My family (children age 11 & 5) stayed in the reef view hotel last Aug 2011, sadly only for 5 nights as it was one of the most amazing places in the world we have been to and we do a lot of traveling!! we arrived and had a little mini bus waiting for us which took us and our luggage all of about 10 minutes to our hotel, not the prettiest looking of hotels, but we arrived on the early flight from Cairns and to be checked early was a real bonus. our worry was that it would be expensive after the reviews we had read but it wasnt any more expensive than cairns or any other part of Oz we visited in our month long trip, infact we spent less money in the Hamiltons on food as the children eat free in a few resturants if you are staying in the reef view and one resturant in particlar 'the steak house' the food was amazing for both adults and kids.

With regards to the hotel we stayed on the 9th floor, and had a beautiful view but I would recomend requesting a higher floor as the higher the you go the better the view, and what a view to wake up to every morning it's a view you could never ever tire of.. lovely big room plenty of hanging space but not enough draw space for clothes.. the pool was nice and warm bearing in mind it was August (winter!!) and crystal clear, the only down side was not enough sun beds they are only put along one side of the pool and got full quickly. you can use the other pools on the island but my kids found them to cold! breakfast was included and a little busy but had plenty for us and the kids to choose from.

You can hire golf buggys expensive (£50-60 for 3 hours!!! or you can hire for longer periods) to get around the island but to be honest you can get to any of the shops and resturants easy enough by walking. we did hire a buggy for 3 hours which was more than long enough to see the whole island and drove up to one of the island peaks and had a picnic in one of the picnic areas over looking the island, ocean and our hotels it was absolutly beautiful.

Would also recommend, breakfast with the Koalas, and pay a little extra for a cuddle and some pictures, and A MUST is a trip out to the whitsundays, whitehaven beach, we did the trip where we snorkled on Chalkies beach then over to whitehaven, the most beautiful beach we have ever been too, the sand squeeks under your feet like icing sugar and crystal clear water, we only had an hour stay on whitehaven and would absolutly recommend a longer stay.

Could carry on and praise this place forever and if you are reading this because you are going to visit the Hamiltons then we are beyond jealous!!