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Travel guide
The Great Barrier Reef
4 days · 8 things to do
Best time to go: June to October (dry season)
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Welcome
The Great Barrier Reef, in a few days
Some 2,300 km of reef along the Queensland coast, with about 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands, the largest coral reef system on Earth. You snorkel over coral gardens, sleep on a sand cay and swim among turtles, manta rays and reef sharks.
- Day by day
- D1 Day 1 2 things
- D2 Day 2 2 things
- D3 Day 3 2 things
- D4 Day 4 2 things
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Map of the sights (numbers follow the suggested order). It prints with the base map.
D1
Day 1
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Agincourt Reef off Port Douglas · a full dayRibbon reefs on the edge of the continental shelf 60 km off Port Douglas, where no river runs in and visibility often tops 25 metres.
- Afternoon · Michaelmas Cay · a full dayA sand cay 40 km from Cairns where tens of thousands of seabirds nest, fringed by a gently sloping reef with giant clams.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Pacific Hotel Cairns€110 a night
D2
Day 2
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Green Island · a full dayA 12-hectare coral cay 27 km from Cairns, one of the few on the reef covered in true rainforest, crossed by a short boardwalk.
- Afternoon · Fitzroy Island · a full dayA mountainous continental island 45 minutes by boat from Cairns, whose Nudey Beach of broken coral is often named among Australia's best.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Rydges Esplanade Resort Cairns€125 a night
D3
Day 3
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · SS Yongala wreck · a full dayA passenger ship lost with all 122 aboard in a 1911 cyclone, now an isolated reef off Townsville thick with groupers, rays and sea snakes.
- Afternoon · Heart Reef and Hardy Reef · about 2 hA heart-shaped coral formation 17 metres across in the Whitsundays; swimming there is banned, so you see it only by seaplane or helicopter.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort€140 a night
D4
Day 4
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Whitehaven Beach · a full daySeven kilometres of almost pure silica sand on Whitsunday Island, so fine and white that it stays cool underfoot in full sun.
- Afternoon · Lady Elliot Island · a full dayThe southernmost island of the reef, a 45-hectare coral cay in a fully protected zone off Bundaberg, reached only by light aircraft.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Cairns Harbourside Hotel€130 a night
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
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Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Barbecue and seafood: prawns, barramundi and oysters.
- Meat pie: the national snack, eaten standing up.
- Vegemite: a salt yeast paste on toast, spread thin if you want to finish it.
- Lamingtons and pavlova, the two desserts this country argues over.
- Flat white: the coffee this corner of the world gave everyone else.
⚠️ Best avoided
- The sun is harsh: sunscreen, a hat and shade, even under cloud.
- Swim between the flags, and take the current and jellyfish warnings literally.
- Distances are enormous: plan fuel, water and how tired you will be.
- Do not feed the wildlife, and keep your distance from it.
Getting by
Words that help
🗣️ English is the main language here, so there is nothing to learn by heart.
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencyAustralian dollar (AUD)
BudgetAbout €190 a day, mid-range
Best seasonJune to October (dry season)
PlugI · 230V
Tap waterSafe to drink
TippingOptional, rounding up is enough
Emergency000
EntryYou need an online authorisation before you fly, applied for with a passport: eVisitor for EU and UK citizens, an ETA for US and Canadian ones, 90 days either way.
HealthNo vaccination required. Keep tetanus and polio up to date; hepatitis A is worth considering if you eat well outside the tourist trail.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/great-barrier-reef
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.