Daydream Island Resort and Spa Review

Wonderful island resort in the Whitsundays on the way to the Great Barrier Reef. Just a short hop from Airlie Beach for the price of a few wines. Several fabulous restaurants and bars on the island which has been totally rebuilt since being smashed by Hurricane Debbie a few years ago. My particular favourite was the swim-up Barefoot bar under swaying palms. Surprisingly decent prices for quality food and drink. Not to be missed if in the region.

Loved the resort for a family holiday prices no different to eating out and drinking in the city one thing though the place could do with a freshen up very out dated Decor and south end has a theme park feel about it
But staff are friendly and very helpful
Great family destination

Daydream island is A must see island, beautifull waterfront hotels quiet and serene on a secluded island.

Underwhelming and disappointing. Would not go back or recommend.
Paid $580 for a superior ocean view room during off peak season and mid week. Given the price, photos on the website, recent refurbishment and 4.5 star rating we were expecting an amazing room. It wasn't! Room was basic, no robe/shoes, small bathroom, no furniture on the balcony which was tiny. Paid for an ocean view room but actually got a view of the volleyball court and garden with the ocean off to the side. Photos on website are very deceiving! When we spoke to reception about it they said there was no mistake.
Food at the resort is a real issue. No room service which is crazy given its a 4.5 star hotel. There were only 2 restaurants open for dinner when we stayed there. One was delicious but very expensive and fancy. The other was very limited with no healthy options like salad and no standard, everyday meals e..g. classic beef burger or pasta.
The atmosphere at the hotel is also bizarre. They advertise themselves as great for families (which I'm sure it is given kids eat free though everything else is very expensive!!) but also great for honeymooners. Given we went for a romantic holiday as a couple we found it annoying having screaming, unsupervised children running around the pool all day and in the restaurants when we were trying to eat so I would definitely NOT recommend for a quiet, relaxing, couple holiday.
Staff also show no concept of customer service. They will see you are standing waiting to be served and walk right past you without helping. When we told reception we were unhappy with the price of our room given it was not what was described on the website they just said there was no mistake and fill out a comment card.
The island itself is beautiful but clearly all their refurbishment money went into their pool and reception area and none into the rooms or thinking about how the resort could be best used. Maybe have a family area and a no kids area? and definitely needs more food options.

What. Can I say a very beautiful Island with friendly staff but understaffed.My wife and I are spending our 52nd wedding anniversary and 2017 New Year Eve at the Waterfall restaurant where we paid $140 a piece for a buffet of frozen seafood with no taste. Our second meal at the merimaid restaurant was a pasta meal with two of the main ingredients left out.
Beautiful Island but bring your own food.

Very nicely renovated. Will be great when the south end reopens

Lovely but food options for lunch were very limited.

Such a beautiful resort. Staff are amazing and made the stay brilliant. Stayed for a work function and they made it an amazing experience. Really amazing underwater observatory and reef area and beaches.

This place should be called DISAPPOINTMENT Island or just REGULAR Island, there is nothing resembling a dream in here (maybe the scenery just a bit, but this is not from the hotel). One of the worst things about this place is the staff, they are friendly, but don t get me wrong, attention is sloppy at best! like just they don t care at all about you, 0, ZERO customer focus, if you don t do the talk or try to solve a problem you will have a friendly par of starring eyes with no intention of offering you a service.
Internet is poor to non-existent, there are more remote islands with much better connection.
NO room service!! if you need something to eat you need to hop all the restaurant looking for something and from a very restrictive take away menu, that basically translate to 5 types of pizza. Snack/drinks from the menu bar are so poor (2 chips and a chocolate bar), and they do not re-stock if you take something, YOU need to do it and way until the next day. There is no complementary water, if you run out of it, good luck finding someone who can refill a bottle or buy one (if you find a place that can sell it)
Housekeeping is slow as hell, leaving room at 8am and room was made at 2pm, and the service is not good enough, you will be better without it. In general this place is heavily understaffed.
Most of the activities are paid, the free ones that I wanted to join didn t happen (we had good weather).
There are a few good things but overall doesn t worth the money at all!!!

