First trip to Cairns

[outofofficebrb]

Hi,

I used AirBnB when I was in Cairns because I couldn't find a place that either wasn't super expensive or moderately priced that wasn't a bit dumpy by my standards.

Diving on SOF...I was on nitrox. They paired me with someone who happened to also be diving nitrox with similar experience. It was a good fit! There is always a divemaster in the water - you are welcome to follow them and once in a while they will point stuff out to you if it's convenient and interesting. After getting in the groove of things, a few buddy pairs decided to go as a group. It works out really well.

On the morning of departure, I had them drop me back off at the office in town and they stored my luggage for me while I explored around town and observed my 24 hour no fly. I had an afternoon flight out to Melbourne. They were very nice about it and it was very convenient. Their shop has many restaurants and shopping around it.

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

Looks like most of your questions have been answered apart from the Daintree.

There are a lot of tours that visit there from Cairns but remember its a long drive (over 2 hours one way) so a day trip doesn't give a lot of time to go wandering.

One of the better ones is Billy Tea Safaris that have been here for years. Offer a good mix of croc viewing and tree top rain forest walks

As an alternative you can get a trip to the Table Lands (cooler higher altitude area with platypus viewing and night walks to see the native animals (won't get time to do that on a day trip to Daintree) - Wait-a-while tours. Highly recommended.

As for accommodation in town there is an abundance and I would look at sites like 'lastminute,com' or 'trivago.com' to see for any deals. Ranges form hostels to 5 star. Cains is a small town and airport to the Esplanade is only 6km.

As mentioned above SOF will pick up from any city accommodation but not private addresses so Air B n B is out unless you can get to a landmark.

All hotels and SOF will look after your luggage whilst out and about.

I live in Cairns so feel free to PM me if you need any specific city details

 

[svs]

Thank you Aquapro. I will keep your offer in mind if I have more questions.

 

[outofofficebrb]

As mentioned above SOF will pick up from any city accommodation but not private addresses so Air B n B is out unless you can get to a landmark.

Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that. I found the closest hotel to my AirBnB (it was walking distance), and I had them pick me up there instead.

 

[svs]

I completed my 10 day long Cairns trip with 4 day long SOF boat trip. Everything went well. I am very happy with SOF, boat, crew, food, diving and overall experience. Water was couple degrees cooler than during previous years so corrals are in a good shape. Weather also cooperated, dryer than usual, in 4 days we visited Ribbon, Osprey, Bougainville and Holmes reefs. I did all 15 offered dives.

I also did Daintree rainforest tour. It was good. I would prefer something with more walking and less raiding in a car but I knew what I was signing for. We did 30 min forest walk, boat ride on Daintree river, swim in some swimming hole, met some friendly wallabies. Guide was friendly and knowledgeable.

I also spend few hours in a botanical garden and on trails to nearby hills above airport on a walking distance from oceanfront Cairns. It was nice.

The only negative thing to mention is that you can’t swim freely in the ocean either in Cairns or north of Cairns. In Cairns ocean is too shallow and muddy, the only swimming option is lagoon what is actually a waterfront pool. Further north you can swim in some protected pens the size of swimming pool after they are inspected for all things which are trying to kill you, eat you or both.

 

[Traveler5450]

Good day,

We will be Down under in April. Which Dive company id you go with and were you satisfied? What is "SOF”?

I booked my first trip to Cairns, Australia for February 2018.

I found lots of useful information reading previous posts but I still have few questions. If my 30 hours trip from US will go as scheduled I will have 2 full days in Cairns before 4 days trip with SOF. I would like to visit rain forest for a day. I am not much into ziplines or ATVs which are advertised on most local travel sites. Have anybody been on a day long rainforest trip which actually involved some walking through the forest? I am not asking for a full day hiking but I do not like tours which drive you from place to place to let you out of the car only at the attraction sites. I do not want to rent a car to drive on a wrong side of the road either. Do travel agencies pick up customers from the hotels in Cairns? My understanding is that rain forest is a couple of hours drive from Cairns.

What is the best way to get from the airport to the hotel?

I looked through some hotels. THE BAY VILLAGE RESORT looks decent and it sounds like SOF will pick up people from this hotel at the day of departure. Any other suggestions for inexpensive/mid range hotel not far from ocean and SOF office?

Diving: I will not bring my dive stuff with me but rent it from SOF. Do people pick up rental stuff before local flight at the office or at the boat location (there are some weight limits for local flight)? Are dives with SOF guided or buddy pairs? I signed for nitrox. How are dives arranged based on nitrox/air consumption?

I will also have free afternoon on a last day before my flight out of Cairns the next morning. Any suggestion, to rent hotel for the last night in Cairns or at the airport (5:30am flight). Is any place to store luggage in Cairns (e.g SOF office) for a day so I do not have to carry it around with me.

 

[svs]

SOF: Spirit of Freedom liveaboard. I was very happy with them. I also did day trip with their affiliate TUSA. It was good. Outer reef in front of Cairns where day trips go (2 hours each way) are not as good as remote reefs but they are not too bad either. TUSA is pretty large boat but we had few divers, most other people snorkeled, so it did not feel crowded. They also provide guide in a water but I did not use one. Since you don't want liveaboard I can recommend TUSA for day trips. Easy diving.

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

I too would highly recommend SOF as they go far north to the Ribbon ref areas. Tusa or Silverswift and the 2 best day trips also out of Cairns.

 

[MA]

You were very lucky to get out to bouganville!! It’s quite rare that conditions allow it.

 

[svs]

You were very lucky to get out to bouganville!! It’s quite rare that conditions allow it.

Yes, weather cooperated. We visited 3 reefs in 3 days Osprey Bougainville and Holmes reefs. Bougainville and Holmes are not visited frequently. Crew mentioned that this was their 1st visit to Holms in a year.