K’gari (Fraser Island) Itinerary
K’gari Fraser Island Itinerary
K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) is the world’s largest sand island and you can visit it. In fact you can stay on the island and explore, making it the perfect break away. It has 75 miles of beaches and over 100 freshwater lakes and its a World Heritage listed site!
You may have heard the island called Fraser Island, but in 2021 was reverted back to the traditional name K’gari (said Gah-ree) recognising the heritage of the local Butchella people.
It’s a popular place to holiday in Queensland and very accessible by ferry, boat and 4WD. We spent 48 hours on Fraser Island and we crammed a lot in for a short time.
Where is K’gari?
K’gari (Fraser Island) is on the southern Queensland coast of Australia.
From Brisbane to Fraser Island it’s about a 3.5-4 hour drive, which you can reach by ferry from River Heads, just south of Hervey Bay or from Rainbow Beach (vehicle barge)
Quick Highlights: Top things to do in Fraser Island
There are many activities on Fraser Island, but these were our favourites.
- Visit Lake McKenzie’s beautiful white sand beach and clear blue waters
- Float down Eli Creek on a tube
- Watch the sunset from the Sunset Bar jetty
- Relax in the resort pool at Kingfisher Bay Resort
- Watch the world first Illumina light show
- See dozens of whales in whale watching season
- Go fishing
- Drive on the sand down 75 mile beach
- Do a rainforest walk
- Visit the Maheno shipwreck
Kingfisher Bay Resort Review
Resort Rooms
We stayed in interconnecting resort rooms with a king size bed and a king single in each. I’m sure that any family agrees that interconnecting is the best. We stayed on the top level and this felt like we were a bit in a treehouse overlooking the rainforest.
I really liked the big paintings on the wall of the island and everything was pretty comfortable. The bathrooms are a tad on the dated side but perfectly clean and functional.
Each room had a deck outside with some chairs and there was plenty of space for relaxing.
Decor: 7/10
Functionality: 10/10
Resort Pools
One thing we loved was that the main resort pool was open beyond daylight hours. So many pools closed at 6/7pm but at Kingfisher Bay Resort it was open until 9/10pm and opened early too.
One of the pools was located down at the Sand Bar and Bistro, giving the kids something to do while we were waiting for dinner to arrive.
When we visited in early October, the days were quite temperate, 24C, but the pools were a little cool. Not that this deterred the kids and plenty did play, but the spa pool got more use than I thought.
Resort Dining
You have a number of options for dining at the resort. Most of the time we chose the Sand Bar and Bistro as it was casual dining by the pool and we didn’t need to book. Here’s a quite summary of your options below
Sand and Wood Restaurant: This is where you’ll stop for buffet breakfast in the morning, order your takeaway pool side lunches (may I say the fries are among the best I’ve had) and for dinner: salads, burgers, an array of main meals.
Dune Restaurant: For asian food lovers, this is your dinner choice for curries, rice, noodles dishes
Sand Bar and Bistro: Your laid back pub style fare with pizzas, pastas, salads and burgers, only a stones throw from the sunset beach. The schnitzel here was pretty tasty!
Illumina Light Show
An optional activity is the Illumina light show and it’s an easy activity to add to your Kgari Itinerary. It’s a 30 minute experience from beginning to end, held on site and children go free.
The light show is more of an art piece made with lasers that moves you through the seasons. I like to think of it metaphorically as interpretive dance mixed with technology. It’s pretty clever what you can do with lasers and it’s set to music, a short 20 minute show.
The kids thought it was cool, but I’m glad they don’t have to pay as it’s more of an art piece, emotional and symbolic, some of which would go over the kids heads.
Day 2: Explore K’Gari Island with the Beauty Spots Tour organised through Kingfisher Bay Resort
One of the best things to do on Fraser Island without a car is the K’Gari Beauty Spots tour which will show you all the best locations on K’Gari Fraser island.
Meeting at the jetty, you’ll hop on a big 4WD truck and your guide will take you to see some of the best things to do on K’gari Island
Stop 1: Lake McKenzie – the best thing to do on K’gari Fraser Island
This was our first stop on Kgari Island tour and my absolute favourite place on Fraser Island. I can’t think of many places that have perfect sand like at Lake McKenzie where the white gold, contrasts with the azure blue green waters.
