Prices
A Whitsundays boat tour price starts at $170 for a full day to Whitehaven Beach and the Hill Inlet lookout on a fast catamaran, with lunch on board, and that listing carries 1,052 reviews at 4.8. Our top pick, two nights under sail with every meal cooked on board, is $372. Above $213 you are buying the air: a seventy-minute flight over Heart Reef, or a flight out and a raft boat back. The one listing at $2,688 is a private yacht, priced per boat.
Quick answer
The two cheapest Whitsundays boat tours are $170 and $170, both full days to Whitehaven Beach with lunch included, and the first carries 1,052 reviews at 4.8. Our top pick is $372 for two nights on a sailing yacht with all meals, Whitehaven, Hill Inlet and two reef snorkels, and 560 reviews at 4.7. The most reviewed listing here is the Whitehaven eco-cruise at $178, with 3,185 reviews. Overnight sailing runs from $307 to $497. Between $170 and $184 you are choosing a boat and a lunch, and every one of those boats reaches the same beach.
Every trip, current fare
Ordered as a shop window: our top pick, then the day cruises, the overnight sailing, the reef and the flights. The cost-per-hour column is the one that settles arguments, because a seven-hour day cruise and two nights on a yacht are not the same product sold at two prices.
| Tour | On the water | Price | What is included | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airlie Beach: 2-Night Whitsundays Sailing Trip with MealsTwo nights under sail with every meal on board, our top pick | 2 nights | $372 | Whitehaven + 2 snorkels + meals | $7.75 | 4.7 · 560 |
| Airlie Beach: Hill Inlet Lookout and Whitehaven Beach CruiseThe Hill Inlet lookout and Whitehaven Beach in a day, and the lowest price here | 8 h | $170 | Whitehaven + Hill Inlet | $21.25 | 4.8 · 1,052 |
| Airlie Beach: Whitehaven Full-Day Eco-Cruise with BuffetThe Whitehaven eco-cruise with a buffet, and the most reviewed listing | 8 h | $178 | Whitehaven + snorkel + buffet | $22.25 | 4.8 · 3,185 |
| Airlie Beach: Snorkel, Hill Inlet Lookout & Whitehaven BeachA raft boat to two snorkel sites and the Hill Inlet lookout | 6.5 h | $177 | 2 snorkels + Hill Inlet | $27.23 | 4.8 · 2,400 |
| Airlie Beach: Whitsundays Full-Day Camira Sailing AdventureA full day under sail on the Camira catamaran | 10 h | $184 | Sailing + Whitehaven + lunch | $18.40 | 4.7 · 1,466 |
| Whitsunday: A Day @ Whitehaven/Hill Inlet/Snorkeling & LunchWhitehaven, Hill Inlet and a snorkel, with lunch | 7 h | $171 | Whitehaven + snorkel + lunch | $24.43 | 4.7 · 646 |
| Airlie Beach: Snorkel & Whitehaven Beach Eco-Cruise, LunchA snorkel on the fringing reef and Whitehaven Beach, with lunch | 8 h | $170 | Whitehaven + snorkel + lunch | $21.25 | 4.7 · 626 |
| Whitsundays: Snorkel, Sailing, Whitehaven Beach 2 Days, 1 NightTwo days and one night on the islands with meals | 1 night | $307 | Whitehaven + snorkels + meals | $10.23 | 4.5 · 540 |
| Whitsundays: 2-Day, 1-Night Sailing, Snorkeling, WhitehavenTwo days and one night on a small sailing boat | 1 night | $313 | Whitehaven + snorkels + meals | $10.43 | 4.7 · 209 |
| Airlie Beach: 2-Day Whitsunday Islands Sailing Snorkel TourTwo nights sailing the islands with snorkelling | 2 nights | $424 | Islands + snorkels + meals | $8.83 | 4.5 · 241 |
| Airlie Beach: Great Barrier Reef 2-Day, 2-Night Sailing TourTwo nights that reach the outer Great Barrier Reef | 2 nights | $379 | Outer reef + islands + meals | $7.90 | 4.5 · 36 |
| From Airlie Beach: Great Barrier Reef Adventure CruiseThe outer reef by fast catamaran, with a pontoon and a semi-submarine | 10 h | $234 | Outer reef pontoon + lunch | $23.40 | 4.6 · 366 |
| Airlie Beach: Great Barrier Reef & Whitehaven Beach TourThe outer reef and Whitehaven Beach in one day | 8 h | $237 | Outer reef + Whitehaven + lunch | $29.62 | 4.7 · 341 |
| Airlie Beach: Whitsundays & Great Barrier Reef Scenic FlightSeventy minutes over Heart Reef and Whitehaven Beach | 70 min | $213 | Heart Reef + Whitehaven from the air | $182.57 | 4.8 · 2,286 |
| Airlie Beach: Fly Raft Package with Scenic Flight & SnorkelingFly out over the reef, raft boat back through the islands | 8 h | $402 | Flight + raft boat + snorkel | $50.25 | 4.9 · 928 |
| Prosail Whitsundays: 2-Day, 2-Night Maxi Sailing AdventureTwo nights on a maxi racing yacht | 2 nights | $497 | Maxi yacht + meals | $10.35 | 4.7 · 92 |
| Whitsundays: Intimate Sailing WhitsundaysA private yacht for the day, priced per boat | 7.5 h | $2,688 | Private yacht + meals | $358.40 | 5 · 1 |
What the money buys
Hours, meals, distance, and whether you fly.