I've stayed here twice, once without and once with kids. Much more fun with/for kids lots of activities but if you have an extended stay you may run out of things to do with the kids.

We are currently having an amazing stay at Daydream island. It is a wonderful place to go for a family holiday.
The room is big enough for the 4 of us, there are plenty of pools and lots of free activities to keep us entertained.

Great to see the Island back up & running...plenty to see & do...aquariums are awesome...staff are friendly & can not do enough for you...good food, good times

Amazing location but I think some sandy beaches are needed and some cheaper options for restaurants would be good and more focused on kids activities. Everything costs way too much so bring your own food. The staff seemed over worked but they seemed to bond together with each other quite well.

Bridgette who works in the shop is amazing and should be the person that greets all guests as they come through the reception.

We would just like to say we had the most amazing six nights at daydream island. Im not sure what the island was like before it was devastated by Cyclone Debbie, but the newly renovated resort is fantastic, the staff were approachable and helpful and everything went seamlessly. Perhaps the one downside was the food variety, given the isolation of the island there is not a large variety of dining options, i think Inlstone needs a major revamp of its menu. Apart from that its fantastic. Matt from the Tonic Bar deserves a raise great service!

Lovely place... Ticked all our expectation boxes. Fairly new, Lovely stuff members except certain people in the concierge.

Win the trip in a contest and it is one of those experiences that last all
Lifetime

Very relaxing but not so great for wheelchairs, had a couple of issues however management tried hard to help us out

Thank you for the wonderful experience! The resort is fully renovated and everything went perfectly. The staff is really kind. My special thanks to the chefs who gave extra attention to my food allergies. They made it look so simple. We will definitely go back.

Waited at the barefoot bar for nearly half an hour. No staff. No "be back soon" sign. You are lucky I am honest as I could have easily helped myself. Staff your amenities!

DON'T LOSE YOUR MONEY!!
The service was very poor and bad: no room service, when it missed something in the room even if you go to the reception you can wait 45 minutes to have it, the bar, coffee, and restaurants were always missing manything!! (milk juice sandwich meal!). The worst experience was WITH THE SPA. We had booked on the 12th march, two massages, but, when we saw on the daydream reviews, that the spa is now under construction, and temporarily in a room, at the same price, with some customers unhappy, we decided to cancel it. So on Monday 9th of march, we called the spa to cancel it, the woman said us that all is cancelled. On the 12th after one night, I received a message from the spa at the end of the morning, she was reminder us that we have two appointments today.
We was explained that we had a woman on phone and she confirmed us the cancellation on Monday 9th. But the spa, on the 12th doesn't want to know anything and she was very disrespectful.
So we explained her that if something will be charge on our bill, we will see that on our check-out and we will explain what's happening with her at the reception.
On our check-out, we saw the charge from the spa, so we explained all to your agent. He tryed to call the spa many times but she didn't answer the call. He decided to not charge us, so we paid our bill and left with the good receipt. 2 days after we saw a charge from the spa on our bank account, we called the hotel and they said that the woman from the spa was not ok finally and because the spa is another provider they were oblige to charge us (!). They took money on our booking card an not on our deposit card. We called the police and we make a reclaim with our bank. We just received our refund from the bank, one month later, they took back money from the spa. That's was such a bad experience and please, GO AWAY FROM THIS HOTEL!

Well i really liked the female ray fish that always comes and says hi and smiles at you. You can swim with her if you pay. There is also a cool underground living reef room with an awesome bathroom. Could sit there all day and watch the fishies swim by.

Great place for family holiday (our second visit), polite and very helpful staff, Best location in Whitsundays for family fun activities and snorkeling. We would give 5 stars but for a few teething problems with re-opening of the resort. We will be back next year.

Love this place. Not too expensive, food was great (breakfast was average but I expect that at any buffet breakfast). Staff were lovely. Even though there were a couple of mishaps, these happen and were rectified more than satisfactorily

Beautifully bought back to life after the Cyclone catastrophe ....very CHILLAXING atmosphere ...Staff amazing

Great place to vacation. Gorgeous views, spacious rooms, alright service. Food and drink are overpriced but it's an expensive resort so it was expected. Lots of gluten free options and a dedicated gf toaster for breakfast! Some of the staff seemed younger and less experienced and got confused with orders with larger groups. But besides that staff were nice and accommodating.

