Port Douglas Travel Forum

Hi. Given that I have 10 days to see the Barrier reef, can anyone advise the best place to do so from? Cairns? Port Douglas? We fly into Brisbane on 29th April and fly out of Brisbane on 9th May. We would like to spend all the time in between at the Great Barrier Reef. We would also like to include a 5 day diving course in that time. Thanks in advance :)

You can do these tours from Port or Cairns.
There are many diving trips that leave Cairns, when you arrive go down to the Esplanade ( this is the street that is on the water front) and check out all the tourist information centres and booking agents.
I would suggest that you leave some time to check out the other popular areas of this wonderful area.
Port Douglas is great....in April you should be able to pick up a standby rate for accommodation.
From here you can do a drive to Mossman Gorge, Daintree and Cape Tribulation.This is a must:)
Leave early from Port as you will then miss the masses at Mossman gorge, must nicer early in the morning without crowds...early is about 7.30am...it's only a 15 minute drive from Port, then you can head up to Cape Tribulation...it's a great days outing...if you don't want to hire a car you can do a tour from here(Port)
Port has a lot of great pubs and restaurants, plus shopping and of course a wonderful beach.
From Cairns there is the trip to Kuranda by train and come back by skyrail.
You will be able to collect a heap of info when you arrive.....so much to do:)
Cairns doesn't have abeach....if you want a beach place to stay..these are called the Northern Beaches...these are about 15 minutes from Cairns...all tours etc pick up from along here.
I would suggest Palm Cove.It's great.

Cheers
Anne

I couldn't have put it better than Anne12. There are backpacker units available in Cairns if you are looking for reasonable accommodation but otherwise follow what Anne has said and you won't go wrong.
Ashley

Hi I think you would enjoy a 4 night stay on one of the Whitsunday Islands. We just had 4 nights on Hamilton Island. Charter boats take you to the outer reef, or you can take the ferry to the mainland and vist Airlie Beach ,On our day trip from Hamilton we went to Shute Harbour on the mainland then onto Airlie beach for a few hours, back on Ferry and visited Long Island resort for an hour or so, then back on ferry to Daydream Island, very nice, then home to Hamilton. we had a great day on the Whitsundays. You can charter your own boat for a few days.
Good Luck

Post Douglas is much more beautiful and a better place to see the Reef (than Cairns) for instance, but it is generally a bit more expensive. You don't have a lot of time though so it may be quicker to go to Cairns since I assume you are flying straight in there. It is sometimes better to pay a bit more for a Reef tour because obviously the more you pay, the further they will take you out and the more you will see.

A number of reef tours leave Cairns and pick up from Port Douglas.
There is only certain places on the reef you are allowed to visit.Each company have there *spot* that they go too, it is crowded out there:)You always have the feeling of a huge space, on the sea in the middle of nowhere, wonderful!
Whatever place you leave from you usually are heading to the same areas of reef, just different parts of it. I think that made sense!!!!:)

Thank you all for your suggestions. I feel a lot better informed and it is sounding like Port Douglas may be the better option. Thanks again!