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Canoodle With the Dolphins at Australia's Tangalooma Resort

Where: Moreton Island, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Some say an ex-whaling station is a strange place to build a resort — but we have a feeling that it's a great place for the Tangalooma Island Resort off the coast near Brisbane in Queensland, Australia.

Ironically, Tangalooma used to be the biggest whaling station in the southern hemisphere, but now it's all about being nice to big fish (and mammals). For example, there's a pod of dolphins who seem to call Tangalooma home now, routinely comin' around to be fed and have even brought gifts of eels to their feeders.

But if dolphins aren't your creature of choice, you can also go jet skiing to check out some turtles and dugongs, or snorkel around 15 different shipwrecks where there are plenty of colorful fish. And in the right seasons, there's even whale watching; uh, obviously the whales have erased the memory of what used to happen to them at Tangalooma.

There's a variety of accommodation styles within the resort, including hotel rooms starting at A$290 ($220) for doubles (just a short sprint to the beach), and there are also fancier beachfront apartments if you're traveling with friends; a two-bedroom place (which can actually sleep six if you include the sofa bed in the living room) starts around A$660 ($500) a night. You also have to get out there — remember it's an island — so you usually need to add a A$70 ($50) transfer fee. Unless you can arrange to hitch a ride on a dolphin.