Fraser Island: Full-Day Boat Tour with Snorkeling & Wildlife

4.89

(415 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I still smell the sunscreen from this morning — we’d barely stepped onto the boat at Hervey Bay before someone handed out coffee and pointed at a pair of dolphins cutting through the water. The sun was already sharp, but the breeze off the Great Sandy Strait kept it honest. Our guide, Matt, started telling us about K’gari’s old shipwreck stories — he had that way of talking where you can’t tell if he’s joking or not. I liked him instantly. We passed Pelican Bank and Big Woody Island; pelicans actually do hang out there (who knew?).

First stop was somewhere along Wathumba Creek — I lost track of names because I was too busy squinting at a sea turtle bobbing up for air. Kayaking felt weirdly peaceful, just the sound of paddles and someone laughing behind me when they got stuck in mangroves. Water here is so clear it almost feels fake. At one point I tried snorkeling but mostly floated around watching tiny fish flicker past my mask, half-listening to Matt explain something about sand dunes shifting every year. He knows every inch of this place.

Lunch was a proper spread — buffet style, nothing fancy but somehow perfect after swimming all morning. Sandwiches, fruit, cold tea. I sat next to an older couple from Brisbane who’d seen dingoes earlier (I missed them). There’s always that one thing you miss, right? Later we did a bushwalk along the dunes; sand got everywhere but nobody cared by then. In whale season (we came too early), Matt said you might even swim with humpbacks if conditions are right — sounded wild, maybe next time.