Shantara Resort Port Douglas - Adults Only Retreat

“Excellent Adults Only Resort, quiet and relaxing.”

Absolutely loved our stay. The communication from the time of booking was excellent. Paula on the front desk was so welcoming and helpful. We stayed in a studio room and it was exactly like the pictures on the website and so clean. There is a washing machine and dryer to share with one other room a… more

Absolutely loved our stay. The communication from the time of booking was excellent. Paula on the front desk was so welcoming and helpful. We stayed in a studio room and it was exactly like the pictures on the website and so clean. There is a washing machine and dryer to share with one other room and a rack for drying if you prefer. A safe in the room and two umbrellas. Turn right out of the resort and a five minute walk you will find a bottle shop and next to it a fantastic place for dinner and the best cocktails, Bam Pow. Turn left out of the resort and a 5 minute walk to all the shops,restaurants and beach. Highly recommend this adults only accommodation.

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“Quiet, relaxing and classy!”

We highly recommend Shantara! It is so well located with an easy stroll to the main street and beach. We received a very warm welcome as return guests and nothing was too much trouble including booking airport transfers. The resort is comfortable, well equipped and spotless. Being child free reall… more

We highly recommend Shantara! It is so well located with an easy stroll to the main street and beach. We received a very warm welcome as return guests and nothing was too much trouble including booking airport transfers. The resort is comfortable, well equipped and spotless. Being child free really appealed to us as the atmosphere was so relaxed and the pool never busy. Room supplies are generous-everything from the number of towels to kitchen supplies etc. We really treated ourselves this time and had an apartment with direct pool access, a separate bedroom and our own hot tub. What a treat!

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“Great location, spacious apartment, laundry facilities”

This adults-only accommodation is very nice. We stayed in a one-bedroom apartment that had a separate bedroom and a living room/kitchen combo area. The kitchen was equipped with dishes, a microwave, dishwasher, toaster, and refrigerator. There was sort of a stove top with two burners that we never… more

This adults-only accommodation is very nice. We stayed in a one-bedroom apartment that had a separate bedroom and a living room/kitchen combo area. The kitchen was equipped with dishes, a microwave, dishwasher, toaster, and refrigerator. There was sort of a stove top with two burners that we never used. Tea bags, coffee, and sugar are provided. But you need to go out and get groceries for any meals. Nothing is offered on the premises. There are two pools. There is limited front-desk service, usually 9-5. And a security gate to the property is locked when there is no one at the front desk. But it opens with your room key. The thing that we loved the best was that there's a small washer and dryer in the alcove of each pair of apartments. It was just perfect for us. We were 8 days into a 18-day trip, so it was really nice to be able to wash our dirty clothes before we headed to our next destination. There is no cost to use the machines but you do need to get laundry soap, which they sell for $2 per pack at the front desk. I opted to buy my own bottle from the grocery store because I needed to do two loads and needed a liquid detergent because of an allergy to soap powder. Shantara's location is really good. It's probably a 10-minute walk to get to the main drag, where all the restaurants and stores are located. And we only walked about 12 minutes to catch our boat to the Great Barrier Reef. It is a very short distance to Four Mile Beach. If you don't mind having to provide your own meals (especially breakfast) it is a nice place. I prefer not to cook at all when on holiday, so I would have liked a hotel that offered breakfast. However, the laundry machines were a big plus in my book! P.S. I was awoken every morning around 4:30 a.m. by the birds. So be ready for that! (Hubby woke up one morning and slept through the noise on the other days.)

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“Old & Dated, Needs to be Updated”

Let’s start with the good stuff. The Shantara has a great location in walking distance to the downtown shopping and dining. It’s even pretty close to the port where all the Great Barrier Reef excursions depart. And it has an underground parkade if you have a rented vehicle. Also really nice is the … more

Let’s start with the good stuff. The Shantara has a great location in walking distance to the downtown shopping and dining. It’s even pretty close to the port where all the Great Barrier Reef excursions depart. And it has an underground parkade if you have a rented vehicle. Also really nice is the fact that you have separate A/C units for the bedroom and the living/dining/kitchen areas. There are 2 swimming pools, one of them on each side of the lobby, with the barbecue area situated by one of the pools. And finally, having a washer & dryer (shared with 1 other neighbouring room) was great. So…lots of nice things to have when you’re here for about a week. This is a fairly old development as far as I can tell. The kitchen has an old hot-plate and microwave, yet a fairly modern fridge (which oddly enough opens the wrong way from what you’d expect). The unit has a very bare-bones quantity of dishes – you get only 4 dinner plates, bowls, small plates, although our unit only had 3 bowls. Enough cutlery and glassware. They advertise having barbecues. Well…no. They have 2 large griddles, which can’t do anything close to the job of a gas BBQ. And they take 15-20 minutes to heat up. Big disappointment, because we’d been eating in restaurants for 2 ½ weeks, and were looking forward to cooking our own meals while we were here. Our unit didn’t even have salt and pepper shakers, instead providing you the little paper packets you find at fast food restaurants. The griddle area has salt and pepper shakers along with a miscellaneous selection of other spices and condiments (that prior guests have left). The bathroom vanity countertop offered little space for makeup bags or shave kits. And the shower is in a full size tub that you gotta climb into…not as nice as a walk-in shower. And the shower controls are at the far end of the tub. Weird. Bottom line is that, although this place has a lot of great things going for it, it also sorely needs to be updated to the expectations of today’s travellers. The big tub/shower could easily be converted to a walk-in shower plus a mini-tub for those with small children. Rip out those junky griddles and build a nice dual gas BBQ station down by the pool. Upgrade the kitchen and put a few more dishes in each suite. The king bed was comfortable, 2 pillows each. Nighttime was quiet, so pretty good quality of sleep. No restaurant on site, so that morning latte is a short walk away.

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