Cairns Travel Forum

We are going to Cairns for the first time and there are so many tours heading out for daytrips to the reef. Can anyone point us in the right direction of a great tour? We want to snorkel, not dive and are worried we might end up on a tour geared for divers if we aren't careful.

If you've snorkelled with a good company, please let me know.

Thanks,

Tim

If you don't mind going on big boats with lots of other people, Quicksilver and Sunlover are two very good companies. They go to the outer reef, have pontoons, glass-bottom boats, semi-submersibles, and they take snorkelers in groups.They have marine biologists on board to explain the reef, good buffet meals etc.
www.quicklsilver-cruises.com
www.sunlover.com.au

HI! Tim:

I did day trips with 2 companies back in 03.
Maybe you'll like to check them out on my VT Cairns page?

Copied from my Cairns tip-

I went with Down Under Dive which cost $79 and you get morning tea/coffee, wine & cheese on return, mask, snorkle and fins. Free Scuba lesson then if you decide to go on the first dive costs $50, the second $30. 4 hours snorkling at two different locations and a glass bottomed boeat trip. It was a fantastic day, the staff were great, very helpful and obviously knew their stuff.
I held a sea cucumber and put my hand in a giant clam, it was great to get so close to all the fish.


Phone: 1800 079 099
Address: 9 Shields Street, Cairns
Directions: Boat's on the Reef Fleet Terminal, Marlin Marina.
Website: www.downunderdive.com.au

Not many of us dived, about 10 out of the whole boat, the rest just got on with snorkling and on the glass bottomed boat.

Also copied from my Cairns tip:

FIRST TIME SNORKELLER

Tell you the story of our visit to the reef. We never had been snorkelling before, but intended to do on the Great Barrier Reef. We had a recommendation of a friend to take Great Barrier Reef Dive & Snorkel Adventures (also called Compass Cruises).
- we got some almost unintelligible – noise and Australian accent – instructions;
- the staff was more interested in divers than snorkellers;
- there was just ONE staff member for first timers !!
- my wife didn’t dare to snorkel at all under these circumstances and I (and others) had to practice myself.

I would NOT recommend other ‘first time snorkellers’ to make the cruise to the Great Barrier Reef with Compass Cruises !! (although you will see a lot of ads around Cairns and they are rather cheap)

happy travels
Jaap

We went with passions. They were great. Good food, beautiful boat, friendly staff and suited for people who have never snorkled before through to experienced divers. It was so relaxing, a perfect day!

I forgot to mention that Passions are one of the only locally owned buisnesses aswell. Also they take you to two different site, one of which is in open water and you are the only boat on that reef, truly amazing!