Great Barrier Reef options

[Carol10]

Having trouble deciding on whether to book a package at one of the island resorts or staying in the Cairns area and doing daytrips to the reef. Two teenagers are definitely interested in the windsurfing and other water sports that are all inclusive on the islands, yet if we spend all our time on an island we'll miss out on the Daintree rainforest and Kuranda Village. If we do daytrips, are there beach concessions on the islands that rent windsurfers and catamarans? Is it possible to do the same at Trinity Beach or Four Mile Beach?
We will be leaving the 21st of May for 3 weeks. Do we need to book in advance for this time of year or is it possible to decide when we get there?
Thanks, Carol

There's not beach in Cairns, the couple are a pretty good bus ride from the city center(if you can call it that, it's pretty small) Your not going to want to spend much time in Cairns.

I'd say stay on you island and do day trip from there to the GBR.

You can do day and over night trips to Cape Tribulation (where the rainforest meets the GBR) Go on a croc. river tour and see crocs. in the wild. The tour should have a couple short walks through the rainforest. You should also stop and see a couple water falls on the way whic

I’d say skip Cairns of spend a couple hours walking around. You want to go to Port Douglas it’s 70k north of Cairns and closer to Cape Trib.

Port Douglas has a beautiful 7-mile beach, and tons of dive companies will pick you up in the morning for day trips to GBR. PD is a smaller town with really nice restaurants and small shops. Port Douglas is pricier than Cairns, but much cleaner and more of an upper class upper class. It's where lots of Aussies vacation. The Sheraton has the largest swimming pool in the southern hemisphere. The diving is really god, I don’t remember who I dove/snorkel with but there all about the same.

[TJAsh]

Check out either Port Douglas or the Whitsundays. They're my favourite places in Australia.