Great Barrier Reef - LIVE ABOARD BOAT RENTAL COMPANIES
 

Hi
My plans as I have stated before in another post are :
Sydney 5 days
Great Barrier Reef 5 days. ( Beach Season)
I have 3 questions ?
1. What are the names of some good Live Aboard Boats while at the Reef
2. Port Douglas or Cairns for my stay at Great Barrier Reef?
3. Best month for beach weather for the 2 above places without alot of rain + lower humidity Dec Jan or Feb or March?

Thanks in Advance

Hi, Kappy, although we are snorkelers, we had a fabulous time with the divers on Spirit of Freedom in Oct. 2007. We went on the 3 day ribbon reef/Cod hole trip. The rooms were comfy, food was great, lots of helpful and friendly staff. It was our first (and only) liveaboard so we don't have anything to compare it with. A Fodorite Steve recommended the boat as a diver who had done the trip something like 5 years in a row. The last post I remember he said it wasn't as fine as previous trips. Try the search engine to see if you can find any info. My DH and I were talking about that trip just tonight as a matter of fact and thinking how it was the highlight of a 5 week trip of highlights. The SoF goes out of Cairns, so if you go with them, it is handy to stay in Cairns the night before at least. We stayed at Lilybank B&B which is great and also at Le Cher du Monde in Port Douglas, both places have a lot to recommend them for different reasons. We liked both. Happy planning!
Sally in Seattle

We used http://www.diversionoz.com/ to book a 3 day liveaboard with Pro Dive for a 3 day liveabord out of Cairns. Diversion were great and very efficient(they are sort of agents for a number of outfits). The Pro Dive boat was comfortable enough but the crew nd dive masters seemed more intent on scoring with the female passengers than looking after the needs of the divers. We have been on liveaboards all around the world and this was by far the least impressive. If you are experienced divers then check the proportion of students to qualified divers. We were the only experienced divers amongst a group of about 15-20

I would stay in Cairns as opposed to Port Douglas. We stayed at http://www.lilybank.com.au/ a great little B&B just on the outskirts of Cairns and loved it. Pat Woolford the owner is a regular poster here.

Hi
Thanks for the great replies . I love the B&B. Cairns is the place to stay and the SOF sounds great but the two of us only snorkel. I did check Steve's replies and the website of the boat too. TWO QUESTIONS:
1. Do you know any live a boards that you can also snorkel?
I dove once but would rather stick to snorkeling.

2. Also besides October do you reccomend any other months of the year to visit Cairns and Sydney for nice beach weather?

Thanks in Advance.

Kappy, I am pretty sure that most liveaboards will take snorkellers at a reduced price as long as they have the space and could not sell the places to divers at a higher price. Otherwise you would just pay the higher price (which IMO is a bit of a waste of money.

Another alterantive to consider could be Mission Beach it is the closest point to the GBR and we did a couple of day trips from there. We were 2 of oly three divers on the boat the other 20 or so were all snorkellers.

The GBR does lend itself to snorkelling as for the most part the dive sites are relatively shallow.

We were in Oz in April and May and had great weather (not sure about the beach in Sydney at this time though.

Kappy, perhaps you didn't notice, but my DH and I are only snorkelers and had snorkeled our brains out on the Spirit of Freedom. At first the staff watched us and sent one of them out with us to see our skill level. We also had to go out in the last zodiac if they were doing a drift dive. As soon as they knew that they didn't have to babysit us, we were allowed to go when we were ready. All the divers were very nice to us. All except one of the dive sites were wonderful for snorkelers (the one was a very small pinnacle that was too small and too deep--a waste of time) and of course we didn't do the night dive. I was disappointed that we didn't get to snorkel at Lizard Island on the last day before taking the flight back to Cairns. We had done a one-day snorkel there in 2004 with Daintree Air which was magical. That is an option for you if you don't have the time for a liveaboard (www.daintreeair.com Greg is the pilot and the experience is fantastic.) Happy planning!
Sally in Seattle

Hi

Thank you everyone.
I did not know that the boat took snorkelers too if there were spaces. That is great to know.

You should definitely check this, but I don't think there is a question of "if there are spaces" for the 3 day Ribbon Reef and Cod Hole trip--if you sign up, you get to go and aren't bumped by divers. We made our reservations quite early (about 10 months) since we already had our FF mile seats which you have to get almost a year in advance, so we booked the SoF next and then planned the rest of the trip around when we could get spots on the boat. Be sure to take a camera with an underwater case or a good underwater camera. Happy planning!
Sally in Seattle

Hi
Thanks

Hi all,

We're also thinking of taking a live aboard boat to snorkel in the GBR. I checked the prices of a few boats, and they seem rather expensive, something like $400+ USD/pp/per night. Does anyone know of a boat that is less expensive, esp good for snorkelers, where the reefs are not too far down?

What advantages you have with the live aboard vs day trip out to the reef? I went there like more than 10 years ago, and do 2 separate day trips out to the reef. But would like to try a live aboard boat this time.

Thanks for any advice and pointers!