Green Island is the perfect family reef day trip destination, especially for those with a baby or younger children.? This sand cay island has gently sloping beaches, leading to sheltered warm waters, perfect for paddle and play.? There are offshore reefs, for diving and snorkelling, and plenty of corals and marine life to be found right beneath the jetty.? There are resort facilities and rainforest boardwalks to explore.

Great Adventures Reef and Green Island Cruises offer half and full day tour options to Green Island, with three daily departure times to choose from, on their comfortable, air-conditioned, high speed catamaran.? The Cairns to island transfers are included in the ticket price, as is tea and coffee served on boarding, choice of a glass bottom boat tour or snorkelling equipment and use of the island’s resort day visitor facilities.? Optional extras include introductory and certified diving, snorkel excursion, helmet diving, parasailing and scenic helicopter flights and a visit to Marineland Melanesia Crocodile Habitat.

Our day began with an 8am check-in at the Reef Fleet Terminal.? Boarding passes collected, it was a short walk down Marlin Marina to Great Adventures’ Reef King catamaran, with immediate boarding.? Tea and coffee were served on arrival and the boat pulled back from the marina at 8.20am.? Welcome and safety briefings were provided on departure and it was a short and comfortable transfer to Green Island.

There are no child minding services on Green Island, so we had booked separate certified diving and snorkelling tours for our day tour.? All offshore excursions meet at the island’s Dive Shop and from there, it’s a short walk to the tender and quick transfer to fringing reefs, about 1.5km from the island’s beach.

Arriving at the island, we headed straight to the beach.? It was low tide and a great time to let our 11 month old baby have a play on the sand and in the shallows.? After a quick splash, Mum packed up and headed over to the Dive Shop for the 10.30am snorkel tour.

Lycra suit, life jacket, fins, mask and snorkel are all included in the snorkel tour price (Adult $40 and Child $25). Splashing down, the water was a pleasant 26 degrees and the lycra suit provided excellent sun protection.? The offshore reefs were great for snorkelling, with large table corals, beds of staghorn corals and coral bommies covered in hard and soft corals.

With 45 minutes to explore, I set out at a leisurely pace. There were lots of fish including schools of Blue-green Chromis, Yellow Damsels, Scissor-tail Sergeants and Half and Half Puller.? I also saw Coral Trout, Cleaner Wrasse, Parrotfish, Angelfish, Triggerfish, Six-bar Wrasse, Yellow-tailed Fusiliers, Surgeonfish, Clams and Sea Cucumbers.

Back on the island, my baby had enjoyed a big sleep on Daddy’s shoulder and was ready for lunch.? We grabbed a quick bite from one of the island’s food outlets, Canopy Grill, and ate at the shaded tables around the resort’s day pool.

Unfortunately the 1pm dive tour was cancelled, due to a medical emergency.? With this off our agenda, we headed back to the beach for some more paddle time.? Our baby enjoyed being able to crawl in and out of the warm water and crunching wet sand between his fingers and toes.? Meantime, Daddy went for a snorkel under the Green Island jetty.

This is definitely the best place to snorkel on Green Island.? The highlight of his 1 hour, self-guided snorkel tour was seeing a massive Leopard Whipray underneath the jetty.? Measuring around 2m across (not including the tail) this giant demanded respect and after a few angry ‘flaps’ my husband left it alone. Other highlights included seeing schools of Coral Rabbitfish and Lined Snapper.

In our last hour on the island, we had to choose between relaxing around the pool and taking a self-guided tour on the rainforest boardwalks (tough life!); we picked the pool and grabbed a cold beer from Reflections Pool Bar. Boarding the boat at 4.15pm, it was another comfortable crossing back to Cairns where we arrived around 5pm.