My 20 year old daughter and I stayed at the Reef View Hotel for 4 nights, starting July 10, 2008. The staff at the reception was efficient and friendly, and by the time we got to our room, our luggage had already been delivered. We were pleasantly surprised by the size of the room, it was very spacious and had 2 double bed as we had requested. The bacony was also very large with chairs to lounge on and admire the beautiful scenery. Frankly, I have no complaints about the room. My only problem wich was that our room was situated (room 812), immediately adjacent to the 4 elevators. The sounds of these going up and down non-stop, was like hearing the rails of a roller coaster non-stop! I tried to change rooms, but the hotel did not have another room with 2 double beds available due to a large convention that had taken over most of the Hotel. So I used ear plugs and did my best to ignore it. So my advice is to make sure that you are as far possible from these, cause they are busy, busy, elevators!! Would I recommend this Hotel? Yes, definetely. It attracts a lot of families, so if you are a couple who would like something more quiet, adult environment, I would pick instead the Beach Club Resort which is right in between the Reef View and the main beach. It has just been fully renovated, has only 2 levels and is not as commercial as the Reef View, much more intimate.

The reef view hotel was fantastic. My sister-in-law organised this for our honeymoon and it was well worth it. We had a room on the 17th floor so it had fantastic views and the room was very modern, clean and exactly what we were after. The hotel itself runs very smooth with a bus already organised to pick you up from the airport and another one to take to back. Although $390 a night is definately more than we are used to paying breakfast is included and it is a beautiful breakfast. Hamilton island itself is beautiful and really good features include the fact that you are not limited to just the one pool, you can swim pretty much at any pool you like, theres a range of free activities like kayaking, wind surfing etc, and all places take room charge so you dont have to carry cash. Just a warning though - we got food poisoning at the Marina Tavern off chicken fajitas! We were refunded our money but spent at least that at the chemist!

I travelled with my husband and 2 sons aged 8 and 6. We stayed for 5 nights in a Coral Sea View room on a 'Family Escape Package'. This included a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef, a half day trip to Whitehaven Beach and a weekly pass to the Koala Gallery. Overall we had a fantastic time. I would highly recommend paying extra for a sea view room. Apart from the view, these rooms have been refurbished to a high standard and ours was immaculate. The only down side was the lack of drawer space for clothes. This was easily solved by requesting extra coat hangers! There was a corporate conference on whilst we were there. This didn't interfere too much with our holiday but I imagine guests on lower floors may have experienced some noise from the function on the Saturday night. Even though it was low season we found there were pretty long waiting times (on average 30-40mins) to get a table at all of the non-bookable restaurants. This wasn't great with two hungry and tired children to entertain! Although the kids eat free program is great all of the restaurants (except the Pool Terrace) serve up standard junk food of nuggets and chips, followed by ice cream. The kids loved it, after 5 days I thought my kids were going to turn into chicken nuggets! The excursions were generally well run and good value for money. Both were with Fantasea. I couldn't fault the Reef experience. However, the trip to White Haven could have been improved. You are dropped off at the beach for 2 and a half hours but there are no public toilets there, this wasn't ideal with 2 young children. The excursion crew provided buckets and spades for the kids but that was about it. It would have been great if they had organised some beach activities to entertain those who wanted it (especially the kids). Overall, a fantastic but expensive holiday. I would love to go back but need to save up first!

We had originally been booked to stay at Palm Terrace, but upon arrival had found this accomodation to be downright appalling. We then paid the extra GBP 25 per night to upgrade to the Reef View Hotel - smartest decision we ever made! For the extra money, the Reef View Hotel is 100 times nicer than the Palm Terrace / Bungalows. If you are debating between the two, do not even think about it another minute and just pay the extra for the Reef View Hotel - you will not regret it! The glass elevators in this place are amazing! They are on the outside of the buildiing and high-speed, so you get wonderful views the whole way up. Also, all of the rooms face out to the water, so you really do get picture-perfect views (assuming you are high enough to be above the trees). The rooms are nothing special, but they are clean and do the job. The rooms will seem pricey compared to any other location in Australia, but are in line with the mark-up that you find everywhere on the island. Again, it is definitely worth the premium price to stay here rather than the Palm Terrace. And the view from the balconey is worth a premium as well. We stayed here with our 4-month old daughter and everyone was very friendly and accomodating. There is even a daycare on the island if you want to get away for the day on an adult-only tour. So it's pricey, but so is everything else on Hamilton Island, so relatively speaking, it's good value for the money,

Flying to Hamilton Island from melbourne couldnt be easier. Transfer to hotel was with a waiting mini bus and took about 10 mins. Hamilton Island itself is a lovely island, one big resort really as the same guy owns all the hotels, restaurants etc, so almost any of the facilities on the island can be used by anyone. The island is slightly hilly and the main mode of transport is walking or via golfbuggies, which can be hired (about 75 aud pd). The resort centre is located on catseye beach, the centre itself is beautiful, a huge pool with swim up thatch bar for cocktails! standard 4-5 star (without the service) A point to note, this pool is for anyone, so no matter where you stay you can use these facilities, we actually used this pool for our entire stay. The beach itself was a little disappointing, lots of stones biege sand (not white!!) maybe i was expecting too much. Reef view hotel, when approaching, you think oh my god what a high rise concrete jungle (out of place really on a tropical island) But inside the hotel is very nice, staff were friendly helpful and nice. Room (8th floor) was very nice and the views were amazing, i guess the plus of a highrise! Pool at hotel was verynice, 35 m, but not ideal for sunbathing (too many trees) so we went to resort pool. Breakfast buffet was ok, nice juices, but edible. The marina with all the restaurants and shops is about 6-7 min walk from hotel (1 big hill!) Food; restuarants were quite good, Beach house was exceptional but very expensive, Mariners was very good for seafood, Romanos a really nice italian, and Mante ray cafe good for pizza. Activities on the Island, oh my god! , so much to do, wind surfing, sea kayaking, catamarans, tennis, squash, gym, pilates, yoga, spin classes, mini golf, golf range, shooting range, high wire flyer, jet skiing, and needless to say, sailing, snorkling etc. Staying at the reef view most activities were free, but they were not that expensive anyway (15-25 aud) A must visit is to whithaven beach (voted top 10 beaches in world) takes about 30 mins by speed boat (75 aud) Also to reefworld (by fantasea) takes about 1 1/2 hrs to get there and sea can be REAL rough (take anti sickness tabs) costs about 210 aud pp includes lunch and snorkling. Diving; 2 choices, fantasea and h20 sports, h20 take you to a pool for 2 hrs in morn if you havent dived before then dive in afternoon, however if seas rough (speed > 20 knots) they wont go to reef so you dive around islands, visibility not as good. Fantasea will travel to reefworld but BEWARE we used them, you get about 10 mins tuition about clearing mask and regulator before you go down! they take you to 7-8 m, i feel not enough tuition before diving and felt quite vulnerable down below, but a good experience nevertheless. Beware of weather, was quite cloudy for our stay, one nice day avg temps 23 oC , wind speeds high, 15 - 25 knots , if wind speed is 20 knots all watersports are cancelled which happened 3 out 0f 5 days for us. Island very family friendly with loads to do, for the romantics or honeymoon your probably best to go for Beach club or Qualia