Lizard Island Resort

Lizard Island's advantage is written in geography: it sits directly on the Great Barrier Reef, some 240 kilometres north of Cairns, so the coral begins metres from the sand rather than hours away by boat. The island itself is a national park of granite headlands, turquoise bays and twenty-four beaches, and the resort—reached by a one-hour scenic flight from Cairns—is its only occupant beyond a long-established marine research station.

The resort keeps numbers low, with around 40 villas and suites scattered along Anchor Bay and the headlands above, styled in a breezy, pale-timber coastal register that defers to the view. The ritual that defines a stay is the dinghy picnic: guests take a motorised dinghy and a packed hamper to claim one of the island's beaches for the day, often without another footprint in sight. Snorkelling the giant-clam gardens off Watsons Bay and diving the outer reef's famous sites, including the Cod Hole, fill the rest of the calendar.

Dining at Salt Water restaurant leans on reef fish and tropical produce with the lagoon as backdrop, and the small Essentia spa handles post-dive recovery. Lizard is remote, weather-exposed and priced accordingly, but for direct, uncrowded access to the reef at its best, no Australian address compares.