• The biggest highlight is the VIP Captains Club and the free inclusions of a scuba dive, free glass bottom boat tour, free coach transfers in Cairns, chef prepared meals in the VIP cabin, and the wonderful valet who will be attending you all day
• Your very own private concierge service onboard and express check-in will make you feel like a true VIP for your day on the reef. You will be treated like a celebrity all day long.
• Why do your own selfies when you have a personal guide who can take all your photos underwater? Underwater digital cameras are available to hire onboard. You might even get photobombed by a passing turtle!
• If you loved the dive at the first site then it’s possible to do it all again on the second site (extra cost).  This is especially good for first time divers. Your second dive you will be so much more relaxed now you know what to expect. You’ll finish your day feeling that you are a real dive pro!

Cairns only VIP Dive & Snorkel Tour, Captains Club with personal Valet, Free scuba dive, personal services all day whilst on our Great Barrier Reef tours.

This is a unique Great Barrier Reef tour with a VIP Captains Club option. Your personal valet will settle you into the Captains Club Wheelhouse and serve you a chefs breakfast for the journey to the outer reef and inform you of the days proceedings .

Other Great Barrier Reef tours in Cairns are certainly nothing like this one.

A totally unique reef trip that treats you like a VIP all day long.

You have your very own personal Valet that will look after your needs both in the water and in the air-conditioned VIP Captains Club.

This is an all inclusive Great Barrier Reef tour that has added bonus extras such as a free scuba dive, free glass bottom boat tour, free coach transfers in Cairns, VIP Captains Club lounge on top deck of boat with the Skipper, and your personal valet is with you all day serving you chef prepared meals, taking you on snorkel and dive tours ensuring you skip the queues and the crowds.   

Your personal valet will serve you a BBQ breakfast, continental fruit or croissant on arrival and a deluxe lunch (dietary requirements will be catered for). 

On your return from all your Great Barrier Reef in water activities celebrate with a glass of bubbles and a cheese and fruit platter all served by your personal valet.  

This Cairns dive and snorkel tour has a wide selection of reef locations to choose from to ensure the best sites on the day and you will have around 6 hours to explore them all.

Your personal in-water guide will be with you for your snorkel or dive. Diving is available for non-certified and certified divers.

A Great Barrier Reef tour is one of the big ‘must do’s’ in the diving world!

If you are a non-swimmer, or just want to keep dry, you can also jump on a glass bottom boat tour, your personal in-water guide will be there to give you undivided attention throughout your day. 

You will be sure to be amazed by the diversity of marine life that puts the ‘Great’ into Great Barrier Reef

Whether above or below the water your VIP Captains Club day will ensure that you will be given priority in queuing, your own private cabin and non-stop personal service throughout your day.

This is an absolute must do unique Great Barrier Reef dive and snorkel tour from Cairns. A perfect option as a surprise for a loved one and great for VIP groups.    

Marine Biology Presentation

On your way out to the Great Barrier Reef and the stunning sights on this World Heritage site, you can attend a marine biologist presentation that will enlighten you on the marine life you will be seeing on this magical day.

You won’t believe the interesting and entertaining stories that the life on the reef can offer. 

With one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world with 133 varieties of rays and sharks, 1625 types of fish and over 2900 separate reef corals, this is truly an amazing place.

You will learn about quirky fish behaviour, how fish change sex, how they love a clean and how Nemo (clown fish) can live amongst poisonous tentacles in their anemone home.

Being able to understand and learn about the fascinating life on the Great Barrier Reef will enhance your visit and help in giving you a fully immersive experience. 

Great Barrier Reef Tour Dive & Snorkel Sites

Depending on the Cairns weather and conditions on the day, this will dictate the best Great Barrier reef sites to visit on your reef tour. 

The boat Captain has a host of exclusive coral reef sites to choose from to ensure that you get the best conditions for your day and will choose from the below to ensure all guests have the most comfortable ride and experience on this Great Barrier Reef tour. 

Hastings Reef

Hastings Reef is a popular site as it is a fantastic all weather reef that offers year-round great protection. 