How long you are out there. Most of the spread between $170 and $372 is time: eight hours against two nights. A day cruise reaches Whitehaven Beach in an hour or two, gives you three or four hours of beach and lookout and snorkel, and is back at Airlie Beach by five. A sailing yacht anchors in Tongue Bay for the night, walks to the Hill Inlet lookout before the day boats arrive, and snorkels the fringing reef at Hook Island the next morning. Divide the fare by the hours and the overnight boats are the cheapest thing on this page.
What is included. Lunch is on board on every day cruise here. Every overnight listing includes all meals. Snorkel gear and a stinger suit are included on every boat that stops to snorkel. Drinks are included on the Camira day at $184 and on the private yacht; elsewhere you buy them on board or bring your own.
Where the boat goes. The fringing reef around Hook Island and Langford Island is an hour from Airlie Beach and every snorkelling day here reaches it. The outer Great Barrier Reef is three hours out, and only three listings go there: the pontoon day at $234, the fast jetboat at $237 and the two-night sail at $379. That distance is most of the difference in fare.
Whether you fly. The single biggest jump on the table below the private yacht. Heart Reef is visible only from the air, and the two listings that show it, at $213 and $402, are priced on the aircraft rather than the boat.
Notice what is on every list: Whitehaven Beach. Fifteen of the seventeen listings here land on it, and the sand is the same on all of them.
What the headline fare does not always include
None is ruinous. All of them surprise people on the day.
Queensland charges a small daily environmental fee for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Some operators fold it into the fare; others collect it at check-in. It is a few dollars a day and it is stated on the listing.
Meals are in the fare on every overnight sail. Beer, wine and soft drinks are sold on board on most of them, cash or card. The Camira day at $184 is the one where the drinks are in the price.
Several overnight boats offer a flight over Heart Reef as an extra on the last morning. It is a separate booking and a separate fare; the listing at $402 builds the flight into the day instead.
Every day cruise collects from Airlie Beach hotels or meets at Port of Airlie and Coral Sea Marina. From Hamilton Island or Proserpine you make your own way to the marina.
Sunscreen, a towel, a hat and a jumper for the evening are yours to bring. The boats supply the snorkel gear and the stinger suit, and the overnight boats supply the bedding.
Book direct
The cheapest, our top pick, the most reviewed day cruise and the best-evidenced day in the air.
★ 4.8 · 1,052 reviews
★ 4.7 · 560 reviews
★ 4.8 · 3,185 reviews
★ 4.9 · 928 reviews
Cost per hour
Compare like with like, or the table lies to you.
Divide the fare by the hours and the table stops being confusing. $372 for two nights on board works out at about $8 an hour, with every meal, two snorkels, Whitehaven Beach and the Hill Inlet lookout inside it. $170 for eight hours is about $21 an hour, which is why the two sit side by side as our top pick and our cheapest fare rather than as rivals.
The flights sit at the other end: $213 for seventy minutes is about $183 an hour, which is a fair number and a misleading one, because nobody buys a scenic flight by the hour. They buy Heart Reef, which is a coral formation the size of a house that you can see from the air and from nowhere else.
