Question Airlie Beach & Surrounds (no boat access; best spot for Shore - Snorkeling wanted; Got Car!)

[Koalaroo]

Hi All (again - been a while since I've stuck my nose on here )

Hubby and I are going to arrive Airlie Beach on June 22nd at 7am with the P&O cruise (don't look at me funny - he likes cruises and it's his birthday, so we compromised. He wants a cruise, I want a dive/snorkel. The cruise is our "Scouting Trip" before we decide to spend a week or so worth of a vacation in the Whitsundays.)

Sadly, no dive outfitter offers Dives to cruise passengers, as the Cruise Ship Timing (quite frankly) Sxxxx Bxxxx ... We have to be back on board by 5:30pm for a 6pm departure.

So, I am planning on hiring a car, and find snorkel spots around, where we can snorkel off shore, and/or do some surface wildlife viewing in and around the National Parks.
First desire would, however, be snorkeling (in lieu of diving): Any beautiful beaches you can recommend for that? Or is that too dangerous an activity? Sadly I got no clue about the local Crocs or if there even are any.

We both love ourselves some Macro-Life, too - so if it's not huge wildlife, we're still happy (heck, we dived in a Mexico Soup once and all we saw was blennies, and we were still content!)

Other recommendations up there I'd love to have:

- Must Eats?
- Must Sees?
- Must Dos?
- Absolute Don'ts?

Would love to hear your experiences, advice, and ideas!

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

There is not much really good snorkelling off the beach as this area is more renowned for the islands and sailing tours. You can do some day trips, and a Google search will show you these.
Airlie lacks fringing Reefs which is where most of the life is. If you want a good beach try Whitehaven Beach and there are some rock outcrops around there you may see a bit of marine life. Chance Bay nearby is likely better for snorkelling.
The main standout for this area is the wreck of the Yongala but if he doesn't dive then probably not really suitable

 

[Koalaroo]

There is not much really good snorkelling off the beach as this area is more renowned for the islands and sailing tours. You can do some day trips, and a Google search will show you these.
Airlie lacks fringing Reefs which is where most of the life is. If you want a good beach try Whitehaven Beach and there are some rock outcrops around there you may see a bit of marine life. Chance Bay nearby is likely better for snorkelling.
The main standout for this area is the wreck of the Yongala but if he doesn't dive then probably not really suitable

Thanks We both dive, and Yongala is absolutely on our bucket list.
The problem is, that we arrive with P&O Cruise at 7am and have to be back on board by 5:30pm - and no dive-nor snorkel outfitter in Airlie Beach I could find, that would offer trips for Cruise Passengers, as the boat arrival & departure don't fit into their dive times.

So alternatively, I was wondering if it was suitable for us to rent a car, and search for snorkel spots further afield (We won't be able to bring scuba gear ourselves on the cruise ship d/t luggage requirements, and couldn't dive on our own as we don't own tanks or weights). Plus, we both only have 70ish dives, and aren't SUPER keen on doing dive spots neither of us have been to completely unguided

 

[clownfishsydney]

Really, nothing at Airlie itself as the water is very dirty close to the mainland. I spent 6 weeks one year and 4 another sailing my yacht around the Whitsundays and the water quality near the mainland was filthy, I would not have got in the water to do anything to my yacht and I had scuba too.

The only possible place are the resorts near Gloucester Island but even then, there is nothing worth snorkelling on that I remember.

Go sightseeing instead.

 

[happy-diver]

If you're quick you can drive to Alva where a 30 min boat trip will get you to the Yongala

 

[Koalaroo]

Really, nothing at Airlie itself as the water is very dirty close to the mainland. I spent 6 weeks one year and 4 another sailing my yacht around the Whitsundays and the water quality near the mainland was filthy, I would not have got in the water to do anything to my yacht and I had scuba too.

The only possible place are the resorts near Gloucester Island but even then, there is nothing worth snorkelling on that I remember.

Go sightseeing instead.

Thanks! Sad, but great advice. Sorry to hear about the conditions up there. What a shame... Ah well.. .It'll be worthwhile at least for a scouting trip

If you're quick you can drive to Alva where a 30 min boat trip will get you to the Yongala

I explored that option. The drive is 2 hours. Sadly, timing just won't work out.
We arrive at 7am. Even if we're on the first tender, we won't be on shore before 7:30 - at that point we have to pick up the rental, then drive... Even if everything goes extremely smoothly, by the time we get to Ayr, it'd be around 10am ... The Dive boat will have long left then (Their meet-up times at the shop is around 8:00am)

I suspect, Sightseeing it is, after all... Or we'll take one of the glass bottom boat trips *lol* ... Next best thing to scuba, surely. At least you can drink a beer or something ... The more you drink, the more you see ...

 

[SurteesDiver]

In 2018 we had a lovely dive off Sunshine Beach at Bowen. Bowen is about 80km north of Airlie Beach. We had come off a yacht charter and wanted to do some more diving and were pointed there. We went out round the rocky point, never got below 5m, but there was lots of soft and hard corral and plenty of fish. Current was pretty strong.
So... I reckon that it would be worth a snorkel if that would work for you.

