June 2008 – Page 2

White sands on a semi-tropical island, less than 3 hours from Sydney, and in the same timezone too… Hamilton Island is a great family-holiday proposition but isn’t quite what we expected. The entire Island acts like a co-operative and is a little more M.O.R. as a result, pretty pleasant but all too predictable. Food’s good, hotels are fine (Except Qualia, but we didn’t go there!), and the staff are nice enough. Nothing’s exceptional (except maybe the scenery) and the lack of competition between the restaurants on the island (supply = demand-1) means that the 5 or 6 we went to were good or better but none were fab – I guess if it wasn’t for the luxury of having six whole days with Diana, Scarlett and Ivy the holiday would have been mediocre, but then, that was the holiday, innit! The thing is, with the kids in tow the average pools, semi-tropical weather, accommodation and restaurants were just perfect, they couldn’t be beat. And only 3 hours from home too!