We wanted a short low key getaway with good beach snorkeling to escape NYE & after much research esp TA chose LEI. Previous beach holidays have been at more upmarket resorts in Fiji however we were aware that LEI is a much more basic “eco” resort. Our eco cabin was fine for 4 nights – simple & clean- although sleeping first night was a bit difficult with constant tent flapping in the high winds (25kn) & mutton bird squawking. But that is nature!The complimentary eye plugs helped & we got accustomed to the (muffled) noises. Shared bathroom facilities were basic but clean & no queues. The reef information centre and Manta Room are very outdated but there are plans to upgrade these.

Weather - this time of year can be dodgy on QLD coast but while very windy (15-25knots) it was mostly sunny except for 1 afternoon with brief shower that passed over quickly. On the lighthouse side which was slightly protected from the wind, it was v hot! Wear lots of suncream (tip: dive shop has a communal bottle of suncream and also de-fog spray for snorkel masks)

Food: better than expected & quite adequate - we weren’t going there for a culinary experience. Breakfast is a selection of cereals, fruit, toast & bainmarie of hot food. Some hot food did look questionable but who needs a big hot fatladen breakfast in summer anyway! We are not huge eaters so only went for the lunch bar menu which is limited – would have liked a non-bread option eg maybe a salad (minor quibble). At dinner, some hot dishes didn’t look that great but there were other options & we didn’t go hungry. Was good to have a BBQ dinner on NYD . Drink prices at the bar are quite reasonable.

If you don't like birds, this is not the place for you! The birds are disconcerting at first but you get used to them & its quite charming to see the fluffy little chicks. It is good that the resort has maintained such a strict “no bird feeding” policy however. But for us, it was all about water & snorkeling. Yes being a coral cay, there are limited fine white sand areas (we knew it wouldnt be "tropical island") & wearing crocs/water booties can be annoying but preferable to cut /stung feet. (Resort provides water footwear if you didn’t bring any). We spent most of our time on the lighthouse side as the lagoon was very windy. I am a slightly timid in the ocean but found it easy to get out to the fringe reef. Snorkelling here was great – so many different fish and corals – although as others have noted, they are different colours to those we saw in Fiji. Water was warm at 25C. There were 1 or 2 murky areas along here but mostly visibility was very clear. I went snorkeling at least twice a day although my poor injured partner only got in the last 2 days. He couldn’t resist after hearing me babble about the wonderful sea turtles I saw every time & great fish variety. Also saw schooling trevalley, reef sharks & an octopus. Unfortunately we didn’t see any manta rays but you cant program nature! On the other side,the lagoon is stunning – that colour! We snorkelled there on the incoming tide although I was a bit nervous about the shallower water over the corals (best on v full tide). Saw 2 green turtles here including one that swam very close behind & then past my surprised partner! We attended fish feeding a few times which was interesting (hello Nigel!). Went on the complimentary boat trip – was good to have a guide in the water with us – especially Courtney who pointed things out that we may have missed.

Resort staff were friendly and polite. The resort guides we met(Courtney, Maggie, Mark )are enthusiastic, knowledgable and professional. My partner couldn’t dive this visit but most diving guests sounded happy. The restaurant and cleaning staff are mostly young but all were friendly and obliging – if sometimes a bit casual!

Overall we really enjoyed our stay at LEI. It made for a relaxing short break although I don’t think I could stay longer than 3-4nights. It is expensive in comparison to resorts in Asia or Fiji but you are paying for location (120km off the mainland) & this is Australia, supplies are bought in at Australian prices & flown in, staff paid on Australian wages etc. We felt privileged to have the opportunity to stay right on the GBR, one of Australia’s precious natural beauty sites.

The dive shop is not accomodating and lazy. They only offer one tank-one dive in the morning and one tank-one dive in the afternoon. They make you load your tank and then walk to the beach and on the boat with your tank on. I assume it is because they don't want to carry tanks themselves. I asked to have a two tank dive since we spend an hour getting ready, going to the beach, and getting into the water so why not maximize your time in the water. The dives aren't very deep so a two tank dive would be very easy. They just don't want to do it. If you are looking for sharks, reys, or turtles than this will work. Don't go for beautiful coral or lots of fish. You will be disapointed. Don't go if you want to do a lot of diving because you will be dissapointed. Don't go if you don't like hundreds of thousands of birds squaking constantly because you will be dissapointed. The georgious picture and website of the island got me to go, the birds, bird poop and smell, and the dive shop limited service will keep me from going back again. There are too many better places and islands to return.

Beautiful place to visit, sea life okay. Value for money NO, This is a back packers style hostel. We paid top dollar for beachfront and received small dingy rooms. Weather is very windy a hit and miss for good weather, otherwise very rough to snorkel most days. They should mention this in their brochure, not just eco resort. I have stayed in eco resorts and they where either 5 star or 4.5 star, this resort should be labelled 1 star but they charge you 5 star prices. You do not need to spend overpriced rates for 1 star accommodation, better go to cairns or whitsundays for half the price to see just the same beauty and sea life. Otherwise better travel overseas. I do not recommend this resort overall.

Just arrived home today from a fantastic first time trip to LEI. After re-reading through other reviews now I'm home I really am surprised how many people have had a whinge. This resort is great. People should read about the place before they book and pay attention to the fact it is an 'eco' resort, in the middle of nowhere.

The seair plane to LEI is great fun and if you get in quick you can call shotgun and sit up front with the pilot- very cool! The staff are all young but they are all very friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgable. They are only too happy to help and there is always someone available if you need anything from first thing in the morning til last thing at night. You are greeting on the airstrip by staff waving hello as soon as you arrive and are given a quick tour and run down of the resort.

