Planning a trip to the GBR area and feel that splitting a week at Lizaed Island and Hayman Island would be ideal. We are avid snorkelers and wish to know if we can travel as a day tripper to Heron Island from Hayman?<BR>Thanks, Marilyn

No you can't go from Hayman to Heron as Heron is about 400 klms to the south of Hayman. However there are about 79 islands in the Whitsundays ( where Hayman is) and you can get to quite a lot of them from Hayman, enough anyway to keep you day triping for quite some time.

Marilyn - my husband and I also love to snorkel. We have made four trips to the GBR. The last two trips we did were on the Kangaroo Explorer which is a 100' catamaran which travels from Cairns to Thursday Island stopping for snorkeling along the way at about 6 out of the way places including Lizard Island. If this interests you at all you can look the trip up at www.kangaroocruises.com. Otherwise, if I had to choose between Heron Island and Lizard Island it would be the latter - just prefer less people around and the ability to just jump in the water to snorkel without making a boat trip. Hayman is not known for snorkeling. There is a wonderful, very thorough article on all the islands of the reef in a Conde Nast Traveler magazine from July, 1998. I am sure you could find it at a library. You will love being there wherever you go!!

Louise,<BR>Thanks for the info. checked My Conde Nast and they only go back to 1999-will make a trip to the library. How big were the accomodations on the boat? On the average how much time did you spend in the water daily? <BR>Thanks, Marilyn

There is also a wonderful boat trip from Cairns to Townsville for 3 nights and this too goes out to Reef Islands so that you can snorkle. Smallish boat so that you are not in great crowds. I think you can fish as well. <BR>

Marilyn - the accomodations on the boat are definitely not large but we never really cared as we were never in our room except to sleep - enjoyed the other people too much. The ship only travels at night so most days were full of water activities.

Louise,<BR>I'm unable to locate the website kangaroocruises.com on netscape. do they have an email address?<BR>Thanks for all the info.<BR>Marilyn

Sorry, Marilyn - I should have told you www.kangaroocruises.com.au. However, when doing a search they are appearing on the search engine but not coming up. Perhaps they are having web problems. I will check for an e-mail.

Marilyn - I have a brochure from 2000 and the e-mail is [email protected]. When you do come up with the website, the prices are in Australian money. The last trip we took in 2000, the price was discounted a little for booking directly through them.

Marilyn - I finally tracked down what happened with the Kangaroo Explorer cruise. They are no longer in business and it has since been bought but evidently is not operational yet. It doesn't surprise me because the price seemed so reasonable (about $1,000 for a week). Good luck with your trip planning.

My wife and I are both avid snokelers and novice divers. While I don't have an answer to your question, I just wanted to let you know that if you haven't been to Lizard Island before, you're in for a real treat! The snorkeling on Lizard Island is fantastic - Lizard is the northernmost resort on the GBR and the visibility and plenitude of fish, coral and turtles is truly amazing. We saw green sea turtles right off Watson's beach. The snorkeling right in front of the resort is also excellent and the resort is VERY nice. Even if you have no experience scuba diving, you can take the day course at the resort and they will take you out to the famous Cod Hole, where you'll be swimming with 5ft long Potato Cod (big Groupers). It's an easy dive (really) and if you do the full day trip, they also take you to No Name Reef which is spectacular. The dive instructors really take care of you so you never feel like you're in any sort of danger. I highly recommend trying scuba diving at Lizard Island as it is an experience of a lifetime and again, even if you've never scuba dived before, you can do the Cod Hole trip no problem. I'm friends with an Aussie who's an experienced diver and he says that Lizard Island is some of the best snorkeling and diving there is on the GBR. Feel free to email me with any questions even though I am SO jealous of you. We went to Australia in November and had a GREAT time.<BR><BR>Satoru

Louise,<BR>Question about your preference for Lizard Island vs. Heron Island: I thought you could snorkel right off Heron island, therefore, able "to jump into the water without making a boat trip." Also, you seem very impressed with Lizard Island and I'm wondering how the weather will be that far north in March which is considered wet season.

Steve - about the weather, I gave this site a while back www.oztravel.com.au. Select on the left regional information and then the area you are interested in and then "weather". I think Lizard Island will be comparable to Cairns although I wouldn't swear to it. We didn't stay on Lizard Island at the resort but spent the day on the beach in a bay while our boat anchored off shore. If you are staying at the resort I understand you can snorkel right in front of the resort which is around a point from where we were and people we talked to said it was wonderful. As for Heron Island - we tried snorkeling from a beach a short walk from the resort and also in front of the resort but found it was not as good as if you took their boat out to the reef which is a very short distance away but still ties you to the boat. I have been repremanded before for saying this but I found it very disturbing that when the tide is out in front of the resort they do "reef walks" which means that people are walking all over the coral which to me appeared to be suffering greatly. The healthiest reef was just beyond that where the boat went. We have done a lot of snorkeling all over and have our favorite places. A lot of people love Heron Island - did you try a text search above?