Holidaying at Hervey Bay - what to do?

Kinnon Bell

Kinnon Bell

Hi All,

My other half and I (and the dog) are making the trek from Melbourne back home for Christmas - home being the far north coast of NSW. As a little side holiday the 3 of us are going to escape to Hervey Bay for 5 days. We've never been before and when I google "things to do in Hervey Bay" it comes up with whale watching and fishing and that's about it.

My husband is a mad keen fisherman so we will be doing that daily and whale watching we're not fussed on as that's something we could see back home. Other than that I can't really find much.

We both love nature, kayaking, hiking - just escaping the rat race pretty much. We also love good food.

What I would like is if anyone has is some suggestions of things we could do while we're there, maybe something a little left of centre? If you could recommend a good restaurant or that spot to escape to that not every man and his dog will be visiting. Or just anything at all would be muchly appreciated!

TIA!
 
How about getting a blue/grey rinse while you are there :p:D.

Only kidding, but plenty of people reckon it is God's Waiting Room.

Hubby's sister was working there about 15 years ago and we went for a weekend. She drove around in her car and we followed her. Every few kilometres she would stop the car, wind down her window, point outside at something, wind the window up and continue on. After about an hour of this we got home to her house, and she started telling us "first time I stopped, that building I pointed to was my workplace, second stop I pointed at where you can see the whales, etc etc"

Shame she is not still living there or I could give you her number :)
 
wylie said:
How about getting a blue/grey rinse while you are there :p:D.
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That's evil wylie, but I have to confess that was my first thought also :p

wylie said:
Only kidding, but plenty of people reckon it is God's Waiting Room.
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I recall listening to a Dame Edna comedy sketch on a Qantas flight a while back. She (he) was in Hervey Bay - "looking out on a sea of seersucker" (referring to the pensioners and God's waiting room). Then she made the observation that if you want to preserve something - you put it in the fridge, so why are all these wrinkled faces retiring to a place in the heat?:confused:
 
Fraser Island is superb. The dog is a problem though. You use to be able to hire a 4wd and go camping. It was completely undeveloped then, I don't know what it's like now.

The beach fishing apparently was superb.
 
Ha, I had no idea Hervey Bay had that kind of reputation! Sounds good to me though. I'm not really a party goer nor do I really like noisy or crowded places. Maybe I should have googled "what to do with my walking frame in Hervey Bay" or something along those lines. :D

The place where we're staying has dog sitting facilities so leaving him alone for extended periods of time shouldn't be a problem.

HandyAndy, that link looks good. I'll check it out.
 
Kesse said:
Ha, I had no idea Hervey Bay had that kind of reputation! Sounds good to me though. I'm not really a party goer nor do I really like noisy or crowded places. Maybe I should have googled "what to do with my walking frame in Hervey Bay" or something along those lines. :D

The place where we're staying has dog sitting facilities so leaving him alone for extended periods of time shouldn't be a problem.

HandyAndy, that link looks good. I'll check it out.
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Plenty to do around hervey bay

this site shows a few of the attractions etc

http://www.holidayherveybay.org.au/hervey-bay-attractions.html
 
Thanks for the responses James and Units. Have now long returned hervey bay and had a lovely time while we were there. Did a day tour to Fraser Island, a days fishing charter, ate at a different restaurant every night and enjoyed all the food and stayed in a great place right near the water.
 
...another advocate for Fraser Island here. I had a 4wd to get around the place, if you are experienced at 4wd'ing that will help, some of the terrain is challenging, but it offers an opportunity to get away and explore/see many places on the island independently. Take the camera. Take the camera. There is heaps to do, you can hire one of the bungalow places up the back, out of mainstream traffic of people/tourism.

I loved being at the Hervey Bay wharf also, walking around, breakfasting, lunching, dinner-ing...boat watching, sailing, people watching, coffee-ing, sailing, take the camera...

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Feel like a winner for awhile. Although not in the best part of QLD, its still a hell of a lot better than the southern states. :)
 
Kesse said:
Thanks for the responses James and Units. Have now long returned hervey bay and had a lovely time while we were there. Did a day tour to Fraser Island, a days fishing charter, ate at a different restaurant every night and enjoyed all the food and stayed in a great place right near the water.
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Do you think it was worth doing a day tour to Fraser Is?
 
INVSTOR said:
Do you think it was worth doing a day tour to Fraser Is?
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Yes and no. My husband and I are both competent and experienced 4WDers and we weighed up the cost of hiring a 4WD and doing Fraser Island ourselves but not knowing the island and the 'places to go' we decided to go with the day tour which also worked out a bit cheaper.

The day tour was good for the fact that we had a great and experienced guide take us around the island but it was so crowded and I cannot stand crowds. The bus we were on was full and so were the other 10+ buses on the island that all seemed to share the same itinerary. It was really sad to see people disrespect the island in the sense of swinging on trees and breaking them or going in the pure steams where humans are not meant to go.

With the day tour it also felt we spent the whole day driving. We'd speed on from one place to another just to arrive at our destination and spend a short amount of time there just to be rushed off again to get to the next place trying to cram everything in a day. A 2 day tour may have better for this.

The only thing I enjoyed about the day tour was the amazing stories the guide told us but if I had my time again I probably wouldn't go on a day tour I'd just hire the 4WD and do it ourselves on our own timetable.
 
geoffw said:
Fraser Island is superb. The dog is a problem though. You use to be able to hire a 4wd and go camping. It was completely undeveloped then, I don't know what it's like now.

The beach fishing apparently was superb.
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I thought the dog might be a little bit of an issue to but he was fine. We took him with us where we could and when we couldn't he happily stayed in the apartment we were staying in.

Must say the only thing that was a touch disappointing was the fishing. My husband is a mad keen fisherman and I can tolerate it. We hired a guide for the day and we spent 14 hrs on the water trying to catch something. I don't know if our expectations were too high or I just was really focused on getting $690 worth of fish caught. We ended up with one Spotted Mackeral, a couple of Brassy Trevally and one Golden Trevally. Apparently it was the worst days fishing the guide had had in a long time.

Roachy said:
Feel like a winner for awhile. Although not in the best part of QLD, its still a hell of a lot better than the southern states. :)
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Can't argue with you there. I can't wait to get out of Victoria. To be honest I was just a little disappointed with Hervery Bay, but that was through my own doing and I imagined it as more of a tropical wonderland. But it was a lot drier and flatter than I was expecting. So lovely though.

INVSTOR said:
Thanks for update. Your comments are what I was thinking it would be like.
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No worries. If you were asking because you're thinking of doing a Fraser Island tour yourself and decide to hire a 4WD I can give you the heads up of the places we went and even GPS co-ordinates as I have GPS in my camera, just let me know.

Next stop for us is Cairns in June to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, sans dog this time though. Can't wait!
 
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