2025 Orpheus

With phase 1 of our renovations started we elected to stay at the Stamford Sydney Airport hotel on the Tuesday before our Wednesday flight to Townsville. The lead up to this holiday (our 50th anniversary getaway) was a bit traumatic - with the forecast for Townsville / Orpheus being pretty bad - rain, rain and more rain. Hoping it would clear by the time we arrived. We checked in early (1pm) as we really needed to get out of our unit which was in total disarray with the painters working in every room except the master bedroom.
On check-in we discovered the hotel's airport shuttle only ran every 40 minutes - hardly very convenient so we booked for 5:40am to give us lots of time for breakfast in the Virgin Lounge.
We spent the afternoon dealing with various admin tasks - paying bills, transferring money etc. before heading to dinner at the hotel's restaurant.
Dinner at the Stamford was OK but overall pretty ordinary - as we expected.
After a restless night we got up at 5am and headed down to checkout and catch the shuttle, a mid-sized bus with a luggage trailer, which also stopped at another hotel so it took a good 20 minutes to get to the Virgin terminal (which is only a 3 minute drive away) - the Stamford website is very misleading on this.
We had coffee and cereal in the lounge and set off for Townsville via Brisbane.

We arrived in Townsville on time and took a taxi to our hotel, Ardo, adjacent to "The Ville" Hotel and Casino. (formerly The Sheraton). As it was 1pm we were told we could not check-in until 2pm - SIGH - so we headed over to the Ville for lunch at the Quarterdeck (a casual pub style restaurant overlooking the pool and ocean front). We shared a burger. The weather was as forecast - hot, humid and raining. Back at the Ardo, we checked in and attempted to book dinner at their fine-dining restaurant, Marmon, but were advised that the only times available were 5:30pm or 7:45pm so we booked at their rooftop bar which had a small menu.

Our room at Ardo (an ocean front suite) was lovely - modern and chick. As it continued to rain on and off we took umbrellas and walked around the marina area which had been hugely expanded from our early days in Townsville (back when we had the mango farm and even owned a marina berth (a dodgy tax dodge)).

We headed to dinner at Ardo's rooftop bar - a lovely venue IF the weather is fine which it was not. So it was not totally pleasant - particularly when the manager tried to make us move to accomodate a group who had booked on the windy side which was being drenched by driving rain blowing in. I told the manager in no uncertain terms we were not moving - this will go on trip advisor. To make matters more frustrating - we later determined that Marmon has 5:30-7:30 blocked out EVERY day - again another point to make on TA.

Well it was off to bed in the hope the weather would stabilise.

Thursday

We got up and had a late breakfast at the Ville since Ardo does not have a restaurant open until the evening. The buffet breakfast was 4* at best but not too expensive at $33.

Back at the hotel we asked for a later checkout since our helicopter was scheduled for 2pm. We were advised that our 10AM check-out could only be extended until 11am afterwhich it would be $80 per hour, so we gave this a miss. After checking out and while waiting in the lobby lounge the weather took a turn for the worse - driving rain. After a few calls to the helicopter pilot we were told there would be a delay but they would pickup up at the hotel - we assumed they would send a car for us but in fact they meant the chopper would land at the hotel. By 1:30pm another call advised us that the helicopter was cancelled and they had booked us into the Ardo for another night. So we checked-in and had just started unpacking a few things when another phone call asked if we could be downstairs in 5 minutes as a brief break in the weather meant they would fly. Down we went and jumped on board from the Ardo's helipad.

We arrived at 3:30pm to a rainy welcome - we were greeted with a cold glass of Champagne - we went to our room, unpacked etc and went for dinner at 7pm. Dinner is a fixed 4-course menu - with no choices but substitutions to adhere to your dietary 'restrictions'; e.g. Dieter's "no cold or raw fish or seafood".

Friday
The next morning (Friday) - after a lovely a la carte breakfast - we signed up for the snorkelling trip (by boat) - it was quite clear that due to the tides snorkelling off the beach was not an option. The snorkelling was pretty good but we had to try several spots to find one where the water was clear enough (due to all the recent rain). The coral was really very good even with the reduced visibility and we even saw a hammerhead shark pass by us (the other family of 4 with us missed it). Back at the resort - we showered had went for lunch at 1pm - again a fixed menu with a different theme every day - today it was Mexican - it was very nice but we both would prefer an a la carte offering. The sunny breaks of the morning gave way to very overcast and threatening skies and some on/off rain so we lazed about until 7pm - dinner - another fixed menu.

Saturday
Pretty much a repeat of yesterday except today's activity was a low-tide walk in the afternoon - it was pretty uninteresting but we did see a number of stingrays in the shallow pools left behind by the receding tide.

Sunday
Another snorkelling trip today - it was only us (and Chrissie, the manager and top boat captain and Lachlan, the guide). It was the best day weather-wise in the morning - sunny but the clouds returned in the afternoon. They found an amazing spot some 20 minutes away - the water was clear and the coral was excellent with lots of fish. Back at the resort we showered, had lunch and lazed about until dinner.

We left Orpheus at 2pm after lunch - fortunately we did not need to vacate our villa until the helicopter arrived. Back in Townsville we stayed one more night at the Ardo and this time we were able to get a booking at their fine dining restaurant (after making a bit of a fuss at checkin). The dinner was excellent; however, we were unimpressed with the "Townsville chick" male dress code - cutoffs or jeans and t-shirts.

The following day we flew to Brisbane and arrived in driving rain. We elected to use an Uber to get to our hotel as it was half the estimated price of a taxi. Fortunately we did as the traffic was horrific but since the Uber is fixed price it didn't really matter.

We checked-on to our amazing suite at the Star Grand booked on an excellent deal on Luxury Escapes. We had dinner at Aloria, one of the restaurants where we could use our daily $75 dining credit. It was excellent so booked a return visit. We spent our 2 full days walking around the city not doing too much of anything.

Then it was back to Sydney on Saturday - flying business class on Virgin - back at home we just had a few sambos for dinner.