It looks like you’re on a tropical island just here, but its a special lake. The tour had about an hour here for you to swim and relax. For some reason or other we had to wait here a bit longer on our tour… giving us extra time here which we appreciated (although other parts of our tour got cut short)
One thing to note is that you’re not allowed to take food or drinks (bar water) down to the beach due to dingos. There is a special fenced off area where you can eat safely.
Stop 2: Rainforest Walk at Wanggoolba Creek
We learnt some great stories here about the Butchella people, the aboriginal tribe who are the traditional owners of K’Gari. There’s a certain creek that males do not swim or visit, because its where the women used to give birth.
I liked how our driver told us a number of stories on the bus on the way, then recapped at each location. It was an efficient use of time
Stop 3: Lunch at K’Gari Beach Resort
Lunch is included on the Beauty Spots tour and we were a little rushed here due to the delay earlier in the day. It was a buffet meal with hot options such as pasta, shepherds pie, noodles and meat, with salads and a piece of fruit and jelly for dessert. Nothing fancy, but good home cooking that filled up hungry tummies.
Stop 4: 75 Mile Beach
Well, not exactly a stop, but we did visit 75 Mile Beach and drove along it in our truck. We spotted a few dingos on the fringe of the beach and noted there are some high tide alternatives – bumpy ones I might add if you were driving a car on K’Gari on your own.
Cool to be driving along the beach!
Stop 5: Maheno Shipwreck
A cool shipwreck for a 5 minute stop to see and I’m glad this was a short one and its just a photo stop here.
Stop 6: Pinnacles
The coloured sands of the Pinnacles could have been missed in my opinion. It wasn’t exciting and anything worth getting out of the vehicle for.
Stop 7: Eli Creek
This was one place I wished we had more time for as it was so pretty. Eli Creek is a cool, fresh water swimming creek that runs out to the sea. There’s a boardwalk to walk up to the top of the creek and you bring inflatables to sit in a flow down. It was about knee deep on me as I walked down, so a super safe and pretty place to swim for the kids.
There were lots of people with 4WDs, bbqs and volleyball nets hanging out here for the afternoon – my type of place
Verdict: The Kgari Beauty Spots tour was a great way to see a few highlights of the island without the stress of driving in the sand. Well worth doing on your first visit to K’Gari, giving you a taster of island life.
Day 3: Morning Whale Watching Tour
One of the coolest things to see on Fraser Island is whales. I mean, whale watching on K’Gari blew me away. See, I’ve been whale watching in Kaikoura in New Zealand where you see maybe one or two whales in choppy water and head back. Whales – tick!
But we visited K’Gari at the beginning of October, near the end of whale season in Queensland and we saw over 30 whales and their calves cruising along here and that was low numbers – what!?!
We could see whales off in the distance breaching and jumping about, but by the time we got closer they were peacefully swimming around. But you could see them with their calves, popping up for a wee breath.
The trip started at 7.30am and we arrived back around midday, meaning we were looking for whales for quite a long time, heading way up the island where they all hang out and making our way back slowly.
Morning tea was provided on board consisting of freshly cut melon and fruit, along with some biscuits and cakes.
Afternoon: Relax at the resort
We had a 2.30pm Sealink ferry booked back to the mainland, so after our whale watching tour, it was time for lunch (including fries again of course) and a swim in the resort pool.
We tagged our bags in the luggage room and they were loaded into a van on the ferry which we collected back at the Kingfisher reception, super handy. Jumped in the ferry shuttle – a sure fire way to make sure you don’t miss it and that was 48 hours on Fraser Island.
Other things to do on Fraser Island
- Play tennis: at the resort courts
- Junior Ranger Programme: a kids programme focused on the outdoors
- Play beach volleyball
- Walk to Lake McKenzie (10-11km each way)
- Do a self guided walk on one of the Kingfisher Bay Resort trails (see the self guided walks map online)
- Hire a 4WD on K’Gari and go explore
- Go fishing: you can hire a rod from the sunset bar
- Do watersports: hire a kayak, paddleboard from the sunset bar
- Camping on Fraser Island: if you’re keen to stay longer or head further afield, there are lots of campsites on Fraser Island.
Hope you’ve found some fun things to do on Fraser Island Australia – we’ve shared more over on Instagram if video is your thing!
Jennifer
Founder of Backyard Travel Family
Jen is a super organiser when it comes to travel. Having travelled extensively in Europe and Africa, has lived in London and the USA and holidayed in many parts of Asia, she is not a newbie to the travel space
Jen has three young children, 13 and under and travels around New Zealand with them.
