Day trip for GBR

[Rowerpilot1111]

Hi All! This is my first post on here! So Im flying into Sydney at the beginning of March with my girlfriend. She doesn't scuba dive but I do. I really want to dive the great barrier reef but we only have 7 days and its a far drive all the way up to Cairns/Port Douglas. I was hoping to find just a day trip to the GBR but it seems like most are liveaboards especially further south. Does anyone know of good day dive trips from mainland to the reef out of a location a lot further south so that we don't spend all our vacation driving (especially since my g/f doesn't dive....wouldn't be fair for her) Thanks for any help!!

 

[clownfishsydney]

It takes at least 2.5 days to drive to Cairns from Sydney. It takes 1/2 a day by plane by the time you factor in getting to and from the airport. If you only have 7 days in Australia, there are far better things to do than go to Cairns for one day's diving.

The only spots further south would also take almost as long to get to and I am not even sure there are operators.

Do a couple of dives in Sydney, Magic Point grey nurse sharks or Bare Island.

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

There are some great cheap flights availble every now and then from Sydney to Cairns, so maybe worth looking at Cheap Flight Deals and Discount Airline Tickets. Search Flights and Book Airfare at Webjet - Webjet.com or jetstar, virgin and qantas sites. Tiger are the cheapest but dodgy!

If you do end up this way here is a link to show some of the better trips out of Cairns and Port.

 

[JZA]

You're probably not going to make it to the GBR and back to Sydney by land in that time frame, at least not with any time left to take your non-diving girlfriend to do non-diving stuff. What's worse is that the best dive sites (IMO) happen to be the ones furthest north, and on the outer reef where they are served mostly by multi-day liveaboards (and sometimes day-boats will do only one dive!)... basically, if you want to get some dives in and you only have a week, you will either need to dive in Sydney or fly to your destination.