Silverswift 3 Great Barrier Reef Sites In 1 Day From Cairns

My 9yr old daughter and I had such a great time! Staff were friendly and couldn't help enough when my daughter got a bit sea sick. Food was yummy! Would do it again

Beautiful excursion. Captain Todd was so good. The crew is attentive. The lunch meal was delicious! Better than I expected. I recommend sea sick patch which I got from my doctor. So many people were miserable with nausea and vomiting, and the seas were really quite calm. The reef is beautiful! It was like swimming in an aquarium.

It is simply an amazing experience, friendly crew made it even better , felt safe the whole time we were at the reef. The lunch was delicious as well.

The boat broke halfway out had to come back at about 15 miles an hour took about three hours never got to the Great Barrier but the rebooked us just for another day we're happy

Well organized and once in a lifetime experience! Friendly staff and good equipment provided. Highly recommend.

I had an amazing time !! I went for my first scuba and the instructor was so patient and knowledge. The Snorkeling was 10/10 !!!

This experience was very well organized with every person’s best experience kept in the forefront, no matter what age. How to put on and use the snorkel gear was so well explained and demonstrated that it took away fears. The food was good. The staff was very well trained, friendly, and helpful. Loved the whole experience.

The three snorkel/dive sites were good but the boat experience was miserable for me mainly due to the behaviour of the staff member who was assigned to "look after" the snorkellers that day. I have been on many Outer Reef Cruises over the years on boats such as Great Adventures, Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel etc and always had a great time. On Silverswift, however, I was micro managed, bullied and even yelled at on one occasion by this staff member. I'm in my 70's and it takes me a while to put on a wetsuit in the first place. Silverswift expect you to take your wetsuit on and off, on and off and on and off three times because there are three dive sites. It's physically impossible for me to do that without a great deal of difficulty. I thought that if I had a towel around me I would still be able to have lunch with the other snorkellers but I was not allowed to. It was only when I asked a kind staff member from the catering section if she could hand me some food, that I was able to access the food buffet. She could see that I was not dripping water because of the towel and said I could get some. I just felt like a target for most of the day because I couldn't physically take my wetsuit on and off multiple times while on the boat. It seems that all the staff care about is the floor covering in their not very large boat and don't give a toss about passengers' enjoyment of the day which is what it should all be about. This particular staff member did ask if everything was OK at one point but I just said "yes" because I didn't want to make him angry and get yelled at again. Another observation is that it is assumed that no one on the boat knows how to use a snorkel or fins, even if you've been snorkelling for decades. This very long snorkel and fin lecture was compulsory to listen to regardless.

The ride to The Great Barrier Reef was a bit rough but the crew helped everyone to be as comfortable as possible. The diving was good but visibility was somewhat limited due to recent weather. All in all a great experience.

We recently spent several days in Cairns for the primary purpose of going snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. We have snorkeled at many places around the world over the course of 30+ years. Accordingly, we booked 3 consecutive trips with 3 different companies. Altogether, we snorkeled 7 different spots on the reef. The weather was challenging on all three days with high wind and scattered showers. We were prepared for this and managed to complete the trips without getting sick. We checked in online, which allowed us to go directly to the boat. This was very convenient. The boat held about 90 people with 2 decks. It didn’t have dedicated storage space so everyone’s items were mixed together. The seating areas were comfortable but a bit crowded. The trip to/from the reef was very rough. At least half of the passengers were sick. The crew was very good about passing out airsick bags and helping people get out in the fresh air. That couldn’t be a fun job but they did it without complaint. We made 3 stops at the reef, fairly close together. The currents were strong at all three but the boat was parked in such a manner that the most difficult swim was getting to the coral heads, getting back was fairly easy. The snorkeling at the first stop was poor with limited visibility. The coral was too deep to see. It may have been better for the divers. The second stop was better but the third was probably the best that we had amongst our three trips. The coral was close to the surface, the variety was good, and the visibility was much better. The food and service onboard was pretty good. There was a hot/cold lunch buffet. It was nice to have the hot food but I’m not sure those that were feeling ill appreciated the strong smell of curry. Drinks, other than water, are an extra charge. My criticism of this trip is that it seemed to be geared much more to the divers. Frankly, it felt like snorkelers were second class citizens. The divers always had priority and we were frequently asked to move away or delay for their benefit. While most of the crew were great, the person in charge of the diving was very condescending to those just snorkeling. Several times, he barked that we needed to be off the deck. This was unfortunate since we also paid to be on board. If diving is going to be that much of a priority, they should probably consider not taking snorkelers.