You don't think too much of it until you see it. Impressive, and designed so that you can see so much sealife from so many areas of the resort. When the weather is too bad to do anything else, you really appreciate the free aquarium.

Everything about Daydream Island Resort we loved. Great holiday, right at our doorstep. We will be back.

Just a tourist factory. No services. We let you wait hours for a room.
Bad food.
All this unfortunately spoils a unique setting.

After a two year closure due to cyclone Daydream Island has reopened. I never thought I'd do a resort but booked on spur of moment & loved it. Food is good & Lovers Cove a great place to float. If you want to feel luxe - book a deluxe room in driftwood suite & eat in the Infinity restaurant.
Its quiet days yet so staff have time to chat & are ironing out kinks. The spa was great for massages, just don't expect a separate spa room. There's some great adventures off island & fun free stuff. The Living Reef makes this place truly special. My resort experience was made great by staff, views and oh, the Whitsundays.

Fantastic all round. Beautiful tropical island getaway. Friendly staff, great underwater tropical fish n reef viewing facility. Rainforest walk and multiple pools even with a bar. Food was awesome! Highly recommended. Thanks Daydream Island!!

Nice quite location, lot of crowd if you looking for more private place. Lovers cove is amazing with the fish feeding activity.

Daydream Island is beautiful again! After a big makeover, Daydream Island is now a wonderful resort for a luxury holiday. So beautiful.

It is located in the beautiful Whitsundays. The Day Spa treatments are awesome with very professional and experienced staff. Staff throughout the hotel are friendly + helpful. The Coral rooms have beautiful views. Service is great, except some dining experiences leave a lot to be desired. Food is average + selection of seafood limited. Alcohol range is limited + average.

Great place to relax by poolside Different pool areas great for families. The Aquarium was great to see and all the fish viewing areas are wonderful. Stingray feeding platform great fun.. Coral establishing area interesting and informative

A beautiful little island that is let down by under staffing and odd design.

The resort has had a recent update and is visually nice, but due to not enough staff there is always glasses left out or large wait times around the place. I don't think I saw a clean window the whole time I was there! I can't put it on the staff as the interactions were amazing but when you have only one staff member in the tonic bar and a constant stream of people in the afternoon you can't expect them to perform miracles.

Getting food when you want is a huge issue, there is a buffet breakfast but after that nothing is open until inkstone at 12pm. So if you want anything to eat you can only order from a extremely limited menu at tonic or a icecream at the shop. I could understand this on the main land but when this is the only option it's extremely disappointing.

If you are heading there bring your own snacks, filtered water bottles and some Windex for your balcony window.

Atrocious! Appalling rooms, apathetic staff, mediocre food and exorbitant prices to boot.
I recall below a litany of abuse encountered:
A friend had to wait four hours to check into a water logged room. Our keycards stopped working multiple times. We paid 20 bucks for some tomatoless pizza. We got bumped from ocean view rooms to a view of other apartments. There was never any water(?) at the breakfast buffet. No aircon
Furthermore, we were at this abominable place for a wedding, which they ruined by:
- Setting the wedding venue right next to the public, with no separation so screaming kids could be heard during the vows
- Letting people wander about behind the ceremony and ruining a deal of the photos
- Forcing the party to buy "real" flowers for $50 a pop,which turned out to be Styrofoam.
I'm not saying don't go here. Just saying my stay was atrocious and that seemed to be the norm.

Relaxing place to escape the fast pace of city life.

Having spent our first day here, were very disappointed.

We had to wait 3 hours without our luggage because they had it but our room hadn t been cleaned yet. When we finally got into our room, all our towels had lipstick and brown marks all over them and there was food scraps from the previous guests over the bedside tables.

The island is not even at half capacity but they couldn t put us in another room???

