Great Barrier Reef tours from Cairns

[obriendan]

When you wrote "..East of Austin, or west of Denton" I thought you must be pulling my leg. The only town I can find west of Denton with a similar name is Bryson. We are definitely east of Austin, but Aggies don’t like to be categorized geographically in that manner!

 

The weather in Cairns in February was very much like Texas in June, warm and humid.

Sydney was cooler and delightful. In NZ it was quite a bit cooler, particularly in Queenstown, below 50 at night.

 

Your are in for a great treat on the GBR. The coral is beautiful, some of it iridescent purple that is hard to describe. I found that the time of four hours was too short. If I did it again, I would skip the lunch they serve in favor of more snorkeling!

 

GBR2 is a sea turtle, perhaps 3 ft across. GBR3 is a giant clam about 4 ft long!! GBR 4 was a setup at the end of the guided tour when a man on a tower on the pontoon threw in fish food and we were overwhelmed with fish.

[TexasSonny&Cher]

If I'd known you were an Aggie, I'd never have mentioned that 'A' word. It's interesting you said that about Brysan. When you put Bryan into MapQuest it brings up two Bryans in Texas which I thought sounded a little funny. Oh well, I usually don't believe MapQuest anyway.

 

Looks like you had a blast on the GBR. I bought an underwater Pentax digital camera before our Tahiti cruise in March and got some great shots. I'm looking forward to even better next year.

The weather you described is about what I'd heard, so I'll just have to pack with layers. It's 99 degrees here today in my back yard so 50's sounds real good about now.

Did you get to spend any time in Sydney? Where did you stay? We're going to have 2 days there before our cruise leaves.

 

Thanks for any info.

Pat

[obriendan]

You should be able to get some very good shots at the GBR with a Pentax digital camera. The pictures I took were just with disposable Fuji underwater cameras, and, unlike a digital camera, I had to be conservative with the number of shots I took.

 

We indeed did spend three nights in Sydney on our recent tour. It is a wonderful city to visit. The downtown area near the waterfront, the Rocks District, and the opera house are within easy walking distance. Many sights to see and many fine restaurants. Be sure you take the harbor boat tour.

 

I went back and read your first post and found that you’re leaving on a cruise on Feb. 28, 2007. We will be returning to Sydney for an ms Statendam Sydney to Osaka cruise beginning on March 2, 2007. We will be stopping at Brisbane, Whitsunday Island, Cairns, and Darwin in Australia. I’ve already made flight arrangements to arrive in Sydney two days early on the morning of the 28th, so our paths may cross!

 

I’ve reprinted my post from the Asia - New Zealand Ports of Call thread below. It details my ideas about Sydney hotels. I’m still trying Priceline and really hope to get the Marriott Sydney Harbour eventually. Its location would be ideal. I have an excellent one page map of Sydney center that shows the location of all the hotels. If you would like a copy, just send an address to dobrien1@msn.com I’ll be glad to mail you one.

 

 

From "Sydney Hotel - Any Suggestions"

 

We spent three days in Sydney in February as a part of a Grand Circle Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji tour. Sydney is a wonderful city to visit. We stayed in the Carlton Crest hotel. We will be returning in March for HAL cruise which begins in Sydney. We plan to spend two nights prior to the cruise in Sydney. I plan to try Priceline for our hotel. For Sydney, Priceline has one area, Sydney Center. The 5* hotel that has been obtained through Priceline for $120 to 160 is the Sydney Harbour Marriott. Not only is it a good hotel, it is ideally located on the waterfront at Sydney Cove, close to the Rocks district, the Opera House and about two blocks from where the ms Statendam will dock. Further, it is across from the Circular Quay rail station. Apparently the best and quickest way to get to central Sydney from the airport (even faster than by cab and certainly faster than waiting for a HAL bus and other passengers) is the airport rail link (www.airportlink.com.au). It takes about 15 minutes and the station is in the basement of the airport terminal. Cost pp is $11 AUD, about $8 US.

So far I have bid up to $160/night with no luck. I will continue to try over the next few months. It may be too early for inventory to be available.

