Getting to Magnetic Island
Travel to, and on, Magnetic Island is very well organised and straightforward. We arrived at Townsville airport, having pre-booked a shuttle minibus from Townsville Shuttle Services to take us to the ferry terminal in Townsville. Their service was excellent and great value. Their driver was waiting to meet us off our flight at the baggage collection point. They wear bright green shirts so were easy to spot, and quickly had us on the minibus for the short drive. We already had the ferry booked through our travel agent, or you can book direct. Note that for walk on passengers bookings are not necessary, but car bookings definitely are.
Once on Magnetic Island we were luckily a very short walk to our hotel accommodation, for those further afield the bus service is excellent, with the timetable scheduled around the ferry times so there’s never much of a wait.
Note that the ferry company offer a ferry & 1 day unlimited bus pass package deal available.
Busses on Magnetic Island
The bus route is very simple as there is only 1 main road that links the 4 main stops of Picnic Bay in the south to Horseshoe bay in the North, via Nelly Bay (Ferry terminal) and Arcadia. The bus timetable is engineered around the Ferry times and the whole thing ran like clockwork whilst we were there.
Prices were very reasonable and for the two days we were there we simply purchased the daily pass at $7.20 to allow unlimited use of the bus. If you are using the bus to travel between Nelly Bay and Horseshoe bay then you really must stop at the ‘forts walk’ bus stop for a fantastic walk up to the old WW2 forts complex. It was the best walk I can remember and I have another post entirely on the forts walk
Car Hire on Magnetic Island
There are various car hire companies on the island, including bright pink ‘barbie cars’, mini-moke’s, regular cars, as well as 4×4 options. Note that some roads (notably the road to West Point, somewhere to watch the sun go down), and the road to Radical Bay, are 4×4 only. We did not hire whilst we were there so can not make any recommendations, but we did try and hire a 4×4 to take the drive to West Point but none were available (we did push our luck trying to book on the day) – if we are lucky enough to return one day this is definitely something I would book in advance for an afternoon / early evening.