Best Diving in Australia - Top 10
GREAT BARRIER REEF: CAIRNS
The destination I will be discussing is specifically Cairns (pronounced Cans) which is one of the main points to the Great Barrier Reef. I also spent a small amount of time in Port Douglas which is the other main entry point and I will discuss the contrasts further down. The discussion is mostly about the place vs the diving as it was the first dive experience I had so my judgement is too newb for people looking for vast information on the diving. The city is located in the state of Queensland which is the Northeastern state. It is very close to the equator and is a hot and very humid place. I was there in their late winter early spring season and it was still in the high 80’s with 80% humidity. Direct flights to Cairns is available from most major cities, I flew from Sydney which is about a two hour flight.
If you are looking for a lot of night life and energy, Cairns is where you want to stay. It has no shortage of hotels and hostels available and the downtown boasts a large area for nightlife. It is the city where Australians come for spring break type activities and there are also a lot of European travelers. There was a lot of restaurants to choose from and plenty of bars to visit. *As a warning, the term hotel can be also applied to bars or pubs so you need to make sure your looking at the right thing when doing internet research*
Cairns is a major hub for reef diving and liveaboard boats. The service I used was the Silverseries and their boat the Silverswift, we went out to the outer reefs. The boat was a spacious catamaran style boat which was configured with a spacious back deck for dive gear and a retractable platform which allowed easy entry and exit for snorkelers and divers. The crew was very friendly and helpful and they provided everything you need for the day. The conditions were not great, visibility was about 50 feet which is not the usual but we were not there for the prime season. The life I did see included small fish like clownfish, schools of barracuda, one turtle that swam away very fast, giant clams, and lots of hard coral. Topside activities I participated in was a tour of the Daintree Rainforest (a World Heritage Site), a saltwater crocodile safari, a hiking tour of Mossman Gorge, and lounging at The Esplanade which is a public lagoon pool at the main park. There wasn’t any great stretches of beach there for people to spend time on.
GREAT BARRIER REEF: PORT DOUGLAS
Port Douglas is very different from Cairns because it is geared towards either an older crowd or people looking for a quiet experience. The downtown was small and very tourist oriented and there was dramatically less bars. Luxury resorts are more common here and the food options were pricier.
Overall this is a great destination for getting both the opportunity for topside activities as well as scuba diving. There are liveaboards available for more serious divers and plenty of services for the beginner diver or snorkeler. Also the local dive operators raved about using one of the operators to travel to the White Sundays (pronounced the Whit-Sundays). I mixed in my visit to Cairns while also visiting Sydney and Melbourne and it is very easy to reach Cairns from those cities.
