Mirage Whitsundays — Hotel in Cannonvale

A mix of ups and downs at this property. Overall, a good stay, but for a property that bills itself as a quality resort-stay, many things are lacking.

Main Pool: Tiles are missing; pool was regularly dirty; pool cleaner (a big chunky thing and long ts hose) was in the pool at 10am with guests having to move around/over/under it (why was it not used overnight?) so any dirt was only being moved around.

External/ Security / Location: A quality resort should not have dead palm frongs teetering on the edge of roofs that guests are walking under. Apartment balconies wae rotting and glass balustrade damaged (perhaps delaminating). Courtyards for Villas for not cleaned prior to arrival, and only once during the stay (a simple blower was all that was needed). The gate to the boardwalk does not lock properly. Any member of the public can access the grass area in front of the villas, and , hence, the villa courtyards, by simply stepping over a rope. Any staff that we had encounters with, were friendly. Parking is reasonable. We had a garage for our villa and a small truck with a large generator was parked opposite our garage for 4 days making it harder than it needed to to enter and exit. About 35min walk to Airlie Beach. The only restaurants closer are the Fat Frog Cafe (daytime only), Club Croc, NRMA park bistro, and a good truck.

Restaurant: Buffet Breakfast - good choice, good turnover of food, just not enough space for guests, food service and staff cleaning areas. We ate dinner one night. Food was satisfactory.

Villa 26: We had previously stayed twice in Airlie Beach in a beautiful apartment on Golden Orchid Ave but, based on advertisement, Mirage promised to be just as good, if not better. The Villa is insanely amazing and definitely awe-inspiring upon first look. Spacious = absolutely Huge bathrooms. Ensuite has double vanity that is at least 4m long. Ensuite shower has adjustable shower head, rain shower and door to the balcony where you can have an outdoor shower. However, your outdoor shower can be seen by other rooms, people on the boardwalk below, and, potentially, people on their boats. Our bathtub was lovely, next to stacker sliding doors so you could have a bath with the feeling of being outdoors IF the doors weren't locked. No hand towel was supplied for the downstairs bathroom. Great toiletries supplied in the shower - L'Occitane. It would have been nice to have body lotion also. Beds were comfortable. I found the pillows great; my husband didn't. Midstay clean was detailed and appreciated. Air-con was noisy and struggled in the January heat. Kitchen is large and has loads of cutlery, crockery, utensils, glassware. The fridge has an on-door water chiller. There is no pantry to put your own food. A bottle of dishwashing liquid was supplied (much better than those silly sachets). Lounge area is spacious and welcoming. A really nice touch was a selection of novels, recipe books, kids books and toys. There is cool art on the wall but the lighting feature was broken. The washing machine needs to be thrown away. Dryer worked well. Dishwasher is not drying dishes. Thhe private plunge pool was not clean; the chemicals were way out; the water feature doesn't work and is rusted through; and we don't know why it wasn't built with a skimmer box. A pool scoop/net is provided so at least we could skim the surface, so that was a positive, but the walls also needed a good scrub down as there was a build up of chemicals around the waterline. Inflatable pool noodles were supplied and welcome. Outdoor furniture is old and showing signs of age, but serviceable. The pool light does not work. Well, it does, but it trips out all other lighting in the villa.

I did email all of the above to the property a few days ago. No reply has been received. We enjoyed our stay overall, but this property needs a lot of work and better management. I see no reason to return when I know another property was better, for a lower cost too. Mirage is not worth the price...

Nice resort, our room was ready shortly after arrival, we were asked by ladies at reception if we wanted to be shown to room or go ourselves, not wanting to bother them we said we should be fine, a map was provided & directions written, what was NOT explained was the hill up to the area we were staying, this was not okay, this should have been mentioned considering we had lugguage. We could not make it up the hill, so went to lower level to see if that was easier, we flagged down a cleaner who was not too sure how to help, feeling frustrated our saviour by the name of Andy stopped & said to pop back to reception he would call them to get us a lift & they should have organised this considering our room location. Before we had a chance to go back he said to wait & got a resort cart, loaded our bags & took us to our apt. He explained where everything was pools, breakfast etc & was so lovely. Once we settled our buzzer rang it was Andy saying he was doing a suttle into town if we wanted a lift, we thanked him & off we went. He gave us a run down on the courtesy bus times & what places had courtesy shuttles etc... something your reception team could learn from him, no point having a reception team who offer no information or ask any question. Also of note the cleaner we initially spoke to came to our room to check if we had arrived ok & if we needed anything which was lovely. The apt #79 was lovely and spacious with a great view. Breakfast was included basic buffet style, which was perfectly fine. Dissappointed to note when asking at reception if there was a spa pool, to be told there was one but its cold as are the pools, I had already had a swim in the Lagoon Pool & found out for myself how cold the pool was but thats ok, it was refreshing like an ice swim, but could not understand not having a hot spa pool, which was a shame. We ate at the in-house restaurant 1 night & I did enjoy the meal, the Salmonier was delicious & the Chicken Satay was tasty but a little on the sweet side, on the whole a good meal. I enjoyed a Passionfruit Mojito by the pool the next day, the lady at the bar on Wed 18/6 was lovely, the days beds were a bit grubby so used the lounger, a shame as I was looking forward to laying down for a nap in the fresh air after a big day out on the water the previous day. On the whole a good stay. I would stay again if a deal was going (I was staying on a deal from Yonda), but would not pay full rack rate due to issues...

We stayed in a one bedroom deluxe apartment including a balcony with absolutely fantastic views. See photos below. I recommend asking for a second floor apartment as the ground floor apartments didn’t seem to have great views. PLEASE NOTE: We stayed in room 22 which requires climbing two flights of large stairs. The building which contains rooms 19-22 has NO LIFT. This was extremely frustrating to find out and the reception staff didn’t bother even warning us. They were quite rude when we mentioned our concern. So we had to carry two large heavy suitcases up/down those stairs without any help from staff. Also I definitely agree with the previous reviewer regarding lack of food & transport. This accomodation is NOT close to the shops or restaurants. Also there is NO UBER service in Airlie beach. So you will have to catch a taxi or walk to the town. Taxis cost us $12 one way. Walking is over 20mins.

Their restaurant food is extremely disappointing and overpriced. They only have a proper lunch menu on the weekends. On weekdays sandwiches/cakes are only available. Buffet breakfast (included in our stay) was pretty good however there was no variety and selection is small, we had the same food everyday.

Mirage has a shuttle bus which operates at 10:30am and 2:30pm. It’s only a one way service into the town area where all shops/restaurants are. In the night I would advise taking a taxi back to your apartment as the town pathways are not well lit to walk.

You will get NO housekeeping service unless you stay for 5 nights or more. However the staff were happy to give us extra amenities like soap/shampoo free of charge during our stay.

The day before checking out I asked for late checkout and was told we could have the room until 12pm the next day. However, this was NOT noted in our booking so we had housekeeping knocking on our door multiple times from 10:30am. Then around 11:30am we had someone who looked like head of housekeeping knock and demand that “we vacate the premises immediately as there are guests coming”. This was extremely rude, unprofessional and downright intimidating!! I told her to call reception as we had a confirmed late checkout. After clearing up that mishap, we checked out at 12pm without any apologies from reception. Didn’t even get asked how was our stay! Based on the above, I wouldn’t stay here again especially considering it’s distance from the main town and lack of...