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Cairns Dive & Snorkelling Tour | Great Barrier Reef Tour | 3 Reefs

Tour Code: 116

Departing: Cairns

Pickup: Cairns, Palm Cove

Visit 3 Outer Reef Sites From Cairns - The Best of The Reef
  • Visit 3 outer reef sites in the one day from Cairns on a fast catamaran. Small group dive and snorkelling tours, up to 80 guests. Spend 5 hours exploring the reef.
  • Our boat is great in all weather as it is a modern catamaran that has stabilisers fitted to reduce rocking motion in bad weather on the Great Barrier Reef.    
  • This 29m high quality catamaran is fitted with stabilisers to ensure a smooth ride over rough seas to prevent sea-sickness 
  • One of the fastest boat rides to the outer reef of only 70 minutes, cruising at 32 knots. Permits for snorkelling and diving 20 sites daily. 

Included In Price

  • Return Fast Boat Cruise from Cairns to the outer Great Barrier Reef
  • Morning and afternoon teas
  • Hot and cold tropical smorgasbord lunch
  • Snorkel equipment (mask, snorkel & fins) and instruction provided. Snorkel brief at each site
  • Qualified lifeguards on hand
  • Equipment for divers provided, including wetsuits. All dives are guided
  • Guided snorkel tour
  • Prescription masks available at no extra cost
  • Lycra suit
  • Reef Interpretation
  • Snorkel brief at each site
  • Hot freshwater showers

Cruise on a luxury catamaran to 3 reef sites located on the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns. Snorkel and dive, laze on the deck, explore underwater on an introductory dive, guided tours for certified divers are also offered on this tour.

What to Expect

Great Barrier Reef Snorkel and Dive Tour

Experience the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef on a luxury catamaran cruise from Cairns. This full-day reef adventure includes visits to three pristine coral reef sites, where you can snorkel, dive, and explore the vibrant underwater world. Enjoy the comfort of our custom-designed catamaran and the expertise of a highly experienced crew. This is a high quality Great Barrier Reef tour experience with a multi award wining marine tour operator. The boat has in-built stabilisers that assist the boat to cruise along providing a calmer ride across the ocean with is perfect for those who experience sea sickness.  

Features and Highlights

Luxury Catamaran Experience

  • Cruise to the Great Barrier Reef on a spacious, high-speed, 29-meter catamaran. Designed for comfort, this tour boat features air-conditioned lounges, expansive sundecks, and a licensed bar. With a maximum of 85 guests, you’ll enjoy a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

Snorkelling Adventures

  • Ideal for both beginners and experienced snorkellers, this outer Great Barrier Reef tour provides full snorkelling instruction and equipment, including buoyancy devices. Experienced guides are on hand to assist and ensure you have a safe and enjoyable experience. Explore the reef's vibrant coral formations and abundant marine life.

Introductory Scuba Diving

  • For those new to scuba diving, our introductory dive offers a thrilling way to experience the underwater world of the world famous Great Barrier Reef. After a comprehensive briefing and practice session, you’ll embark on a guided shallow dive with an experienced instructor. Discover the beauty of the reef up close and personal.

Certified Scuba Diving

  • Certified divers can enjoy up to three dives at spectacular reef sites. Led by experienced instructors, these dives offer a variety of underwater experiences, including drift dives, wall dives, coral gardens, and swim-throughs. The dive sites are suitable for novice to experienced divers, with clear and calm conditions.

Marine Biology Presentation

  • Learn about the Great Barrier Reef’s ecosystem with an informative marine biology presentation. Understand the different types of coral and fish you’ll encounter, enhancing your appreciation of the reef’s incredible biodiversity.

Buffet Lunch and Licensed Bar

  • Indulge in a sumptuous buffet lunch with a variety of options, including fresh seafood, salads, and vegetarian dishes. Enjoy drinks from the licensed bar as you relax on the deck or in the air-conditioned lounge.

The Great Barrier Reef Sites You Will Visit

Flynn Reef

  • Explore Flynn Reef’s best-known sites like Gordon’s Mooring and Tracey’s Bommie. Discover staghorn and boulder corals, batfish, clownfish, fusiliers, angelfish, and white tip reef sharks. Look out for octopus, moray eels, and barracuda among the coral formations.

Milln Reef

  • Visit Milln Reef and its famous spots such as Swimming Pools, Petaj Mooring, and Three Sisters. Encounter resident turtles, white tip reef sharks, nudibranchs, and large gorgonian fan corals. Spot bull rays and barracudas swimming gracefully through the water.

