Bucket List - Great Barrier Reef
Green Island aerial view. Not my picture, it was part of a USB purchase of Brandon’s scuba diving tour.
We just finished up a cruise around Australia, including days scenic cruising the Great Barrier Reef and a stop in Cairns where took a Great Barrier Reef tour. While there are a ton of tour options (a scenic flight over the Great Barrier Reef would’ve been a fun alternative!) we ultimately decided that Green Island was the best option for our family. With an 8 year old and a 2.5 year old in tow, I wanted an excursion that didn’t keep us strapped on a boat all day and have a plethora of activities to choose from. Green Island is about 45 minutes from Cairns located within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park World Heritage Area in the Coral Sea. It’s a beautiful coral cay with a unique island rainforest, surrounded by coral reef.
Our tour included your choice of either a glass bottom boat tour or snorkeling. We chose the glass bottom boat tour because we could snorkel at our own leisure later. We also chose this so that Millie would have a chance to see the fish since snorkeling would be hard for her. Our boat guide was so knowledgeable! He gave us a history lesson, told us about the coral we were seeing, the fish we were seeing and helped us spot a blacktip reef shark! The water is stunningly clear so you could see the fish from the sides of the boat as well. 5 stars, highly recommend, I would actually do that again. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Our excursion included lunch and I always dread this part because my children are Picky. We had deli style sandwiches that were way better than plain ole ham and cheese. Millie devoured a chicken salad sandwich and London ate half a roast beef, along with bbq and chicken flavored chips. If lunch isn’t included with your tour there are a few places to buy lunches, snacks and coffee.
Before our cruise we looked up the requirements for scuba diving most places and you needed to have a physical with a local Australian doctor (at least according to our cruise line) so we basically nixed the thought of my husband being able to do this in the Great Barrier Reef. When we got to Green Island he went to ask and was told it wasn’t an issue! We paid about $98US for him to scuba dive and for me to rent fins for snorkeling (we brought our own goggles and mouthpiece) for the day. Of all the things we paid for, I felt like this was pretty reasonable, especially for a once-in-a-lifetime-we’re-not-coming-back-anytime-soon chance for him. He was lucky enough to find a turtle to swim with and I was majorly jealous.
While he was scuba diving I took the girls for a walk around the island. The whole island is stroller/wagon friendly which is great. It felt very secluded the day we were there and we found private little beaches to explore. The girls gathered sticks, we saw a clam shell that was massive and I felt like we had the island to ourselves.
One thing to note is that from October to May it is stinger season in this part of the world. Irukandji are tiny, venomous jellyfish that are hard to spot. Because of this, most water activity tours will give you a stinger suit. No one mentioned this to us until about 30 minutes before we were leaving when I was heading out to snorkel - again - and the lifeguard let us know that he was closing us and wouldn’t be there for emergency services if I got stung. 🙃 We got lucky this time as did everyone else on the beach not in stinger suits.
There’s also a resort on the island and tour goers are allowed to use the pool. We rented the umbrella and chairs on the beach for the day ($40AUS) so we would have a spot to sit out of the sun and drop our bags for the day. Overall I would give Green Island a high recommendation and I would gladly spend the day there again. Although one piece of advice - book through their website and not your cruise ship, or better yet, see if your cruise ship price matches.
