What reef is the best to visit from Port Douglas?
It depends on which tour shop you go into! There are lots of marketing myths out there about the best reefs. Each boat operator has a permit for a particular reef- based upon the numbers the boats take and their impact on reef sites. Most of the large operators that take anywhere from 100 passengers to 400 passengers visit Agincourt Reef. They will have you believe that this is because Agincourt is the best reef…when in fact it is the reef that they HAVE to go to. Some operators will also tell you that they go to the very outer edge of the reef. This is another marketing myth. If they were to put passengers on the very outer reef- there wouldn’t be much between you and an unscheduled visit to Fiji ! Also the water at the very outer edge is over 1klm deep. In reality tour operators take you to the inside edge of an outer reef. Here you get the benefit of the crystal clear waters of the Coral Sea, but also the protection of the edge of the reef from the swell. The coral gardens here ar
