Sydney/GBR/Cairns
 

I'm planning a trip in February. We'd like to stay in Sydney, but realize now the distance to GBR, which is one of our hot points to do. Are there any boat trips to the Great Barrier Reef from Sydney? IF so, do you know how long it takes? Do you suggest staying in Cairns when diving at GBR? Don't know the area at all, forgot how large the continent was. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

You can fly into Brisbane from the US, that's the closest to Cairns, then take a connecting flight. Or Sydney - a great city, check it out for a few days, then hop a flight. The boat thing is not realistic.

While up there, many people prefer to stay in Port Douglas rather than Cairns. But realize that you can access the GBR from places other than Cairns - look at this website: www.greatbarrierreef.org

Sydney to Cairns is about 1,600 miles (give or take). A fast U.S. Navy destroyer can do about 30 - 35 miles an hour .... so would require about 2 days to get from Sydney to Cairns. Flying from Sydney to Cairns takes about 3 hours. As michelhubeli has said, the boat thing is not realistic.

You don't indicate how long you're planing on coming for. You need to identify where you want to go, what you want to do in each place and how much time you have available to do it. Where you go depends on what your interests are but the most obvious places to go are Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns (for the GBR). Other places would be Uluru, Brisbane (along with the Gold Coast to the south and the Sunshine Coast to the north), Adelaide (and Kangaroo Island), Perth (and other parts of Western Australia), Canberra and places in the Northern Territory such as Katherine and Kakadu.

Depending on the time available, most visitors would only try to cover 2 - 3 or at most 4 places. Sydney has the glitz and the glamour (the Opera House, the harbor, the Bridge, Bondi Beach etc.) but Melbourne has everything else - it's the sporting / shopping / dining / cultural capital of Australia (ok, I'm biased....). Uluru will be very hot in February and is not particularly cheap, either to get to or to stay. Brisbane and Adelaide are both "nice cities" but most (first-time) visitors would probably not make them a priority (unless, in the case of Adelaide, they were going to Kangaroo Island). Perth, Canberra and the Northern Territory are well worth your time but most visitors probably only get there on a later visit, after they've done the more obvious places. If you're interested, primary wine areas are the Hunter Valley (Sydney), the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula (Melbourne), the Barossa, McLaren Vale, the Clare Valley and the Adelaide Hills (Adelaide) and Margaret River (Western Australia). Major out-of-town "day (or 2) trips" would be the Blue Mountains (Sydney) and the Great Ocean Road (Melbourne).

As for the GBR, don't stay in Cairns (unless partying backpackers, pubs, clubs and McDonalds are your thing). Stay in Palm Cove (about 25 minutes north of Cairns) or in Port Douglas (about an hour north). You can do trips to the reef from either of these locations - although most reef trips go from Cairns, the package will include bus pickup/drop off wherever you are staying. As michelhuebeli indicates, you can access the reef from places other than Cairns (and its environs, including Palm Cove and Port Douglas) but flying into Cairns is probably the jumping-off point for the majority of visitors to the reef.

Hello Sunshine,

You haven't mentioned the duration of your stay in Australia. That way, it will be easy for us to advice you the right mode of transport.

Anyway, it makes more sense to fly between cities. Australia is a massive country!

If you read past posts about Cairns, you'll see that most people have advised to stay at Palm Coves or Port Douglas instead. If you're looking forward to experience the serene Australia, then these are the places to be.

We just did this trip this past September. We flew into Sydney and took Virgin Australia to Cairns where we spent one night as we flew from the states. The next day we picked up our rental car at the airport and drove to Port Douglas with a lunch in Palm Cove. We spent 6 nights in Port Douglas and absolutely loved it as it has fun restaurants,shopping,GBR trips,4 mile beach and daytrips to Mossman Gorge and Daintree Rain Forest.We then drove back to Cairns airport to fly down to Melbourne.

Be sure to chose Wavelength for your snorkeling trip as they only take out 30 people and are very eco conscious about the reef. You get three snorkels in different areas along with lunch and a tea break. There were two marine scientists on board who were very informative. The main company in Cairns and Port Douglas is called Quicksilver and uses cruise type ships that hold over 300 people (think tour bus types) out to the reef. They have a floating station that you can walk around and use the restaurant if you don't want to get in the water-just way too many people to enjoy your reef visit in my opinion.