Fraser Island is very expensive to visit because you have no choice but to pay for a tour of it. You need a 4×4 vehicle to get around the island and as most travellers don’t have one there are a wide variety of different tours to choose from. I went for any I could get a spot on with the highest rating on Tripadvisor.

I decided to do a bus tour rather than a self drive tour. You can choose between a bus with a driver, it’s still a 4×4 and will drive on the sand but the other option is small 4×4 vehicles in which people in your group take it in turns to drive. This sounds cool but I didn’t want to run the risk of getting stood with a group full of idiots and no personal space. I made the right choice.

Cool Dingos is the tour group I went with and they have one tour guide who drives the whole way. He was really knowledgeable and the highlight of him driving was I felt safe and he told us about the places as we drove through. We still got to do all the same activities just a different way of travelling.

I was lucky enough to get some great roommates and I met some cool people whilst out there. Mostly I tagged along with a guy from Bath in England as he was easy to chat to but he left on the 2nd day as this was an option for the tour, 2 days or 3 days. I was so glad I chose 3 days because the 3rd day was the best by a million miles. The group of 38 shrunk down to around 20 and it was much easier to get to know people. I hung out with the solo traveller from Korea and she liked to take a lot of photos so I got some photos I love whilst we were exploring the sand dunes. She was good company and I saw her again once we left the island to head to Rainbow Beach she was in the same hostel. Always feels nice to see the same people about, makes you a feel a little more like you’re home.

I did all kinds of things on Fraser Island. On the first day we had really bad weather where it would not stop raining and it was full blown down pours. It started as we were enjoying Lake Mackenzie so we didn’t spend long here. Was nice to see though with the different colours of the water. After this we headed for the rainforest. It was the first time I’ve ever trekked through a rainforest and it was really funny. All I could think was how much my boyfriend would have enjoyed the walk with me. That kind of stuff makes me feel homesick but I have to just enjoy it myself in the meantime. I had to duck under fallen trees and around branches whilst minding the flowing creek below.

Other things we did on the island included paddle boarding in another of the lakes – I didn’t try it though, too cold and I knew I’d probably fall in!

Climbing the Indian head to view part of the impressive 175 mile beach. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world so it was awesome just experiencing driving along it.

I enjoyed seeing the Maheno Shipwreck and learning about its history. Only the second shipwreck I’ve seen before. The other one being in Zante Greece.

My favourite thing we did was exploring the sand dunes. It felt like I was in the middle of the desert. I couldn’t capture it’s vastness in a photograph but it was amazing to look at. Never been somewhere where I look around and see nothing but sand, no people, no trees, no buildings, no anything! It was amazing and one of my Australia highlights.

On my way off the island I even got to see a wild dingo! Not only that but the boat crossing over to Rainbow beach I saw the sun setting whilst dolphins jumped out of the water! Beautiful sight.

Really enjoyed my Fraser Island trip and so glad I didn’t miss out on seeing it!

The pickup and drop off points of Rainbow Beach and Hervey Bay really didn’t have much to offer besides a beach so there isn’t really anything for me to blog about in that sense!