I think a lot of bad reviews on here are from people who have paid too much attention to the word "Resort" and not enough to the word "Eco". This isn't the kind of place where everything is laid on luxury wise to suit paying customers that want to be waited on hand and foot regardless of the size of the carbon footprint they're quite happy making. There is no tv and there is no mobile reception...but isn't that the point of going on holidays? If you are unhappy you don't have artificial stimulation you probably shouldn't holiday somewhere with natural attractions. Regardless of the weather and lack of technology there is heaps to do.

We stayed for a week and there was always something free on that you could check out- glass bottom boat trip where you can get dropped off in a great snorkeling spot, guided reef walk at low tide, turtle trek at night to find nesting or hatching turtles, island discovery tour to hear about the history of the island, doco screenings on marine animals in the area etc. there were also trivia nights in the bar and heaps of things you could do independently.

We did a lot of snorkeling, in the lagoon right outside the units on the resort side..where we swam with and patted up to 4 turtles and countless fish as well as in the coral gardens on the other side of the island where it was much deeper- we saw massive rays elegantly swim buy...we were so excited, it's a real natural high!! Wandered the beaches at night finding nesting turtles and lying on the sand under the (millions of) stars (NO light pollution) waiting until the turtles had finished laying their eggs. The water is bright blue and the sand as white as it looks- no trick photography. The fun part is you can get involved, going out at night to look for turtles and reporting back the next day on your findings for their research.

Check the nature calendar before you go, it's freely available on the website so complaints about nesting birds in nesting seasons seems a bit ignorant. The info talks about the birds and other wildlife was really interesting.

The food was great, a massive buffet for breakfast and lunch with heaps of variety- average 4 diff salads, 3 different mains, 2 vegetarian options, fruit, bread, juices, teas and coffee and at least 3-4 different desserts. Brekkie and dinner sessions are both about 2 hours duration and no matter how many ppl were there or went back for seconds there was still lots of food left at the end. You would not go hungry at all. Lunch you could pay for buffet as it wasn't included in the cost of the package holiday but at $22 for, again, heaps of variety and all you can eat you can't complain. Cafe menu also available if you don't want buffet, with it and alcohol reasonably priced (think city bar prices). Some things (like bottled soft drinks etc) were a bit pricey but you have to remember they're flying all this stuff in so it hardly seems to be priced just for profit.
The food was all fresh (esp the dessert cakes, hot out of the oven!) yes one or two salads were brought out again for lunch but they're not stale or old and it would be terrible waste to throw them out.

The weather was a bit windy and rainy on and off but that's been the same all over this summer and you can't really plan the weather. Even with wind and rain it doesn't stop the activities, you can still swim and snorkel no matter what the weather..the temperature is still warm and the water is still perfect at 26-27 degrees.

Yes, the accom is basic but you're paying for an eco resort- one that doesn't negatively impact the environment. They run on solar and battery power, gas hot water. They encourage recycling, not using too much water and sun drying your towels rather than wanting service every day (they do service your rooms daily but encourage not needing brand new everything daily- totally reasonable request).

To address some other bad reviewers comments:
"Too windy/no contingency plan for bad weather"-> you can't blame the resort for the weather and if you're going to avoid the countless available activities because of it...your loss
"No tv/ no gym"-> you're on a tropical island- get a life, go outside and do real exercise, like walking or swimming
"paying hundreds of dollars/getting less than backpacker value"-> it's an ECO resort, the hundreds of dollars a night is to keep the place going, keep it sufficient and supply a NATURE based experience, it costs money to get supplies to and from an isolated location. If you want 5 star luxury go to Hayman Island.
"Haphazard staff/untrained backpackers/unsupervised"-> I think some reviewers are having a go just because the staff are young. ALL of the staff are young, but I never saw them slacking off, they all took their job seriously,were all enthusiastic and friendly and could answer any question you had about the island/wildlife etc so they were all very well trained..and not just backpackers given a basic rundown on what to say, any I spoke to had a thorough knowledge of marine biology. It was cool how passionate they were.

The only complaint we had was about some of the other patrons...after information being given out everywhere- when you first arrived, inside the info folder in your room, in the talks given at the info sessions and posted on notices inside the door of the room so many other guests just totally ignored the info given on the turtles. You would be told that only 1 in 1000 turtles survives so every one is precious and that they need darkness to find their way from the beach and back to the water...and that artificial lights would confuse and disorientate them (or any hatchlings), and also that you should keep relatively quiet and not move around too much or it would scare them..staff would explain this and 5 minutes later guests would walk straight to the beach with their torches blaring, talking loudly and stomping around looking for the turtles...including a group of 20 teenage school girls on a biology trip the first night we were there..as well as other guests turning on all their room lights and porch light and leaving their blinds wide open (when they faced the beach and they'd been told to keep curtains closed). This kind of idiocy and selfishness was the one thing that was a real downer as it just pointed out those people that were only there to see what they wanted and ignore any education for their own entertainment.

My best tips are: grab a life jacket or wetsuit for the added buoyancy (when you get out there you won't want to come in and having one of these helps you float around for a rest when you get tired swimming with the turtles),Try a chocolate thickshake at the bar (they rock!) and take into account a tide chart when planning your trip- snorkeling is best and easiest done in the two hours before or after the high tide time (no navigating over coral in shallow water), take a waterproof camera (you'll kick yourself when you have so many cool things to snap if you don't).

I had a great trip and am really relaxed after a proper "break" from the routine 9-5. Definitely want to go back..