Green Island tour

Every Green Island tour on this site leaves from the city and lands on the same island. What changes is the boat, the hours and how much of the day belongs to the reef rather than the sand.

Four hours, one catamaran. $77 sails by catamaran and puts you on the island to snorkel over the coral gardens and reef fish. It is described as a half-day morning outing, and at $77 it is the lowest fare on this site among the reef and island listings. The rating is the lowest of the three at 4.1 across 468 reviews, and that is worth knowing rather than glossing over.

Five hours, and a choice once you arrive. $79 is the listing most people mean when they search for a Green Island day tour: snorkel the reef, or board the glass bottom boat, or walk in the rainforest, or sit by the pool. Its 1,916 reviews at 4.4 make it the most reviewed Island listing on this site, and the name itself offers full and half day options, so read the options box before you pay.

Nine hours under sail. $203 is a different proposition: a 16-metre sailing boat, a cap of 25 guests, one reef site described as exclusive, time on the island, and lunch and refreshments on board. Nine hours, 4.8 across 411 reviews. What you are buying is a smaller boat and a longer day, not extra Islands.

What none of them are. None of the three is a scheduled transfer. People search for a Cairns to Green Island ferry, and what this site compares are cruise listings: the fare covers the crossing, time ashore and the activities each listing names, and departures are set by the operator rather than running all day. Check the departure times on the listing.

Three listings, three prices, and about $126 between the lowest and the highest fare of the three. Here is what that money changes.

1. The boat. Two catamarans and one sailing boat. The sailing listing names a 16-metre vessel and a cap of 25 guests; the catamarans do not name a passenger cap, and a Green Island discovery tour search will bring up the bigger boats first. If a crowded deck is what you are trying to avoid, that cap is the single most useful line in any of the three listings.

2. The hours. Four, five and nine. The nine-hour sail spends part of the day at a reef site and part of it on the island, which is why a Green Island and reef tour search lands there rather than on the shorter listings.

3. What is on board. Lunch and refreshments are named on the sailing listing. The five-hour cruise names a drink by the pool and a walk; the morning catamaran names snorkelling. Where food is not named, do not assume it.

4. The proof. 1,916 reviews at 4.4, 468 at 4.1, 411 at 4.8. The cheapest listing carries the lowest score of the three, and the one with the highest fare carries the best score. That pattern is common in this niche and it is the honest reason a Green Island full day tour on the sailing boat is our pick.

Two of the three listings put snorkelling at the centre of the day, and the third gives you a way to see the reef without getting in at all.

What the listings actually say. coral gardens and reef fish, on both catamaran listings. That is the language of the operators, and it is as far as anyone honest will go: the state of the water on the day you sail is not in anybody’s gift, and no listing on this site claims otherwise.

Guided or on your own. Where a listing names a guide, we say so. On the island listings the snorkelling is presented as an activity you do from the shore or the boat; if you want a guide in the water with you, the reef listings are clearer about it — $126 names a small-group guided snorkel, and $147 names marine biologist snorkel guides and a selection of 15 exclusive moorings.

The dry option. A Green Island glass bottom boat tour is part of $79: the listing offers the glass bottom boat as an alternative to snorkelling. That makes it the obvious booking for anyone travelling with a non-swimmer, with small children, or simply not in the mood to get wet. The pontoon listing $200 carries a glass bottom boat too, further out.

Eco, discovery, whatever the boat is called. Searches for a Green Island eco tour bring up the same island and the same water; what differs between the listings is the hull, the hours and what is served on board. Compare those three things and the marketing names stop mattering. Green Island Cairns snorkeling is, in the end, one island and three ways of reaching it.

For the fullest day on the island, book $203. Nine hours, 25 guests on a 16-metre sailing boat, one reef site, lunch and refreshments on board, 4.8 across 411 reviews. The highest-rated island listing here.

For the day most people book, book $79. Five hours, 4.4 across 1,916 reviews, snorkelling or the glass bottom boat, a walk and the pool.

For the lowest fare, book $77. Four hours by catamaran, snorkelling over the coral gardens, 4.1 across 468 reviews.

For a second island rather than a second visit, book $200. Nine hours, the Moore Reef pontoon and Fitzroy Island, buffet lunch, 4.6 across 239 reviews.

And for the water without the sand, book $216. Eight hours, three different outer reef sites, 4.7 across 657 reviews, and the pick of all 18 listings on this site.