Noosa Fairy Pools | What You Need to Know

By Ellen – (Updated Jan 23)

⏱ 3 min

The Noosa Fairy Pools are two small rock pools on the edge of Noosa National Park. I’m sure that once-upon-a-time they were a local secret, but now they are officially marked on Google Maps and all over Instagram. We enjoy exploring rock pools and the marine life in them, so we decided to go find the Fairy Pools while we spent a few days in Noosa. In this post, we’ll share how to find them and some tips for visiting them.

How to Find the Noosa Fairy Pools

The Noosa Fairy Pools are accessed by hiking through the Noosa National Park. If you have a car, you can drive up Park Road to the Noosa National Park Carpark. Else, you can start the hike from the base of Park Road where it meets Hastings Street.

There are several hikes to choose from in the Noosa National Park, but to get to the Fairy Pools you’ll want to follow the Coastal Walk which leads towards Hell’s Gate. From the car park, follow the trail, passing by Tea Tree Bay, Dolphin Point, and Granite Bay Beach. At the far (East) end of Granite Bay Beach, you go around a bend.

Shortly after, you’ll see a bench on the left side, looking out to the ocean. Go past the bench and immediately after, on the left, you’ll see a small trail that goes off of the main trail. This is the trail that leads down to the Fairy Pools. You’ll have to scramble down some rocks and there will be two pools. The one on the left is at a lower point, while the one at the right sits a bit higher up in the rocks.

How to Enjoy the Noosa Fairy Pools

We spent time at both pools, and enjoyed them both. The one on the left is shallower, and you’re able to stand. There is plenty of small fish swimming around. If you stand still, they’ll eventually come close to you and start nibbling off your dead skin! The pool to the right is deeper. With enough water in the pool, it’s deep enough to jump into from the rocks but be careful and make sure to check the depth first.

More Tips for the Noosa Fairy Pools

Here are a few more additional tips for visiting the pools:

• Tide: Check the tide times and go around low tide (within a couple of hours on either side of low tide),  otherwise the pools will be covered with water. If you want that calm and serene look of the pools, going close to low tide is a must.

• Time: Try to go early in the morning and on a weekday if you want to visit the pools with less people. We started the hike around 8:15 a.m. on a Wednesday and got to the pools before 9:00. Low tide was at 6:30 a.m. that day, and the pools were still visible and calm.  There was one family when we first arrived but they left. Then, there were 2 other couples who came and went, and a mom with her sons. As we left around 10:30 a.m., a large group of pre-teens was arriving. Also at this time, the tide had risen quite a bit and the water was coming into the pools faster.

• Footwear: Wear good trainers to do the hike in. The first half of the Coastal Walk is paved, but starting at Dolphin Point the path turns to gravel. You’ll also want good shoes to climb down the rocks to get to the pools.

• Bring water shoes to wear in the shallow pool. The bottom of this pool is rocky and is probably more comfortable with some footwear. (We wore ours).

If you’re planning on visiting the Noosa Fairy Pools, we hope this post was helpful!

Further Reading…

If you enjoy hikes that include a place to swim, you may be interested in the hikes below: