Going to Australia Aug/Sept. and need some help with diving arrangements

[vtminter]

My wife and I are heading to Australia in late August for 3 weeks. As of now we are planning to stay our first week in Brisbane and spend the other two weeks diving somewhere and touring around. All I can really find are liveaboards out of Cairns. Our initial plan was to fly out of Brisbane to Cairns and try and do a liveaboard. I figure that we are going to get more dives for our buck on a liveaboard. If this is wrong please correct me. My question is are the best dive trips out or Cairns? When I do a google search that seems to be what pops up, but the GBR is huge so there must be other places to leave from. I am just looking for options. If Cairns is the spot to leave then that is fine. I am interested in doing reef dives and any large animal dives that are possible (sharks, whales, etc.). Thanks for the help.

 

[Wingy]

Id suggest basing yourself in Cairns and looking for a LOB that focuses on the outter GBR - if you can get to Osprey and Ribbon Reef you wont be disappointed.

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

Generally Cairns is considered the gateway to the GBR so most of the trips leave from here. You are correct in that you get more bang for your buck with a live aboard as food and obviously accommodation costs are included.

The best trips are those that visit the Ribbon Reefs like Mike Ball, Spirit of Freedom and the budget option (it motors up and back whilst the others fly you one way) Taka.

There are a lot of threads relating to these trips if you search around.

Outer Reef trips from Cairns are daily and these move around from site to site and generally have a daily transfer vessel go out and back (Scubapro goes out and returns 3 days later).

Still good diving, but not as advanced or spectacular as the Ribbons.

Also a big factor in your choice is you are going in August which is the Minke Whale migration, so if you do one of the 3 trips above you have a very high chance of not only seeing them, but diving with them.

 

[vtminter]

Thanks for the responses.

I now have another question. Since I have to go to the airport in Brisbane anyway to get to cairns should I just fly somewhere else where the diving could be even better and possibly cheaper?

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

Depends what you want. If its Reef and whales then Cairns.

Just north of Brisbane are some great wreck dives HMAS Brisbane etc and some decent dives from smalle operators doing day trips. Plenty of posts about these on the site.

Are you going to be based in Brisbane or do you have the ability to travel and if so whats the time frame? I know you have 3 weeks, but is that all allocated for diving?

Look up Morton Bay, Stradbrooke Island etc . These are all out of Brissy and have some great dive sites