klpscubagirl
Guest
I am planning a trip to australia and was just wondering if anyone had any advice of the best relatively inexpensive places to stay and dive.
Australia trip
- Thread starter klpscubagirl
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Cairns is a good place to start. There are tons of relatively inexpensive hostels and you will find tons of dive operators that offers day trips and even liveaboards (e.g. Kangaroo Explorer operated by Cairns Dive Center).
almitywife
Vegemite Mod
where are you planning on being - australia is a big country, ive been here 38 years and never seen the west coast yet!
cheers
cheers
klpscubagirl:
Unless you are going to pony up the cash and do a true liveaboard out to Osprey or similiar coral sea reef (not GBR stuff), I would recommend the diving much further south of Cairns. There is no such thing as inexpensive diving in Cairns and the day boat stuff isn't very good. I can't provide any specifics because I have not dived anywhere other than the Cairns area. But, this advice is based on discussions with a bunch of the DMs on the day boats who are a very transient crowd.
The liveaboards that don't go to the Coral Sea seem pretty reasonable. $450 AUD for 4 days/3 nights of accomodations and meals and then add in the diving. Where south are you advocating. The guy is looking for info so 'farther south' doesn't really help a lot.
tracy_from_oz
Contributor
I would try Cairns to start off with.
As someone has mentioned there are hostels on the Esplanade of Cairns which is the main street along the water and Trinity inlet.
Myself I would try Hides hotel.
It is the next street back off the Esplande and there are two parts, one back packers and one hotel.
I think we paid $65 a night for a double but has probably gone up.
It is much more private then a hostel and ill be honest im girly and like my own bathroom espeically if i have dive gear needing washing.
As someone else has pointed out diving in Cairns can be expensive expecially going to the outer reef.
Honestly it depends on what your budget it. You have said you want inexpensive but how inexpensive are we talking here?
If you want the best bang for your buck I would go a liveaboard which when broken down has diving 4 dives a day, somewhere to sleep that night and food for the day.
You have the Pro dive out of Cairns, Cairns dive center, Deep sea divers den and for a day trip only Tusa dive out of Cairns.
If you head to Port Douglas you have Quick Silver but you are getting more expensive there as well as with the spirit of freedom and taka dive from Cairns.
I would do some googling and look up these places and their web sites will show you their dive sites and prices and go from there.
If you want 1 day diving fine. If you do more it is probably cheaper to do a liveaboard.
If you are staying at Hostels I think the YHA hostel people may still have a members card you can buy and it gives you discounted nightly rates at their hostels and there hostels are world wide.
Sydney id try the harbour and over towards manly.
Melbourne is apparently getting the HMAS Canberra but it wont be sunk for a while.
Brisbane has the HMAS Brisbane and Western Australia has the Swan however that is a bit south of Perth.
Of course if you want white sharks South australia and i always liked Rodney Fox.
Try searching the forum as well as im sure there is some previous threads with helpful information and web links in them.
As someone has mentioned there are hostels on the Esplanade of Cairns which is the main street along the water and Trinity inlet.
Myself I would try Hides hotel.
It is the next street back off the Esplande and there are two parts, one back packers and one hotel.
I think we paid $65 a night for a double but has probably gone up.
It is much more private then a hostel and ill be honest im girly and like my own bathroom espeically if i have dive gear needing washing.
As someone else has pointed out diving in Cairns can be expensive expecially going to the outer reef.
Honestly it depends on what your budget it. You have said you want inexpensive but how inexpensive are we talking here?
If you want the best bang for your buck I would go a liveaboard which when broken down has diving 4 dives a day, somewhere to sleep that night and food for the day.
You have the Pro dive out of Cairns, Cairns dive center, Deep sea divers den and for a day trip only Tusa dive out of Cairns.
If you head to Port Douglas you have Quick Silver but you are getting more expensive there as well as with the spirit of freedom and taka dive from Cairns.
I would do some googling and look up these places and their web sites will show you their dive sites and prices and go from there.
If you want 1 day diving fine. If you do more it is probably cheaper to do a liveaboard.
If you are staying at Hostels I think the YHA hostel people may still have a members card you can buy and it gives you discounted nightly rates at their hostels and there hostels are world wide.
Sydney id try the harbour and over towards manly.
Melbourne is apparently getting the HMAS Canberra but it wont be sunk for a while.
Brisbane has the HMAS Brisbane and Western Australia has the Swan however that is a bit south of Perth.
Of course if you want white sharks South australia and i always liked Rodney Fox.
Try searching the forum as well as im sure there is some previous threads with helpful information and web links in them.
adza
Contributor
Check out the pro-dive thread in this group. Departs from Cairns every day except Wednesdays (I think). Good value for money.
dolphin adventures
Guest
How much time you are spending in Oz? Some of the dive boats have true "last minute" specials. I think about half the regular price. You have to hang around and wait. There are heaps of budget accomodations to be had in Cairns. It is a backpacker mecca. I'd say probably all of the dive operators will pick you up from your lodging.
Similar threads
