Has anyone been to Lady Elliot Island?

[dinasaurus]

Hi everyone! My fiance' and I are busily planning our honeymoon jaunt to Australia, which will include several days' worth of diving the GBR. (He is an AOW diver, I'm just finishing my certifications now.)

We're really leaning towards spending 4 nights at Lady Elliot Island, but are wondering if it's just too good to be true. Are there really no stingers there, and still a lot of things to see? Is it worth spending 4 days in one place for? Are the accommodations decent? We don't need luxuty by any means (that's what the Sydney part of our trip is for), but I'd hate to get all the way there, just to find out that the whole place is a bust.

Does anyone have some useful Lady Elliot information? (And forthe record, we will be there in early April.)

It's much appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[MA]

Lady Elliot is great!!! Note it is not luxury. But that is the charm of it. Very laid back. I think it would be hard to find a place like it anywhere much in the world these days. I only stayed in the eco tents though, the rooms on the beach look much nicer, and increidble views. they are literally right on the beach. It takes 5 mins to walk from one side of the island to the other. I was very unlucky with storms and only managed to get a couple of dives in but they were great! So we just walked around the shoreline one arvo and here's what i saw: 10+ turtles including loggerheads, 2 massive bull rays (i think bull or cowtail), manta rays surfing in the waves, crabs, the list goes on but i can tell you it was one great walk. Other than the mantas, these were all either on the shore, or within a few metres. So i can only imagine what a few days diving would be like!

There is a trip report posted on here somewhere. REad that - it is great! If you're after good diving, and something a little different than the cairns trips, i would highly recommend Lady elliot. The flight across to it is awesome too.

 

[mutt]

My sister and I were there mid-October 2010. We dove twice a day, always just on one side of the island. We ran out of dive spots frankly, but did get to see lots of turtles and some wobegong sharks, but other nice marine life . Mantas were not as plentiful as the brochures make it seem, but we finally saw one. We did see 2 big bull rays. Dive shop staff was very nice. At low tide you walk quite a ways with gear on to get to the dive boat. Accomodations and food were adequate; we stayed in one of the eco huts. I got a tick and the mating bird calling all night long outside of the tent wasn't condusive for sleep. Do the snorkel safari instead of the glass bottom boat. I imagine it would be amazing to be there when the turtles were laying or hatching.

 

[dinasaurus]

Thank you so much, guys-this info is super helpful!

I think we will check it out, since the price is just amazing-I just hope we won't get bored being there for 5 days. Fingers crossed we see some great stuff!

(And Mutt, I will definitely bring some bug spray, thanks for the tip)

 

[MA]

I was there for 4 days, wanted to stay longer. It took me a couple to get used to the slow pace, and once i didnt' i didn't want to leave!