Shelter original documentary series, Underwater Hotel takes viewers to Reefworld in the Great Barrier Reef

A new four-part documentary series is highlighting the best underwater stays in the world, with a special Whitsundays spot making the list.

Shelter Original Underwater Hotel takes viewers all over the world to experience unique stays. Picture: Contributed

The new Shelter Original four-part documentary Underwater Hotel dives below sea level to take a look at four of the world’s most unique hotels.

Filmmaker and presenter Phillip Vannini takes viewers on a journey through Queensland, the Florida Keys, the Zanzibar Archipelago in Tanzania, and the Maldives exploring four of just nine underwater hotels in the world.

Episode one focuses on the Reefworld pontoon, the only underwater hotel in Australia, located 39 nautical miles off the Whitsunday coast.

Floating above the Great Barrier Reef Mr Vannini takes viewers into and around the pontoon and meets with General Manager of Cruise Whitsundays, Renee Branton-Bown and the Pontoon’s manager Tyson Seamer to reveal how the pontoon operates in harmony with the vibrant marine life of the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr Vannini said visiting Reefworld was a must for the documentary because of its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef and because it was the farthest underwater hotel from land by far.

Reefworld is featured in the first episode of Reefworld. Picture: Contributed

“You feel like you are living in the reef, you’re living in the sea and we wanted to document what that experience is like,” he said, adding that having a small crew making the series was vital to creating an intimate experience for viewers.

“Things are not staged and you’re feeling like you’re right there too and hopefully as you watch it, you’ll get the sense that this is what happened, and this is the way we saw it.”

The idea for the series came to Mr Viannini when he was daydreaming about visiting underwater hotels.

He found a way to fulfil that dream with writer and producer April Vannini.

“Didn’t know they existed, didn’t think it was real, turns out they were real,” he said.

Phillip Vannini takes viewers underwater in this intimate docuseries. Picture: Contributed

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“And a grant proposal later and a lot of travel planning, it happened.

“We were able, the two of us, to have a modest amount of funding to afford to go to hotels that otherwise we could not have afforded to go to, to be the very first social scientists to ever do research on the topic and save for a few YouTubers, the very first documentary filmmakers to do a project like this on the topic that is not the most common.”

Underwater hotels are often advertised as luxurious, once in a lifetime escape from reality, but when he arrived Mr Viannini discovered something deeper.

“Once we actually started travelling there, we met the designers and the managers who told us a very different story and showed us how they were invested from the very beginning in making these experiences, not getaways, but opportunities for people to learn about the coral, the marine environment, the lives of fish, the fragile state of the sea.”

Episodes one focusing on Reefworld and episode two focusing on Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Florida are available to stream now on Shelter.