There are beach days, and then there are beach days where someone else has already sorted the shade, the fridge and somewhere comfortable to sit.
That’s the idea behind Tangalooma Dunes Cabana Club, the new beachfront spot that officially opened on Moreton Island on September 4. It’s been billed as Australia’s first year-round beachfront cabana club, with 20 private cabanas lined up beside Tangalooma Beach.
The whole thing is very much about taking it easy. Each cabana has room for up to eight people, with built-in seating, a fridge, lockable storage, charging points and adjustable shutters to let the breeze through. There are ceiling fans too, because Queensland has never met a good idea it couldn’t make slightly hotter.
The cabanas sit between the resort pools and the beach, set back on the lawn rather than taking over the sand itself. That was a deliberate move, with the resort saying the design was planned to keep the beach and dunes feeling like the main event.
There’s also an on-site kiosk where guests can pre-order food and drinks, plus ambient music drifting through the precinct. In other words, you can arrive, settle in and make a whole day of doing very little.
And getting there from Brisbane is refreshingly easy. Tangalooma is about a 75-minute boat trip from the city, which makes a Moreton Island day trip feel far more realistic than the sort of beach escape that requires a 5am alarm.
The cabana club is currently open to Carnival Cruise guests on visiting ship days, as well as private events and conferences. Individual day bookings are due to open in late spring, with full-day hire starting from $240 for 9am to 5pm.
So, for anyone whose ideal island adventure involves less sandboarding and more sitting somewhere nice with the sea in front of you, Tangalooma may have just made the perfect day trip.
