A day on the outer Great Barrier Reef from Cairns with Passions of Paradise, an award-winning, eco-certified operator, locally owned for more than 35 years, travelling aboard a spacious sailing catamaran to snorkel or scuba dive.
Days
- Full day, 9 hours
Age
- All ages
Group size
- Small group
Start / finish
- Cairns / Cairns
Return
- See itinerary for details
Transport
- Sailing catamaran from Cairns; hotel transfers extra
Meals
- Morning tea, hot and cold buffet lunch, afternoon tea
Route
Included experiences
- Outer Great Barrier Reef — snorkelling with a guide
- Introductory or certified scuba diving — optional
- Marine naturalist talk
Pictures / Videos
Reviews
5.0
Based on 58 reviews
Verified from
Real reviews from travellers who've done this tour, gathered from around the web and paraphrased.
AI summary of 58 reviews
Travellers consistently praise the crew's professionalism, attentiveness and genuine care for guests of all swimming abilities, with particular appreciation for the expertise and patience shown in the water when supporting nervous or inexperienced swimmers. The quality of the food, cleanliness of equipment, comfortable boat facilities and organised itinerary featuring two reef sites stand out most frequently across reviews. The most common caveat is the two-hour journey each way to the outer reef, with several travellers noting rough seas and seasickness during the crossing, though most who experienced this still rated the tour highly and recommended taking seasickness tablets beforehand; a few guests also noted that around 90 passengers made the water feel busy, and one reviewer suggested the tour could rotate between different reef sites rather than visiting the same locations daily.
How we collect and publish reviews
Where they come from. Our reviews are gathered from independent review sites and from guests who share feedback with us directly after their trip. They come from people who have actually travelled on the tour. Some longer trips are made up of shorter tours we also sell, run back to back — where a review was written about one of those legs, the review says so.
Why some are edited. Many of our guests travel in their second or third language. Where a review is hard to read, we lightly edit spelling, grammar and punctuation, or paraphrase a sentence for clarity. We never change the rating, the meaning or the sentiment, and we never write a review on a guest's behalf.
Reading the originals. Reviews sourced from public review sites appear there in their original form, and can be read in full at their original source at any time.
A well appointed boat with clean, hygienic snorkel gear and friendly staff. Two hours out to the reef, two sites with lunch included, then an informative reef talk on the way back, and they catered for first-timers and experienced swimmers alike.
A great crew on the boat and in the water, with safety first everywhere, and excellent food. A lovely local, human-scale company.
A wonderful day with friendly, knowledgeable staff who keep it fun without compromising safety, and great food. So glad we chose Passions for our once in a lifetime reef trip.
Honestly one of the best days of my life on an amazing locally run reef tour. Big thanks to Jules and the rest of the crew.
We've done reef trips from 1770, Airlie and now Cairns, and this was our favourite: two sites, a delicious lunch, great staff and fewer people than the big pontoon trips. A great marine life talk on the way back and clear safety instructions.
A fantastic day out with a gorgeous reef and amazing staff. I loved that it wasn't crowded, with plenty of room on the boat and fantastic food.