 

If this doesn’t work out, I will probably back up to 4* hotels ($90-110 on Priceline). Any hotel within about a mile of the waterfront would be acceptable. In addition, the Novotel Darling Harbour (but not the Ibis Darling Harbour!) would be great. It looks over Cockle Bay. This is a great area with many, many restaurants, from fast food to fine dining, and close to the Maritime Museum and the Aquarium. I would also consider the Old Sydney Holiday Inn because of its location in the Rocks. Not the Holiday Inn Darling Harbour. This is too far from the city center, close to the Carlton Crest. If your into boutique accommodations, I would seriously consider the Lord Nelson or even the Russell Hotel, both in the Rocks.

[TexasSonny&Cher]

Dan,

I thought I replied the other night, but apparently it didn't post for some reason. What a coincidence our being in Sydney the same day. Maybe our paths will cross in the Marriott.

 

How did you book your plane reservations? Are you flying Qantas? I have to admit, I'm not looking forward to that long flight. We're still debating whether we should fly directly to Cairns after getting into Sydney, or if we should stay one night in Sydney to get over the jet lag. Right now we're scheduled to fly with Princess making the reservations, but I hope to do a little better on the price myself.

Thanks for the hotel updates.

Pat

[obriendan]

Pat,

I booked the plane reservations about a month ago. The best I could do for the "open jaws" reservation, CLL to SYD and Osaka to CLL, was $1692/pp (ugh!!), on Expedia. I did it as early as possible because airfares will probably only go up. The flights are on AA from CLL to DFW to LAX and then on Qantas from LAX to Sydney. Qantas is a AA partner. I searched quite a few sites before finally settling on Expedia. One search through IAH led to a crazy result. The least expensive flight to Sydney was 35 hours via London and Singapore!

 

Overall, our flights from College Station to Sydney will take 23 hours, including 4 hours of waiting in airports. On our trip to Sydney in January, we spent the night at LAX at an airport hotel (Priceline, $70) to prepare for the long flight. I’m not sure it was worth it, because the flight to Sydney left at 11:45 pm the next day, so we had a whole day to waste at LAX. The flight to Sydney arrived at 9:00 am and we had to wait for 3 hours for the flight to Cairns. Despite this wait, I think it was better to get the travel over all at once rather than spending a day in Sydney.

 

I learned a trick for the long flight from LAX to Sydney. The best seats in coach on the 747-400 are window-aisle seats, rows 70-73 at the very back (see seatguru.com). As the plane narrows, there are only 2 seats rather than three on each side, plus there is extra space next to the window, making for a more comfortable flight.

Dan

[aussie52]

Our favorite place to stay is at Palm Cove which is about 20 minutes north of Cairns - beautiful beach area.Can get to Palm Cove either by shuttle bus from airport or local bus. There are heaps of place to stay overlooking the beach. (just the road between you and the beach but it isn't a busy road.. We did the reef cruise with Quiksilver and enjoyed it.We boarded the boat at Palm Cove wharf. We did the one to the outer reef. They had snorkelling and a marine biologist on board. Also had a glass bottom semi submersible boat included for those who don't snorkel.It was great.

www.quicksilver-cruises.com

[KiwiIan]

Thanks for the updates!

 

Obriendan...which Bryan,TX do you live in? East of Austin, or west of Denton? We're in New Braunfels just north of San Antonio.

Thanks for your input. Since we'll be in Aus/NZ next February, how was the weather there for you? We've heard over 100 in Cairns and cold in NZ. Having trouble figuring how to pack.

I'll check out the Tradewinds Esplanade and also SunLovers Cruises. The GBR trips are one of the main reasons we're going on the this trip.. We love to snorkle and compare all the places we've been. We used to own big salt-water aquariums and have fun seeing and naming all the fish. The Aboriginal Cultural Park is already on our list of things to do. I'm not sure we'll have time for the entire list, but we're gonna try.

 

Ian..thanks again. I hadn't heard anything about Yungaburra yet. It sounds like a charming place and I'll add it to the places to look into. Where did you stay the other 9 nights you were in Cairns?

 

Thanks to y'all.

Pat

Hi pat. For 6 nights we had a camping van which was great fun, a luxury hotel on wheels almost. Two nights in a city centre hotel called The Heritage, budget cost so more money for fun and food [a beds a bed]. The train from Cairns to Brisbane called the Queenslander was really good, just like the Orient Express and the food was superb! Regards Ian [Tauranga]