Two islands, both about 45 minutes from the marina, both on the Great Barrier Reef, both with a beach you can snorkel straight off. People plan their whole Cairns week around this one decision and then spend it reading forum threads written in 2019. So here is the head-to-head from two people who call Cairns home and send visiting family to both: every fare and sailing time below was read from the operators’ own booking pages on 12 September 2026, every track distance is Queensland Parks and Wildlife’s own number, and the verdict comes with its reasons attached. The short version is that Green Island is the effortless reef day and Fitzroy Island is the adventure, and the right one depends on who is in your group and how much walking they will forgive.
The short answer
Pick Green Island if you want the reef with the least effort: a coral cay sitting on its own reef platform, a glass-bottom boat and helmet diving for the people who will not put their face in, a resort day pool, and the shortest, flattest day of the two. It is the one for first reef days, toddlers, grandparents and anyone with a cruise ship or a flight in the afternoon. Pick Fitzroy Island if the words “walk”, “kayak” and “summit” make you happier rather than tired: a rainforest mountain with four national park tracks, the beach that keeps winning national lists, a turtle hospital you can tour, and a campground for $39 a tent. Locals lean Fitzroy. First-timers lean Green. Nobody who did both has ever asked for their money back, and the ferries now sell a two-island day for the truly greedy.
Green Island and Fitzroy Island, side by side. Operator and Queensland Parks figures, read 12 September 2026.
| Green Island | Fitzroy Island | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A coral cay with a rainforest on it, sitting directly on a reef platform, 27 km offshore | A continental island, a rainforest-covered granite mountain rising to 269 m, 25 km east of Cairns |
| Crossing | About 45 minutes by fast catamaran from the Reef Fleet Terminal | About 45 minutes from the marina precinct, along the coast rather than out to sea |
| Cheapest adult return | $110 with Big Cat, $112 with Great Adventures | From $99 on the Fitzroy Flyer (the 8am to 5pm day was $105 in its booking catalogue), $108 with Fitzroy Island Adventures, $109 with Sunlover |
| Longest day ashore | Up to 7 hours with Great Adventures, up to 5.5 with Big Cat | 8am out and 5pm back on the Fitzroy Flyer; up to 6 hours with Fitzroy Island Adventures; about 6 with Sunlover |
| Snorkelling | Straight off the beach over seagrass and coral gardens, with a resident turtle population | Straight off the beach at Welcome Bay and Nudey Beach on the fringing reef |
| The beach | Soft white coral sand all the way round, a 1.5 km circuit that Queensland Parks calls easy | Nudey Beach, coral rubble rather than sand, reached by a 1.2 km return track graded moderate |
| Walks | A 1.3 km rainforest boardwalk, easy, wheelchair access with assistance | Four tracks from 700 m to a 4 km return summit climb that Queensland Parks grades difficult and allows 3 hours for |
| Staying dry | Glass-bottom boat, helmet diving, a semi-submarine as a Big Cat extra, crocodile shows at Marineland Melanesia | Glass-bottom boat, kayaks and paddleboards, the turtle centre talks |
| Kids | The easier one: short walk from the jetty, calm swimming area, no track to the beach | Brilliant from primary age up; everything involves a bit of walking |
| Crowds | The busiest island off Cairns in the middle of the day | Bigger island, spreads its visitors, rarely feels full |
| Overnight | Green Island Resort. No camping | Fitzroy Island Resort, plus a campground at $39 a tent a night |
| Fishing | Not allowed in the waters around the island | Allowed under Queensland fisheries rules; snorkel only at Welcome Bay and Nudey |
Our answer: Green Island for the first reef day, the youngest and the oldest in the group and anyone on a clock. Fitzroy Island for everyone who wants to earn the view, and for the second day if you can manage two. If the budget only stretches to one island and everyone is a confident swimmer and walker, take Fitzroy and book the 8am boat.
Check before you bookEvery figure above was read from the operators’ own booking pages and Queensland Parks and Wildlife on 12 September 2026. Fares change without notice, seasonal timetables and advance-purchase specials come and go, and reef and levy charges change what you pay at checkout. Treat this as the shape of the decision, not a quote, and confirm the current fare and sailing times with the operator before you commit.
Getting there, and what it actually costs
Both islands are served by more than one boat, and the operators are not interchangeable, so this is where the decision gets practical. Every price here is the adult, child and family fare as listed on 12 September 2026, and every one of them can move.
