gomeg

My sister and I will be spending a day or two in Cairns and want to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef...any suggestions on day boats that will take us out? And what about local hotels?

thanks for your help!

SnRSeattle

It would be helpful if you told us when you were going to be in Australia and what city you were going to be staying in. There are a lot of boats for every level of activity, so a note about what you want to do when you get to the GBR would also help us give you ideas. Are you a snorkeler, non-swimmer, scuba master diver, etc?? What price range and what ambience do you want in a hotel? Did you know that there is a search engine for this site above, which has LOADS of great help. Just type in GBR or snorkeling and you will have loads of ideas! Welcome to the forum--it is addictive, as is going to Australia!
Sally in Seattle

gomeg

As mentioned, we will be staying in Cairns, and again, we are snorkelers. We are just looking for reputable day boats to take while on our vacation, we know there are many to chose from! We will be in the GBR end of February, if that helps...

pat_woolford

gomeg, they're all reputable, Queensland has strict safety regulations for snorkelling and diving. But its hard to answer your question without an idea of budget, you can take a cheapie with something like Compass or Falla, or spend more on Ocean Spirit to Michaelmas Cay. And there's others in the medium range. Do you want a pontoon, a semi-submersible, glass bottom boat? Small groups or large? Opportunity for an introductory dive or not?

BostonGal

gomeg, I'm headed to AUS today and we'll be near Cairns next week.

I booked us a day trip on the Quicksilver line. A few colleagues have used them and reported good things.

You can snorkel, dive, view from the glass bottom... it's an all day tour, from about 9-430ish.

Good luck and have fun!

stevew

Greetings gomeg

Quicksilver is a good outfit with a great reputation. However they take out large numbers of snorklers/divers. If you want something smaller with fewer folks on board we highly recommend Tusa in Cairns or Calypso out of Port Douglas. We have been out on both ourselves.

There is a wide variety of hotels, we always stay at the Hilton. Pat who posted in this thread runs a nice B&B just outside of town.

There are very strict controls/laws regarding snorkel dive operations as Pat mentioned. You can find most dive operations via a google search. If you are about to head down under I would try and make a booking now. If you wait until you are there, you might find limited availability. And if you are only there for a couple of days that might spoil your holiday

Cheers

Steve and Andrea

Fabio

Another vote for

www.quicksilver-cruises.com

They are based in Port Douglas but will pick you up at your Cairns hotel !

sesjazz01

My husband and I stayed at the Silky Oaks Lodge in the rainforest near Cairns. It was a bit pricey, but well worth it. It included all of our meals and a day trip on the Quicksilver. Be sure to rent the wetsuits when you go snorkeling so you won't have problems with the jellyfish. You can buy an underwater camera on the boat trip to the reef if you don't have one. We also took the submarine ride and I have some great pictures that I took from my digital camera. You will have plenty of time to snorkel, take pictures, and have lunch.

pat_woolford

Am just wondering if people who took a reef trip on Quicksilver to its pontoon, out of Port Douglas (Quicksilver owns other vessels) have also tried a smaller group reef experience?

I second Steve's recco for Calypso out of Port Douglas, and Tusa out of Cairns only takes about 28 people per boat. If you need a trip out of Cairns which includes a pontoon, semi-submersible and glass bottom boat you can't go past Reef Magic, superb site on Moore Reef. I speak to dive crew regularly, who've worked on pontoon sites in area out of both Port Douglas and Cairns, and they estimate Reef Magic's pontoon site is 5-6 times better than others. It's certainly the best I've seen in living in area for 14 years.

JohnFitz

I know this is late in coming but we used Synergy 11 out of Port Douglas last June and they were excellent.12 passengers max, lovely food , boat and good crew etc. We snorkelled at Tongue Reef as it was windy and this afforded the best protection .More expensive - around A$230 each but we all agreed worth it as did friends who I sent on it in August .We booked it from Palm Cove and drove ourselves but they will pick you up and return you for a fee.

BostonGal

Just returned VERY late last night from our trip.

We had originally booked Quicksilver for our GBR tour, but then switched it and was so happy we did.

We ended up going with the SilverSonic, which is still owned by Quicksilver, however a much better boat/tour.

The "regular" Q boat carries up to something like 450 passengers and heads to one spot. I guess this is good for the older folks or those that aren't comfy with getting in the water because there's the glass bottom boat.

The SilverSonic had max capacity of 85. During low season last week, it was still fully booked. We had breakfast, lunch and snacks on the boat, all wonderful meals. We went to 3 different spots where we were the only boats there and saw such a variety of environments and fish. I was thankful we opted for the smaller boat. I know there are smaller ones out there, but we had limited time to research the other companies. Very satisfied with the SilverSonic, would recommend it to anyone!

scubadiva

wavelength is the best for snorkel only
www.wavelength.com.au

wlzmatilida

Hi Gomeg,

as usual, in these types of questions, I defer, and agree with Pat Woolford!

Quicksilver is a mass produced, large operation, with alot of passengers, and if that's what you want you'll be happy with them.

if you prefer a smaller type operator, Pat's suggestions are spot on.

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist