Aerial photos of Whitsunday, Queensland, Australia

The Whitsunday Islands, located in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, are one of Australia's most famous holiday hot spots. Situated between Townsville and Mackay, the Whitsunday islands encapsulate a collection of continental islands, each with a distinct size and location. These islands are divided by region locality, 74 islands in total divided into four separate groups. The Whitsunday group encompasses the majority of the islands, including Hamilton Island, Dent Island, Hook Island, Long Island and Whitsunday Island. Hamilton Island, the largest inhabited island in the whole of the Whitsunday region, is almost entirely given over to tourism and plays host to its annual Hamilton Island Race Week yachting festival. The other three groups cover a significantly smaller number of islands, which include Daydream Island, Pentecost Island, Shaw Island, and Lindeman Island. Located on the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands receives a tropical climate all year round, with hot summers, warm winters and breezy spring and autumn days. During the summer months, temperatures often reach a high of 30.5 degrees, with winter temperatures just dipping below 25 degrees. Water temperatures are also constantly warm, remaining 25 degrees all year round. These islands offer tourists and locals alike tropical paradise with soft white sands, clear blue skies, and amazing colours and shapes within the Great Barrier Reef. Within each of these areas there are many things to see and do, including sun baking on Whitehaven Beach, scuba diving on some of the world's best reefs, seeing over 1500 different species of fish and over 400 different species of coral and a flight over Heart Reef to enjoy this amazing icon. Each of these activities entice millions of tourists to travel from all over the world to spend time at the Whitsunday Islands each year. Hook reef, reef world.