Cairns/Port Douglas - 3 nights

[Springtimebear]

Hello! We are in visiting my brother in July/August - everything is sorted but I’m down to the last few days we are having (without him!!) in Cairns area before we leave to fly home via Singapore. I’ve booked an apartment in Palm Cove and we will have a hire car. Outdoorsy, active types with a 12 year old. Where is best for a snorkelling trip? I get very sea sick but have very strong prescription meds. ReefRider to Low Isles? Or Wavelength to Outer Reef? Also definitely going floating down Mossman Gorge? What else am I going to want to do? Thanks in advance!!

Lucky, lucky you! Definitely go to Daintree rainforest and Cape Tribulation. It's the most spectacular place I've ever been.

Also, Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat is great. You can get up close to kangaroos and wallabies (even hand feed them😍).

Oh brilliant - thank you! Have you by any chance been snorkelling on the GBR in this area?? @maeb

DS volunteered at the wildlife habitat in Port Douglas for a month last year and went snorkelling just before he came home. He doesn't get seasick so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have taken any meds beforehand, but if you have any other questions about it, I'm happy to ask him.

If you want to go to Cape Tribulation that will take up most of your 3 days as it's not really a day trip. It is lovely though.

I don't know if it's still an option but I went snorkelling off Green Island many moons ago which is very close to Cairns.

At 12 my son was old enough to take a scuba diving course in Cairns which he loved.

We snorkeling the GBR from Cairns with Ocean Freedom. It was great as it was only around 20 of us - fab experience!

We went on Seastar from Cairns which was great as it was a small boat.

If you love wildlife and have spare nights this place was amazing to stay at for wildlife - tree kangaroos, pademelon, bettong, possum and told us where to see platypus and cassowary. Excellent food. https://www.lumholtzlodge.com.au/ Lady is a former vet and rescues injured animals hit by cars etc. Was recommended to me on Tripadviser and was by far the best place we stayed.

Oh amazing suggestions thank you!! @LinzerTorte do you mind asking your son if he knows if the Low Isles are good enough to see a range of things or if you really have to do the Outer Reef. It’s the one thing my husband really wants to do and I want to get this right!! @Pilateshappy and @Squirrelandhedgehogs are the trips from Cairns to the outer reef and is it the way to see everything from the back of a boat rather than from an island?

Thanks @Decorhate - I think you are right and I won’t get up to Cape Tribulation. I’m looking at Green Island now.

Seastar is outer, we went in 2018 but had taken advice on Tripadviser Australia forum from locals and they recommended this one as the best option for Cairns for a smaller boat and others from Port Douglas. They said not Green Island. It may be best to ask on there as the reef is changing over time. Also I wanted smaller boats as asd child and some boats are big. I preferred less people for us too but they might be worse for sea sickness. We had no issues but are tough at sea. https://seastarcruises.com.au/

My DD was about 12 at the time and she did a first time scuba dive with them and saw giant turtles. My asd one did the snorkelling with me and there was a glass bottom boat for DH who doesn't like the sea. They took lovely photos as well.

If you day trip to Green Island you can snorkel off the beach, I don't know if it's quite as good as your other options, but it's an option for snorkeling with less time 'at sea' since you are island based for an extended period of time.

We scuba dive so stayed on a live-abord on the reef. I also get sea sick, but kept up my pills and between stops, it didn't move around much. You might not want more than 1 day of snorkelling though.

Another option is white water rafting down tully river. We'd never done it before and didn't find it too tricky or challenging. Exciting though! It mentions under 13's must be with an adult, but there looks to be a live chat to ask also. They collected us from our hotel. https://www.ragingthunder.com.au/tully-river-rafting

If you drive near cape tribulation or the Daintree, keep an eye out for cassowaries! Very rare to see them but can be dangerous if approached/cornered!

@Springtimebear DS doesn't know about the Low Isles, I'm afraid, as he went to the outer reef. He went with this company (from Port Douglas): https://quicksilver-cruises.com/ and said it was an amazing experience. Apparently they recommended that people take seasickness tablets beforehand and had them available, but DS didn't take any.

Thanks so much - exactly what I needed - some suggestions and recommendations.

it was years ago but I recall going on the following from cairns
-quicksilver boat to the outer reef. Incredible
-day trip to Green Island. Lovely easy trip, good snorkelling but not as good as above
-long day tour out to Cape Tribulation
-White water rafting (can’t recall exactly where that was but it was great fun)

we were there for nearly a week tho

I will say Cairns itself is a bit of a dive. Palm Cove is nice. Port Douglas is lovely.

I went snorkelling there recently with Passions of Paradise, I think that’s the name. Locally owned company with brilliant staff. Thoroughly recommend them for a day trip, whether for beginner snorkellers or experienced divers.

I also wanted to go to Cape Tribulation but couldn’t make it work. Go on a boat to the outer reef rather than Green Island, it was a nice trip but not the spectacular reef experience I wanted, so glad I went on the trip to the outer reef as well.

Hi, we went diving but from Hamilton Island. It took hours to get there, everyone, and I mean everyone, was sea sick, and the diving didn't live up to my expectations😶 Maybe snorkeling from PD will be better 😉

It only takes about 45 mins to drive from PD to the Daintree river ferry, and you're driving through the most amazing landscape.

You could book a Daintree river crocodile tour.

The rainforest is the most spectacular place, the wildlife, the trees and plants. There is nowhere like it.

We’re off to cairns in September so this thread is great, thank you.

Who did everyone hire cars from? There seem to be some restrictions on driving north of the Daintree river crossing, and west towards Chillagoe. We’d really like to visit the Chillagoe Caves national park.

On Tripadviser forum they seem to recommend either Wavelength from Port Douglas or Seastar from Cairns both to outer reef. We had an amazing trip with Seastar in 2018.

Wildlife we saw most in Atherton Tablelands (cassowary x 2, platypus, tree kangaroos, bettong, possum, pademelon, wallabies etc) though largely through the places we stayed at knowing where wildlife was. We did Daintree river cruise and saw crocodiles and rainforest. Also Kuranda for the train and as DS wanted to see the koalas at the wildlife park. For people with more time Magnetic Island has koalas. Some places are seasonal with weather. We did hire a car but can't remember where from but was useful for exploring. Also if anyone has a tree climbing child a local boy told my (asd) son not to climb trees as there are snakes up them.

We did cane toad racing in port Douglas. That was a fun evening.
We did a reef trip but can’t remember who with but I don’t remember feeling sick and I get seasick.
Mossman Gorge is lovely. And the Daintree croc tour

On a previous trip we did Kuranda

Ours was a while back but we were not sick on the Seastar trip, the waves were coming very high but DS loved that. I think one family all of them were sick. There were about 30 on board plus staff so 4/30. None of us have ever been seasick and go on lots of boats though.

In Atherton Tablelands we stayed at Lumholtz Lodge and Canopy Treehouses and that's how we saw so much wildlife. https://www.canopytreehouses.com.au/about-our-forest/

@EyeLevelStick we has hired a car with hertz - definitely not the cheapest option - but fully inclusive insurance etc and no restrictions. I was advised to book ASAP on car hire as the are in short supply in the area.

Seastar seems to get the best recommendations on here and reviews from PD so thinking of doing that and then calling them the day before and if it’s predicted to be rough I’ll just skip it and let husband and son who are tough at sea go!!