We had a great experience with Silverswift yesterday on the GBR. We walked over from our cruise ship which was an easy 5 minute walk. The crew was professional and made us feel safe for our 3 dives on the reef after not diving for a couple years. They also, helped my elderly parents have a memorable day out snorkeling in tough current conditions on the reef. Big shout out to Vini the Brazilian dive master for easing my wife’s nerves diving and showing us shark, turtles, stingrays, so many fish and endless corral. Also, shout out to the brunette microbiologist for helping my parents snorkel. Great food and service as well, highly recommend and would come back again! Only minor con is they should charge less for the digital pictures they take for you underwater and they would sell more as we would have purchase more.

Overall great performance by the crew. Everyone did a fantastic job and tour and diving was as advertised.

Really had a strong experience with Silverswift. This is more of a dive-oriented boat than the other two outfits I dove with in Cairns, AU, and it showed. We did three fives total and saw nudibranchs, parrotfish, triggerfish, spotted garen eels, a giant trumpetfish, a potato cod, giant clams, sea cucumbers, and on and on. I felt very safe diving with this group and would recommend it to others that are looking for a more experienced scuba diving group than some of the other boats that cater more to snorklers or "intro to scuba" folks. Their photo package was surprisingly expensive compared to others, but that's my only real complaint with this group. Highly recommend!

Great experience- definitely go for the introductory dive, and if you don’t have an underwater camera, seriously consider renting one from the tour operator.

Great team of dive crew and boat crew. We did the 3 dive package and were not disappointed. Team took great care of us from check in to disembarking. Vinnie and Kenji were very informative and helpful with gear and underwater sightings. Melanie the photographer was fabulous! Boat was air conditioned and lunch and tea was very tasty. We would do this tour again!

The dive sites and snorkel sites are all in one reef area but just different locations around the reef. But still a good amount of time spent at the locations. The buffet food was ok if you could eat it. Of note the back of the ship is where to sit if you are sea sick. The boat driver doesn't slow down for rough waves. So if the seas are rough you will vomit. They seem well aware and prepared for this as they had tons of vomit bags and always ready for more. I recommend if diving request the 2nd and 3rd dive sites as they won't really reimburse you if you miss your dive site for sea sickness. They said they would but only gave 15% back and not the 50% verbally promised by the dive master. So, if weather was better probably would have been a better experience. Oh well.

Book this! As a solo female traveler, I cannot praise this excursion enough. All of the crew on the ship were wonderful, the company was very responsive to messages when I had questions, and it was the most pampered I have ever felt on a dive trip! I did three certified scuba dives and will never forget this day. I would definitely recommend motion sickness tablets, but even with those I did still get seasick because I am an “inland” sort of person no matter how much I want to love being on the water… But the staff were incredibly helpful and sat with me when I wasn’t feeling well and gave me ice to help me feel better. I really love that it was smaller groups of divers and the quality of the gear, hospitality of the dive master, and even the lunch were just perfect.

We had rough seas on the ride out so only 2 dive sites were used and they were only 100 yards apart so the diving was very similar

amazing experience, crew were so attentive and knowledgeable, went during the raining season and the boat was fully covered and they offered free sea sickness tablets. we swam at 3 private reefs and they were beautiful, saw lots of amazing sea life. the food was brilliant and they offered free teas and coffees throughout the trip. 10/10 would recommend

AMAZING TRIP! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!! Me and my friend booked with Silverswift as we heard it’s the best company for Great Barrier Reef diving and snorkelling, and it definitely lived up to our expectations!! The whole day was very well organised. Even though it was full-on it did not feel rushed or chaotic. We went to 3 different locations of the reef and had over 3 hours in total snorkelling and diving. It was our first time scuba diving, the instructors were so patient and explained the whole process really clearly. We felt so comfortable getting in the water with Paul (our amazing instructor!). Paul pointed out the wildlife while we were diving - we were so close to the turtles it was amazing! At one point my ears were hurting and I signalled to Paul and he was very attentive and helped me. At the 3 locations we saw so much wildlife including turtles, giant clams, a reef shark, so many different fishes and beautiful corals. It was so amazing and we cannot recommend it enough! There was a marine biologist, Jess, on board who answered our questions about the different fishes we saw :) Also the lunch included on board was delicious and we got teas and coffee and cake in the afternoon! It was one of the best, if not THE best, trip we have done whilst travelling the East Coast. We highly recommend booking this trip!

