Wilson Island
Style Cool castaway camping
Setting Tiny sandy cay
With just six luxury tents set beside the sea on a tiny tropical islet, Wilson Island may just be the most romantic campsite on Earth. Perfect for a castaway experience without compromising on comfort, the tiny resort is a back-to-basics paradise for nature-lovers, reef divers, and chilled-out beach layabouts alike.
Need to know
- Rooms Six luxury tents.
- Rates Double rooms from $1050.34 (AU$981), excluding tax at 10 per cent.
- More details Rates include all meals, alcoholic and soft drinks, and return boat transfers from Heron Island.
- Facilities Community tent, small library with board games and bocce. Tents feature private decks with armchairs and hammocks, and binoculars are provided. Each tent is allocated its own shower.
- Poolside There’s no pool, but there doesn’t need to be – wherever you are on Wilson, the ocean’s never more than a minute away.
- Check-out Check-in and check-out are timed to coincide with the twice daily boat launch to/from Heron Island (leaving Heron at 10am and 3pm each day).
- Children Over-12s are welcome, but extra beds are not available.
- Eco-friendly Showers are heated by solar power.
- Hotel closed 26 January to 28 February (bird-nesting season).
- Also Two-night minimum stay.
Food and drink at Wilson Island
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Hotel restaurant
The Longhouse – the open-air, sand-floored, vaulted-ceiling dining space has a raised timber platform where a 15-foot communal table plays host to chatty, lingering meals. Considering all cooking is done on two barbecues and a gas burner, the range of dishes produced is astonishing – barramundi with Vietnamese salad, beef fillet and blue cheese mash, Morton Bay Bug and prawn salad… -
Dress code
Barefoot beach glamour. -
Top table
There’s only one – but at lunchtime you can take a picnic to the beach. -
Last orders
The evening ‘dinner’ party kicks off at around 7pm with drinks and canapés on the beach, and often stretches long into the evening. -
Room service
Not available. -
Hotel bar
A set of shelves in the Longhouse are lined with spirits, mixers, wines, beers and an extremely handy book of cocktail recipes for you to do with what you will. If you don’t trust your own mixology, the staff can whip up a to-die-for piña colada.
Wilson Island Great Barrier Reef, 4680
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Smith extra at Wilson Island
A bottle of Champagne on arrival
Current offers at Wilson Island
- Wilson Island Escape - stay 3 nights or more and save 20% - Valid fr...
In the know
Our favourite rooms
Each of Wilson Island’s six small square-ish tents is identical, differing only by location. The appropriately named Isolation is the most private, but also the biggest schlep from the wash house. Serenity is closest to the communal area, and has the best views and access to the sands. Tranquillity faces east, so can get a little windy.
Packing tips
Pack light – access to Wilson is by boat from Heron Island and you’ll be given a 20-litre ‘wet bag’ to stash your essentials in for the boat ride over; everything else will be kept on Heron for you.
Also
Wind-up torches, insect repellent and snorkelling and reef walking gear are also provided.
