Snorkelling

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Great Barrier Reef, Done Right the First Time We booked our first reef day in February, because that’s when the cheap fares landed us in Cairns. The water was bath-warm and gorgeous — and we spent the morning zipped into full-length lycra “stinger suits” because the marine stingers were in. Nobody had told us. A skipper on the boat just shrugged: “Come back in July, mate. Clear water, no stingers, you’ll see twice as much.” He was right. The dry-season trip we took the next year was a different reef entirely — glassy visibility, no suit hassle, turtles and reef sharks gliding past in the blue. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Nusa Penida, Without the Day-Trip Regret We booked Nusa Penida as a single day trip from Bali, because the photos looked like a quick tick-off between hotel and pool. By the time our fast boat docked, three other boats had already emptied, and the line at the Kelingking Beach viewpoint snaked back along the cliff in the heat. We saw the T-rex-shaped headland over a hundred shoulders, and then it was straight back to the harbour to make the return crossing. The island deserved better. The next time, we stayed two nights, watched the sunrise hit Diamond Beach with maybe six other people around, and finally understood what the fuss was about. ...