Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef with Kids from Cairns with Great Adventures

Are you planning on going to the Great Barrier Reef with the kids?

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest in the world, spreading out over 2,300 kilometers. Reef tours can be taken from multiple cities along the northeastern coast of Queensland, Australia, but how do you know which one to take, especially with kids?

I prefer to read reviews so that I can see exactly which tour is right for my family.

We traveled as a family of 4 with two kids ages 6 and 7 during the summer school holidays while we drove from Airlie Beach through Cairns and to Daintree.

This was my second time swimming at the Great Barrier Reef, and we went on a day tour with Great Adventures.

Keep reading to learn more about the Great Adventures tour from Cairns.

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How to Choose Which Boat Tour is Right for Your Family

Mark and I have snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef on a boat tour from Airlie Beach, but on this trip, we decided to save the Great Barrier Reef for when we were in Cairns. We still took the kids snorkeling from Airlie Beach, but it is quicker to get to the reef from Cairns.

Even narrowing down the city leaves lots of choices for the type of boat cruise and the length of time.

We narrowed down our choices until we decided on a full-day trip to Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef with Great Adventures.

Find the best Great Barrier Reef Tour from Cairns!

Arrival at the Marina

Hotel pick-up is available, but we chose to drive ourselves to the marina and pay for parking. We stayed with family the night before and planned to leave town after our boat cruise.

They suggest you arrive at 7:30 a.m. for check-in. The boat is loaded at 8 a.m. and departs at 8:30.

There are cafes at the marina, and I was able to order a coffee. We brought our breakfast and ate it as we waited to board the boat.

At check-in, we were given stickers and tickets to differentiate which tour we booked. The boat makes a few stops and picks up different passengers throughout the day.

Boarding Great Adventures

There are 3 levels on the boat. We stayed on the bottom section which is enclosed and air-conditioned.

Tea and coffee are available for free at the bar upon entering the boat, and they stop serving hot drinks when the boat starts to move. The bar also serves cold drinks and snacks, including ice cream.

Seasick tablets are also available at the bar. They have ginger tablets available for free, or stronger tablets for a charge.

We sat down at a table with 6 chairs. The boat was nowhere near full on our way from Cairns to Green Island.

As we had extra seats, we had plenty of room for our belongings. Since the boat is enclosed, we didn’t have to worry about anything getting wet.

Information on various tours is given out on the way to Green Island. There is plenty to do on Green Island or later in the day at the Great Barrier Reef.

Green Island with Kids

The boat arrives at Green Island around 9:15 a.m.

We waited and were one of the last groups off, but if you plan to snorkel, don’t wait.

At the end of the dock, there was someone handing out brochures about Marineland Croc Park and we decided to check it out. The brochure does not have prices on it, and when we realized the cost, we decided to just stick to our original plan of snorkeling.

By that time, we were at the end of the line for snorkel gear.

You can pick up your stinger suit at the dive shop or get one later in the day at the pontoon boat at the Great Barrier Reef. We opted to get ours on Green Island and carry it with us back on the boat.

They do not ask your size, they just hand you a numbered stinger suit. They do ask your shoe size and hand out flippers, which are returned on Green Island along with the snorkel gear, before boarding Great Adventures.

It is a short walk to the beach, and we passed the resort, pool, and restaurants. Of course, the kids wanted to swim in the pool, but we figured it was silly to swim in a pool without even a nice view when we had limited time on Green Island.

Instead, we walked to the beach.

There are picnic tables in the shade right before the beach, so we stopped there to put on our stinger suits. Chairs and shade are available on the beach, for a fee.

Optional Activities on Green Island

There are many activities on Green Island. Some tours stay longer than others, and there is a resort so that people are able to stay overnight. Our tour allowed us to spend 2 hours on Green Island, and we chose to swim and snorkel.

Most optional activities can be booked on the way to Green Island aboard Great Adventures. Volleyball, kayaking, and visiting the croc park can be booked once on Green Island

• Marineland Croc Park
• Parasailing 7+
• Glass bottom boat
• eco island self-guided walk
• snorkeling
• swimming in the pool
• boat snorkel trip
• helicopter ride
• scuba diving 12+
• Seawalker 12+
• beach volleyball
• kayak

Green Island to The Great Barrier Reef

While some people stay on Green Island all day or overnight, we went back on the boat at 11:30 a.m. for our departure to the pontoon boat at The Great Barrier Reef.

Seats are not reserved, and you can not leave your items on the boat. The boat returns to Cairns to pick up more people to drop off at Green Island. Our table was taken so we sat in a 4-seat row instead.

Morning Tea is served at 11:45 a.m. Everyone gets to choose between a small piece of carrot cake or chocolate cake.

The boat arrived at the pontoon by 12:30, and this time we knew to be one of the first groups off of the boat.

Pontoon Boat at the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Adventures Boat docks at the Pontoon Boat and does not move from there until 3:30 p.m.

Items can be left on the main boat, which is where we left ours. Many families brought their belongings and put them on the tables on the pontoon boat.

Lunch is served between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

We knew that we wanted to feed the kids before snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, so we decided to ride the first semi-submarine of the day.

Semi Submarine Ride

There are 4 chances to ride on the semi-submarine. The first trip tends to fill up fast.

We managed to get a spot on the semi-submarine, and this was a great way to see the Great Barrier Reef with kids.