Which is the real lesson of this table. Compare the day cruises against each other on what they include and where they snorkel, compare the overnight boats against each other on the boat and the nights, compare the flights against each other on the minutes, and never compare across the line.
Three ways people overpay
None of these is the operator’s fault.
Two days to Whitehaven and the reef at $170 each costs about as much as one night on a yacht at $307, and the yacht sleeps you, feeds you and reaches the lookout before the crowds.
The coral at Blue Pearl Bay and Mantaray Bay is an hour from the marina and every snorkelling day reaches it. The outer reef at $234 is three hours each way. Book it for the pontoon and the semi-submarine, which are worth it, rather than for the fish, which are also at Hook Island.
Whitehaven Beach from the air is extraordinary, and every boat on this page lands on it for a fraction of the fare. Book the flight for Heart Reef, which is the one thing here you can only see from above.
In short
The floor, our pick, and where the flights start.
$170. The floor, and one of the best-evidenced Whitsundays boat tours here: 1,052 reviews at 4.8, Whitehaven Beach, the Hill Inlet lookout and lunch on board.
$372. Our top pick. Two nights on a sailing yacht with all meals, Whitehaven, Hill Inlet and two reef snorkels, 560 reviews at 4.7.
$213. Where the air starts. Above this line a Whitsundays boat tour stops being a boat and becomes a view of Heart Reef from a light aircraft.
Everything else on the table sits between those three points, and every jump is caused by hours on the water, a meal, the distance to the outer reef or an aircraft — never by a whiter beach.
Common questions
From $170 a person for a full day to Whitehaven Beach and the Hill Inlet lookout with lunch. Our top pick, two nights under sail with all meals, is $372.
Hours on the water. A day cruise is back by five; a sailing yacht anchors for the night and walks to the lookout at dawn. Per hour, the overnight boats are the cheapest listings here.
It is priced per boat for the day, with meals, for your own group. Divide by the number of people on board before you compare it with anything else.
Lunch is on board on every day cruise here, and every overnight sail includes all meals. Drinks are included on the Camira day and the private yacht.
Barely. What changes is how far ahead you need to book: a few weeks in the dry season from May to October, and longer around Australian school holidays.
For the pontoon, the semi-submarine and the clearest water, yes. For coral and fish alone, the fringing reef at Hook Island is an hour away and on every snorkelling day.
Four questions that decide your budget
In this order, because each one narrows the field.
Then the best-evidenced overnight Whitsundays boat tour is our top pick at $372, 560 reviews at 4.7, two nights and every meal on board.
Then $213 for seventy minutes in the air with 2,286 reviews, or $402 to fly out and come back through the islands on a raft boat.
Then $170 with 1,052 reviews, which is also the cheapest fare here, or the eco-cruise at $178 with 3,185.
Then $234: three hours out to Hardy Reef, a pontoon, a semi-submarine and lunch, 366 reviews at 4.6.
What the price does not change
Pay for what surrounds the beach, because the beach is fixed.
It is worth saying plainly, because the price table makes it look otherwise: the white sand at Whitehaven, the swirl of Hill Inlet from the lookout, the turtles over the fringing reef and the trade wind on the way home are the same on the $170 day as on the $497 one. The sand does not know what you paid.
What the money changes is everything around the beach: how many boats are moored beside yours, whether you see the lookout at seven in the morning or at noon, whether lunch is a buffet or a barbecue, whether the day ends on a jetty or under stars at anchor, and whether the skipper sails or motors. Those are real things and they are worth money. They are not more beach.
So read the table for what each fare adds around the beach, decide which of those additions you would actually notice on the second afternoon, and pay for those. On this page that usually lands on $170 or $372, and the difference between them is two nights on the water.
Go deeper
Seventeen ranked for one decision, with a straight answer for each kind of visitor.
2 days, 1 nightWhat a 2-day, 1-night sailing trip actually does hour by hour, and which boats do it.
2 and 3 nightsThe longer trips: what two nights add, the maxi yachts, and the one that reaches the outer reef.
Whitehaven BeachSeven kilometres of silica sand, how long each boat stays, and how to reach it from Airlie Beach.
Hill InletThe swirling sands at the top of Whitehaven, the walk to the lookout, and which tours include it.
Great Barrier ReefFringing reef or outer reef, the pontoon day, and what you actually see in the water.
Airlie Beach: 2-Night Whitsundays Sailing Trip with Meals
★ 4.7 · 560 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h