Diving holiday canceled - looking for a golden tip for an alternative

[MiraN]

Hi

I am going to Melbourne next week for work. Afterwards, I wanted to spend a few days diving. So I had booked a diving trip in Airlie Beach but this was cancelled yesterday!
A new search tells me that there are few options for diving in that region, especially liveaboards. I mainly find sailingtours. Is this correct?!

Since my trip to Australia may be a once in a lifetime opportunity (I live in Belgium), I am considering booking a new flight from Melbourne to somewhere else in Australia…
So where would be the best place for me to fly to?
I am only free from 7 December to 12 December…

To be honest, I feel thrown off balance by this abrupt change of plans and am really hoping to still create a great diving experience on such short notice.

Thank you for all for your advice and golden tips!

 

[clownfishsydney]

Airlie Beach does not have really good diving, especially after a cyclone back in 2017.

You could fly to Ballina and go to Byron Bay, or perhaps to Coffs Harbour and dive the South Solitary Islands. Both relatively cheaper than Airlie Beach anyway. See my website for more information on dive locations in Australia Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site and New South Wales Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site.

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

I'm a Cairns local and dive pro. We may be a bit far north for you, but Cairns is considered the gateway to the Barrier Reef and has a lot of dive trip options. Day or overnight and also sailing if that's what you're looking for.
Few ideas here. DM me if you need any assistance for Queensland travel even if not dive related.

 

[hotsong]

Hi

I am going to Melbourne next week for work. Afterwards, I wanted to spend a few days diving. So I had booked a diving trip in Airlie Beach but this was cancelled yesterday!
A new search tells me that there are few options for diving in that region, especially liveaboards. I mainly find sailingtours. Is this correct?!

Since my trip to Australia may be a once in a lifetime opportunity (I live in Belgium), I am considering booking a new flight from Melbourne to somewhere else in Australia…
So where would be the best place for me to fly to?
I am only free from 7 December to 12 December…

To be honest, I feel thrown off balance by this abrupt change of plans and am really hoping to still create a great diving experience on such short notice.

Thank you for all for your advice and golden tips!

Couple of good suggestions so far, and I'd throw Lady Elliot Island into the mix. Warm tropical reef diving, attached to an eco resort, might be one of the closer alternatives to what you had booked. You can get direct flights with Jetstar to Hervey Bay, so it's pretty accessible from Melbourne without needing a connection. Might struggle booking with such short notice however.

If you did as @clownfishsydney suggested, and go to Coffs Harbour for the Solitary Islands, you could also hire a car and go to South West Rocks, Fish Rock Cave, only about an hour south. Again, check availability, that's probably the bigger issue.

 

[LI-er]

We were in Melbourne last year, the wife has family there. We took a domestic flight up to Cairns and did a 3 day liveaboard trip on Reef Encounters. They have a unique set up where the liveaboard meets up with their land based "shuttle" boat each day to change divers and supplies, so you can customize the the length of your trip.

Seems like a no brainer for someone who is in Australia once in a lifetime to make a local plane hop, and dive the Great Barrier Reef, especially while there's still stuff to see there.

We stopped in Surfer's Paradise on the way up to Cairns spend a couple of days there and did some diving including on the famous "floating man made reef" which was nothing more than a bunch of large rusty steel drums in poor visibility with not much to see.