Green Island. Great Adventures runs the transfer-only fare at $112 adult, $56 child and $287 family, the Eco Adventure with snorkel hire or the glass-bottom boat at $127, $68 and $329, and the Discovery with both plus pool access at $156, $85 and $404, with departures at 8.30am and 10.30am, returns at 2.30pm and 4.30pm, and up to seven hours ashore. Children are 4 to 14 and under-4s travel free, and the prices are published as valid to 31 March 2027. Big Cat Green Island Reef Cruises is the other ferry: transfer only at $110, $55 and $275 on the 9am, 11am or 1pm sailings, the full day with snorkel hire or the glass-bottom boat at $122, $61 and $305 (9am or 11am, up to 5.5 hours on the island), and a half day for exactly the same $122 that gives you two hours and a quarter ashore, which is why we have never understood who books the half. Big Cat’s buffet lunch is $40 an adult and $26 a child, served on the boat between 11.15am and 1.15pm; Great Adventures sells a $41 lunch combo with a drink at the resort’s Emeralds restaurant between 11am and 2pm, and adds a 15 per cent food surcharge on public holidays.
Fitzroy Island. Three boats. The Fitzroy Flyer is the resort’s own ferry from Berth 20 at Marlin Marina, from $99 adult and $55 child (4 to 13) return, sailing at 8am, 11am and 1.30pm and leaving the island at 9.30am, 12.15pm and 5pm, with the 11am and 12.15pm services dropped Monday to Thursday in February and March; in the resort’s booking catalogue the full 8am to 5pm day was listed at $105 and the two half days at $99, with a glass-bottom boat bundle at $126 and a guided snorkel safari bundle at $168. Fitzroy Island Adventures charges $108 adult, $62 child (4 to 15) and $278 family for a full day, sailing at 8.30am or 10.45am and returning at 4pm for up to six hours ashore, with a $5 a head island facilities levy already inside the price and no fuel surcharge, and its half day costs the same $108 and comes back at 2pm. Sunlover Reef Cruises sails from the Reef Fleet Terminal at 8.45am or 10.15am, leaves the island at 3.30pm and is back at 4.30pm: ferry only $109, $63 and $281, or the Island Essentials package with snorkel hire or a glass-bottom boat at $134, $85 and $353. Sunlover’s $67 adult and $44 child return, booked at least 72 hours ahead with a promo code, is listed for travel up to 30 September 2026 and will be gone by the time most people read this.
Two things the fare tables do not tell you. Arrive 30 minutes before departure for every one of these boats, because check-in closes and the counter staff have heard every excuse. And if you want both islands in one day, Big Cat and Fitzroy Island Adventures each sell a Two Island Explorer; we have not done it, so we will only say it exists.
The snorkelling
This is the fairest fight on the page, because both islands give you reef off the beach without a second boat. Green Island’s reef flat is seagrass meadow and coral garden, and the seagrass is the point: green sea turtles graze it daily and could not care less about you. Drift the edge where the seagrass meets the coral, go early before the boats stack up, and give the glass-bottom boat to whoever is not getting in. Queensland Parks is plain about supervision, and we quote it rather than soften it: “Snorkelling is not supervised and you enter the water at your own risk. When snorkelling, seek advice from the lifeguard about safe locations on the day.” The patrolled swimming area is on the northern side of the island near the beach hire hut.
Fitzroy’s snorkelling hugs the fringing reef at Welcome Bay and off Nudey Beach, with coral, reef fish and turtle traffic a few metres from where you dropped your towel, and it feels wilder because it is. The park service’s line for anywhere else on the island is the one to remember: “Snorkelling in other locations around the island may be dangerous due to strong currents.” Stay in the two bays. On both islands, stinger season runs roughly November to May, the operators provide or hire suits, and flotation noodles and vests are there for the asking, which makes either island about as friendly as reef snorkelling gets for a nervous first-timer.
Beaches, walks and dry land
Here the islands stop being similar. Green Island is tiny and flat: Queensland Parks lists a 1.5 kilometre beach circuit graded easy with an hour allowed, a 1.3 kilometre rainforest boardwalk graded easy with 50 minutes allowed and wheelchair access with assistance, and a 500 metre jetty walk. That is the whole island on foot, and it is exactly what a family with a pram or a grandparent with a stick wants. The beach is soft coral sand all the way around, and the resort’s day facilities, toilets, showers and food outlets, are a short walk from the jetty.
Fitzroy is a mountain, and the park service grades its tracks like one. The Secret Garden track is 700 metres return through boulders and sheltered rainforest, moderate, 25 minutes. The Nudey Beach track is 1.2 kilometres return, moderate, 45 minutes, mostly bitumen but with steep stone steps and boulders that Queensland Parks warns “Some walkers may find these difficult to cross”. Lighthouse Road is a very steep concrete service road, 3.6 kilometres return, difficult, two hours, with a lookout that sees Green Island on a clear day and the occasional migrating humpback in winter. And the Summit track is 4 kilometres return including a stretch of Lighthouse Road, difficult, three hours, to the 269 metre top, which the park service says “should only be undertaken by fit and healthy walkers”. Nudey Beach itself is coral rubble, not sand, which is why the water runs so clear and why reef shoes earn their keep. Do the summit first thing and the snorkel as the reward, or skip the summit entirely and nobody will think less of you.
