Advantages: View of Monkey Mia Beach
Disadvantages: Quite expensive for travel

...the eastern arm of Shark Bay. The sea grass, which are actually flowering plants, support a dizzying array of marine life. Juvenile prawns, tiny fish and countless other marine creatures inhabit this leafy sanctuary. The sea grass meadows also provide ample food for some 10,000 resident dugongs or sea cows. These gentle and inquisitive mammals, which weigh up to 400 kilograms, quietly graze the abundant underwater pastures, sometimes in herds of over 100. Northern Australia, from Shark Bay in the west to Moreton Bay in the east, may now harbour most of the world’s dugongs. True to its name, Shark Bay hosts a large number of sharks of more than a dozen species. They include the fearsome tiger shark and the gigantic but harmless whale shark, the biggest fish in the world. Sharks share these waters with dolphins, exposing the myth that where you... Read review

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Advantages: Seeing dolphins up close and swimming with them for free
Disadvantages: Touristy!

...Monkey Mia is on the West Coast of Australia situated in Shark Bay, a world heritage listed area, and I might add a very beautiful area of the world!! I got here on the Easyrider backpacker bus on a trip from Perth to Broome (www.easyrider.com.au which cost $615 and took 7 days altogether). However you could get here by local bus from Denham or try www.greyhound.com.au which have buses going all over Australia. This area is famous for its dolphins which is what I did so all I'm going to review. There is a resort here with a few places you can stay overnight but I didn't visit these. Basically dolphins come in ALMOST every morning. With a 99.6% attendance rate (much better than some of the people I went to school with!) you would have to be REALLY unlucky to miss them. They are wild dolphins that come into the shore sometimes up... Read review

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Advantages: The opportunity to feed dolphins in the wild
Disadvantages: hard to get there

...Moreton Island is situated 35km away from Brisbane. The island is 98% National Parks which is very obvious when you are exploring the island as there isn't a lot of shops or houses. In my opinion its like a mini paradise with its sparkling clear water and unspoilt beaches. HOW TO GET THERE You can get there by ferry which operates 6 days a week and you can take your vehicle if you wanted to. This is how we got there and we chose to do a day tour package that we could feed the dolphins in the wild. There are loads of different tours to suit different people where you can whale watch, feed the dolphins, watch the dolphins being fed or just do a day cruise. Our package was a 'Extended day cruise with dolphin feeding', which cost $90 adult and $50 child. This included transfers on a bus from Roma Street Transit Centre in Brisbane... Read review

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Advantages: Relax or Explore at your Leisure
Disadvantages: Take care if you don't like creepy crawlies.

...We visited Puerto Vallarta in May of this year for 2 weeks as a family group of 13. Such a fantastic destination with extremely wonderful people who can't do enough to help you. The cost of the holiday (arranged through Thomas Cook) was insignificant compared to the quality of the resort. As we went "All Inclusive" it was easy to come and go as you pleased, free sporting activities and evening shows were wonderful and well organised. External activities like horse-riding, swimming with dolphins, and scuba diving were reasonably priced. The only recommendation I have as far as the dolphins were concerned is that it's better to see them in their natural environment so rather than go to an enclosure, take out a jet-ski or sail boat and surf alongside them in the beautiful Bay of Banderas. This holiday was so wonderfully relaxing... Read review

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Advantages: Amazing Beaches
Disadvantages: The long Flight

...If you’re up for an irie time, visit Jamaica! We walked Waterfalls, swam with dolphins and had banana lessons! This holiday was a totally new experience, when booking our holiday we decided we wanted to go a bit further a field and after looking through piles of travel brochures decided on Montego Bay, Jamaica. We arrived after a 10 hr journey to find a 6 hr time difference so even though it felt like the middle of the night it was still sunny and the middle of the afternoon! We checked into our hotel The Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, this process took so long, After this we were taken to our rooms that were nice. The hotel was based on All Inclusive this meant we could eat and drink as much as we liked. The facilities for this were very good. The main buffet available for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then there were 3 other... Read review

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Advantages: Great beach, great reviews, great place to relax
Disadvantages: None that I can think of

...The most Easterly point of the Australian mainland, this is the first part of the continent to get the sunrise so a beautiful place to go and watch the sun come up. You can drive right up to a lighthouse on the most easterly point on Cape Byron and overlook the pacific ocean while the sun rises, and if you are lucky you might even see dolphins and whales playing off shore! This lighthouse was built in 1901 and is the most powerful lighthouse in the southern hemisphere. There is a walking track that takes you right round the cape from the Captain Cook lookout on Lighthouse Road. The track comes back to its starting point so you can leave vehicles at the bottom. Wallabies are often seen at the end of this track as it takes you through the bush. I was in Byron Bay during September and saw lots of whales and dolphins swimming close... Read review

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Advantages: Sheltered swimming for families
Disadvantages: A quieter part of the east coast

...that flies above to spot the Whales and direct the boat to them also backs it up. We saw a few, they all seem to know how pleased you are to see them and come to the boats to show off. We were also lucky to have some Dolphins accompany us for most of the trip. I would recommend Hervey Bay for a short visit or to access Fraser Island or for the Whale viewing trips but not for a long holiday. It is a nice peaceful place but does not have too many activities.... Read review

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Advantages: Touching and feeding dolphins
Disadvantages: Have to pay for some rides and extra for tours

...' playhouse show, we were entertained by various domestic animals (dogs, cats, rats etc). It was entertaining but not a highlight show. The last show we attended was the sea lion and otter show. This was really good. Once again, both the sea lion and otter did tricks. The show was made quite humorous. On the whole, the shows were all pretty good. I wouldn't miss the Shamu and dolphin shows. Rides There were 4 rides in total, of which two had to be paid. The Southwest airlines Skytower cost $2.75. This allowed you a view of San Diego up the tower (265 feet above ground). The Bayside skyride (another $2.75) is a round trip cable ride acorss the Mission Bay. A combined ticket of $3.75 is the better deal, but not a must see. A crazy Wild Arctic ride was my last ride because it made me really really sick. This simulated a helicopter ride... Read review

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Advantages: lots of relaxing and beautiful sights, as well as the odd extreme sport
Disadvantages: may rain more than expected

...Passing through the 'long white cloud' into Auckland was a breathtaking start to my long awaited holiday. Volcanoes were dotted around the city, breaking the long rows of bungalows speading out from the main city. However, when i finally got off the plane to walk around for the first time in 13 hours it was raining. This was to be a common occurance during my five week stay, although the sun that did break through was scorching. Heading out of Auckland we travelled up the Northland, a beautiful rain forest covered spit of land. The northland was one of the main highlights, containing huge Kauri trees, beautiful bays, and plenty of dolphins. A excellent idea would be to take the Twin coast discovery road, which circles Northland, passing through many points of interest. Make sure you stop at russel in the bay of islands for some... Read review

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Advantages: interaction with wild dolphins
Disadvantages: too many people

...Although there are lots of other things to do on Moreton Island (swimming, snorkelling, fishing, badminton and of course the dreaded sand tobogganing) our prime reason for visiting the island was to feed the wild dolphins which visit the jetty each evening. The dolphins are inshore bottlenose dolphins and come to feed on the fish which are attracted by the jetty lights. In the early 90s one of the dolphins 9 a nursing mother) began to take fish thrown to her from the jetty and there are now about a dozen dolphins who come most nights. Feeding is highly supervised by the staff. To keep them wild only about 10% of their daily intake is given to them and human contact limited. Getting into the water to feed them was nevertheless a magical experience, made all the more so by the knowledge that this was not some sort of dolphin show... Read review

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