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Arlie Beach


CSloan
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We'll be doing round trip Sydney, via Golden Princess. Stops include Brisbane, Port a Douglas, Yorkey's Knob, and Arlie Beach in October.

 

A highlight of the trip for me will be snorkeling the outer Reef, definitely on my bucket list! We have booked the ship snorkel excursion out of Port Douglas.

 

We are Considering also doing the ship snorkeling tour at Arlie Beach. (Actually, my husband doesn't snorkel, he would just be going along:-) However, since we're traveling such a long way to get a taste of Australia, I'm re-thinking Arlie Beach snorkeling. I guess my question is, would the experience out of Arlie Beach be pretty much a repeat of Port Douglas? If so, what would be a good option for seeing sights - and what sights are worth seeing in Arlie Beach?

 

We're planning on going to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, and doing a helicopter tour in Yorkey's Knob.

 

We will have a couple of nights in Sydney before the cruise. Post cruise we have a couple nights in the Blue Mountains, then a couple more in Sydney again before flying home.

 

We enjoy exploring, especially the outdoors.

 

I look forward to your opinions, especially about Arlie Beach.

 

 

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My husband and young teenage daughter did the snorkelling/scuba trip from Airlie Beach from Celebrity (we did the Kurandra train from Yorkey's and didn't go to Port Douglas). It was off a reef platform but they loved it. My son and I did the crocodile trip on the Proserpine river which I expected to be tackorama but was surprisingly informative and genuine.

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My husband and young teenage daughter did the snorkelling/scuba trip from Airlie Beach from Celebrity (we did the Kurandra train from Yorkey's and didn't go to Port Douglas). It was off a reef platform but they loved it. My son and I did the crocodile trip on the Proserpine river which I expected to be tackorama but was surprisingly informative and genuine.

 

We were looking at the crocodile trip, wondering if it would be a real touristy thing. Sounds like it wasn't bad? Would you recommend that or do it again?

 

Trying to decide if one snorkeling trip will be enough. The one out of Port Douglas also goes out to a reef platform for the day.

 

Has anyone experienced a little tour with Just Tuk'n Around in Arlie Beach? They get good reviews on Trip Advisor; https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g261596-d8661728-Reviews-Just_Tuk_n_Around-Airlie_Beach_Queensland.html

 

Thanks!

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The crocodile trip probably disappoints a lot of people. There are a bunch of pretty genuine sounding Aussie blokes who love the . country. There are two trips with a bbq lunch in between. One trip is on a small flat river boat up and down the river (it is shaded) where the crocodiles live. You may or may not see them, up to the crocs. There is no feeding the crocs or getting them to do tricks! We saw quite a few. The other trip is out on a tractor towing carriages where they show you plants and wildlife and tell you about the history of the area. The camp is picnic tables under shade sails. There is one outdoor dunny! I enjoyed it much, much more than I expected. Once is enough though.

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Neither of us are snorkellers so we decided to be a little extravagant and see the reef from above. We flew out over the Heart Reef before coming back and landing to spend time on Whitehaven Beach as well. Its probably the best tour we have ever done since we started cruising, absolutely magical experience.

My blog entry for the day is on the link below with a few photos.

Celebrity Solstice Postcard #35 – Airlie Beach, Australia

 

Just remember that Airlie is a tender port so and private excursions will be at the mercy of the cruise line who look after their tours first. Local boats were used but did take time to load and unload. We only just made our rendezvous slot for the bus to the airfield.

 

Airlie Beach was hit by the cyclone only two after we were there so we consider ourselves very lucky to have missed that too.

 

BTW, there were plenty who booked private reef snorkelling tours on smaller boats at Port Douglas. You are not tied to where you can go in the water.

There is the same problem with the tendering so just be aware.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

Just found this thread, and we also want to do the lone pine koala sanctuary when in brisbane next march. This is not one of princess tours, so can anyone say how easy is it to do alone, and would it be easy to get from port to where the tour boat cruises up the river to the sanctuary.??

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Hi,

Just found this thread, and we also want to do the lone pine koala sanctuary when in brisbane next march. This is not one of princess tours, so can anyone say how easy is it to do alone, and would it be easy to get from port to where the tour boat cruises up the river to the sanctuary.??

 

 

 

We'll be there in Oct, via Princess. Several of us are planning on sharing a taxi to/from the sanctuary

 

 

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Ok, thank you, hope you have a great time.

The trip I have looked at is going via river cruise, departing from the cultural centre pontoon at 10am and arriving back at 3.30pm.

It's just knowing how far and how easy it would be to get there from where our ship docks. Would be great if you have any further info on this after your cruise, but a taxi could be another good option for us, so thank you,for that. Are you pre booking taxi, or will there be loads waiting at the port ?? ..Have done many cruises,..5 in Caribbean, but never been to Australia before, so really looking forward to it.

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Ok, thank you, hope you have a great time.

The trip I have looked at is going via river cruise, departing from the cultural centre pontoon at 10am and arriving back at 3.30pm.

It's just knowing how far and how easy it would be to get there from where our ship docks. Would be great if you have any further info on this after your cruise, but a taxi could be another good option for us, so thank you,for that. Are you pre booking taxi, or will there be loads waiting at the port ?? ..Have done many cruises,..5 in Caribbean, but never been to Australia before, so really looking forward to it.

 

I'm pretty sure there will be taxis there when we get off the ship, but I am going to contact them ahead of time to ask, since there will be at least 6 of us. I thought about the boat, but I'm not comfortable that we would get back to the ship on time. I'm sure that's just me... :D

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will you please post the web site for that tour?

will be in Brisbane in February...trying to decide between the Koala Sanctuary and a trip to Mt. Tamborine...or the ZOO!

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will you please post the web site for that tour?

will be in Brisbane in February...trying to decide between the Koala Sanctuary and a trip to Mt. Tamborine...or the ZOO!

 

What tour are you looking for? This is the link for the koala sanctuary. Includes info on how to get there (boat, etc)

https://koala.net/en-au/visit

 

We decided to do that instead of the zoo. The only way, on our cruise, do realistically do the zoo would be via the cruise ship. But, that tour spends more time on the bus getting to/from than actually at the zoo. That's why we opted for the koala sanctuary instead. Seems like it wouldn't be as rushed.

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