Great experience on this boat. It was run very well and is fast so getting to the reef is quick as you can get there. All the staff were very helpful. The only thing I would complain about is we were diving and got back on board after most for lunch and the buffet was a almost over and out of a few things but still had enough food for us. I would definitely recommend this group for sure.

We were decided in small groups with each group having dedicated supervisor who showed us most interesting spots. Highly recommended.

Staff who are totally uninterested in their job. Started out with ”Vigis”, snorkling guide, barking everyone around, laying down the law for this trip, as if we had arrived at “boot camp”. The feel of the experience is ruined by the staff being rude and un interested. During three snorkeling stops one staff person related to snorkeling was in the water for one of these stops with the snorkelers, the rest were standing around on deck. One guy on the top of the boat was blowing a whistle loudly every 3 minutes at anyone who dared snorkel a little bit away from the designated area, within 75 meters from the boat. Staff could have done this kindly, from the water, if any staff had gone in. So the rest of us could have snorkel and take in the reef and it’s beauty in peace. There was lunch and afternoon coffe/tea included in this excursion, the woman responsible for the food was very rude. For example telling Asian tourists of, for not putting the rice spoon back correctly (why do this?), at afternoon tea she ran out of muffins and cakes and she then acted like this in no way was her problem. She acted as if it was us “the stupid guests fault for not queuing quicker.” We went on another reef excursion yesterday and it was so much better! The reef is fantastic, but do choose a different tour company!

Well run ship with crew and equipment. They verified our diving certifications communicated well. Our dive master Dave was excellent. 5stars

Absolutely amazing trip. So good I decided to go on it again. The highlight of my time in Cairns . I done two dives on each trip., The first time with dive instructor Kani, and the second trip with Will. Cannot fault their health and safety at all. The staff are passionate with good attention to detail. Really nice lunch provided. Really good knowledge of the reef and everybody was skilled at their job. All the staff were brilliant. really good equipment. I felt safe at all times

Thoroughly enjoyable experience. The staff were very helpful and friendly. Special shout out to Carlos for going the extra step to assist his customers.

I joined the dive on Christmas Eve, and it became a truly wonderful memory. The crew were extremely knowledgeable about the ocean, and every single one of them was highly professional. Although there were many guests on board, everything was very well organized, making the experience smooth and enjoyable throughout the entire day. I had a great time from start to finish. I’m also very grateful that you accommodated my special requests, even though they were not easy ones. Thank you, Kenji and the entire crew, for working on Christmas Eve. I’m really looking forward to joining you again in the future.

We are avid freedivers and snorkellers, and this trip was absolutely outstanding. We’ve been on several other outer Great Barrier Reef tours, and of the four we’ve done, this one offered the best reefs by far. Visiting three separate reef sites in a single day is a huge advantage and really sets this tour apart. If you want to experience the very best of the Great Barrier Reef in the water, this is the tour to choose. If you’re more interested in a relaxed cruise with minimal swimming, there may be better options - but for snorkelling and reef quality, this is the best tour we’ve done out of Cairns

It was incredible. The crew members were very helpful. We could enjoy a lot even being a non-swimmer.

Amazing snorkel experience! I was originally signed up for scuba but once it was time to hit the water and practice, I got nervous and backed out. My instructor was so patient and understanding about it. Went to 3 diff spots on the reef and enjoyed each one of them! The lunch was decent. The boat crew were all super nice. Definitely worth it! Do this tour!