 

[happy-diver]

The alternative is to go to Chermside Shopping centre, they have pubs bars restaurants heaps of shops
and cinemas a library next door a pool and plenty of opportunity for covid get drunk catch a cab home

With the money you save, you could cruise up to Alva in a car, do Wolf rock and the Tobruk on the way

 

[priorityjim]

Hi All (again - been a while since I've stuck my nose on here )

Hubby and I are going to arrive Airlie Beach on June 22nd at 7am with the P&O cruise (don't look at me funny - he likes cruises and it's his birthday, so we compromised. He wants a cruise, I want a dive/snorkel. The cruise is our "Scouting Trip" before we decide to spend a week or so worth of a vacation in the Whitsundays.)

Sadly, no dive outfitter offers Dives to cruise passengers, as the Cruise Ship Timing (quite frankly) Sxxxx Bxxxx ... We have to be back on board by 5:30pm for a 6pm departure.

So, I am planning on hiring a car, and find snorkel spots around, where we can snorkel off shore, and/or do some surface wildlife viewing in and around the National Parks.
First desire would, however, be snorkeling (in lieu of diving): Any beautiful beaches you can recommend for that? Or is that too dangerous an activity? Sadly I got no clue about the local Crocs or if there even are any.

We both love ourselves some Macro-Life, too - so if it's not huge wildlife, we're still happy (heck, we dived in a Mexico Soup once and all we saw was blennies, and we were still content!)

Other recommendations up there I'd love to have:

- Must Eats?
- Must Sees?
- Must Dos?
- Absolute Don'ts?

Would love to hear your experiences, advice, and ideas!

I used to live in Airlie Beach and saw the cruise lines coming in frequently, there will be a local market generally operating on days the cruise ships come in with some great local businesses. That's so annoying about the timings with cruise ships as Whitehaven is spectacular as well as diving the islands and reef. I did a tour called reef sleep where i got to camp out on the outer reef for the night which was magical with an amazing night dive, but obviously thats not available to you.

However, there is a great local instructor called Annie who I got certified with and she takes Padi course students and local kids diving from a number of shore dive locations that would be suitable in that timeframe I'm pretty sure as no more than an hour drive from memory. She also has a number of charter boats she works with but that would be the more expensive option - I'm sure can help you with finding a solution as she was very nice and goes out of her way to help people with that personal touch. think she lists the dive spots on her great barrier reef scuba guide

If the diving doesn't work out, then there are some lovely beaches to visit, taking a short 15min drive to shute harbour there's a nice hike to coral beach although there have been Crocs sightings in both Shute and airlie beach.

There's a great restaurant called Northerlies which is a 20-minute drive outside of Airlie and on its own private beach, highly recommend it.

Cape Gloucester 35 min drive is probably your best bet for snorkelling from the mainland or another option is taking one of the ferries over to Hamilton Island and swimming there. But the corals from hamiltons beach are not the best in my opinion. still have the island transfer timetable attached but double-check cruise whitsundays.

You can also rent jet skis at able point marina in the heart of Airlie which should have you back in time for your cruise I think for a half-day tour, Also, another place to visit if you have a car is cedar creek falls which is a forest waterfall and swimming hole which is amazing after a recent rainfall but not necessarily the Whitsunday experience.

Anyway hope that helps, now living back in London UK I'm definitely missing the place, it's truly magical.

 

[Koalaroo]

Thanks all for your responses.

We were super lucky that on very short notice the cruise ended up adding a shore excursion to the roster, that included snorkelling and a day out on the Lady Enid.

If you ever get a chance to do a daytrip out of Airlie Beach, do look up the Lady Enid ( www.ladyenid.com.au ) . She's a piece of history sailing the Whitsundays.
A Sailing boat, handbuilt in 1963 of Australian Timber, multiple Regatta Winner, nowadays used for day-tours through the Whitsundays. The Staff know the islands like the back of their hands and they took us snorkeling to a little island (Langford Island, between Hamilton & Black Island), where we had one of the best Turtle sighting ever!
One of the biggest Green Turtles accompanied us, more curious about us than we were about it (though we LOVED having it around us ), making it really hard for us to maintain the "distance to be upheld to sea creatures"... It took particular liking to my husband and he had to repeatedly duck out of its way, to stop it from bumping into him.

The cruise ship itself was accompanied by Humpbacks nearly all the way, and they danced for us like I have never seen before I am super chuffed - it made being on a cruiseship very bearable (I normally don't like the big cruise ships, but it's one of the very few ways hubby can just "switch off" as he's completely disconnected and offline, so it's one of his favourite ways to vacation, so we compromise. He gets his cruise vacations, and I get my 'active' vacations for photo safaris and their like)...

Anyway... A few photos from last week

More photos to be found as usual here: www.flickr.com/photos/zeanana