Wanting to dive the GreatBarrier Reef

[Traveler5450]

Just found this BBS. We are traveling to Australia in April and would like to dive the Great Barrier Reef. We are new to scuba with only 4 open water dives to our credit. We are only half way through our NAUI certification dives but have completed the written tests and all the pool time. we are not looking for a live-aboard due to time constraints.

Can anyone recommend a tour operator who will both guide as well as watch over two neophytes?

Failing that, can you recommend an area that you have dived on the Great Barrier Reef that you liked?

 

[ls1dreams]

Hey Traveler! I did something similar just 2 years ago. Had only 4 official dives from open water, and went right to a live-aboard. Basically near Cairns there are three tiers of diving:

1. Cheap day trips that take you to destroyed reefs (not sure but prob $300-$400ish)
2. Mid-tier trips (2-3 days) that will take you to the outer reef ($600-800ish)
3. More expensive luxury trips like Mike Ball. However these are like $2500+ for 3 nights.

I went with option #2 given my experience and loved it. The two main choices I think are OceanQuest/DiversDen and Prodive Cairns, both of which I've heard good things about.

I went with OceanQuest and thought the crew was great - highly recommend. 3 days was a bit much for me, but I added in an Advanced Water cert. Depending on how much you like diving, 2 days / 1 night would probably be enough if you're not doing a cert. One thing to note is that if you want guides they are $15aud per dive. (Not sure if Prodive even offers this). I think both would be fine, but read that OQ had a slightly nicer/bigger boat.

Here's the OceanQuest link: OceanQuest - the Premier Overnight Dive and Snorkel Vessel

You probably won't have any control over it, but I think I enjoyed Norman Reef the best.

 

[NYCNaiad]

Welcome to Scubaboard! You'd probably get a better response if you posted this in the Australia forum.

 

[drbill]

Understand the time constraints re: the liveaboards, but my experience diving out of Cairns with Deep Sea Divers back in 2001 was that short stays (3-4 days) are frequent on liveaboards (we were on Norman Reef). There are speedboats that take you out for day trips (and some take you out to the liveaboard itself)]