The islands, cays and dive sites our Great Barrier Reef itineraries visit

Great Barrier Reef

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Whitsundays

Wander the white silica sand of Whitehaven Beach and snorkel the turquoise waters of the Whitsundays. Off rugged Hook Island, dive or snorkel sites such as Manta Ray Bay, explore hidden bays by tender, or take an optional heli flight over Hill Inlet.

Cairns

Experience a Cairns cruise with True North. Explore remote reefs, coral cays and tropical islands on an immersive Great Barrier Reef adventure.

View location

Lizard Island & Ribbon Reefs

Climb to Cook's Look on Lizard Island and snorkel among the giant clams of the Clam Gardens. Along the Ribbon Reefs, dive or snorkel sites such as Steve's Bommie and the Cod Hole, where giant potato cod are often seen.

Raine Island & Far Northern Reef

Venture to the far northern Great Barrier Reef to dive Tijou Reef's walls and the Wreck Bay area's caves and bommies. On selected itineraries, you may join researchers tagging whale sharks and learn about the work protecting Raine Island's green turtles.

Cape York & Torres Strait

Take a guided tour of Thursday Island, browsing local Indigenous art and experiencing island life, then ferry to Horn Island's wartime museum and gun emplacements. At dusk, visit Cape York, the northernmost point of mainland Australia.

Moreton Island

Known for its beaches and steep sand dunes, Moreton Island offers diving at Flinders Reef, fishing, dune beaches to explore and an optional bird's-eye view by helicopter, with drinks on the beach before the final leg to Brisbane.

K'gari (Fraser Island)

Go ashore on K'gari (Fraser Island), a vast sand island, to find clear freshwater lakes, rainforest growing from sand and beaches that stretch to the horizon. In the afternoon, cruise the Great Sandy Strait, watching for dugongs, turtles and dolphins.

Daintree & Cape Tribulation

Where the Daintree Rainforest meets the sea, join a river expedition through mangrove-lined waterways alive with kingfishers and saltwater crocodiles, then take an optional helicopter flight over the Daintree and Cape Tribulation, where reef and rainforest meet.

Davie Reef

Swimming-pool-like conditions for swimming, snorkelling and diving, surrounded by the spectacular colours of corals and marine life.

Cooktown

A coach tour of Cooktown and the surrounding mountains, with free time to shop for gifts and get to know the locals.

Sandbanks National Park & Tijou Reef

Known as Shark City, the northern tip of Sandbanks National Park has reef sharks cruising the wall. Nearby Tijou Reef is a diver's paradise.

Wreck Bay

Explore caves, ledges and bommies among corals, clownfish and turtles, with a helicopter flight in search of whale sharks and manta rays.

Lockhart River

Where Great Barrier Reef Snapshot ends: guests disembark for a charter flight to Cairns along the Queensland coast.

Beaver Reef

Wake up for a dive and snorkel among vibrant coral gardens at a remote patch of reef alive with colour and movement.

Hinchinbrook Island & Missionary Bay

Fishing and crabbing at Missionary Bay, bushwalks, and cruising past the rugged peaks of Hinchinbrook Island, with a hike to Zoe Falls.

Great Palm Island

Meet the local community and learn about their art, bush tucker and history, then explore the coral gardens of Fantome Island.

John Brewer Reef

Snorkel and dive to the Museum of Underwater Art, installations by sculptor Jason de Caires Taylor on reef conservation and restoration.

Cape Bowling Green

Experienced divers can tackle the Yongala wreck, one of the best wreck dives in Australia, followed by an afternoon of fishing or crabbing.

Percy Island

Coral-lined beaches to explore, with bushwalking, diving, snorkelling or fishing, then afternoon drinks on the beach.

Northwest Island

A remote coral cay in Capricornia Cays National Park: snorkel colourful coral gardens or dive with reef sharks and turtles.

Lady Elliot Island

Crystal-clear waters and a haven for manta rays, turtles and coral gardens, with diving and snorkelling straight from the beach.

Flinders Island (Flinders Group)

Coral shelves dropping into electric-blue water, with snorkelling, diving and fishing for coral trout, then a helicopter flight over Cape Melville.

Osprey Reef

One of the Coral Sea's most legendary dive sites, thirty nautical miles beyond the continental shelf, famed for gin-clear visibility and walls.

Magnetic Island

A colony of wild koalas in the gum trees, with shore excursions, quiet bays and sunset drinks on the beach.

24 locations

The world's largest living structure, reached properly

The Great Barrier Reef runs for 2,300 kilometres off the Queensland coast, a scattering of more than 2,900 individual reefs and some 900 islands that together form the largest living structure on Earth. Most visitors see a single pontoon and a single patch of coral. True North sees it differently: an overnight voyage from reef to reef and cay to cay, choosing each day’s anchorage on what the weather and the tide allow.

