dido718

We will only be going to Sydney and not Cairns. How far is Sydney to the closest Reef? We would love to see GBR. I tried doing searches online and couldn't find any excursions or 1 day trips from Sydney to GBR. Please help!!!

Dori

Neil_Oz

Other regulars on this forum are in a better position than me to comment, but I'll throw in my 2c worth anyway.

As far as I know there are no day excursions from Sydney to the GBR, for the same reason that there are no day excursions from NYC to Key West, or from London to Morocco. (Well, I'm assuming there aren't, but it's a strange world.)

It's a long way, and just getting there would consume the better part of a day. Then you have to get out to an island, etc., etc.

If you have access to a map of Australia, for practical purposes you could take the southern tip of the GBR to be off Bundaberg, in central Queensland (I'm thinking of Lady Musgrave Island). Not worth doing unless you allow yourself two nights, and even then you'd only have one full day clear. In that event you might as well fly to Cairns, which although a further is a direct flight from Sydney (about 3 hours from memory).

RalphR

Neil's right...the GBR is something like 900 miles from Sydney at the closest point. Not a day trip or even an overnighter, I'm afraid. Fortunately there are lots of great places and things to see in the general Sydney area.

johhj_au

It is technically possible to do the "reef" from sydney in a day but probably rather foolish.

catch the first sydney-brisbane flight at 0600.
get the small plane that flies to lady elliot island from Brisbane.
spend a few hours or an overnight on the island.
fly back to brissy and then sydney.

seair is the name of the flight operator to the island.
http://www.ozhorizons.com.au/qld/gc/seair/sea.htm

pat_woolford

also remember that if you want to dive you must allow a minimum of 12hours after diving and before flying. Its just not enough time, and there's no allowance in there for bad reef weather. Even if you took the earliest flight from Sydney to Cairns (3 hours) with only cabin luggage only you wouldn't make it to wharf in time as reef day trips leave 7.30-9.30am

alice13

You couldn't find any day trips from Sydney to the GBR and you wonder why?

I honestly can't believe this is a real question. But it has been well answered. Frankly I don't know how they all avoided the obvious reply.

I can only assume, OP, that you don't know how to read a map - or maybe you haven't bothered to look.

If it's of interest, there are "reefs" off the Sydney coast but they would probably only be of interest to serious divers.

dido718

Thank you everyone for their wonderful replies as this is reason why I posted my "real" question. This forum is great for ppl who have are about to travel the world. I have done research and just had a simple question... There are some who answer nicer than others. Thank you alice for your comment of no help or any useful information (or just trying to make someone feel stupid?). From past forums I see that you are blunt and very straight forward which is I guess is your personality, so as always said in previous posts... "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it". But overall, I luv this forum and thank you for your quick responses.

xoxo
Doris