Six nights: Sydney and Cairns

Are you arriving after flying 24 hours? If you are landing early morning on the 28th of March in Sydney I suggest you book a hotel room starting the 27th and sleep for a few hours then hit the ground running, worked for us, not a drop of jet lag with a 17 hour time different and I can't sleep at all on planes. 10 hours to Europe is way harder to recover from. You only have a couple days in Sydney and it will be a day to fly to Cairns. We snorkeled from Port Douglas (1 hour north of Cairns) as one of our stops on the reef. We used Wavelength, first day, was great, second not so much. Weather wasn't great both times but staff makes a huge difference. The other day trip was supposed to be with ABC snorkel, but weather was not great and they cancelled and didn't have enough availability on any other days for our trip, so we did wavelength a second time.

I highly suggest you go to the trip advisor forum for Australia and you can find the most suggested tours for the reef from Cairns. You will want to go to the outer reef and it is a 2 hour boat ride each way- yes 4 hours spent on a boat in potentially rough seas. Multi day trips seem to go out to a boat that is full of divers for the sleeping part and then travel to and from Cairns with the day trippers, we did contemplate this but we ended up at Lady Elliot Island for our other snorkel experience. I can highly recommend them, amazing snorkeling right from the shore. If you just want to see Sydney and snorkel the GBR there are other islands out on the reef you can stay at. Also it is stinger season, so jelly suits will be required to be worn.

Thanks for the info, northwestern. I look forward to reviewing your suggestions.

I should have mentioned that I'm spending four nights in Fiji prior to this, so only flying from there to Sydney, arriving at 12:30 pm. I should be able to hit the ground running.

It’s about 15 years since I did a snorkelling tour from Cairns but hope the following might help. I booked my trip when I got to Cairns through one of the many tour offices in the downtown core. Because I also wanted the chance of sailing, I chose a tour that used a sailing catamaran and took about 20 passengers. We sailed out to Hastings Reef and spent all our time there. There was just one other boat using the reef and they kept to the far side of the reef from us. We saw a good variety of fish and even a dugong swam by but kept well away from us. No sharks but a couple of turtles. Lots of coral varieties. It took about 2 hours to reach the reef and then a couple of hours snorkelling. Then a break for lunch, lovely fresh salads cold cuts, bread and fruit, a good selection and plenty of it. After lunch some us went back for more snorkelling and a few, who had PADI certification went scuba diving. One fellow who had had a beer with his lunch was refused the chance to scuba. The small crew of the boat were helpful, knowledgable, and kept a close eye out on us. On the trip back to Cairns the sails went up and with a following wind we had a wonderful sail back to Cairns. I wish I could remember the name of the company, They did a great job and it was a highlight of my trip.

I also took a trip up to Karunda in the Tablelands above Cairns for a glimpse of the tropical rain forest. Took the train up and the cable car down - beautiful trip. The Aboriginal Cultural Centre at the bottom of the cable car was interesting. If you had time, a trip up to the Tropical North would be interesting.

As mentioned you will probably be needing a stinger suit in the far north even in March.
Also be aware it is still very much cyclone season in the far north March/April. Cairns is currently recovering from Cyclone Jasper. Port Douglas currently has no running water and some of the roads are still severely damaged. This will all be sorted by March but does demonstrate some of the potential issues if the weather goes pear shaped.

Base yourself in Port Douglas not Cairns - the airport is partway between the 2. PD is much smaller, has a nice beach (though maybe closed because of stinger season) and is closer to the reef. The best operator if you are not diving as they specialise in snorkelling only -dive operators treat snorkellers as the poor cousins. https://www.wavelength.com.au/ The time to the reef is shorter from PD than from Cairns.

Hi Lane, Far North Queensland is indeed still recovering from cyclone Jasper and unfortunately will be for quite some time. I would suggest that you base yourself in Cairns, the airport is only about a 20 minutes drive from downtown Cairns. Port Douglas is an hours drive via the coastal road from the airport, HOWEVER, the coastal road is closed possibly for some months due to landslides, currently the only way from Cairns to Port Douglas is via the inland road and the journey takes about 2.5 hours. Port Douglas is lovely but with your tight schedule I would save it for another trip. Hope that you have a great trip out to the reef, it’s magic!

@ Lane

Friday 29th Mar is Good Friday, a public holiday, Sunday 31st Mar is also a public holiday as is Monday 1st April Easter Monday. For everyone. To me and many others the most important long weekend of the year. Leave the city after lunch on Thursday and head for one’s favourite beach location. Returning home late Monday or preferably Tuesday. Driving on the east coast at this time is described in unprintable words. To some parts of the world a religious festival. To many Larkins like me, this marks the end of those lazy hazy crazy days of summer.

Cairns. How about the airlines? Just checked Qantas, Jetstar, and Virgin flights from Sydney to Cairns, one way. Good luck if you have not a direct flight booked. Then there is the question of accommodation. Like airlines, plum locations tend to be booked 12 months in advance. Then you need to get back by 3rd.

