AprilA

Hello, I am in the early planning stages for a 2 week trip in June/July 07 to Australia. We are debating on staying in Cairns or Port Douglas for 3 nights or staying on Heron Island or maybe even a 3 night cruise. My teen daughter would snorkel 24/7 if she could and my husband loves the beach life. I like to snorkel for a while but I love the city/sightseeing. I plan for this to be our last stop of the vacation so a little R&R for me while they lay in the sun and snorkel would probably be nice.

I would greatly appreciate any input on the pros and cons of each.

Thanks,
April

lizF

If it was me I would be looking at doing a cruise from Cairns to Townsville which goes to many of the lovely cays and islands.

vineetha

hi
we did australia two years ago in aug. i would recommend gold coast (more than brisbane)first. the surf is great fun and so also the night life. the city life has the right buzz. after this do a short stop over at cairns and drive right upto cape tribulation. the drive is most awesome. i would put it far better than the great ocean drive from melborne! stay at the daintree forests and also at cape trib. must do snorkelling and scuba from here instead of cairns. it is the best.and if you are to choose between cairns and port douglas, i would say cairns. shopping also is best here. so also gold coast.
enjoy australia. you will never get enough of it!
vineetha

oliverandharry

If you only have two weeks, skip Heron. It takes part of a day to get out there and get back unless you go by helicopter, which is a fortune. July is winter, and the water will be COLD, so no snorkeling w/out the wetsuit. We loved it, but there is nearly nothing to amuse a teen, AND no TV, phones, or internet!

pat_woolford

wise advice from oliverandharry, it will be cold on Heron in winter and you'd be better off snorkelling far further north. Palm Cove, a northern suburb of Cairns, could be the shot for you, there's several reef trips which leave from Palm Cove jetty and transfer services to Cairns city for others. Cairns is not a large city, but it does have an art gallery, museum, a couple of live theatres, cinemas, marvellous botanical gardens with good shopping and restaurant choices, but no city beach. There's a public bus service between Cairns and Palm Cove.

aussiedoc

Well, I can't diagree more respectfully than with Pat and Oliver/Harry. We just returned from a four week trip to Oz which included Heron Island and Palm Cove (among other wondeful palces in Australia). We spent five days on Heron in early July. The water temperature was about 70 degrees fahrenheit. We did wear wetsuits but it was not cold by any means. The beauty of Heron for us was it's pristine reefs, ability to walk off the beach and snorkel right away for several hours (depending upon the tides) as opposed to our experience further north on the coast (Palm cove was our base) where we took a day trip out to the reef which basically involved 2 1/2 hour boat trips out of Cairns and which resulted in only 3 hours on the reef. And Michaelmas Cay was very crowded, the coral was clearly affected by all the people and we saw many fewer fish which I attribute to the the hundreds of people there at any given time. Yes, Heron is not fancy and there is no TV, nightlife which we loved. And we were traveling with three children. We basically ate, sunned (it was not cold at all - we had sunny days in the mid 70s), snorkeled, fished on two occasions and marveled at the beauty of the reef. The beach is deserted and it feels sometimes like you are the only people on the island (except in the dining room at meals). Palm cove is great becasue of its proximity to Daintree/Cape Trib, Kuranda etc., but after visitng Heron it seems awfully far from the reef (and those day trips out to the reef are very pricey). Just my opinion.

lozkate

Thanks for the positive things re Heron Island aussiedoc. I was getting worried reading some of the responses as we have booked 4 nights on Heron in December and have planned the trip in detail since last August, unfortunatly before I found this fantastic site. I was going to say Heron Island is the highlight of our planned trip then again I am really looking forward to the time in Melbourne afterwards then Sydney for New Year. 130 days to go!

aussiedoc

No worries lozkate. For my family, Heron Island DID turn out to be the highlight of our month-long trip to Oz. Only caveat about Heron may be the time of year you are visiting. I was told that in the Aussie summer, the bird population on the island swells and that the noise/mess is quite dramatic. I was a little concerned about this but it turns out that the winter months are quite different in that respect. I'm sure you'll have a great time regardless. It really is a special place. By the way, it really looks just like the pictures on the website! Try to take the helicopter to/from Gladstone if you can swing it. My kids loved it!

lozkate

aussiedoc.
Thanks for your reply we are expecting a large bird population so dont think that this will be too much of a problem for us (part of the experience of the island). Did you book the helicopter flight or did you just go standby? Price is a bit of an issue but not if it is the making of the holiday. We are travelling with our 2 boys (11 and 8) is there anything that we should buy before we leave eg beach shoes or anything that you would have done differently?

Thanks
Kate
Sorry to hi jack your thread AprilA.

lizF

From an ex-Queenslander who spent many years up and down the coastal areas of that state I would absolutely, positively and catagorically say that July on Heron Island would be the greatest tragedy of anyone's holiday. It is very cold then, it is the time of the westerly winds then and taking a helicopter from Gladstone ( Australia's most forgetable town) is very expensive and even getting to Gladstone is expensive as its off the tourist routes.
If you only had Heron to choose from and not say Hinchinbrook Island and all the other wonderful islands which abound in the GBR then I would say "perhaps go to Heron" but only perhaps. As you do not have any constraints then I am afraid that you will come away very disappointed. If you choose to go there on advise from people who have perhaps only been to a couple of islands in a 2,500 length of reef then please do not write a report saying how underwhelmed you were about the GBR.

