Snorkeling GBR

Hi,

I'm planing on going snorkeling at the GBR around mid September, it will only be for a few days. I live in Melbourne and would therefor hear if anyone would recommend places besides Cairns and Port Douglas, it is just to far away.

Thanks! Reply to this

What about the Whitsunday Islands? They're part of the GBR and quite a bit south of Cairns. You have to go to Airlie Beach to get to them (which is a horrible, in my opinion, tourist town), you can book several different kind of boat/yacht trips round the islands. I found it amazing - I went on a yacht for a 3 day snorkelling trip, it was beautiful - we spent the days sailing around and jumping off the boat to snorkel in various places - I was also there mid-sept which was just before stinger season so we didn't have to wear stinger suits either (though some advise you to wear them anyway). There are hundreds of different tour operators running these trips - I was lucky enough to get a trip where only 7 people had booked on it, which made the yacht much more spacious and meant it was much more chilled out, and we decided with the skipper when and where to snorkel, just as we felt like it.
A word of warning - several of the boat trips that aren't yachts, are more like 'party boats' where you don't end up doing much snorkelling at all. Go for a yacht trip, much more worth it. Reply to this