Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - What town to base in to see GBR?

So time is going to be an issue unfortunately. My girlfriend and I are going to have 2 days to enjoy the reef. Looking for reasonably cheap accomodations and good snorkeling. We're going in April if that affects anything. Should we fly into Cairns, Townsville, or Hamilton Island? (Or something else that I haven't thought about).

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Cairns would be my pick of the destinations, plenty of reef dive company operating day tours to the reef.
For the hotel accom unless you want to look for backpacker accom or the like, check out sites like www.wotif.com.au or www.lastminute.com.au

I did it out of Cairns with the daytrip that included Green Island, the snorkeling and the "submarine" (really a form of glass-bottom boat). No complaints, though do bring along the motion-sickness meds, like Dramamine.

Cairns is the biggest of the bases and has the most in terms of restaurants and especially bars, though by the standards of most countries it's still a medium-sized town. Townville, if memory serves, is smaller, more boutique-ish, but does have a nice beach right there (something Cairns lacks, though they've done a good job with the bayside municipal pool to try to compensate)

Townsville is a bigger city than Cairns, more of a business and an administrative centre but much less well set up for tourism. The reef is significantly further from the coast at Townsville, and the area around the city lacks Cairns's physical allure (it is flatter and drier and given over to beef cattle, in comparison to Cairns's mountainous rain forests and tropical plantations). There are some beautiful little beaches north of Cairns (but no good for swimming in the wet season (the southern summer) because of the box jellyfish. (Indeed, in the wet season don't go swimming anywhere on the far-north Queensland coast. The Reef is OK for swimming though.)

There is accommodation in Cairns to suit every pocket, and multitudinous trips out to the Reef and up into the mountains. (The Kuranda train is a very pretty trip, for example.)

I don't know Hamilton Island, but it might be ideal given that you have only a short time (and to be honest there is nothing much to see in Cairns by way of urban interest). But it might well not have the cheaper accommodation options, being as it is a resort.

Port Douglas would be another option, but one has to make one's way there by road from Cairns and it is expensive. Very attractive and some very fine dining too.

I'm a newbie to Oz too, but just finished researching and booking the GBR portion of our July trip. I found Cairns to have a wider range and more reasonably-priced lodging than Port Douglas. Also, CNS airport is 20 minutes from central Cairns but an hour south of Port Doug...something to consider if your flight arrives after dark or you have an early morning departure. Also if you are not going to rent a car check what the tour operator's shuttle costs. Many have free pickup in their home base but charge extra for PD (vice versa too)

I did not check cities south of CNS.

Last comment is a cyclone is headed for QLD right now; hopefully there will be minimal problems but it probably is smart to double check that your plans will be unaffected.

Last comment is a cyclone is headed for QLD right now; hopefully there will be minimal problems but it probably is smart to double check that your plans will be unaffected.Absolutely. Cyclone Hamish, no less. Your trip will be all right in July (the dry season). Anyone travelling to far north Queensland at this time of year must expect at best humid weather and heavy rains, and sometimes worse than that.