I have joined the trip for two times intro diving experience with a coach called Dave (Asian). He’s responsible for 3 users and I’m one of them. He didn’t teach us how to breathe before we dive in the water, and when I struggle to go up and breathe, he blames me. When I tried to express that I don’t know how to breathe and I felt breathless l, he interrupted me rudely saying “ did I ask you to talk? Shut up.” And even said “ if I don’t ask you to speak, you are not allowed to”. Knowing that I’m so nervous, he still put me aside and just let my boyfriend to hold my hand firmly under water without checking my status. I felt extremely insecure and in the second dive, he even sink me into the ocean without checking my status, which the water pressure made me feel breathless. When I felt really breathless and struggle to give him a signal (thumbs up) to show I’m going up, he keep reconfirming with me if I really want to go up instead of bring me to the surface right away and even after a few time reconfirming with other two divers okay for me to go up, he just left those two under water and brought me up to surface! Oh my god I can’t imagine if there’s any accidents happen down there to the two divers without license during the time he brought me up, what will happen!!! He’s lack of security conscious and rude attitude makes me feel really dangerous and it’s the worst experience of diving that I ever had !!!! Crazy, and thank god that I’m still alive!! 這個叫Dave的教練我只能說是草菅人命。下水前沒有教我們怎麼呼吸，甚至不說只能用嘴呼和吸，不能用鼻子，水面上隨便說兩句讓我們下水。我下去覺得呼吸不了，瘋狂壓繩子掙扎上水，他抱怨我弄沉大家。我說我不會呼吸，想問清楚鼻子呼氣還是嘴巴呼氣，他說鼻子，然後我說我還是覺得怪呼吸不上來，他就粗魯地打斷我，說”我沒讓你說話不要說話。”下水前我再表示我還是不會，他就反問我“我讓你說話了嗎？” 知道我這麼害怕，他選擇牽著另外兩個人的手，然後讓我拉著我男朋友的手，潛水下去期間從來沒有檢查過我的狀況，只有我男朋友一直問我ok不。 第一次潛水更誇張，他說有了第一次經歷，第二次直接放開我的手把我沉下去，水壓讓我呼吸困難，我示意要上水，我不玩了，這麼一個缺乏安全意識又粗魯的教練我沒法繼續，而且我確認覺得自己呼吸困難，結果他在我一再要求上水之際還多次確認我要不要上，又問另外兩個人同不同意讓我上去，我的天！ 搞了起碼4分鐘我都快憋死了，他就留下剩下的兩人在水底，把我帶上水，我不敢想像如果他們倆在水底有什麼事，能怎麼呼救，誰又可以救他們！！簡直是太不安全了，這次經歷簡直成為我潛水的惡夢！！我認為，Dave不應該有潛水教練執照！！！

They train you well and make you feel very comfortable on the intro dives! After a few minutes I was at ease underwater!

There were three snorkel sites, each of which was beautiful. On the boat, the corals and fish were explained. The food was delicious and the crew friendly and helpful.

Loved it!! If you do the intro scuba dive, be sure to book two dives. The first dive involves some safety training that limits your time looking at the cool stuff. The second dive skips all that because you’re familiar with the process. Totally worth it: one of the highlights of our trip.

We did 3 different entry spots on Flynn reef. They were all unique and different. The corals were very colorful and beautiful, more than I had expected. Really enjoyed the day! Vinnie was our guide and he was awesome! He pointed out that not seen so much things and took us around the reef and thru some swim through. He has a passion for the underwater and it shows. Truly an enjoyable day! The crew was also amazing. They are a well oiled machine. Even though there are close to a hundred people on board, we advanced divers were grouped with others with similar experience and therefore there was no waiting around and we got the most out of each and every dive. Loved it!

Comfortable boat. Attentive and helpful scuba diving instructor for introductory dive. Wonderful to have him trust us to follow him on our own. The dive was a decent amount of time, over a half hour at least.

Silver swift was the best option we could have chosen for the last day of our trip. After we messed up our booking with them earlier that week, silverswift put us on the next available boat (with no extra cost to us) and made sure we were still able to go on this trip. It was my friends first time Scuba diving but the staff made sure she felt safe and comfortable the entire time. I could not recommend them enough.

Excellent and knowledgeable staff, exceptional dive sites and the dive masters excel! Perfect dive experience.

Everything was AMAZING! They took us to 3 beautiful sites full of sea life. The staff was extremely helpful and patient. Clem was great! They also had GoPros for rent. This experience was 10/10.

