Orpheus Island Lodge

A stay at any luxury resort is not cheap so I thought I’d give you a review of some of Australia’s best tropical luxury resort options. First a few general comments. If you’re spending over $10k for 3 nights you should try to pick a time of the year when the chances of being seriously impacted by rain is minimised. Easier said than done with the way weather has been lately. Also some people are happy to lay by the pool for their stay.. we like that too but also love snorkelling with beautiful fish and coral and some not too hard bushwalking. All the costs are approximates Lizard island (2021) You get a small plane out of cairns, we shared ours with a couple. Lizard is expensive and you can get Beachfront suites for $4,300 and Oceanview villas for $3,700… there’s also a range of other accommodation from garden villas to a private house on the clifftop. We went for a beach front suite located about 50 metres from the beachfront which was very convenient. The downside was that on our last day the island had a barge come in and it was busy and noisy for a few hours.. but no big deal. Food was amazing, incredible but OMG it was soo slow. Can take 2 hours for lunch and 40 minutes to get entrees. That’s ok as you’re on holidays but we wanted to do stuff and it’s not great to loose the best part of 4 hours for breakfast and lunch. Hopefully that has improved. Service was good and the staff were really nice. We had a lovely welcome at the airport and check in. Activities… there are dinghies available and you can get picnic with nice food and whatever you want to drink to take to a nearby beach… we went to Watsons Bay There are sunset cruises, snorkelling tours and nice walks Lizard is beautiful with gorgeous white sandy beaches. You can walk out of your beachfront suite and swim out 30 -50 metres to coral reef with beautiful fish and coral… like wow. The other side of island past the air***** (30 minute walk) was a beach totally littered with plastic. Watsons Bay is bit of a walk up the hill and back down, nice boardwalk and gorgeous beach. Qualia October 21 & December 22 Yes twice in a windward suite. They are drop dead gorgeous. You will be met at the airport and it’s a short drive to the resort. Their are spectacular views from the main building. I found the welcome a bit ordinary… sure you get a nice glass of bubbles but they didn’t seem to know we were returning guests and it was all a bit impersonal and standardised.welcome. Leeward and Windward pavilions Leeward approx $2k a night Windward $3k a night with a plunge pool Amazing views from the bed, the room and the plunge pool. You get a nice breakfast included and the staff there were lovely and way better than the front desk staff. Poolside we had good burgers and great service in the poolside cabanas. We had a lovely lunch at the restaurant pebble beach. We never ate dinner there but I am sure it would be good. You will be given a golf cart during your stay. There’s not much to do bu

Perfectly executed resort stay. 28 guests enables professional staff to make you feel like you're the only one there. Beds are sublime, pool is spectacular in dimension, clarity and temperature and the food is brilliant. On the latter we have never come across a chef that commands different cuisines with such confidence and brilliant execution. For us having been to Lizard and Bedarra, each wonderful in their own right, this eclipses both hands down.

After lots of research, my husband and I chose to visit Orpheus Island for our honeymoon. It was absolutely heavenly. I can’t think of anywhere that would have been more perfect. From the moment we disembarked from the helicopter to be greeted with drinks and cold towels, our final evening spent on the jetty for the “Dining with the tides” experience, we loved every minute. It was by far the most luxurious and pricey holiday we had ever had, so I was anxious that it wouldn’t live up to our expectations - but it exceeded them in every way. It’s luxurious but not pretentious. The staff were super friendly and seemed like they were enjoying their work, and always made sure we were looked after without being intrusive. The room had a great view and was just metres from the infinity pool overlooking the beach. The food (which was one of the main attractions for me) was incredible. We eat out regularly at fine dining restaurants in Melbourne, and Orpheus is up there. They seamlessly acommodated my dietary requirements (gluten free, alcohol free) and I never felt like I was missing out. Activities wise, it’s choose your own adventure, whether you want to laze by the pool with a cocktail, take a boat out with a picnic and go snorkelling, or explore the coastline in a kayak. The weather was beautiful, and the sunsets over the ocean are spectacular. This was such a special way for us to start our married life together, I can’t recommend it enough. Thank you to Nicole and the wonderful team who looked after us. We will be back! 🙏🌴🌺🍹🍾💖

Loved our time on Orpheus Island. We had teenagers with us, but plenty to keep them amused with kayaks, paddle boards, pool table, pool, daily activities. The service and food were amazing. The evening dinner is most definitely a fine dining experience, but so good, even the teenagers enjoyed it. The water sports team were great, very knowledgeable and great skippering to find a sheltered spot to snorkel on a windy day. Would highly recommend you visit Orpheus!

