Bowen is a great agricultural town with superb beaches great cheap campsites and it has a giant Mango. What more do you need?
and best of all you can snorkel the Great Barrier reef for free from the Beach at Horseshoe bay.
Just walk out 30m and start swimming when you pass the metal sculpture go left between the rocks or right and out another 20m and there are loads of fish and coral aplenty all across the bay.
They do not publicise Bowen as a tourist destination but to me it is much better than Airlie which is twice as expensive for a van site.
Hydeaway Bay is a pristine Beach with a small residential town and a caravan site, but no other facilities. Beautiful to visit for a few hours or days if you want peace and quiet, beach and fishing.