In these sheltered waters, the snorkelling and diving conditions are perfect having smooth waters and great visibility. 

The sites on this reef are called, quite aptly, “coral gardens”, compass mooring” and “the fishbowl”. 

So you’ll certainly be assured of wonderful coral formations with plenty of colourful fish life. 

Breaking Patches

This site is named “breaking patches’ as it is indeed just that – a patch of breakaway coral located just off of Michaelmas Cay.

This area is a turtle haven for partying turtles and this reef even has a resident turtle called ‘Gus’. 

As for all the reefs in this area, ‘breaking patches’ hosts a plethora of marine life.

In the sands beneath you might just spot a blue spotted ray, or see the massive shells of the giant clams along with all shapes, colours and sizes of cruising fish.

Saxon Reef

This dive site can be a hive of marine life activity. On the right day, there is so much life you really won’t know where to look. 

Cuttlefish families reside here, so you can watch them change colours as they move over the reef.

 You might even be lucky enough in the right season to see passing cruising humpback whales (July-Sept). 

They visit Cairns regularly for a holiday to relax, mate and Mother their calves after making their 8,000 km journey from Antarctica.

The sites on this reef ‘magic mooring’, ‘twin peaks’ and ‘turtle bommie’ describe the magic of the sights you will see. 

Norman Reef

Norman reef is the most northerly site out of the reef locations. 

In calm conditions this site is a real treat, ut can be affected by weather conditions, so is not visited as regularly as the other sites. 

Due to little activity and visitors, this is a pristine site that offers an abundance of soft and hard corals. 

A real coral garden that resembles a film set on a sci-fi movie. 

It even has a resident called ‘Frank’ – a large humphead Maori wrasse that might just come and say hello to you as you snorkel or dive here. 

Jorgensen Patch 

This is another patch reef like ‘breaking patches’ – an isolated reef system on the Great Barrier Reef. 

At this site, you will find walls, overhangs, small caves, swim-throughs and gullies. 

So there is wonderful topography to swim over and dive through at this site. 

The overhangs and shaded caves harbour a wide range of marine life. 

Shoals of fusiliers and damselfish hover over the coral heads as spotted rays lie camouflaged in the sandy bottom. 

This is also a highway for cruising white tip sharks (don’t worry, they are more scared of you than you of them).

Great Barrier Reef Snorkel Tour

You will have your own personal guide to act as your assistant and help in the water whilst you snorkel.

Putting your face into the water as you peer through your mask will unravel a whole new amazing underwater world. 

You really won’t want to look up as a mosaic of colourful fish twinkle beneath you.

Beautifully coloured angel and butterfly fish go about their business.

You might even see a nonchalant passing turtle grazing as it makes its lazy way across the reef.

Your personal tour guide will give you a full briefing before your snorkelling activity and will be giving you personal help and assistance in the water.

Having your own personal tour guide is a good way of feeling more confident and secure. 

They will literally be on hand if you should need their assistance.

All snorkel equipment – fins, masks, prescription masks and flotation devices are included in your VIP all inclusive Great Barrier Reef tour. 

Glass Bottom Boat Tour

If you would like to see the Great Barrier Reef from the dry comfort of a glass bottom boat then you can sedately travel over this amazing eco environment viewing the stunning marine life as it unfolds through the window beneath your feet.

The intricate coral heads will pass under your gaze as you see myriads of colourful reef fish congregating in shoals around their coral homes.

You might even see a cleaning station that’s like the equivalent of a fish drive-in car wash. 

The fish queue up and wait their turn to be cleaned as the cleaner wrasse nibble the parasites off the awaiting fish. 

You will see giant clams that are over half a century old and you might even pass a grazing or swimming turtle.

Introductory Scuba Dive

If you have never scuba dived before and are wondering just how it feels to be like a fish, then you can go for an introductory scuba dive. 

Your personal instructor and guide will be with you the whole time to assist and help.