Thetford Reef

  • Thetford Reef offers incredible sites like Cathedral and Blue Lagoon. Swim among giant clams, butterfly fish, angelfish, and pipefish. Pelagic fish such as tuna, trevally, and mackerel are commonly seen, along with gorgonian fans and colourful fusiliers.

Snorkelling

  • This Cairns reef tour is perfect for snorkellers, providing detailed briefings on safety and equipment use. The expansive stepped hydraulic snorkelling platform and two sets of ladders ensure easy access to the water. Join a guided snorkel tour to learn more about the marine life you encounter.

Reef Education and Guided Eco Reef Talk

  • During your journey to the reef, participate in an eco-presentation about the marine life and coral formations. Gain a deeper understanding of the Great Barrier Reef’s ecosystem and the importance of its conservation.

Introductory Scuba Diving

  • Experience the thrill of breathing underwater on your first scuba dive. Following a detailed briefing and practice session, you’ll dive to a maximum depth of 12 meters (36 feet) with an instructor. Encounter intricate coral formations, colourful fish, and maybe even a friendly turtle.

Certified Scuba Diving

  • Certified divers can explore up to three dive sites, enjoying diverse underwater landscapes such as bommies, pinnacles, and coral gardens. Dive depths and conditions are ideal for divers of all experience levels, with clear visibility and warm water temperatures.

Book Your Cairns Outer Great Barrier Reef Tour Adventure

  • Join us for an unforgettable day exploring the Great Barrier Reef. Whether snorkelling, diving, or simply relaxing on deck, this tour offers a perfect blend of adventure and relaxation. Book your Great Barrier Reef snorkel and dive tour from Cairns today and experience the beauty of the reef like never before.

See all the Great Barrier Reef tour options from Cairns and Port Douglas.

Learn more about the Great Barrier Reef on our blog.

Snorkel/Dive Vessel

Your custom-designed tour Great Barrier Reef tour boat is a modern,  spacious, high speed 29 metre catamaran that has its passenger’s comfort and enjoyment as a priority.

It is the only dive and snorkel tour boat that has a special computerised control system to ensure that everyone’s journey, even in choppier conditions, is smooth and comfortable. At a cruising speed of 32 knots you’ll also get there faster than any other boats heading to the outer Great Barrier Reef.

With expansive sundecks, air-conditioned lounges and a licensed bar, your vessel is an integral part of the enjoyment to your day.  

The reefs you will visit

Having a vast number of stunning locations to choose from will ensure that every site you stop at offers different types of snorkel and dive experiences, according to the conditions on the day. You will stop at three amazing sites where you can choose to snorkel or dive (extra cost).

The outer Great Barrier Reef sites that your vessel can visit are Flynn, Milln, Thetford and Pellowe reefs:

 

Milln Reef

The best-known sites are Swimming Pools, Petaj Mooring, Three Sisters and Whale bommie

  • Resident turtles
  • White tip reef sharks
  • Diagonally banded sweetlips, nudibranch, barracudas
  • Bull rays
  • Large gorgonian fan corals

Thetford Reef

The best know sites - Cathedral and Blue Lagoon

  • Giant clams, butterfly fish, rabbit fish, damsel
  • Angelfish and pipe fish
  • Wrasse, red bass, spangled emperor, gold fusiliers and sergeant majors
  • Anemone fish
  • Christmas tree worms
  • Pelagic fish – tuna, trevally, mackerel
  • Gorgonian fans
  • Blue and gold fusiliers and sergeant majors

Flynn Reef:

The best-known sites are Gordon’s Mooring and Tracey’s bommie

  • Staghorn, table and boulder corals
  • Staghorn thickets, fan corals and giant clams
  • Batfish, clownfish, cod, trout, fusiliers, angelfish, butterfly fish, basslets and white tip reef sharks
  • Octopus, moray eels, lionfish, barracuda and nudibranch
  • Wrasse, parrotfish, butterfly fish and rabbit fish

Snorkelling

This Great Barrier Reef tour is ideal for snorkellers, whether beginners or more experienced. A full briefing on safety and how to use the equipment will be given before your activity. Your tour includes the use of buoyancy devices (buoyancy vests and noodles) and there will be experienced guides in the water to help with anyone who is feeling less confident in the water. If you would like to go on a marine eco tour and learn more about the fish life you are seeing then you can join a guided tour.

An expansive stepped hydraulic snorkelling platform and two sets of ladders at the back of the boat, allows for easy access for snorkelers to enter the water and for ease of exiting.