Orpheous Island was recommended to us by our son as a fantastic place to celebrate a birthday. He was right - it is a hidden gem offering a small, intimate resort experience that began with the helicopter ride onto the island and continued with the personal welcome and service throughout our stay. It offered understated opulence with all food and beverages organised to cater for all . The water activities were readily at our disposal as were the staff who went out of their way to inform, instruct and assist wherever needed. It was so interesting meeting and talking in depth to the staff who showed an obvious delight in their work.

Wow, I just read the previous review and I'm astounded! We were at Orpheus Island from 10th to 15th September and I certainly didn't see anything like what's in that review. We first went to Orpheus around the same time last year, we fell in love with the place, and we're booked now to go back for the next three years as well. Since last year almost all of the staff (except one) have changed, but the level of focus, service and quality are all exactly the same. Meals on Orpheus are fine dining at its best, this year under the control of Chef Josh Childs, who I'm sure would be at home in any of the finest restaurants in the world. This year we also met Manager Chrissy Williams who wasn't there last year, but I believe she's been the manager there for the 5 years prior as well, and she is a very special person. The single most significant factor though that brings us back to Orpheus every year is the staff. Management knows that, and it's obvious the outlook and those attitudes stem from the top. We certainly appreciate the efforts of all the crew in making our stays as special as they are, nothing is ever too much trouble, and we do look upon all those people as being our friends. Thank you to all the staff, and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.

Honestly it should be called awfulness lodge Amazing island, not a lot of sea life or coloured coral’s compared to further north Grumpy staff or on auto pilot- a few genuine but if you arrive on the grumpy staff roster…. good luck. 70% will walk straight past you without even a hello Be prepared to eat at their convenience not yours. Weird food combos, we appreciate good fresh, simple local food. The chef loves to purée and loves salt. Ill post photos on here, they tell the story Flys everywhere - lunch all dishes served at once, no covers. You spend most of your time shooing flys away. We were advised to sit under a fan. Gourmet picnics are wraps - chicken schnitzel if you’re lucky 😂 it read’s something like multiple courses of local produce- you’ll get 3 frozen prawns with your wrap and some salad Room service you need to call the general managers mobile from your mobile - no phones in room or walk over to the restaurant and hope a staff member is around Lumpy pillows - we tried twice for feather and got more lumpy ones and memory foam Mouldy curtains Very little tv coverage- from the bed the tv is down so low only the person closet can watch. We had 6 nights, 2 days of rain so movie time was needed. We put it on the ironing board because every just felt too hard Games room is not a games room- only a wobbly pool table with holes in the felt Rooms very close together. Water view rooms are not private at all. Our water view room was right next to the heli pad. We could say the whole welcome speech by the time we left If you are familiar with 5 star accommodation give this one a miss. We didn’t find it value for money at all, not even close. My partner is more forgiving than me (I’ve managed hotels/motels etc) and he absolutely would not recommend We were so looking forward to having a luxury break and we returned stressed, hungry and tired Manager is great but inexperienced at this level

We were lucky enough to spend a week on Orpheus Island and it was the best holiday ever! I cannot remember a time in my whole life where I felt so relaxed. The environment and wildlife are very special. We saw sharks, rays, giant clams and an assortment of fish just a short walk from our little bungalow. We were also lucky enough to see a whale calf playing out in the ocean near its mum. The facilities are terrific. We enjoyed time in the beautiful pool, in kayaks and had heaps of fun meandering about in the motorised dinghies. The food and drinks are sensational. The standard inclusion food is hatted restaurant quality and then they take it up a notch for the ‘dining with the tides’ experience, where we had the best scallops we have ever had. But what makes this place so perfect and so amazing is the staff. They are professional but friendly and create such a relaxed vibe while going above and beyond to make sure every guest has the best possible experience. We will cherish many memories made during our time on the island but none so much as those created by the amazing people who took such good care of us.

Beyond belief. Travelled to Orpheus for a birthday celebration and have never experienced service, luxury, food and accommodations like this before. Attention to detail was on point and Chrissy and her crew are a truely well oiled machine. From the linens to the tea, the cocktails to the food there is not a thing we can fault. The diving, the fishing, the picnics, the sunsets….. nothing needed, nothing too hard for the amazing staff. Having a fair bit of travel experience, this was exceptional at every turn. We can’t really rant on for too long, just to say that this was honestly the most amazing place we have ever visited and it is going to be very hard to beat it. Thanks to all the crew who made it so memorable. Matt and Clea.