Cairns boat tours

Everyone arrives in Cairns with the same picture: a boat, a ladder off the back of it and the Great Barrier Reef underneath. What the picture leaves out is the question that sorts the eighteen listings on this page. How far out do you want to go, and how much of the day do you want to spend on the water? The fare, the vessel and the hours all follow from that answer.

The boats leave from the marina in the middle of the city, and that gives the page two shapes: half-days of four or five hours, and full days of seven to nine that run out to the Outer Great Barrier Reef. Across all eighteen listings the fares run from $54 to $470, the boat tours themselves sit between $77 and $216, and the durations run from an hour and a half to two days.

The full days out to the outer reef are the heart of the page. Our top pick is the Silverswift catamaran at $216, eight hours, rated 4.7 across 657 reviews, and the reason is arithmetic: it moors at three different reef sites in one day where most listings visit one or two. Beside it are the premium catamaran at $193 for nine hours, rated 4.8 across 3,875 reviews, and a full day on a superyacht at $193 with two outer-reef sites and a buffet lunch.

One more full day names its moorings outright: the snorkel and dive cruise at $203 visits two sites the operator calls Wonder Wall and Aquarium, on the outer edge of Upolu Reef, plus Upolu Cay. Diving there and on most of the others is an upgrade you pay for on the day, so read the dive line before you book if that is what you came for.

The islands are the other half of the page, and a different day out. Green Island is a tropical island with coral gardens around it, and it has the widest choice: a five-hour cruise at $79, a four-hour morning catamaran at $77, which is the fare this page quotes from, and a nine-hour sailing trip at $203 on a 16-metre boat that takes 25 guests. Fitzroy Island comes paired with the Moore Reef pontoon in a nine-hour listing at $200 with a buffet lunch.

The pontoon is the listing for people who would rather not spend the day on a moving deck. At $200 for seven and a half hours it is a multi-level platform moored on the outer reef, with snorkelling, a glass-bottom boat, a waterslide and lunch. You come and go from the water as you like.

If a whole day is more than you want, three listings are built as half-days. The four-hour snorkelling tour at $126 runs a small guided group with a choice of moorings. The five-hour all-inclusive half-day at $147 is rated 4.9 across 626 reviews, the highest score on this page, with marine-biologist snorkel guides and 15 moorings to pick from. The Frankland Islands day at $182 takes the long way round, leaving from Deeral and cruising rainforest waterways before it reaches the coral.

Two listings never leave the inlet, and they are the cheapest way onto a boat here. The 90-minute sunset cruise along Trinity Inlet is $54, rated 4.6 across 243 reviews, with a drink and the city skyline. The dinner cruise is two and a half hours at $102, states Free cancellation and asks to be booked at least two hours ahead. At the far end sit the two-day trips: reef plus the Daintree Rainforest at $298, and a dive and sail with a night aboard at $470.