Sydney to Auckland Cruise, Plus Great Barrier Reef

[DanaJW]

Hello, We are planning a 2013 cruise from Sydney to Auckland and are considering whether we leave the US a few days early to fly to Cairns, then see the Great Barrier Reef. We have already factored in a few days in Sydney prior to our cruise, so we would just allow ourselves a few additional days in Cairns.

Not sure if this plan will work for a number of reasons, i.e. cost, time away from home, time required to do the Great Barrier Reef justice, etc.

Would two days in Cairns be enough to see the Reef and do some snorkeling?

I would love some input from those of you who have done this. Are you happy you visited the Great Barrier Reef? Was the extra traveling too much?

We are all physically fit, so that is not a concern. I am wondering if we are trying to do too much in one visit.

Thanks so much in advance.

[Floridiana]

You need one full day for the excursion to the Barrier Reef.

[GradUT]

When does your cruise take place? If it is the Australian summer (which I would assume it is), then the weather in Cairns is going to be hot, humid and probably rainy. (It's the wet season). The following link will give you some good weather info and other info about conditions in Cairns at various times of the year:
http://www.divethereef.com/Guides/SeasonsF.asp

Even though the summer months may not be the best time for visiting Cairns and snorkeling the GBR, lots of people still go there and enjoy it very much. If that were going to be my one time to visit the GBR, I would still do it.
(I've been to the Cairns/Port Douglas area on 5 different occasions and have snorkeled the GBR about 8-9 times. It's pretty amazing!)

As for the amount of time to spend in Cairns--I would recommend a minimum of 3 days. First of all, that gives you a little "wiggle" room to choose a day that will be best, conditions-wise, for a trip to the GBR. Second, there is certainly enough to see and do in the area (e.g. day trips to Daintree National Park, Kuranda and/or Port Douglas) to keep you busy for 3 days. If you are going to take the time to fly to Cairns, you should take the time to enjoy it. (Perhaps you can take some time off the Sydney portion of your trip to add to Cairns if you have time constraints.)

Finally FWIW, you could schedule your flight so that you fly from the U.S. to Cairns. You'd stop first in Sydney to go through immigration/customs but then continue on to Cairns. This would likely save you money over buying a separate Sydney-Cairns ticket and it would be a good place to start your Australian trip so you could relax and get over your jet lag.

[DanaJW]

Thank you for your responses. Our cruise is scheduled for March 2013.

What is the best way to see Daintree National Park?

We would definitely fly from the US to Cairns, then to Sydney for our cruise.

Thanks again.

[GradUT]

We've been to Daintree a couple of times and each time we did a self-drive tour. We found this easy to do with a good map of the Daintree area and information on what to see and do there that I had read in guidebooks and online.

If you prefer to have a guided tour, there are a couple of companies that I have read good things about, but I don't have any personal knowledge of their tours. Check: Tony's Tropical Tours and Daintree Discovery Tours.