With mangroves to the north, fringing coral reefs and a secluded campsite that ­accommodates just 12 people a night, Hook Island’s Crayfish Beach is a golden spot for camping.

Delicate ­corals, exposed in one of the lowest tides in years, ­provide vital habitat for marine life in the waters surrounding Planton Island.

Although Whitsunday Island is one of the region’s most popular spots, it has hidden ­treasures including Nari’s Beach, which has a limit of six campers per night.

Boats such as Scamper ferry visitors between islands.

The author takes a break on one of South Molle’s walking tracks to soak up the view of ­Planton Island and beyond it, Cid and Whitsunday islands.

Nari’s Beach is an island idyll.

French visitors (from left) Christophe Brenner, and siblings Vincent and Natalie Pertue at Crayfish Beach. “You can’t do this in France,” Natalie says.

The luminescent sands and kaleidoscopic blues of Hill Inlet, at the northern tip of Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, are an undeniable drawcard for day-trippers. Stay overnight, however, and there will be time to venture beyond the lapping waters to sites important to the Whitsundays’ traditional custodians, the Ngaro – a rock shelter with paintings and artefacts, and open middens.

Crayfish Beach.

Don a snorkel and goggles in Butterfly Bay, Hook Island, or dip your paddle into the gin-clear water of Hill Inlet, Whitsunday Island.

Kayaker Marcelle Balt returned to her Whitehaven Beach campsite, 7 km to the south of Hill, on dusk to revel in splendid ­isolation: she was the only camper at one of Australia’s most famous, picture-postcard beaches.