Great Barrier Reef-1st Time-Where to Go

[ReedFamily]

As a family of 4, we are looking to go to Australia in July. We are open for places and times and have no set days staying in a certain place.

We want to go to the best diving (we like corals more than anything) in the Great Barrier Reef and their seems to be so many possibilities and we are lost on where to go (Cairns, Port Douglas, any islands)? Any suggestions?

On the great barrier reef is it better to do a live aboard dive cruise or staying at a hotel and going out every day? We have never stayed on a live aboard dive cruise. How is it like? Do you have any companies you recommend?

Also as our first time to Australia is there any must do's any other places we need to go? There seems like there is so much to do but not enough time.

Thank you so much

 

[thanksforallthefish]

G'day and welcome

Hmm ... Probably the best diving on the GBR is the outer reefs ... only I think reachable by liveaboards. I am sure some others with more knowledge will be able to fill you in better on this.

Another great place for diving is Ningaloo reef ... that however is on the opposite side of the country.


As far as must do's ... well it depends on what sort of things you like.

Australia is a LARGE place ... we have lots of areas with not many people and a few areas of lots of people ...

 

[bygolly]

Cairns is pretty much the heart of the dive industry for the GBR. Dive shops and charters abound and are not much trouble to track down. My wife and I just returned from 3 weeks in Oz in November and part of our trip was a 5 day liveaboard on the MV Taka. Despite what some others have said we enjoyed our trip with this vessel because our expectations were lower. This is a budget trip and it doesn't have a lot of frills. But it has the same diving as the other operators. You get your meals buffet style and you help out a little by clearing your own dishes and serving yourself drinks from the self serve pay bar. Diving is carefully timed and checkins are strict. Other boats like Spoilsport with Mike Ball are the 5 star experience and you will be pampered the whole time with full service at meals (so I am told anyway). The diving is not so strictly supervised and you may dive at your leisure, within limits of course.
If you are unsure about your resistance to motion sickness try some daytrips first. Then when your confidence is up try a longer trip. They come in many flavours in Cairns and you can get them from 2 and 3 day right up to 7 and possibly longer. Google is your friend here. Please PM me as well if you have some specific questions.
My wife and I had a wonderful time in Oz and we got around easily with little advance planning. Don't concentrate on the GBR too much. There is great diving right in Sydney as "thanksforallthefish" and "bowlofpetunias" can attest to. We also dove the colder waters around Tasmania and saw wonderful sights there too.
I hope you have fun on your trip.
Cheers,

 

[altaskier]

If you're going to visit several places around Oz, but want to do some diving on the GBR, then take a look at the 3-4 day trips on Mike Ball (leave Thursday night, return Monday midday), or Spirit of Freedom (leave Thursday morning, return Monday morning), or Taka (leave Tuesday afternoon, return Friday afternoon). You get to much better dive sites on the liveaboards, and you get many more dives in. The 3-4 day trips might be a way to compromise on spending time at other places in Australia, and persuading those who might be unsure of a liveaboard that it's not a full week on the boat. I did Mike Ball in a budget cabin and had a blast. Didn't bother me that the cabin was small because I spent almost no time there; it was all either underwater, or on the deck, or in the lounge.

The day boat trips are OK, and Cairns has lots of fun restaurants... But go on a short liveaboard!

 

[altaskier]

P.S. go see an Australian Rules football game. I went with a local colleague who explained the rules to me, and who forced me to eat a meat pie.

 

[Andrew Jones]

Hello Reed Family,

Firstly welcome to scubaboard, it's a great site with great people.

Firstly after reading your post I had a quick look at your profile which at this early stage doesnt give me alot of information so to help give you good advice a couple of questions need to be asked first.

You say a family of 4.... it this 2 Adults and 2 children or all adults?

How many divers, snorkellers are in the group. All divers would be a completely different recommendation to a young family with 1 diver and snorkellrs for example.

How many days do you plan on staying in Cairns.

Thats enough to get the ball rolling I think.

Cheers Andy

P.S Who am I you may ask. A Broker for every operator that visits the GBR

 

[thanksforallthefish]

Andrew is well known and respected here ...

I must say the first thing I did was look at your profile too, which is quite bare.

It is very difficult to give any sort of useful recommendations without knowing something about you such as the questions Andrew asked as well as what sort of diving experience you have and certification levels.

 

[ReedFamily]

Didn't even know we had a profile but I found it and added all the information I could think of that is important. Thank you for the help.

 

[Andrew Jones]

Thanks for setting up the profile RF, thats a big help. Now I'll send you a Private Message so you can learn about other facilites on this web site. When you log in it will show you have a private message and you can click on it.

Cheers Andy

 

[gtmurff]

My fiancee and I went to Australia last September and went diving at the Great Barrier Reef. We went with Silver Series. They have day trips that leave from both Cairns and Port Douglas. We dove two days, one day from Cairns and the next out of Port Douglas. They even had a bus pick us up from our hotel in Cairns to take us to Port Douglas.

Each day we had 3 dives and were led around by a guide.

As beginner divers it was perfect, but it sets high expectations for all my other dives.

The reef is beautiful and I'm sure you'll enjoy it no matter which route you choose.

Enjoy!