We had a fabulous day on the Silverswift and felt it was such a magical experience. The day is planned out perfectly to see the best of the Great Barrier Reef. The boat ride was very choppy (nothing to do with Silverswift obviously) but the crew were fantastic at making me feel looked after when I was sea sick. I also did the intro dive with this tour and got myself very panicked and nervous about it, but again, I felt so supported and reassured and had the most incredible time thanks to Will! We also got some wonderful photos to capture our special memory! Huge shoutout to Will and Carlos, they are legends!! Most positive, smiliest people ever!!

Started at the wharf, was a wavy ride so recommend some travel sickness tablets. Once we arrived at the reef, the waves were quite gentle. The equipment, weather, boat crew, reef, colourful fish were exactly as we imagined. My partner and I jumped in the water at all three locations. Snorkeling, looking around, we didn't want to get out of the water. Absolutely stunning experience. Underwater photographer took some photos during the experience so before stepping out of the boat, we purchased a printed photo. (It's on our fridge now and we love it). We returned to the wharf around 1630. Overall, wonderful experience.

We loved our day on the Silverswift. The operation is done very smoothly and professionally. The staff are helpful, polite, funny, and knowledgeable. I did three dives and my wife did snorkeling. Both of us felt completely safe. The buffet lunch was good. There was tea and coffee. The staff is very helpful with getting your equipment on ready to go. The locations for diving were amazing. Saw rays, reef sharks, clown fish, barracuda, triggerfish, bump head, giant clams, and so many others. I highly recommend using this tour for diving.

It was a great day out on the water! They had everything you needed to snorkel or dive. All of the guides on the boat were knowledgeable and passionate about the reef. Even the food/snacks were great (and I’m a picky eater)! EVEN IF YOU DO NOT USUALLY GET SEASICK, take a motion sickness pill before you go. So many people were getting sick while traveling out to the reef. It was not pleasant.

We had a very nice time on the Silverswift. The crew were helpful and friendly. We made three stops for snorkeling (our favorite being the middle stop). A nice lunch was provided, as well as tea, coffee and snacks. The ride back was a bit rough. But that is uncontrollable. We would definitely recommend this tour.

Great day out. Informative and well organized. 3 reef stops. Beautiful corals. Lots of fish and varieties of coral.

Great crew, friendly, helpful. We had a perfect day. Lunch was tasty, plentiful and a good variety of dishes. Thanks everyone

Great crew, great day, good boat amazing experience on the reef. 3 beautiful spots, all quite different. Coral gardens on Flynn's reef my favourite. So many fish, coral, turtle, reef sharks, giant clams.

I had a pleasant time on board Silverswift. They really live up to their vessel’s name as SilverSWIFT as the boat really speeds when travelling out to the reef sites, so it gets really really choppy, and if you’re prone to motion sickness, please eat your pills beforehand!! Now I get why they’re one of few vessels that can visit 3 dive sites in a day. The crew on board were mostly Asians, so it had a sense of familiarity when I was onboard. There aren’t as many staff as I thought there would be (compared to other vessels) but when you’re in the water they still lookout for you. The spread of food throughout the day was good and delicious too. The on board photographer made sure to capture photos of you throughout the day (when you board the boat, when getting ready for the dive, and most importantly when in the water!!). Photos were a bit pricey, but well taken so I purchased it anyway for the memories. I booked 2 intro dives, and I want to give a shoutout to my patient and encouraging instructor, Yuri!! I was scared when I entered the water but she really made me feel comfortable and let me take my time to get used to breathing underwater. During my 2nd dive she did 1-1 with me coz the other person decided it was not for him. I was still having a hard time equalizing my ears, so she just brought me to dive in the shallow waters to my comfort level. Throughout the day she also constantly made sure I was comfortable on board, so really appreciated that. They give you a certificate of completion after your dives too which was a nice momento to take home!!

Everything went smoothly with checking-in and boarding. Due to the weather we only went to two different sites at the reef, but we had plenty of time to do two “dives” at the first site if we wanted to. We saw a lot of different sea creatures, including a shark, stingray and a turtle! The sites at the reef were wisely chosen for snorkeling, as they were close to the surface. We have scuba dived before, but didn’t feel the need as you were on the same depth as most of the fish. A bonus was lunch was very good, especially the Japanese curry! The staff were friendly and informative, and made sure everyone had a good time. If you go during winter I would recommend bringing some spare warm clothes or extra towels as it got pretty cold after snorkeling. The water was 25 degrees, so we didn’t get cold while snorkeling, just after.