Reef Education and Guided Eco Reef Talk

On your journey to the Great Barrier Reef there will be an eco presentation on the marine life you will see on your day on the reef. You will learn about what coral is and how they make the Great Barrier Reef and the different characteristics of the fish you will see. This presentation will help to bring your day alive as you will understand more about the amazing underwater world that you are immersing yourself in.

Introductory Scuba Diving

If you have never been diving and wonder what it feels like to have a fish-eyed view of the underwater world then you can go on an introductory scuba dive. You will have a full briefing beforehand given by an experienced diving instructor. After a short theory presentation and some basic skills underwater you will be taken on a thirty minute shallow dive (maximum 12m/36ft) 

You will never forget your first experience of breathing underwater on your first scuba dive. Prepared to be amazed as you swim past intricate coral formations, shoals of rainbow coloured fish and giant clams. You might even come eye to eye with a sauntering turtle.  Just be careful scuba diving can be an addictive activity and you might just get hooked!

Scuba Diving

If you are a certified diver then diving on the Great Barrier Reef is the mecca of the diving world!  On this trip you will be able to dive up to three spectacular dive sites. The magnificent dive sites offer drift dives, wall dives, bommies (coral mountains), pinnacles, swim throughs and coral gardens.

All dives will be led by an experienced instructor who will ensure that everyone is safe and comfortable, to ensure maximum pleasure on all dives. The diving is ideal for novice to experienced divers as the conditions are clear and calm. Your maximum depth as a novice will be 12m (39ft). You won’t freeze anything off either, as the water temperature ranges from 22-29 Celsius (70-85 Fahrenheit).

Accommodation Return Transfers

Please note: All return transfers will depart Cairns Reef Fleet Terminal 17.30pm. Ocean Sprit and Silverswift
passengers will need to wait for up to 1 hour for their return bus.
Reservations staff will be contacting all passengers with transfers the day prior to travel to update them
on locations and times if it will be a Taxi etc and also advise the OS and SWS pax of the delay with the return
time.

Please see below timetables:

Pick up time@ 06:40
MANTRA AMPHORA (49-63 Williams Esplanade Palm Cove)
PARADISE ON THE BEACH RESORT (119-121 Williams Esplanade Palm Cove)
PEPPER'S BEACH CLUB & SPA PALM COVE (123 Williams Esplanade)
PULLMAN PALM COVE SEA TEMPLE RESORT & SPA
REEF HOUSE (99 Williams Esplanade Palm Cove)
REEF RETREAT (10-14 Harpa Street Palm Cove)
SANCTUARY PALM COVE (6 Cedar Road)


Pick up time @ 06:45
MANGO LAGOON (81-85 Cedar Road Palm Cove)


Pick up time @ 07:00
CNR Moore & Trinity St Bus Stop


Pick up time @ 07:30
CAIRNS SHERIDAN (295 Sheridan Street)
THE LAKES CAIRNS RESORT & SPA (2 Greenslopes Street)
PALM ROYALE HOTEL (7-11 Chester Court)
CAIRNS COCONUT HOLIDAY RESORT (23-51 Anderson Road)
HOLIDAY INN CAIRNS HARBOURSIDE (209-217 The Esplanade)
CAIRNS COLONIAL CLUB (18-26 Cannon Street)
QUEEN'S COURT (167-171 Sheridan Street)
RYDGES ESPLANADE RESORT (Bus Area - Esplanade Side)


Pick up time @ 07:35
181 ESPLANADE P/Up Lake Street Side (181 Esplanade)
BAY VILLAGE (Cnr Lake & Gatton Streets)
CORAL TREE INN (162-172 Grafton Street)
TROPICAL HERITAGE CAIRNS (8 Minnie Street)
CAIRNS PLAZA HOTEL (145 Esplanade)

Pick up time @ 07:40
RILEY (p/u from DOUBLETREE BY HILTON - Abbott St side)
WYNDHAM RAMADA( (p/u from DOUBLETREE BY HILTON - Abbott St side)
IBIS STYLES CAIRNS (p/u DOUBLETREE BY HILTON)
DOUBLETREE BY HILTON (121-123 Esplanade)


Pick up time @ 07:45
BAILEY CRYSTALBROOK COLLECTION (163 Abbott St)
FLYNN BY CRYSTALBROOK (p/u Abbott Street entrance near Night Markets)
MANTRA TRILOGY (p/u Abbott Street entrance near Night Markets)
NOVOTEL CAIRNS OASIS RESORT (122 Lake Street)
THE BENSON HOTEL (Cnr Grafton & Spence)
GILLIGANS - P/up The Benson (50 Grafton St)


