What islands would be the greatest to visit?

I just want to some information about, what islands would be the greatest to visit, how long would it get and about how much.

Best Regards,

easy...whitsunday islands...I took a 3 or 4 night maxi racing yacht and slept on the boat with others...there are places to stay physically on the islands and even some budget hostel.hotels...if I am not mistaken you may be able to find deals when you get to australia...i havent been since 2004 but those are some of the premier islands in the world...the beaches are incredible there...i also believe you can fly to hamilton island which is part of the chain

While I'm thinking of Fiji and Tasmania. awesome places. If you are looking for some place a lot native, go to vanuatu

I reckon the best island to visit would have to be Australia itself


Either that or perhaps Hamilton Island, or Rottnest Island.


(Just in case a future reader doesn't know, yes, Australia is an Island, and a Continent. We are also the biggest Island in the world.)

Most popular is the Gold Coast in south east Queensland. Gold Coast is a really heavy tourist destination.

Just a bit of clarification -
The Gold Coast is not an island - it's in the south east of Queensland.
Tasmania is not regarded as "the islands" - it is an Australian state, our island state true, seperated by a 60 minute plane ride.
Rottnest Island is 18 km off the coast of Western Australia - get there via a 40 minute ferry trip.
Hamilton Island is off the coast of Queensland and can be regarded as "the islands."

Out of the above suggestions, I reckon Hamilton would fit the bill over the other suggestions. The Whitsundays are composed of 74 islands

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HTH.
Cheers.

Edited to correct spelling typos and put capital letters where capital letters should be.

^Thanks for the info. I really thought that Gold Coast is an island. I saw it in a Travel guide destination site and it's one of the favorite destination spot.

Regards,
Trish

The Gold Coast is a tourist mecca and is therefore very touristy. Most people go for the theme parks - Movieworld, Wet'n'Wild, Dreamworld, and Seaworld. Surfers Paradise sees most of the tourists. Almost non-stop entertainment. Pub crawls are popular as well. With the tourists.

My favourite is South West Island near the bottom end of the reef. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) it can only be visited by a private boat. I heard it copped a bit of oil from the Chinese cargo ship that grounded a few weeks ago, so I hope it will be OK

The only reason to go to the Gold Coast is for the theme parks. Otherwise stay away! Way too commercialised and over-touristed (is that a word??)

In regards to Islands, you really can't go wrong with almost any of Queensland's islands, especially in the Whitsunday group (although accommodation on the Whitsunday Islands can be a bit expensive!) However this also depends on what states you'll be visiting. If you're sticking to the southern states for some reason it'd be a waste of time and money to go all the way up to Queensland just for an island.

Also Fiji and Vanuatu are their own countries and not part of Australia. (Edit: Ah, my bad, I realise now you didn't specify which country you're looking at for Islands. However most people here have guessed Australia and you haven't corrected them yet so I suppose that must be right!)

Some suggestions are Fraser Island, Green Island, Hamilton Island, Whitsunday Island, and Heron Island.

Any island in Caribbean would be ideal place to look out as it has combination of some of the world’s best islands.

While your question is very vague, I’m assuming you’re asking about Pacific islands. It depends on what you’re into. I recommend the FSM (Federated States of Micronesia ). If you’re a diver, you MUST got to Palau and Pohnpei. Both offer amazing diving, even dives with Eagle Rays and shark dives. The islands themselves are beautiful as well.

If you're looking for a more spartan style trip then I would highly HIGHLY recommend the Hook Island Wilderness Resort in the Whitsundays. As an American the term "resort" comes to mind with spas and pools and such, but I guess in Oz it carries a different meaning. My point being, the resort isn't a place to go to get pampered or anything. Anyways, back to the resort, it is a small operation based on Hook Island. We arrived by boat onto their pier which has an underwater observatory, and from there it was a 5 minute hike to the lodge. The accommodations are nothing fancy, just a room with beds and a bathroom. The real treasure is the island itself. The water is insanely blue and filled with wildlife. The beach right outside lodge has a reef and a few resident turtles which are fun to dive with. Actually, out first night on the island we were sitting around and spotted a few whales spouting in the channel right next to the lodge, although the workers told us it was the first time they've ever seen that, I guess we were lucky!! The resort staff is extremely helpful and are really fun. The best experience I had on the island happened one of our last nights, we were splashing around in a cove as the tide came back in. As the tide returned hundreds of small sting rays came in looking for fish. They were harmless and were more scared of us then us of them, but if you stood still they would swim around your ankles. Safe to say, it was one of the highlights of our entire two month trip to Oz.

Here's a link to pictures I took on the island.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/petepajor/sets/72157626107311550/

As the question is posted in the Australia/NZ forum I shall assume the OP meant OZ islands & am surprised no one has mentioned Fraser Island!

Fraser Island is pretty cool, but very expensive. When I did the island I did a day tour on one of the all-terrain buses which was interesting. Overall I'm not sure if the experience is worth the cost.