This is Great Barrier Reef cruising the way the reef itself is built, not one destination but thousands, strung between Cairns and Brisbane across open water few other vessels attempt. Some nights you’ll wake off a coral cay with nothing on it but seabirds; others, over a historic wreck resting in thirty metres of blue, or a reef system so far north it sees only a handful of visitors each year.

Aboard True North or True North II, each day is shaped by the crew’s reading of the reef rather than a fixed schedule, with the range to reach places day-trip boats from the mainland simply can’t.

Great Barrier Reef Highlights

Feel sand that won't hold the heat

Whitehaven Beach’s sand is 98.9 percent pure silica, among the purest in the world, formed from quartz crystals that ocean currents have spent millions of years sorting and refining. Unlike ordinary sand, it barely holds the sun’s heat, so you can walk it barefoot at midday without a second thought.

Meet the residents of Cod Hole

On the Ribbon Reefs north of Lizard Island, giant potato cod the size of Labradors approach divers with open curiosity rather than caution. Cod Hole is one of the few places on the reef where the marine life comes looking for you, not the other way around.

Swim beside manta rays with names

Lady Elliot Island, at the reef’s southern tip, is home to more than 700 individually identified manta rays, enough that researchers know many of them on sight. Spend a morning in the water here and you may meet the same ray a marine biologist has been tracking for years.

Dive a wreck frozen in 1911

The SS Yongala sank in a cyclone in March 1911 with the loss of all 122 aboard, and lay undiscovered until 1958. At 109 metres, it’s the largest intact historic shipwreck in Australian waters, and more than a century underwater has turned it into one of the richest dive sites on the entire reef.

See conservation turned into sculpture

Near Townsville, the Museum of Underwater Art is the only underwater art museum in the Southern Hemisphere. Its Coral Greenhouse, the largest underwater art structure in the world, was built to one day disappear entirely beneath the coral it was designed to grow.

Find your Great Barrier Reef adventure

Upcoming Great Barrier Reef Departures

Departed

Over The Top

*Departed True North II 21 Oct - 03 Nov 2026

21 Oct - 03 Nov 2026

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Cabin Pricing

Per person in $AUD, based on double occupancy of cabin.

Ocean Class $22,995

River Class $27,995

River Premium $29,995

Explorer Class $31,995

Great Barrier Reef Ultimate 1

True North II 07 Nov - 20 Nov 2026

07 Nov - 20 Nov 2026

Enquire now

Cabin Pricing

Per person in $AUD, based on double occupancy of cabin.

Ocean Class $22,995

River Class $27,995

River Premium $29,995

Explorer Class $31,995

Great Barrier Reef Ultimate 2

True North II 21 Nov - 04 Dec 2026

21 Nov - 04 Dec 2026

Enquire now

Cabin Pricing

Per person in $AUD, based on double occupancy of cabin.

Ocean Class $22,995

River Class $27,995

River Premium $29,995

Explorer Class $31,995

Great Barrier Reef Conservation Cruise 1

True North II 05 Dec - 12 Dec 2026

05 Dec - 12 Dec 2026

Enquire now

Cabin Pricing

Per person in $AUD, based on double occupancy of cabin.

Ocean Class $13,595

River Class $16,995

River Premium $18,595

Explorer Class $19,595

Great Barrier Reef Conservation Cruise 2

True North II 12 Dec - 19 Dec 2026

12 Dec - 19 Dec 2026

Enquire now

Cabin Pricing

Per person in $AUD, based on double occupancy of cabin.

Ocean Class $13,595

River Class $16,995

River Premium $18,595

Explorer Class $19,595

Over The Top

True North II 30 Oct - 12 Nov 2027

30 Oct - 12 Nov 2027

Enquire now

Cabin Pricing

Per person in $AUD, based on double occupancy of cabin.

Ocean Class $23,995

River Class $28,995

River Premium $31,595

Explorer Class $33,595

See all Departure Dates

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be a certified diver to see the Great Barrier Reef properly?

No. True North's itineraries are built around snorkelling as much as diving, with the crew reading conditions each day to choose between shallow coral gardens, drift snorkels and, for certified divers, deeper sites like Cod Hole and the SS Yongala. Non-divers and first-time snorkellers get the same access to the reef, just from the surface rather than below it.

How far does the cruise travel along the reef?

True North's Great Barrier Reef itineraries run between Cairns and Brisbane (or the reverse), covering well over a thousand kilometres of coastline and reef across 13 nights. Because the route is this long, no two departures see quite the same combination of weather, tides and wildlife.

What wildlife can I expect to see?

Expect reef sharks, sea turtles, and on the southern legs, the manta rays that gather around Lady Elliot Island. Humpback whales pass through on migration during the cooler months, and the SS Yongala wreck alone hosts an unusually dense concentration of marine life, from giant groupers to sea snakes.

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