we didn't love that the pool always had branches and dirt in it, thanks to the rainy weather.

While the hubby dived in right away, we skeptically waded in, wondering how this could possibly be Australia's #1 resort. Things did not get better when we returned from our swim.

The tiled floor was dewey all over. As if someone tracked water all around the room and it was not drying up. We decided to head to dinner (the resort's charming Italian restaurant, La Trattoria, which even has live music), hoping the room would be less dewey when we returned. But while at dinner, we remained upset about the room and asked hubby to go and request a new one.

Second Room Reaction

The hotel's front desk was extremely apologetic and admitted that something was wrong in that room. Additionally, they told us that the room we were originally scheduled for had a leak in it, and that's how we ended up in the Dewey Room. Then they upgraded us to a beach front villa which was spectacular. The room still had tile floors but also newer amenities and furniture, a bigger bath, and a killer beach front view.

There were other types of rooms available including a garden view villa (located behind the beach villas and have the newest furniture of all accommodations) lagoon view and a couple of themed penthouse suites.

Island Activities
Part of what makes Hayman Island so great is the wealth of activities that you can do there from snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef to waterskiing and windsurfing to tennis, squash, yoga and golf. Yet, while we were there golf was closed because their was some golf course drainage issues. Waterskiing was cancelled because the water was too choppy and tennis was rained out because the grass courses weren't dry enough.

Our second day there, we had four hours of nice weather during which we were able to lay out by the pool then go out and snorkel, which was amazing. So a word from the wise: don't book during the off-season.

Click here for the Hayman Island Resort, Part Three to see how the rest of the honeymoon stay here turned out.