What is the best/cheapest way to fly to Cairns from Sydney?

Also, if i want to spend just two days in Cairns and want to explore the Reef, any suggestions from past travelers on what tours are best.

I know this isnt exactly a UNITED question, but I know a lot of FT's have been.

Thanks for all your help. Just found a seat in United First with miles for October/November and want to start planning.

This thread

has some flight information.

Try Virgin Blue for your Sydney-Cairns flight.

There are tourist offices in Cairns and Port Douglas where you can book a reef trip. I went out to the reef with a company called Haba. Some companies took as many as 400 people out at a time, where as Haba only took 50 (although I still would have preferred fewer). We mostly dove, but when I did snorkel, even with that size group it was tough to get away from people in the water. I can't imagine being surrounded by 399 other snorkelers.

[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 08-09-2003).]

For some discussion of Cairns and Port Douglas, see this recent thread in the Starwood forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/007751.html

If you're looking to fly *A to CNS, you're going to have to fly via AKL, SIN, or BKK. (If it's an award ticket from the US, you need to fly via AKL.)

For an actual SYD-CNS flight you're looking at QF or Virgin Blue...

I've been to Cairns and the Reef. My first piece of advice is: don't stay in Cairns. Get a car at the airport and immediately drive up to Port Douglas (about an hour north of Cairns) which has charm (Cairns does not) and a real South Seas ambiance. The main street in port Douglas has some good restaurants.
From Port Douglas you will have multiple options for visiting the Reef, everything from snorkel or scuba boats, to glass bottom tours. All can be arranged on a day's notice, but you need to know that the Reef is approx. 50 miles off shore, i.e. it's a long ride to get there (90 minutes or more on most boats) but well worth it. For what it's worth, I took the Wavelength tour (that's the name of the boat) and had the snorkel experience of a lifetime. Enjoy!

Here's a small catamaran that I've used on 3 trips to Cairns (and would book again):
http://www.passions.com.au/
They get a lot of Europeans (I tend to be the only American, or one of a handful). Maybe I'm the exception in that I actually like Cairns, though there is no beach there to speak of (just marsh land with a mile long walkway along it).

My favorite base is actually Mission Beach, about 90 mins south of Cairns with 8 miles of pristine beach. It's right across from Dunk Island, and you can take a water taxi over to it (small resort area). Not a lot of accomodations in Mission Beach, but it's a nice place to kick back for a few days. I would not use it as a base for reef touring, though. If you want to soak up some sunshine, and do some hiking on the island, I would recommend it. The one major hotel is the Mission Beach Resort:
http://www.missionbeachresort.com/

I know there is white water rafting further south near Tully, but haven't done that myself.

I agree with this assessment. We spent a few days in Cairns and then went to Port Douglas. It fit my style--Good food and beaches--much better.

We went on a three day liveaboard from Cairns to the reef. It was dirt cheap, although far from deluxe. We gained Scuba certification and had 9 dives in 3 days. It was an amazing dive experience. Cairns is the capital of getting certified for Scuba diving in an inexpensive manner.

Keep in mind that if you want to do some SCUBA diving (and I'd strongly recommend that, even if you have no prior experience - it is truly magnificent), you can't fly for 18-24 hours after the dive. That means that you may want to schedule a day or two more around Cairns or Port Douglas.

for a day trip, rent a car and drive north to Cape Tribulation along the Captain Cook Highway, the drive is beautiful.

Going to the Reef, we've used Quicksilver (it goes from Cairns, stops at Port Douglas, then continues to the Reef). If you have no prior experience, they have introductory diving, when a group of 4 beginners dive with an instructor.

It may pay you to look at a package deal thru QF tours. We got RT SYD/CNS/SYD, three nites in a nice hotel with a balcony overlooking the bay in CNS, a FULL day boat tour to the reef on Quicksilver, and a full day trip thru the rain forest via scenic train one way and a gondola ride back down the hill the other way.
Then at the bottom, the tour included visiting an interesting and educational Aussie Aboriginies village, which was also interesting.
The QF tour also included airport transfers in CNS, and transportation from CNS to Port Douglas, about an hour north of CNS.
We were very happy with the tours, hotel, and service we got from QF Tours. Did we save $$ by booking a tour? Not certain, as I never priced it out individually. I'm certain that this could have been purchased each part individually, but the package added a great deal of convenieve. Plus, we felt that QF would only deal with quality and value tour operators, which was true.
CNS is a 3 hour flite NE of SYD. Coming back, an early morning flite from CNS back to SYD gave us ample time to connect to the afternoon non-stop UAL 747 to SFO.

I will third the bit about staying in Port Douglas versus Cairns. Also, if "quaint" is REALLY your style, consider Palm Cove. However, please don't take the aforementioned comments to mean that Cairns is a bad city--it most certainly is not. Definitely still worth a visit should you make the trip to Oz.

I've gone on Quicksilver as well. Where I goofed was by not taking an outer reef tour. Whether you're novice or super snorkel man, it's worth the longer trip and extra cash to visit the outer reef.

As far as getting to Cairns, DJ is probably the cheapest, although with the introduction of another Branson cash cow, QF has had to lower its prices and adapting their pricing structure as a result. So fares will be competitive. Having flown on both, I'd pick DJ with a seat in the "Blue Zone." It's a much more "fun" airline...definitely a great concept going on down under.

How much was this? Should I just call Qantas myself to ask questions?

Looks like ~250 USD roundtrip (if purchased in the US) is the "lowest published" fare, on Virgin Blue. Sometimes intra-Oz tickets are MUCH cheaper if issued in Oz...have you checked travel.com.au or any of the Oz-based sites?

I would agree with other posters on these topics:

• Stay in Port Douglas instead of Cairns. Much more charming and great restaurants on the main street.
• If you do a reef trip, use Haba instead of Quicksilver. On QS, I was one of about 500 people in the water - it was a zoo!
• Unless you are oneworld-affiliates fly Virgin Blue. You will enjoy your flight.

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Latitudes.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel�s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850�1894)

I too have no idea what this is doing on United Forum and not Travel Buzz but seeing it is still active:

1. Book Virgin Blue for Tues and Wed flights on-line and deals are ALWAYS lower than QF.

2. Do consider the 1 hour flight to Papua New Guinea from CNS. Few folks reaolise it is that close, and the highlands is often the travel experience of your life. Very few toursits go there. POM is dangerous but you'll be OK in the Highlands. I am going there next week for the Mount Hagen Show ... again. It is that kind of experience. QF flies there so you can use AA miles etc for the trip to POM if you have them.

3. Tom is generous with his description of Cairns. 'Smelly mud flats' is more apt.

Mind you, 6 months of the year you cannot swim at Port Douglass due to nasty marine stingers, so be careful of your timing.

As in case this does get moved to Travel Buzz .. many folks fail to realise CO still fly to Cairns direct from Guam on Air Mike which makes an interesting stopover for those with CO miles to burn.