RalphR

I wholeheartedly agree with aussiedoc regarding Heron Island in July. I've been there five times now, each time in either June, July or August. To say it is very cold in July is a gross exaggeration to say the least. Yes, renting a wet suit top is advisable for extended periods in the water. And, like anywhere, the weather may not always be perfect. But a typical July day on Heron would be very lovely indeed, certainly warm enough for comfortable sunbathing and for snorkeling on the magnificent reef that surrounds the island.

stamiya

LizF - What are the other islands you found to your liking? We are looking at October 2007, and we want to spend most of our time in Australia on or around GBR, since I would rather snorkel than drink (well, that may be a bit of an exageration...), and my husband and I both love to fish. Would love any advice you or others familiar with this area can give. Thanks,
Sharon

lizF

Hi staminya, I would be going to Hinchinbrook Island where you can have as much beach as you like although for snorkling they do have to take you further out to the reefs from there. However it is a magnificent island with a diversity of flora and fauna. It was awarded the Eco tourism award and only allows a few people on the island at any one time. As you will be in the area in October you have a much wider choice of islands. When Ralph says that we are mad saying that it is too cold at Heron Island in July I must point out that that is the coldest winter month and the water is at its coolest then and Heron is at the very southern part of the reef - it is probably OK for Ralph anywhere up to Antarctica as he comes from Conn, USA and " cold " is what you are used to. I prefer warm water and warm water marine life.
If you wanted to be able to walk out to the snorkling places then I would suggest one of the other islands i.e Dunk, Lizard, Bedarra, Brampton, Long island if you have teens, any others in the Whitsunday Group and really any others near Cairns / Port Douglas. Pat Woolford could probably tell you more about the islands than I could as I have only been a visitor to them and she lives in the area ( although I lived a lot of my life near Heron Island, Lady Musgrave and etc) but again these are southern GBR Islands and you do not have the range of other things around that area and also they are away from the main tourist areas and therefore more costly to get to.
Hope this helps anyway and do a google search on Hinchinbrook and see if that is YOU.
Cheers

RalphR

Well Liz, all I can say is that I am by far not the only only one who feels the way I do about Heron Island as a winter destination. Look at what aussiedoc wrote, for example. It's good to know that, despite the sort of negative disinformation spread by you on this forum, it remains a very popular destination for diving and snorkeling year round.

pat_woolford

OK, Heron Island July average max temp is 21C or 70F. A typical winter temperature. If you look at minimum out of Gladstone, tonight its 11C, probably less on Heron as its a long way off coast and cops more wind. Sorry, that to me is not balmy tropical weather, and winter sunlight hours are short. Its a great place in summer, even with the associated bird "problems", which are a little more than just bird poo and associated squawking, but I won't go into that.

aussiedoc, I don't know of any reef trip which only allows 3 hours on Michaelmas Cay, unless there was some sort of disruption. Have taken my own boat out there many times, as well as several trips on Ocean Spirit and have never seen hundreds on that cay. July was a very windy month, which is typical, possibly not the best month for a sand cay where wind and tides can disturb visibility no end.

travellin

We were on Heron in February which is summer, I realize - and 70F water does sound a bit too chilly! We absolutely loved Heron. We took the helicopter out of Gladstone which put us in a 'Fantasy Island' state of mind right from the start. (Took the cat back) I'm sure the other more northerly islands are wonderful too. Hopefully we'll experience them too, one of these Cdn winters!

Tassietwister

Gladsone is a shocker! Is there another way to get there?

travellin

We took the 'fast train' (which didn't seem all that fast with the screaming mother and toddler in the next seat) and spent the night in a daggy fifties motel. Dinner was at the RSL. But even with the Gladstone experience coming and going Heron Island is still one of our all-time highlights!

stamiya

thanks, Liz, for the information re: other islands. At your suggestion, I will ask Pat Woolford for suggestions as well. We are planning for 10/07, so we're just at the beginning of our wish-list making. We are very interested in warm water for both snorkeling and fishing, and I love the idea of being able to snorkel off the beach rather than always having to take a boat ride. Thanks in advance for any help. Regards, Sharon

lizF

You are welcome Stamiya, I hope that Pat notices your requests but I will give her a heads up if she doesn't.
Ralph: for your information I try and tell things as it is - without the glossing over that many magazines do and that many people with rose tinted glasses do - if that upsets you for some reason then, stiff - I would much rather see people who are spending their hard earned money getting full value from the $ or pound than to say something that is only a half truth or gives me some vacarious pleasure one way or another. I will be negative about places if I think that they are less than acceptable for some reason, be that weather, accommodation or situation. If I thought for one moment that waters at 19 deg were wonderful then I would have to agree with you about Heron but I am damned if I am going to tell people that that is the best we have when it IS NOT.