Airlie Beach Travel Guide

Facing the Whitsunday Islands across the Coral Sea, Airlie Beach makes a great base for sailing and diving adventures or a little relaxation island style.

With Virgin Blue and Jet Star offering direct flights to nearby Proserpine (Whitsunday airport) Hamilton Island and Mackay from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, Airlie Beach is much more than a staging post on the East Coast pilgrimage that takes in Sydney, Byron, the Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Island before the long haul up to Cairns and Cape Tribulation.

Backpacking is still the life-blood of Airlie Beach and you can be sure of a steady stream of international visitors adding to the colourful and vibrant atmosphere and keeping beer prices to an absolute minimum.

Airlie Beach is a major tourist destination and together with the adjacent Shute Harbour, provide an embarkation point for both the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The sea is inhabited by marine stingers from November to May. In order to provide somewhere for the hoards of visiting tourists to swim, the local council, has built a swimming lagoon on the foreshore.