Help Planning Dive/Snorkel Trip with Children to GBR?

[Snid]

Looking to the experts for some help . . .

My family and another family (altogether, 4 adults and 4 kids, ages 6-10) are heading to Australia in late July. There may be some others who join us, but they aren't certain yet so we aren't planning around them, but flexibility to expand our group would be good. We want to put together a live-aboard diving and snorkeling trip to the GBR on either a small chartered boat (our preference) or a family-friendly bigger boat. I imagine that if I was spending a chunk of my savings to go dive the GBR without my kids along, I wouldn't be overjoyed to find a bunch of other people's kids underfoot on my boat, so the chartered option seems likely to be best for us.

Ideally, we would go out July 22-25, so 4 days/3 nights. I would love to get as far north as Osprey and Code Hole, but understand that might be difficult with the time we have.

We are three adult divers, relatively experienced and comfortable. The rest are good snorkelers, but as some of our crowd is young, we don't want to face only very challenging snorkeling circumstances. A mix of quiet and more challenging spots likely would be fine. We would love to see the Minke whales, if possible.

In a perfect world, we would depart from Cairns and return to Port Douglas, but I understand that might not be feasible. If not, leaving and returning to either Cairns or Port Douglas could work.

Questions for you:

1) Any recommendations for outfits that do 3-night trips on liveaboards that are small enough for us to reasonably charter or that cater to families? The kids are fine on boats, but I would appreciate both a dive guide for the divers and a snorkel guide who could keep an eye on snorkeling kids and the remaining adult (all strong swimmers and kids in life jackets) while we are under.

2) If we can't go private, are there any of the bigger boats that you would recommend for our circumstances?

Of course, we would love any other suggestions, if there are obvious questions that I have forgotten to ask. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

[Heg]

A mate of mine is working on the 'Aroona' at the moment. Not sure what your budget is (you'll need deeep pockets), but check it out anyway....Luxury Boat Charters Diving Great Barrier Reef

 

[recd]

Itinerary Minke Whales

Not exactly what you are after, as it is specifically a minke whale trip, however diving is also included. They also do private charters.

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

[FONT=&quot]Couple of things here. The Ribbon Reef / Coral Sea trips are the best for diving, but not that great for snorkeling and definitely not good for small children. Its advanced diving and a lot of the sites are pinnacles that you dive to your deepest depth and slowly come up. So not a lot at the surface for snorkeling.

Its also expensive to take kids as you pay for the berth and do not really get the value for the price as you are not actually spending quality time in the water.

The time of year you are coming is absolute peak time due to it being in the middle of Minke Whale season, so most of these trips are already booked out.

If you wanted say, a 3 day 2 night trip I would look at the ones out of Cairns (mainly) that visit the Outer Reef areas. Boats like Ocean Quest, Scubapro or Kangaroo Explorer. The latter is a budget option that gives one less dive, but is kid friendly and also has one price for all cabin types. This means you can get a quad share and a double or twin for all 6 of you at the same price (obviously varies depending if you are snorkeler or diving).

Personally I would look at OQ or KEX as the preferable option for 6 of you.

You would need to ensure that someone is with the kids at all times though. So advantage of the over night boats that go to the Outer Reef is less travel from site to site. So you can get ready quickly, jump in for a quick dive and swap out with the person looking after the kids so they can get a quick dive as well. More flexible. Snorkeling is much easier to schedule. Jus need to work it out with the supervisor to ensure a look out is available.

Alternative are day trips and you can look at something like Reef Magic which offers glass bottom boats, under water observatories, safe enclosed snorkel areas with tours. Allows diving, snorkeling and a few thongs more suitable for young children.[/FONT]

 

[Farron]

I used to live in Cairns for a year. I can't think of anything anyone hasn't said yet. You have a real mixed bag of criteria that's hard to meet all of them. Unless you can find a charter (can't think of any) you'll have to make some sacrifices on some of your criteria. As mentioned above Reef Magic is good for families. Great Adventures is the way I would go. You might consider staying a night or two on Green Island in their resort (very family friendly!) with diving and snorkeling also available. They run a boat further out on the reef which also swings by Green Island.