Then the one tour we wanted to do isn t running during the week, despite the website saying 7 days a week. Then we thought we d visit the spa... given its daydream island resort and spa ... only to be told the spa is closed.

We tried to order 3 different cocktails from the bar but they had run out of ingredients to make them.

And then the restaurant we wanted to dine at, Infinity, is also closed so you only have the one option to eat at both at lunch and dinner.

I understand they ve recently reopened following COVID-19 but don t advertise a 5 star experience and ask your guests to fly all the way up here only to deliver a sub par experience. Very deceitful and poor service.

Save yourself the headache and go to Hamilton or Hayman where you will actually enjoy yourself.

Beautiful island. Do not miss Lovers Cove at all! The walk is quite nice, and the staff is all incredibly friendly

Honesty - they have missed the mark. Not impressed. As a family targeted resort, there are just too many boxes that remained "un-ticked" after spending nearly 3.5K for a 5 day 'adventure' for my small family.

Genuinely would have had more fun camping on Fraser Island; and would have saved a truckload of cash too.

The resort needs to seriously think about its target market, and isolate the areas where they are lacking and go back to basics.

I gave it 2x stars but I'm being generous at that. Stay at home and hire a movie. At this point you would likely get more enjoyment. It's an over priced grab for cash by a Chinese Consortium that genuinely could not care less about the end user experience.

Beautiful, beautiful views. It was truely a dreamy experience and will be returning asap!!

Friendly polite and helpful staff - facilities could use some updating. OK for the day trip

Come here during the covid times so was very quiet. Loved the place. North end is beautiful after the rebuild. The aquarium is awesome, the pool area is very nice.Food was amazing, my favourite dish was the glazed sweet chilli chicken poocorn. Cant wait to come again. South end is closed right now so will be interesting how the island will be like having both ends running when it gets busy

Abit dated, alcohol is expensive and can't cook your own food. Very beautiful place though and staff is lovely. Gardens well maintained and kids loved all the activities. Views are stunning and rooms are always cleaned. Food is beautiful, wild life is friendly. Will definitely be back

Don t have high expectations. These are small pieces of reef

We were day tripper to your resort and you have the hide to charge us a hefty fee for the day but you could not offer us anywhere to get a coffee without being told there would have a 30 min wait because guests had to be served first. What Is wrong with setting up a separate shop for day tripper which sells snack, sandwiches and drinks. It's not like there were only a few of us, we were sent from pillar to post to try and get something to eat in the end left the island early, we would of bought our own food but we told this is not allowed. Disgraceful

Nice rooms. Helpful service. Food selection is lacking. Great visuals, although there is no sand on the whole island.

The decor is outdated and shabby, the carpet in the elevator smells, ants raided our room, and the air con didn't work. However, I was pleased to hear renovations are on the way. Despite this, I still enjoyed my time here. The staff are friendly, the beaches and pools were lovely, and we were never short of activities and amazing cocktails.

It's older but awesome. Prices are about the same as anywhere in Sydney. Expect to pay 10-15 a drink and 50-90 odd per person for dinner. Highly recommend the night feeding if your here when it's on.

Death trap swimming pools. Full of electrical hazards. I saw 2 pluged cleaning electric devices 220volts half metre from the water. The swimming pool had over 50 people exposed to a potential freaking accident. The cleaning hoses were floating in the swimming pool and one kid pulled accidentally the hose an I saw the electric cleaner going in the swimming pool. I run and grabbed device and I pulled the power lead. I complained and they said, the power point should turn off if it drops in the water. The word "should" explains the management safety culture. Nobody can guarantee that the RCD will work. Why risking lives instead of implementing safe work methods? Given the age of the facility, I guarantee that most of the power points don't have RCDs. They didn't remove the second device located 200mm next to the water and 1 family swimming next to it. I pulled of the lead. Live power leads under the rain and full of cables covered with electrical tape 150mm from the water. No isolation box. I asked to talk to the manager but they didn't have time to talk to me. Most likely, they found my complain annoying. They said that the manager gives them specific instructions how to curry our the cleaning and this is the management policy. This unsafe policy can potentially kill several people. If the manager has a bit of dignity left, he/she should resign and let someone who cares about human life to take over. Amazing location and nice rooms though. All that place needs, is a serious manager.

