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Greetings,
Looking for guidance on what is mostly a family holiday, hubby and I are vacation divers and dive probably 3 times a year (30 dives so far). We have a son who will be about 3 months shy of three during the trip. We're going to OZ May 13-26th, staying in Coolangatta from the 13th-20th, planning to dive one day in Byron Bay (thanks for the suggestion clownfishsydney!) and one day in Cooly, probably at Cook Island, where we did our Discover dive and got hooked. Any suggestions on dive ops in the Coolangatta area? We dove with Cooly dive the first/last time, but not sure if they're still around based on a recent web search. My aunt lives in Surfers and she and my uncle are helping us out with childcare while we dive.
We haven't booked anything for the latter half of the trip, but we want to go somewhere that we can dive at least one day, or get somewhere between 2-4 additional dives in. We hate crowds and are looking for a laid back, live like locals vibe. Also looking to not spend much more than $3500 (US/ $4500ish AUS) all in for transportation costs, diving, and accommodation from Gold Coast - obviously not including airfare from the US
.
Other goal is to be in a place with plenty of kid activities. Kid loves trains and all sorts of animals, but he's also 2 and won't remember this trip. So while I would love to stay in Cairns and do Kuranda and all the fun kid activities, he would probably be just as happy digging in the sand or playing on any old playground. Other issue: finding childcare while we're diving this second part since I won't have my aunt there.
Initial thoughts:
Fly to Cairns, rent a car, and go to Port Douglas, Palm Cove, or Trinity Beach. We've stayed in Port Douglas before, but a bit off the main drag. Thinking we'd stay in the downtown area this time, but don't want to spend a fortune. Palm Cove also sounds nice, but seems a little old and hokey. Trinity Beach seems near Cairns, but more of a locals kind of place.
Drive (or train) north to Gladstone or Agnes Water/1770 and go diving there (can't seem to figure out if they have diving ops, plus we'll have to find babysitting options which may be limited) - or stay on Heron Island two nights combined with Gladstone or Agnes Water/1770. I've confirmed with Heron Island that babysitting is available and can be booked ahead of time.
Best use of time and money? Are there other good options that I'm not thinking of? Since we're still new divers, pretty much all dive sites are still exciting to us, although we do love seeing sharks if they happen to visit!
In case anyone mentions Townville, we spent a night there last trip and my husband refuses to go back there, even though we found a great korean bbq joint there.
Thanks!!!
Lauren
Looking for guidance on what is mostly a family holiday, hubby and I are vacation divers and dive probably 3 times a year (30 dives so far). We have a son who will be about 3 months shy of three during the trip. We're going to OZ May 13-26th, staying in Coolangatta from the 13th-20th, planning to dive one day in Byron Bay (thanks for the suggestion clownfishsydney!) and one day in Cooly, probably at Cook Island, where we did our Discover dive and got hooked. Any suggestions on dive ops in the Coolangatta area? We dove with Cooly dive the first/last time, but not sure if they're still around based on a recent web search. My aunt lives in Surfers and she and my uncle are helping us out with childcare while we dive.
We haven't booked anything for the latter half of the trip, but we want to go somewhere that we can dive at least one day, or get somewhere between 2-4 additional dives in. We hate crowds and are looking for a laid back, live like locals vibe. Also looking to not spend much more than $3500 (US/ $4500ish AUS) all in for transportation costs, diving, and accommodation from Gold Coast - obviously not including airfare from the US
. Other goal is to be in a place with plenty of kid activities. Kid loves trains and all sorts of animals, but he's also 2 and won't remember this trip. So while I would love to stay in Cairns and do Kuranda and all the fun kid activities, he would probably be just as happy digging in the sand or playing on any old playground. Other issue: finding childcare while we're diving this second part since I won't have my aunt there.
Initial thoughts:
Fly to Cairns, rent a car, and go to Port Douglas, Palm Cove, or Trinity Beach. We've stayed in Port Douglas before, but a bit off the main drag. Thinking we'd stay in the downtown area this time, but don't want to spend a fortune. Palm Cove also sounds nice, but seems a little old and hokey. Trinity Beach seems near Cairns, but more of a locals kind of place.
Drive (or train) north to Gladstone or Agnes Water/1770 and go diving there (can't seem to figure out if they have diving ops, plus we'll have to find babysitting options which may be limited) - or stay on Heron Island two nights combined with Gladstone or Agnes Water/1770. I've confirmed with Heron Island that babysitting is available and can be booked ahead of time.
Best use of time and money? Are there other good options that I'm not thinking of? Since we're still new divers, pretty much all dive sites are still exciting to us, although we do love seeing sharks if they happen to visit!
In case anyone mentions Townville, we spent a night there last trip and my husband refuses to go back there, even though we found a great korean bbq joint there.
Thanks!!!
Lauren
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