Magnetic Island, or “Maggie” as the locals call it, is an island about 20 minutes by ferry from North Queensland‘s unofficial capital Townsville. If you’re road tripping up or down Australia’s East Coast, Magnetic Island is one of the 8 places I highly recommend visiting.
Magnetic Island isn’t big, so reserving a couple of days for exploring the island is plenty. Despite of its size there are quite a few beautiful places to visit and fun things to do. I therefore scribbled up this little guide for you 🙂
How to get to Maggie
To get to Magnetic Island you can take the ferry from Townsville. The ferry runs about 18 times a day and takes about 20 minutes. An adult return ticket costs $30. For tickets and timetables, please visit the website of Sealink Queensland.
How to get around Maggie
There are a few options on how to get around on Magnetic Island:
1 – By bus: there’s one bus (the Sunbus) on the island which leaves about every hour and cost around $3-$5. It’ll take you to all major areas on the island, including most hotels, hostels and resorts. For complete overview of the timetable and stops, please go here.
2 – By rental car: and if you decide to rent a car, why not opt for a Topless Car?! The entire island has a maximum speed restriction of 60km an hour, which makes driving around in a topless car so much fun. For rental enquiries please check the information here.
We also rented a topless car for one day which was the perfect way to explore the island. When you’re cruising around beautiful Maggie in an open car you can be sure: holiday feels guaranteed!
Beautiful beaches and bays
Maggie is home to the most incredible beaches and beautiful bays:
Picnic Bay
On the islands southerly part you’ll find Picnic Bay. Beautiful blue waters and big rocks make up the surroundings. You’ll also stumble upon the Picnic Bay jetty, where you probably can’t help but snap a photo or two 😉
Horeshoe Bay
Horeshoe Bay is one of the main areas on the island. With a long stretched beach and plenty of bars and cafes you can easily spend a day around here. Grab a coffee or breakky at Early Bird cafe to fuel up before a day at the beach 🙂
Radical Bay & Florence Bay
Getting to each of these bays require a small hike, which feels like quite a long one when doing it in the heat (guilty of making this mistake ;)). But the reward is absolutely worth it: beautiful, peaceful bays where you won’t find as many tourists as on other parts of the island. But be warned: these bays are also unofficial nude beaches, so you might see a willy or two 😉
Spot cute koalas on the Forts Walk
They say that there are about 650 – 950 koalas on Magnetic Island. Which is A LOT if you consider how small Maggie actually is. Chances are that during your Magnetic Island trip you might be able to spot one or two!
A walk famous for koala spotting is the Forts Walk. This walk starts on Horeshoe Bay Road and is about 4km long. Make sure you go either very early or quite late, as it can get very, very hot during the day.
I did the Forts Walk as well and spotted one koala, high up in a tree. Yay! Can you see it?
Other good-to-knows:
Love swimming? Then please always check if it is safe to swim. Tropical North Queensland is known for its not-so-pleasant jellyfishies 😉
Hike-fanatic? Check out these other Magnetic Island walking trails.
Enjoy your time on Magnetic Island!
All pictures in this article are edited with Eef’s Presets – get yours here.
❤ Eef
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