Australia is absolutely great! Super diving, friendly people, and a variety of fun things to see and do when not diving. A new definition of Paradise. I did 4 live-aboard trips in 2001, the Great Barrier Reef, Burma, Papua New Guinea Kavieng and The Coral Sea.
Undoubtedly, Mike Ball's Coral Sea trip was FAR superior to any other live aboard trip I've done to date.
They depart out of Townsville and dive the wreck of the Yongala (super!) and then go out, past the Great Barrier Reef to the Coral Sea's Flinder's reefs. Visibility in the GBR can be restricted in comparison the the Coral Sea, but truthfully both are nice.
I was in Australia for 2 months May-June and found that the key to saving money was planning on going at low season.
Airlines have high prices during the USA winter season (which is Australia's summer) and also during USA summer months.
By going between these high season's in May my airfare on United was $799 R/T San Fran to Sydney and another $350 R/T SYD to Cairns. I booked it on the UAL website - as airlines no longer give travel agents the discounts that they once had.
The Cairns area has a monsoon season from Jan-Mar and in July the high priced season starts as tourists arrive. On a friend's suggestion (who had done it before) I made no advanced arrangments and arrived in May to take advantage of "Standby" diving prices. These are just what they sound like, unfilled seats on trips that are offer at a discounted price to attract last minute buyers. At this time of year nearly all the boats had these discount spots available. In addition other activities like white water rafting, bungee jumping, and parachuting had similar discounts.
BUT JUST HOW MUCH CAN YOU SAVE?
PRICE GOUGING JAPANESE AND AMERICANS
An unfortunate fact is that most pre-booked trips out of Cairns seem to gouge Japanese and Americans. Mike Ball's pricing is no different and in discussing it with other divers it became evident that pricing depends on where you come from;
Japanese are charged the highest prices and Americans are just slightly under that with native Aussies being the lowest. If you look at the Mike Ball website YOU WILL NOT FIND PRICES LISTED, rather you will have to email them and request pricing. I did this prior to my trip and received a quote of
$2400.00 US Dollars. I didn't book it, but was amazed at how much I saved by waiting until I arrived there.
WANT PROOF?
Below is a scan of the standard brochure, but because I waited and booked through a local Cairns office this brochure has the local "STANDBY" prices in the black box on the top. You will not find this brochure anywhere else, except in Cairns at the numerous travel agents and also at Mike Ball's offices.
(
NOTE that the price of $1696
is in Aussie dollars and roughly equivalent to $900.00 US.
Click here to see Mike Ball's brochure
I somehow left out the most important part ...location. Duh. Training will be in Cairns, in Queensland. That is where we'll be staying. We will also be in Sydney, doing a bit of sightseeing.
