Elysian Retreat

Elysian Retreat opened in April 2019 on a three-hectare private cove at the southern tip of Long Island, in the Whitsundays, as an adults-only, all-inclusive retreat of ten oceanfront villas capped at twenty guests. Run by the Sojourn Retreats Group, it operates entirely off the grid on solar power and holds Australia's highest ecotourism certification. Rates start around AU$1,100 a night including meals and activities, with buy-outs of the whole cove available.

The place

The retreat occupies a three-hectare private cove at the southern tip of Long Island, ringed by rainforest and facing the Coral Sea and the wider Whitsunday group. Long Island sits close to the mainland coast south of Airlie Beach and is largely national park; the cove is reached by boat or helicopter and shares the island with no other operating resort at this end. There is no village, no road and nothing within walking distance beyond the property itself, which is the entire proposition.

The concept

Elysian opened in April 2019 under the Sojourn Retreats Group, relaunching a cove that had previously traded under a different name and a different operator as a deliberately tiny, adults-only, fully inclusive retreat. Ten free-standing oceanfront villas open directly onto views of the Coral Sea and the surrounding islands, each air-conditioned and fitted with flat-screen television, robes and natural toiletries — but the defining number is the cap rather than the count: a maximum of twenty adults on the property at any time. The environmental engineering is not decorative. The retreat runs entirely off the grid on solar power, with programmes to cut waste and reduce water, power and fuel consumption, and it holds the highest ecotourism certification awarded in Australia. That combination — off-grid operation, twenty guests, all meals and activities included — puts it in a different category from the archipelago's large island resorts, and it is also marketed for exclusive buy-outs, with whole-island-style privatisation of the cove starting from around AU$7,500 a night.

Dining & wellness

Dining is all-inclusive and oceanfront, prepared by the in-house team rather than served from an à la carte restaurant, with meals and activities covered by the nightly rate. No spa facility is documented for the property; the wellness proposition rests on the setting, the scale and the absence of anyone else.