Pick up time @ 07:50
PARK REGIS CITY QUAYS APARTMENTS (2-4 Lake Street)


Pick up time @ 08:00
SOUTHERN CROSS ATRIUM APARTMENTS (3-11 Water Street)
YHA CAIRNS CENTRAL (20-26 McLeod Street)

Tour Languages Offered
  • English
Departs From

Cairns

Departure Time

8:30am

Departure Instructions

Check in at the Reef Fleet Terminal, 1 Spence Street, Cairns from 7:30am - Arrives back in Cairns at 4:30pm

Pickup Locations
  • Cairns
  • Palm Cove
  • Please note: All return transfers will depart Cairns Reef Fleet Terminal 17.30pm. Ocean Spirit and Silverswift passengers will need to wait for up to 1 hour for their return bus.
  • Our Reservations staff will be contacting all passengers with transfers the day prior to travel to update them on locations and times.
Destinations
  • Great Barrier Reef
  • Flynn Reef, Pellowe Reef, Milln Reef and/or Thetford Reefs
Months of Operation

January - December

Days of Operation

Daily

Does not operate Christmas Day

Duration

5 hours to explore the Great Barrier Reef at 3 different sites
Return cruise approx 1.5 hours each way

Available for Purchase / Hire
  • Introductory Scuba Diving.
  • Certified Scuba Diving
  • Wetsuits available for hire onboard for snorkellers
Fitness Level Required

Medium, Active

Restrictions

Scuba Diving – minimum age 12

IN-WATER RESTRICTIONS

Scuba Diving Restrictions

  • Certain medical conditions and medications may preclude some people from scuba diving.
  • Participation is subject to a medical questionnaire completed on board with the tour operator
  • Minimum age for scuba diving is 12 years.
  • Flying after scuba diving: a wait of 12 hours is recommended after one dive, 18 hour after 2 dives and at least 24 hours after multiple dives, before ascending to an altitude of 300 metres or greater.

Advanced Dive Medical Intro Dive Medical

Read more about Diving Safety on the Great Barrier Reef.

Additional Information

Certain medical conditions and medications may preclude some people from scuba diving. Minimum age for scuba diving is 12 years. Flying after scuba diving: A wait of 12 hours is recommended but preferably 24 hours, if doing multiple dives, before ascending to an altitude of 300 metres or greater.

Eco Certifications
Eco Advanced Tourism

Your camera,Swimming costume and beach towel, Hat, sunscreen and shirt for sun protection, Cash for drinks at the bar. Credit card for shopping and additional dives, Underwater cameras available for purchase or hire

Customer Reviews

Average Rating

Jackie S

Reviewed on July 14, 2018

Great trip! a little rough on the water traveling back and forth, but nothing specific you can do about that. Well trained and helpful dive staff. Dive equipment worked well. Sight locations were great.

Natalie S

Reviewed on November 21, 2017

A great day visiting the Reef, great location. Yummy buffet lunch, weather was a bit choppy but the staff were ready to help out with any sea sickness victims.

Response From Barrier Reef Australia

Thanks Natalie, it's great to hear you enjoyed your Outer Barrier Reef experience. Silverswift is a fantastic option for guests looking to try a dive and see the best reef sites to suit the conditions on the day. Thanks for booking with The Tour Specialists.

The minimum age for diving is 12 years. Child price applies to children age 4 to 14. Infants 0 to 3 free of charge

All cancellations must be in writing.

We understand things may change, so we have made cancellations very easy.

In every instance we always recommend you purchase travel insurance for life’s last-minute hiccups.

Please see our terms and conditions for details prior to booking.

Operators policy:

  • Cancellations received within 24 hours are subject to full cancellation.

Cairns Dive & Snorkelling Tour | Great Barrier Reef Tour | 3 Reefs

Tour Code: 116

Departing: Cairns

Pickup: Cairns, Palm Cove

Visit 3 Outer Reef Sites From Cairns - The Best of The Reef

From

au$284.00

Prices are AUD, per adult and include all levies fees and taxes.

Child: au$210.00
Family: au$988.00

Tour Code: 116

From

au$284.00

15 yrs & over

4 - 14 yrs

Ages of Children
(Discounts May Apply)
Phone
1300 231 118
WhatsApp
+61 427 074 745
Phone
1300 231 118
WhatsApp
+61 427 074 745

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