Luxury on the Great Barrier Reef: A dreamy trip to the Intercontinental Hayman Island

Australia boasts over 22,000 miles of coastline. However, many of those miles are either lashed by frigid winds and ocean currents, or populated by hostile crocodiles and sharks. One of the areas that draws both domestic and international visitors, though, is the Great Barrier Reef which stretches along much of the Queensland coast.

There, you can find beachy towns like Airlie and Port Douglas, the primordial Daintree Rainforest, and emerald-green islands with white-sand beaches dotting the limpid, aquamarine waters.

One such island is also home to one of Australia’s most iconic beach resorts, the Intercontinental Hayman Island. Long before the current hotel existed, though, Hayman was first developed for tourism back in the 1940s. Then, in the 1980s a massive new hotel was built to the tune of AU$300 million. Following successive sales and refurbishments (plus another AU$80 million restoration after it was hit by two cyclones), Hayman Island reopened as part of the luxury chain One&Only, back in 2014. In 2017, it was hit by yet another tropical cyclone and forced to close. It eventually reopened its doors as the Intercontinental Hayman Island in 2019 following a AU$135 million redesign.

I’ve wanted to check out the resort for nearly a decade now, but its relaunch as an Intercontinental, and thus the possibility of using IHG Rewards points to book a stay, made that desire a reality on my recent trip to Australia to cover its reopening to international travelers after nearly two years of border closures due to COVID-19.

Aside from the excitement of being able to visit Australia again and experience the Great Barrier Reef before the tourist throngs return, I had a delightful experience at the Intercontinental Hayman Island and found it to be well worth the wait.

Stays will require a lot of points for award redemptions. But given the high paid room rates, you might still find redeeming IHG Rewards points to be a good deal, as I did, if you intend to visit yourself. Here are all the details you need to know.