Liveaboard Dive Trips Cairns and Port Douglas

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There are currently no liveaboard dive trips departing from Port Douglas for The Great Barrier Reef. If this changes, we’ll do our best to let you know. But there are plenty departing Cairns, just an hour or so to the south. In this post, we’ll give you a few options and show you how to book these liveaboards.

Liveaboard Dive Trips Cairns

Cairns has a variety of liveaboard dive trips departing Cairns Marina. At the luxury end there is Mike Ball and Spirit of Freedom, for a more budget-friendly liveaboard dive boat, look at Pro Dive.

When you’re looking at the cost of liveaboard diving, it’s best to look at the cost per day. Everything is normally included in the price, but do check the details carefully for yourselves.

Minke whale diving is available in June and July (winter), on certain boats. We’ve done it, it’s a great experience.

You will need to book a long way in advance, these boats fill up, particularly at peak times.

You can check out these liveaboards here, and book.

• Spoilsport is a Mike Ball Boat, luxury liveaboard diving. A lot of their dive trips are for advanced divers only. Diving is on the Great Barrier Reef and in The Coral Sea. Trips can be 3, 4, or 7 nights long. (Kids over 8 years only, according to their website.)
• Spirit of Freedom is more expensive than Spoilsport, again luxury. Spirit of Freedom has family rooms with 4 bunks available. These rooms may also be shared to cut costs. (Kids over 16 only, according to their website)
• The Scuba Pro boats are cheaper and more beginner-friendly. Pro Dive Cairns runs these, and liveaboard trips can be coupled to your learn-to-scuba-dive course. Nitrox is available at a surcharge. You can book your dive course plus liveaboard here, scroll through the many options.

Diver’s Den Cairns operates in a similar way to Pro Dive, in that you can learn in their pool in Cairns, and then progress to a liveaboard. The two are quite similar in price.

There is also a sailing boat liveaboard out of Cairns. Having taken this trip ourselves, we don’t recommend it.

You may also book a 5 day learn to dive course with Scuba Pro here. You will spend 3 days, 2 nights, on one of their liveaboard boats after completing your pool training in Cairns.

Scuba Pro is now owned by Quicksilver. Quicksilver offers day diving from Port Douglas on Silversonic, and from Cairns on Silverswift. Be aware that the price you see when you open these links is for snorkelling. You’ll pay extra for each dive, and your day will become expensive.

We think you get better value on a liveaboard, having dived these waters ourselves for many years,

Learn To Scuba Dive in Cairns, Plus Liveaboard

We have done this ourselves. Our son learned on to scuba dive in Cairns and he then took his first few dives on The Great Barrier Reef on a liveaboard. The whole family joined him, including a child non-diver. It was a great trip!

Since you can’t dive from the shore off Cairns, your first open-water dive will be on the Great Barrier Reef. This makes it a little more expensive than learning elsewhere, but also a lot more exciting!

If you want to learn to dive on a smaller budget, consider Magnetic Island, Queensland. It’s where I qualified for my PADI Open Water Diver, and an Advanced Diver.

Your first dives can be off the beach there, so no extra boat fees. If you continue on to your advanced certification, you can visit the incredible Yongala wreck. We’ve done it, it’s amazing.

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