Hey all it will be the first time my travel partner and I are in Australia and in the Cairns region. Right now it looks like we are spending 2 days in the Tablelands, 2 days in the Daintree, and about 2 days in Carins proper. At this point in the itinerary I have the snorkling time carved out of the Carins days but Rum Runner on paper looks like a good option as well in which case I'd add a day to the Daintree/Cape Trib accomindation to make that happen.

So my question is does anyone have experience with both outfits and the trips they offer? Is one better than the other or are they about the same? I know 2 expats who live in Cairns and they told me to make sure to go to the 'outer reef' and recommended Quicksilver. On the flip side I know two Aussies who said to avoid the big companies and specifically mentioned Quicksilver to stay away from. Rum runner looks like a smaller outfit (and cheaper) but my biggest question is about the quality of their snorkling locations since they don't apppear to go to the 'outer' reef from the googing I've done. Any information, opinions, or leads would be helpful. And if you have any other dive shops/trips that you like better than these two please feel free to let us know about those as well.

Its Sunday and we leave next Saturday and I'd like to have an idea of who we are going with in the next few days so I can make accomidation plans as needed.

Thanks for your help.

I don't know Rumrunner, but I did Quicksilver and I really liked it. They take you to the outer reef and you can see quite a bit out there: lofs of fish and even giant clams.

Yeah, they take a lot of people at the same time so you might not get as much personal attention in some ways you might with a small company. However, there were some advantages. 1) They have prescription lens available for the snorkel gear. 2) They have an underwater viewing platform for those who don't want to snorkel (or who have small children who don't snorkel). 3) The snorkel path has a lot of good stuff on it to see. They have ropes to guide you around - at least they did when I went. 4) They really entertained my 4 year old who couldn't swim by letting him stand on the platform where the snorkel path begins and fed fish so he could see and touch them. 5) They had a sub which took us around - that's where we saw the giant clam. Cool.

Downside is the food, the buffet was not inspiring. However, I don't go to Australia for the food.

Even though they take a lot of people they are fanatic about checking to make sure that everyone comes back on the boat with them. They take counts on the way out and before they leave and they doublecheck everything.

All in all, I really thought they did a good job and I went on them based on recommendation of another friend of mine.