The Great Barrier Reef From Cairns or Port Douglas
The Great Barrier Reef stretches for most of the Queensland coast. The more colorful and accessible parts of the reef are directly off Cairns and Port Douglas. Cairns is 2000 kms north of Brisbane which is in itself about 1000 kms north of Sydney. Port Douglas is another 45 minutes drive north of Cairns.
The common belief that The Great Barrier Reef is all one reef couldn't be further from the truth. Each reef is different in size, depth, quality and marine life. A change in 1 degree Celsius can make a huge difference to the marine life you will see. While some parts of the southern zone like Heron Island are truly amazing you need to scuba dive to fully appreciate them. The beauty of Cairns and Port Douglas is that snorkeling shows you just as much as diving can in a lot of spots.
Which company should you go with?
Now before you get all crazy because I said boat ABC was awesome and you had a crap experience, remember that no-one can control the weather or the other guests on the boat.
I've tried to be as clear as I can on why each of these trips is worth the money.
Judge for yourself.
Please remember that we lived in Cairns for 12 years and had our own boat so most of these trips I've done because I've had too many people visiting to take out on our boat, or its since we left Cairns.
If nothing I've explained to you helps, check out Viator's Great Barrier Reef options. If you can't find something there, you won't be going!
Quicksilver
Quicksilver runs from Port Douglas and if you get the boat from Cairns you get to do the run up along the coastline to Port Douglas in the morning. Very cool sitting with your coffee in some of the nicest tropical water ways on earth.
Quicksilver is very family oriented & has a large pontoon at their site. The coral isn't maybe as colourful as at other points, but the pontoon is good, its a fast trip out and back, the snorkel area is clearly marked and the food is great.
The cost is higher but the facilities are there if you should need them.
Silver Swift Barrier Reef Trips or Quicksilver's website
Reef Magic
Reef Magic also have a pontoon – Marine World – but the boat is smaller so less people and a more personal experience.
Wally has got to be the drawer card of Reef Magic. He's a HUGE Mouri Wrass and is quite a character. He has an offsider now Rocky who is almost as big I think. Wally loves getting his photo taken and will gladly glide by for a snap shot while you are snorkeling past.
The reef is decent and seems to be a bit deeper than some of the other pontoons so is less exposed to inexperienced snorkelers standing up on it.
Ocean Spirit
Ocean Spirit has the slogan “Sail away” and you do really feel like you are. The boat is lovely, the staff great and the visit to Michaelmas Cay is a great way to spend a day on the Great Barrier Reef.
You will be spending the day with less people than Quicksilver for example, however your trip to and from the reef will take longer. In saying that thought, getting there is half the fun.
The cay is lovely and if you want to spend some time relaxing on a white sand beach lazing in shallow tropical waters, Ocean Spirit is the trip for you.
Ocean Spirit Michaelmas Cay Trip
Some Considerations:
Cost: it will vary wildly and isn't always indicative of a better trip.
Boat Size: how many people to you want to spend the experience with?
The trade off with smaller boats is no pontoon, so if you are the slightest bit concerned about sea sickness, the bigger boat and pontoon might mean you enjoy the experience a lot more than a smaller boat. On the other hand the smaller boats often go to the better reefs and are often dive based so that you don't have to be so concerned about inexperienced snorkelers standing on the coral.
Safety: With Australian Dive regulations and guidelines you should be pretty safe on any boat, however diving is a unique experience and don't be scare to ask beforehand about who would be your dive instructor. Their experience and definitely their personality could be a contributing factor in how well you enjoy your dive.
Language: if you are not English speaking there are specific tours and boats that cater to all kinds of language requirements. German, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, French. If you are concerned about being understood – remember the golden rule: ASK!
Location: While if this is the only time you will get to swim on the Great Barrier Reef you will have no point of comparison, the locals all know that some reefs are much better than others. Traditionally the smaller boats often go to more colourful reefs. Sometimes this is because the reef is slightly deeper so its not had any damage from snorkelers standing up on the coral. Sometimes its luck of the drawer, and it will depend on whether you want to see color or fish.
Where Not To Go: Green Island. Don't go on a trip to Green Island thinking you are going to see amazing reef. It's not far from the coast, and the reef is not good. I'm sure it's not true, but it feels like Green Island has been sacrificed to protect the outer reef. The reef has been trodden on by so many inexperienced snorkelers that its not good and you will be wasting your money. Its a nice day trip but its not good reef.
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Update – 2015 Trip
We just spent another day out the reef (I know, I know – but I LOVE it!) with Silver Spirit. Quicksilver has two other boats that are smaller boats, Silver Sonic which runs from Port Douglas and Silver Swift that runs from Cairns. Now technically in my experience trips from Port Douglas on the smaller boats are slightly better as they go out to the ribbon reefs which are frigging spectacular. In saying that though we were up for my nieces wedding and went out the day after (Oh god that could have been horrific but luckily wasn't), so we didn't really want to get up at 5am to have time to breakfast and pick up others and get to Port, so we opted for Silver Swift that runs from Cairns.
They go to 3 reefs all about 2 mins from each other and choose the best spots each day from Flynn, Pellowe, Milne and Thetford reefs. There were 5 of us, myself, Brad, my sister, niece (21) and nephew who is 11. Both my sister and niece hadn't been to the reef before and neither had really snorkeled at all so it was really important that they were comfortable. I couldn't rave enough about the Silver Swift crew. Granted the day was spectacular (which always makes everything seem more impressive) but the day was great and I think my biggest comment would be that when we were getting off the boat we couldn't believe how many people had been on board. We just hadn't seen them. At all. It was like the tardis!
The snorkling was spectacular at every location, the boat is super comfortable and rides really well, the team is great, there is a great variety of food and WE FOUND NEMO!
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