Recommendations for the GBR in Feb?

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travlbum

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Messages
28
Reaction score
15
Location
Bangkok
# of dives
200 - 499
Hi folks, I'm trying to set up a 6D/5N trip to the Great Barrier Reef and I'd like to hear some feedback on where to go. I live in Thailand.

Ideally, I'd fly in on Feb 26 or 27, dive 4 or 5 days from a boat or good island location, then head out on a March 5 flight to Indonesia.

I'm concerned about the bleaching of course. Where would you advise me to go for my first GBR dive trip? And can you recommend a dive shop? Thanks!
 
There are a lot of decent overnight trips bit the best 2 go far north to the Ribnon Reefs and Coral Sea. Mike Ball and Spirit of Freedom with Monday and Thursday departures.

Both book out well in advance so you need to get in fast. However SOF has bern advertising some good standby rates at the moment so could be lucky.

Gateway to the GBR is Cairns where these trips plus the Outer Reef trips leave from. Plenty if short flights to Indonesia from there too.

Bleaching is present but not that bad and the operators arent going to take you to bad areas.
 
There are a lot of decent overnight trips bit the best 2 go far north to the Ribnon Reefs and Coral Sea. Mike Ball and Spirit of Freedom with Monday and Thursday departures.

Both book out well in advance so you need to get in fast. However SOF has bern advertising some good standby rates at the moment so could be lucky.

Gateway to the GBR is Cairns where these trips plus the Outer Reef trips leave from. Plenty if short flights to Indonesia from there too.

Bleaching is present but not that bad and the operators arent going to take you to bad areas.
You ever either own the joint or work there right?
 
Worked on both as well as most if the Outer Reef trips. Small industry and been dive pro there since 1990.

Plenty of similar threads that will say the same recommendations
 
Dragonsrock, what was your experience on the Spirit of Freedom? I'm planning a trip in October and am looking at SOF as one of my options. Thanks!
 
Hi Tbriggsnh,
SOF is run really well, friendly people and food was good. We had a strong SE wind blowing so conditions were not awesome. Vis was still good but a lot of particulate matter. Shark feeding dive was great, others there was limited interaction with larger creatures (maybe unlucky). However, the coral was not good, it was not bleached like I had expected, it was smashed maybe storm activity?
My biggest issue was that ican Dive at home for little $$ and see more with better vis. It just seemed an awful lot of money to spend to be disappointed. It wasn’t just us, anyone on the boat who had dived around the world was disappointed. Again, SOF was great, just Diving wasn’t awesome as I had been led to believe. Note that no other could have given a better trip as they roughly five similar places.
 
Spirit of Freedom is a good operation, however, I was very disappointed with the diving offered...
Which itinerary did you do? We might be in Sydney later this year and were contemplating add-on dive options. One idea was to take another crack at the GBR on SOF or Mike Ball (we did a ribbon reefs/cod hole trip on a different boat some years ago that was just ok overall.) But I’m concerned it might not be worth the bother.
 

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