An absolutely awesome experience. Highly recommended.

Spectacular setup of a live reef in the middle of Daydream Island, for all guests to easily view as they stroll through the resort.

Definitley check out the underground viewing room for the best views!

Great location, but crowded and worn down. Seriously needs attention

Getting a bit tired, in need of a makeover, but the kids would love it regardless

Awesome family/Christmas retreat with the 2 year old.
Living reef alone is worth a visit. Lachy was a great enthusiastic guide and will be an valuable asset to the coral reef rehabilitation program.
Excellent food everywhere. Abit disappointed in beer selection.
But drinks where superb.
And all crew were superb...

Loved it!
Very family-friendly.
Good service and very welcoming staff.
We enjoyed our time

Absolutely beautiful. Amazing locations and Mermaids restaurant was superb.

Really nice setting and area. The rooms are a little expensive for what they are and you are hooked into their (sometimes inadequate) food options. Also try to not go during school holidays as the pools and restaurants become overrun by children.

Stayed here for a week in Jan 2017 with the kids. We had a nice, relaxing time. Keep in mind that this is not a 5-star resort and adjust your expectations and you'll probably leave happy.
Random observations:
- As many have pointed out, since they've got you trapped on an island, you get gouged on food prices a bit and quality is mediocre. Think pub food at posh restaurant prices.
- Saying there are 3 places to eat is disingenuous, as not all the restaurants are open every day.
- The pools are great, and that's where the kids spent most of their time.
- The marine biologists that look after the open-air reef pools expend a lot of effort explaining that stingrays don't go around the place _deliberately_ murdering crocodile hunters :)
- Outdoor cinema is fun. You can watch streams of bats flying from the island to the mainland to feed as the sun goes down.
- A week is long enough. It's a small place and you'll likely run out of stuff to do.
I hear that a big renovation is planned. It will be interesting to see what changes.

Amazing place to watch the tropical fish. We saw stingrays, dugongs and many colourful fish.

Very bad customer service!!! even 1 star rating is too much. rather pay more to stay somewhere else!!!

Amazing views and the best cuisines. Perfect wat to relax in the Witsunday Islands

The island and the resort is beautiful. The views are amazing and the resort overall was clean, neat and very well maintained. The resort felt very upscale and 5 star.

We were only there for a day trip, so I cannot comment on the rooms, but the communal areas were lovely, the pools were immaculate and the staff were amazing.

Anyone who comes here needs to hang out with the stingrays

Beautiful Island! Food & drinks too expensive . Breakfast was good. Pools very well maintained & staff really friendly. They need an activities board showing times of Bingo & Trivia etc as no one seemed to know. We enjoyed our stay but glad we packed some munchies as none here! Overall enjoyed myself & will be back with more $$$ .

Not much to do other than swim in pools...2hrs was enough

The only people day dreaming on this island are the staff. Cold pool, lost luggage and poor service just to name the first few in a long list of issues. The potential here is great and is let down by poor execution. If you are going to market yourself as a family friendly resort at least do guests the courtesy of having more than one babysitter housed on the island.
Do yourself a favour, save the cost of the ferry and stay on Hamilton Island!

I only got as far as requesting information from Reservations. We have been considering a holiday to Daydream for a while now, having visited when I was a kid. I am sure answering the same questions over and over as a Reservations Clerk is a tedious job, but unfortunately the girl I spoke to is not doing the Resort any favours. My enquiry was in relation to availability with a package deal with Luxury Escapes versus booking direct through the Resort. The girl came across as extremely disapproving of the Luxury Escape deal and made it quite clear that there we no guarantees of dates or bedding configuration in quite a snide manner. One of my pet dislikes is establishments that offer deals then look down on the people who take them up. If Daydream staff disapprove of the Luxury Escape deal - then how about don't offer it. It is very uncomfortable phoning up for information on a deal to be looked down on. We wont be booking a holiday at Daydream.