You will receive a full briefing by your personal instructor before the dive and after a few rudimentary exercises, you will be ready to give scuba diving a go for the first time.

You will descend slowly down a line as you enter the underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef. 

The conditions you are diving in are simply spectacular.

The waters on the Great Barrier Reef are some of the clearest in the world and also the most sheltered from currents and winds. 

This makes it an ideal location to experience the amazing joys of scuba diving.

It will initially feel rather strange to be breathing underwater, but as soon as you swim amongst the amazing fish life and coral gardens, you will start to be less nervous and more enraptured by the beauty of this new under water world.

You will be seeing the most amazing sights, swim with a passing sauntering turtle, see Nemo (clown fish) in their anemone home, jazzily coloured angelfish and bright yellow and blacks of the butterfly fish.

 You’ll be so busy taking in this whole new world you won’t want to come up!

What’s great is that if you love this experience and want to do it all again, you can!

Your personal instructor will change your tanks and prepare your equipment ready for your second dive at the next dive site (additional cost). 

Certified Scuba Dive

If you are a certified scuba diver then you will know that the Great Barrier Reef is one of the top locations in the world to dive.

See for yourself why this is such an iconic location.

You can leave your 8mm wetsuits, semi-dries and dry suits in storage at home as you experience diving in the tropical waters of the Coral Sea on the Great Barrier Reef. 

All equipment is provided. Don’t worry about the condition of the equipment, all BCD’s and regulators are serviced by law every six months.

After your personal dive guide briefs you about the dive, you will be taken on an underwater exploration on one of the amazing reef sites on the Great Barrier Reef.

On your dive, you will be swimming through one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world.

Your dive guide knows the dive sites better than the back of their hands. 

Their knowledge of the marine life, where it hides and how to find it will ensure that you will be privy to the ‘secret’ places that they know.

Encounter grazing turtles, colour-changing cuttlefish and smaller critters like nudibranch and Christmas tree worms.

What’s great about this tour is that after seeing this remarkable underwater world you can do it all again on the second dive (at an extra cost)!

See another unique VIP Great Barrier Reef tour from Cairns The Admirals Club VIP Great Barrier Reef tour and our VIP Captains Club Liveaboard dive tour.

Tour Languages Offered

• English

Departs From

Cairns

Departure Time

8.00am

Departure Instructions

• Boarding at 7.30am for an 8.00am departure
• Arrive back in Cairns at 4.30pm

Pickup Locations

• Cairns
• Cairns Northern Beaches
• Port Douglas

• Complimentary transfers from Cairns CBD properties
• Transfers from Outer Cairns, Northern Beaches & Port Douglas available at additional cost (subject to availability)

Destinations

• Great Barrier Reef
• Hastings Reef
• Breaking Patches
• Saxon Reef
• Norman Reef
• Jorgensen Patch

Months of Operation

January - December

Days of Operation

Daily

$100 surcharge applies to Christmas Day departures - payable onboard the day of travel
A Surcharge of $50 per person applies to all other Queensland public holidays listed below - payable onboard the day of travel:
26 December 2023 – Boxing Day
01 January 2024 – New Year's Day
29, 30 & 31 March and 01 April 2024 – Easter

Duration

8.5 hours

Available for Purchase / Hire

• Return transfers from Outer Cairns, Northern Beaches or Port Douglas - need to be prebooked (subject to availability)
• Additional Introductory Dive
• Additional Certified Dive

Fitness Level Required

Low, Medium

Restrictions

• Scuba Diving – minimum age 12
• Dive medical forms to be completed prior to all diving

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.

Read more about Diving Safety on the Great Barrier Reef.

Additional Information

Please note this tour requires a minimum of 2 guests

• Swimming costume
• Towel
• Hat
• Sunglasses
• Rash vest for sun protection
• Dive certification for certified Scuba divers
• Cash or credit card for additional purchases such as drinks, lycra suit hire and souvenirs
• Camera (charged)
• Sunscreen 30+

• Family Fare: 2 Adults and 2 Children (4-11 years old)
• Children under the age of 4 travel free of charge