I hope it works out. Might need more than prayers.

If you can complete half of the suggestions made by the Geek, you will have done well.

House of Sails aka Opera House.
Best in the world. 50 years up. Personally embarrassed about the way the politicians treated Utzon. Brillant forward thinker and visionary. Recent $300m internal refurbishment. Do not know about the tours. Appears no performances over Easter.

However. https://opera.org.au/productions/west-side-story-on-sydney-harbour/ .

Toss up with the floating Bregenz stage on Lake Constance. To me the background of the coat hanger and the house of sails just nudges it. Both with open air performances over water on a late summers/autumnal evening give something magical to the occasion.

Regards Ron

Thanks for all the helpful responses!

My flight from Fiji arrives at 12:30 pm on March 28.

I've booked three nights at the Little National Hotel (https://littlenationalhotel.com.au/sydney/).

I've booked a flight with Virgin Australia from SYD to CNS on March 31.

I've booked three nights at the Oaks Cairns Hotel. On April 1st I booked a GBR cruise with Ocean Free (https://www.oceanfree.com.au/our-tours/full-itinerary/), and on April 2 I booked an excursion to Kuranda (https://www.ksr.com.au/Tourpackages/Pages/KSRClassic.aspx).

And I have a flight from CNS to AKL on Jetstar. I've have a five-hour layover at BNE, but that's okay.

Now all I still have left is to plan my 2 1/2 days in Sydney.

@Helen: Thanks for the warning about the road closure between Cairns and Port Douglas. I actually discovered that on Google maps. Reports I'm reading suggest the road will be open in time for my trip, but because of my tight schedule, I'm doing as you suggest and saving Port Douglas for a future visit.

@Tassie Devil: I didn't have any problems making these plans despite the holiday weekend. I did see the West Side Story performance. I love that show, and it sounds like you're suggesting that the outdoor venue is a must-do. So maybe I'll do the tour of the Opera House and see an outdoor performance instead of indoor.

I once did similar to Leslie. The catamaran out to the reef. Sounds good, leisurely, smaller group. Never again. several of us on the boat did not get to partake of the lunch. We were lying on the pontoons, seasick. So make sure you are not one of those people. 2-3 hours out to the reef. Glad to get in the water off that boat but had to repeat for the return trip. There we were bobbing along on the return when the bigger powerboats went by us and got in way ahead of us.
Never again.
We did return to Cairns on same trip and went to the reef again. On the larger powerboats and it was magnificently different. We got out there quicker, more comfortable, and had more time at the reef. So much more enjoyable.

@treemoss, thanks for the warning about seasickness. I'll make sure to bring my wrist bands. Though I've never had a problem with motion sickness before, better safe than sorry, right?

Based on your list, we did the following--mind you, way back in 2006!

Start your day with a visit to the iconic Sydney Opera House--yes we did that. We took a tour but it wasn't very expensive. Must have been the general tour. We also saw a musical (operetta?) there--Pirates of Penzance.

Take a stroll through the Royal Botanic Garden--being nature and animal lovers, my husband and I spent a lot of time here. I couldn't get enough of the flying foxes and cockatoos everywhere. We walked all over the gardens, and went back twice.

Head over to The Rocks--yes--shopped and ate there a few times

Explore the Museum of Contemporary Art or visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales--did not do the art museums or maritime museum, but toured Hyde Park Barracks

Begin your day by visiting the renowned Sydney Harbour Bridge--took a lot of photos of the bridge but didn't walk it

Take a ferry to Manly Beach--yes, we did Manly Beach, as well as Bondi Beach, and a coastal walk. Also took the ferry to the zoo.

We also did a day trip with a guide out to the Blue Mountains, which was gorgeous.

@Lane

Relieved to read that you have your airfares etc in place for Cairns.

I like Cairns and environs. Our main bridesmaid’s daughter and husband live at Mosman next to the Daintree. Taken a hammering. Take it in their stride, one must expect these little inconveniences to live in this little paradise. For us, best time is during the dry season, circa mid-July to mid Sept.

The current media and my contact reports about damage and clean up are a little conflicting. This is the wet season and tropical storms; heavy rain and the odd cyclone are the norm, and all contribute to the confusion. More to come. Will take time.

Just alerting you to the harbourside performance as an alternative to the big house auditoriums. The main Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre are for the purists. I enjoy performances, but many are above my league. The harbourside outing is just a fun time. I would not say a must see. Only have them for me. Just fun.

Regards Ron

Looks like the inland road to P.D is fine.

Everyone seems to be taking a hammering here at the moment. Flash flooding and blackout here Christmas day, golf ball size hail and 60 mm of rain in 30 mins, 2d Jan. Wife, daughter grandson couldn't make it home through the floodwater. More flash flooding yesterday.
Meanwhile it's been about 50 deg C in Marble Bar.