InterContinental Hayman Island Resort

I almost cancelled our trip to Hayman Island after reading some reviews on this site, but having just spent two weeks there I am so glad I didn’t. It was a wonderful, relaxing experience. The staff are great and the location simply stunning. Sure, there are aspects of the resort that could be improved but nothing detracted from a simply wonderful experience.

Beautiful resort Great location

This is our second stay on Hayman Island and for the most part, we had a wonderful stay. I want to specifically call out Dmitry who was on our concierge team. When issues were brought to his attention, he dealt with them swiftly, as opposed to the concierge Whats App number we were given, where responses were extremely slow, if at all. We didn't have headlights on one of our buggies or a functioning seatbelt on the back seat for the first two days of the trip....making dark trips up to the house in the pouring rain quite scary. While messages through the app were not getting us help, an in person visit with Dmitry had our buggy fixed before were done with a morning hike! He also arranged for laundry service when we discovered that our house mysteriously didn't have a washer in the laundry room. Thank you, Dmitry. Atama at Pacific was a delight each morning. He was friendly, anticipated needs before being asked, and was generally a delight each morning. Harry and Sophie were great for Whitehaven and two Inner Reef excursions. Josh was great for Jet Skiing. We did have our initial Jet Skiing excursion cancelled due to operational issues which was a bit disappointing because it meant splitting our group up into two different days, but it was what it was. Skip the Sip and Paint activity---it was advertised as a flight of Gin tasting and painting but there was no such thing. We were given a canvas, a menu to order two drinks and no guidance, dried up brushes and empty paint containers---it was like the Hunger Games amongst participants trying to get white paint out of the empty tubes. This time we had a four bedroom Villa (#11) and had five others in our party across in two rooms in the main hotel. Having now stayed here twice, I much prefer being down in the resort. We had to call daily for filtered water (only to finally be told on the last night of our stay that we actually had a water filter on the kitchen island!) The home is indoor / outdoor and we learned that a possum was entering our house at night. On the last night, we had to coax him out of the house which was an adventure we could have done without. I will say, the rooms are nice and the views spectacular. In general, meal service was very slow but everyone other than a couple of encounters were helpful and friendly so we just chalked it up to being a big group. We were told that there is a program that requires 88 days of work in a remote part of Australia to allow people to extend their visas in Australia....Hayman qualifies and thus gets lots of turnover....I think this contributes to the service issues more than anything else. Regardless, it is an idyllic location, and we will certainly be back!

It is hard to beat Hayman for it’s idyllic and private location, and refined upmarket vibe. Just arriving on the boat is a bit special and that feeling continues to the spacious room and abundant and lush outdoor areas. 3 specialty restaurants gives plenty of choice despite there being no passing trade - all exclusively for guests. Although it is celebrating 50 years and that age is evident in some of the fixtures and design, it has been well maintained and updated over the years. Perhaps the biggest criticism is that the service, while always friendly and attentive, can be a bit hit and miss with a heavy reliance on backpackers and people happy to work remotely. This is most noticeable in the restaurants. That said, I’ve experienced this in plenty of other first class remote locations and it is in some ways part of the trade-off for privacy and exclusiveness. It certainly didn’t detract from our overall positive experience. There were also some fabulous staff with great hospitality experience, and the resort seems to instil a friendly and guest-oriented culture in the team. There’s plenty to do or nothing to do - we will be back!

Had the most amazing experience at the Hayman spa. The treatment was very nice and relaxing. It was a total switch off and relax experience.