There aren’t actual seats aboard the submarine, just a platform. Everyone sits facing out. What you see is dependent on the day, but we saw lots of fish and coral, jellyfish, and multiple turtles.

The ride is about a half-hour and by the time we returned to the pontoon, lunch was being served.

Lunch at the Great Barrier Reef

Lunch consists of both a hot buffet and a cold buffet and it is impossible to get everything on one plate.

There are servers at the hot buffet. Choices include rice, pork stew, sesame chicken, ratatouille, and potato bake among other items.

Everyone helps themselves to the cold buffet which includes multiple salads, lunch meats, cheeses, fruit, and bread.

Each member of our family had enough choices.

Lunch is served for an hour and a half. We decided to try to go back for fruit at the end, but we missed it as we spent so much time snorkeling.

Despite all of the tables being empty when we got our lunch, everyone had stuck their belongings on them to reserve their spot. The pontoon boat has 2 levels, but instead of checking for a table upstairs, we went back onto the main boat and ate lunch at a table there.

Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef with Kids

We already had our stinger suits, so we just needed to collect flippers, snorkeling gear, and life jackets for the kids before heading to the Great Barrier Reef.

There is a platform in the water where you can put on your gear before jumping into the ocean.

A large area of the water is roped in, and everyone needs to stay in that section. A few rest areas are set up, where you can hold on and take a break.

We separated our family into 2 groups and took off to explore the Great Barrier Reef.

Lanie'e Tip:  Assign a child to each adult when snorkeling.  It is near impossible to stick together as a family.

Exploring the Great Barrier Reef with Kids

The roped-in area is very large and we never made it to the end. We did use the resting areas a few times to take a break, find the other members of our family, and adjust our equipment.

Some of the areas are deep while other areas are shallow. The shallow water had the prettiest coral with the brightest colors, but I prefer to snorkel in deep water where I don’t have to be horizontal.

We didn’t see any more turtles, but we saw a lot of fish and jellyfish, plus the beautiful coral.

While the stinger suits are for jellyfish, they are not for regular jellyfish. Marine stingers, or box jellyfish, have a dangerous sting making stinger suits necessary in certain areas. We did swim away from the ordinary jellyfish that we saw.

One extremely large fish swam really close to us for a while. There is an underwater photographer and he managed to get pictures of us with the giant fish, but the photos are expensive to purchase.

At one point, Mark and M got out of the water while Z and I were still swimming around. Of course, M wanted to come back in and I tried to take both of them for a few minutes while Mark took pictures.

Despite me telling them to swim directly to the rest area, it was hard to snorkel with both kids, and we didn’t last much longer.

All in all, I was in the water snorkeling for 1.5 hours. Very little of that time was relaxing as most of it was spent chasing kids around the Great Barrier Reef.

We swam to the platform, took off our gear, and walked back onto the boat to return our stinger suits, snorkel gear, and flippers.

There is an area at the front of the boat that is an underwater observatory and we went to see more of the underwater sea life before getting back on the main boat.

Optional Activities at The Great Barrier Reef

For us, there is definitely enough to do at the Great Barrier Reef without needing to add on extra paid activities. We snorkeled for 1.5 hours and both kids wanted to stay in the water longer.

We were able to see underwater in 3 ways: snorkeling, the submarine, and the underwater observatory.

Those wishing for more adventures have amazing choices.

• guided snorkel tour
• scuba doo 12+
• helicopter ride

Heading Back to Cairns

Everyone is instructed to get out of the water a 3:15 p.m. and the boat back to Cairns leaves at 3:30 p.m.

There are showers on the pontoon, as well as changing rooms, but we kept our bathing suits on.

We kept the same seats as before, the row of 4.

Coffee and tea are free at the bar, and never have I wanted one more! I drank 2 cups of tea before departure and the kids noticed that many people were ordering ice cream.

We promised them ice cream on the trip back but waited a bit as if was a long boat ride back to Cairns.

Afternoon Tea is cheese and crackers.

The boat goes from the Pontoon to Green Island to pick up more passengers before returning to the marina in Cairns.

What to Pack

The boat is enclosed, and there is not a lot of space under the chairs for belongings. We brought a large IKEA rainbow bag with our belongings.

• sunscreen
• refillable water bottles (water is available on the boat)
• hats
• sunglasses
• towels
• change of clothes if you want to change on the pontoon boat
• wet bag if you change your clothes
• snacks
• something to do on the boat for the kids
• seasick tablets if needed

Great Barrier Reef with Kids Wrap Up

If you are looking for a full day out with multiple options for stops and a wide variety of activities, check out the Great Adventures tour from Cairns.

We opted to stop at Green Island. It was nice to get off the boat, swim, and snorkel. The boat ride to the Great Barrier Reef is long.

I suggest planning what you want to do once you arrive on the pontoon. We realized that it would be silly to get wet before lunch, so we went on the semi-submarine first. Another option would be to go to the underwater observatory.

Looking back, it would have been nice to be showered and in dry clothes for the return trip to Cairns.

Great Adventures offers morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea along with tea and coffee while the boat is not moving. You also have the opportunity to purchsae additional food and drinks.

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• Cairns to Townsville Road Trip Itinerary
• Day Trips from Cairns
• Best Great Barrier Reef Tours from Cairns
• Things to Do in Cairns When it’s Raining
• Kid-Friendly Restaurants in Cairns
• Best Things to Do in Daintree and Cape Tribulation with Kids

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