Lizard Island Resort

The range starts with the 44-square-metre Gardenview Rooms, set in tropical gardens with paths onto Anchor Bay Beach. Gardenview Suites (62 square metres) add a separate living room and sit closest to the lodge, the pool and Essentia Spa. The Beachfront Suites are the classic choice: 87 square metres on the arc of Anchor Bay, with a day bed on the deck and the sand a few steps away.

Oceanview Villas and Oceanview Plunge Pool Villas sit higher, on a ridge above the Coral Sea. Both are 59 square metres with a padded window seat, and the second adds a private plunge pool. They're smaller than the Beachfront Suites; the trade is elevation, privacy and the sunset.

At the top are The Pavilion and The Villa. The Pavilion (139 square metres) is built for two, with a wraparound deck, a standalone bath and a private path down to its own gazebo and plunge pool. The Villa (154 square metres) is the family option, a cliff-top two-bedroom with an 8-metre plunge pool that sleeps five. Both include Billecart-Salmon Champagne on arrival and evening drinks and canapés brought by a dedicated food and beverage valet.

The resort's accommodation list also includes The House, a three-storey, three-bedroom private residence on its own peninsula with a pool, outdoor baths, a rooftop spa and a dedicated host. It's booked through the reservations team, with a four-night minimum.

Salt Water is the main restaurant, an open-sided room with 180-degree ocean views and menus that change daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Seafood comes from the waters around the island, and much of the produce arrives on the daily flights from suppliers such as Preston Fresh Seafood and Edge Hill Butchers in Cairns. Partners further afield include Luke Lambert's single-vineyard Yarra Valley wines and Yarra Valley Caviar.

Guests gather for pre-dinner drinks at Driftwood Bar. The included list covers wine, Champagne, beer and spirits, while the Cellar Master List of rare vintages and the cocktail list cost extra.

Beachside Degustation dinners are served in two private gazebos on the shore of Anchor Bay: seven courses with matched wines, planned with the executive chef, at an extra $300 per person. They book out early. On Tuesdays and Fridays from 5pm, the Marlin Bar at the end of the boardwalk serves cocktails and a casual weekly menu.

Lunch can be a picnic hamper and a dinghy to an empty beach, included in the rate and booked a day ahead.

The reef is close. The inner reef is 15 minutes away by boat and the outer reef about 50, and snorkelling starts from the beach at Anchor Bay, Sunset Beach and the Clam Gardens. Guided trips run to Mermaid Cove, Nigel's Bommie and Turtle Beach near the island, and further out to the Cod Hole and Dynamite Passage, where potato cod swim up to divers. From September to early December, the resort's 34-foot sportfisher heads out after black marlin.

The island's other distinction is the Lizard Island Research Station, set up by the Australian Museum in 1973 and still run by it. Guests can tour the station with the marine staff who live and work there. The resort works with the station on reef protection, including control of crown-of-thorns starfish, and is a founding member of Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef.

On land, resident naturalists lead walks, and the climb to Cook's Look follows James Cook's route to the summit in August 1770, when he went looking for a passage out through the reef. The Dingaal Aboriginal people, Traditional Owners of the island they know as Jiigurru, have lived in the area for tens of thousands of years.

Essentia Day Spa has private and couples treatment rooms between the pool and the lodge, and uses Sodashi's Australian-made botanical products. A 60-minute signature massage starts at $245, and the Crystal Vitality Facial is offered only on Lizard Island. Treatments are for guests 16 and older.

Morning yoga on the beach, a freshwater pool and a gym cover the rest.

Guests fly from Cairns on a scheduled charter, about an hour over 200 kilometres of the Great Barrier Reef, and the reservations team books the transfers. Divers should allow 24 hours between their last dive and the flight home.

Lizard Island Resort received Three MICHELIN Keys in the guide's first Oceania selection in 2025 and kept them in the [2026 list](https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/article/travel/all-the-key-hotels-in-the-world-michelin-guide), when [Southern Ocean Lodge](/hotels/sa/kangaroo-island/southern-ocean-lodge/) and [Saffire Freycinet](/hotels/tas/east-coast/saffire-freycinet/) joined it at that level. Condé Nast Traveler readers ranked it first among resorts in Australia and the South Pacific in 2025, and [No. 9 in 2026](https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/australia-south-pacific-top-resorts) with a score of 97.95.

The reason to go is the reef itself. With 40 rooms on a national park island, guests can snorkel from the beach, take a dinghy to a beach nobody else is using, and spend a morning with the scientists who study the reef. The trade-offs are cost and distance, and the entry rooms look onto garden rather than sea.