Far north Queensland?

[grocha01]

Hi everyone

My girlfriend and i will be flying from Perth to Cairns late November and are wondering what we should do! For starters, we are not yet sure whether to stay in Cairns or Port Douglas for our 6 nights over there. Diving is my priority, but not hers, so we'd like to choose the place best for a range of touristy things. Does anyone have any opinions?

Im currently thinking of four nights in Port Douglas, followed by a 1 or 2 night liveaboard (me dive, her snorkel). This depends on prices however, as we have a fairly tight budget. Does anyone know of any good, reasonably priced 1 or 2 night liveaboards? Do any go to the Coral Sea, or do you have to book longer trips for this? Ideally, id like to see a few sharks, good quality corals that are still alive, and the rest of the marine diversity the reef has to offer! Also in regard to this, would it be better being based in Cairns or Port Douglas?
Any opinions would be great,

Thanks,
Alex

 

[NigerHadiza]

Hi. Well, I am by far not an expert but I was there this past July/August. I stayed at at hostel in Cairns and did my OW with 3 day liveaboard with ProDive. The cost of my course was about 500.00 AUD (including liveaboard). The liveaboard was probably about 300.00 or something (including 9 dives (a night dive) and meals). The crew was great!

As for the Coral Sea, I wish that I had done it. Maybe for another time. I am not sure if they only have a 1 or 2 day because it takes quite a while to get out there and that doesn't leave much time for diving. I would do a 3 or 5 day. There is a shark feeding that they do. Here is one of the companies: Taka
www.takadive.com.au

As for touristy things, when I wasn't diving I went to the Aboriginal Park, did a tour of the Daintree, and went horseback riding in the Table Lands. I heard that Port Douglas was a nice place to stay. Cairns was getting boring for me (mainly just shops and the lagoon). Lots of Japanese tourists! (I am living in Japan.)

If you want to check out my website, please scroll down on my site when it appears and you should be able to see pictures from my vacation and maybe from that you can decide on what you want to do! http://annajapan.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

 

[J T]

You could find heaps of 1 or 2 night liveaboards. Prodive, Deep sea divers den (ocean quest) Down under dive (DUD. Think about that- Atlantic Clipper) reef encounter, kangaroo explorer. But you might not be all that impressed with the diving. To get to the really good stuff you need to be on a boat for 3-4 nights. Costs heaps more but worth every cent

 

[RonDawg]

If you're on a tight budget, you may just want to do day trips rather than a liveaboard.

Some have posted that the reefs near Cairns are "trashed" and that the diving "isn't as good" as the liveaboards, but in 3 days of diving (all day trips) I had absolutely no complaints about my dives. The second dive of Day 1 was a bit silty but the viz was still far more than what I'm accustomed to in Southern California :11:

Also, if on a budget you may want to consider Cairns for your lodging needs as they seem to have more reasonable prices on accomodations. Rooms for under AUS$100 are plentiful, and I've seen some nice-looking (from the outside anyway) accomodations along Sheridan St. that advertised rates for much less than that. If you're worried about being in too noisy an environment, I stayed at the Tropical Queenslander at Lake and McKenzie streets which is about 1/2 mile north of downtown, and aside from kids splashing in the hotel pool, it was a perfectly quiet environment.

Since your g/f doesn't dive, she'll probably more enjoy being "land-based" rather than on a liveaboard. That way, if she's not in the mood to snorkel she'll have other options available to her, like shopping or going up to Kuranda on the railway/cable car. And you might be able to get an additional day or two of diving in

 

[scuba_katt]

I'd recommend staying in Port Douglas for your diving - nice cheap backpackers "Port of Call" is within comfortable walking distance of the Marina. If you do decide on a liveaboard, cheaper options (especially for the Coral Sea) are out of Cairns. Mike Ball does some great trips to Lizard Island and to the Cod Hole for some big fish action. Bit pricey, but the diving is worth it....

 

[caymaniac]

I'd recommend staying in Port Douglas for your diving - nice cheap backpackers "Port of Call" is within comfortable walking distance of the Marina. If you do decide on a liveaboard, cheaper options (especially for the Coral Sea) are out of Cairns. Mike Ball does some great trips to Lizard Island and to the Cod Hole for some big fish action. Bit pricey, but the diving is worth it....

I agree with Katt, we've been to Cairns and Port Douglas. You could base out of Cairns like we did, but on the end of our liveaboard trip we stayed in Port Douglas. If you are looking for a short 2 to 4 day liveaboard take the boat out of Port Douglas. We wanted to take the Mike Ball trip to Lizard Island but ended up on the Diversity out of Port Douglas because the Mike Ball boat was full. We dove Osprey and Shark reef, also the northern Ribbons including Lizard Island area. I would recommend this area. We stayed in Cairns for a couple of weeks and did touristy trips. There's plenty to do. White water raft, Sky-Rail over the rainforest, hikes, Kurunda, the Tablelands and the town of Cairns was fun too.