Non-swimmers, small kids and the over-60s
Green Island wins this section and it is not close. The glass-bottom boat is bundled into the Eco Adventure and Discovery fares and the Big Cat full day, Seawalker helmet diving lets you walk on the seafloor with dry hair and your glasses on, and the Discovery fare adds the resort pool. Marineland Melanesia, the crocodile park in the island’s interior, runs shows at 10.30am and 1.30pm at $32 an adult and $16 a child; it was home to Cassius, the world’s largest crocodile in captivity, until his death in October 2024. Everything is within a few hundred flat metres of the jetty, the swimming area is patrolled, and a toddler can be back on the boat asleep by 2.30pm. Our reef with kids guide and our Cairns for over-60s guide both send first-timers here for exactly these reasons.
Fitzroy is not off the table for non-swimmers, it just asks more of the legs. The glass-bottom boat runs from the resort, kayaks and paddleboards are for hire, and the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre gives guided talks Wednesday to Sunday at 2.15pm and 2.45pm, 30 minutes long, a maximum of 15 people, $20 an adult and $12 a child aged 4 to 13, which is the thing children remember longest and which fits every full-day ferry. If anyone in the group uses a wheelchair, read our accessible Cairns guide before either island, because it deals with the boats and the jetties in detail.
Crowds and timing
Green Island is the most popular island off Cairns and the middle of the day shows it: two ferry companies, several sailings each, one small beach. The fix is tactical. Take the 8.30am Great Adventures or the 9am Big Cat, snorkel first while the water is clearest and the crowd is queueing for coffee, eat when everyone else swims, and walk the boardwalk and the far side of the beach mid-afternoon when the 2.30pm boat has taken half the island home. Fitzroy absorbs its visitors, partly because it is bigger and partly because a third of them are halfway up a hill at any given moment; the one crowded spot is Nudey Beach late morning, which the 8am Flyer solves by getting you there before the other two boats have left Cairns.
Seasonally, the dry season from June to October gives both islands calmer water and clearer snorkelling, and the wet brings stinger suits, rougher crossings and far fewer people. Our best time to visit guide has the month-by-month numbers, and if the crossing worries you, Fitzroy Island Adventures makes the point that its route runs along the coast rather than into open water.
Staying the night
Both islands change character after the last boat leaves, and both let you find out. Green Island Resort operates year-round and is a special-occasion spend: a few dozen guests get a private coral cay at sunset and the reef at dawn, and Queensland Parks does not permit camping on the island, so the resort is the only way to stay. Fitzroy Island Resort has rooms, suites and beach cabins, and the campground next door, run by the resort on behalf of Cairns Regional Council, is the cheapest night on the Great Barrier Reef we know of: $39 a tent a night for up to four people, about 20 sites five minutes from the jetty, a cold-water shower block, a barbecue, no eskies (one small cooler bag is allowed and ice is sold at the bar), no alcohol, no generators, no open flames, and quiet from 10pm. You bring everything, including the tent. Our camping near Cairns guide has the rest of the region’s options, and our where to stay guide covers the mainland base that gets you to the marina for an 8am boat.
The honest bits
We do not write safety advice in our own words, so here is the authorities’ wording for both islands. Queensland Parks lists marine stingers as a warning for both parks and crocodiles as a warning for Fitzroy Island National Park, and our swimming safety guide carries the full Be Crocwise and stinger wording. Snorkelling at Green Island is unsupervised; at Fitzroy it is safe in Welcome Bay and off Nudey Beach and “may be dangerous due to strong currents” elsewhere. Fishing is not allowed in the waters around Green Island, which sit in marine national park and scientific research zones, and motorised watersports are banned there too. On Fitzroy, the walking tracks are national park, unpatrolled, and Fitzroy Island Adventures says so on its booking page. And on both islands the thing that ruins the day is not a crocodile, it is sunburn at 11am on white coral sand with no shade, so the hat is not optional.
One more honest note on this page itself. Fares here were right on 12 September 2026 and will be wrong at some point after it. The operators’ own pages are linked above, and our guide to choosing a reef trip is the one to read if the real question is island day or outer reef pontoon, because that decision matters more than this one.
Header photo: Jason Charles Hill. Courtesy of Tourism and Events Queensland.
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FAQs
Which is better, Green Island or Fitzroy Island? Green Island for effortless reef snorkelling off a flat coral cay, glass-bottom boats and helmet diving, first reef days, toddlers and older travellers. Fitzroy Island for rainforest walks, Nudey Beach, kayaks, the turtle centre and a wilder feel. They are different enough that doing both is the local answer.
Which is cheaper, Green Island or Fitzroy Island? On 12 September 2026 the cheapest adult return was $99 to Fitzroy on the Fitzroy Flyer against $110 to Green Island with Big Cat, and the cheapest family fare was $275 to Green Island with Big Cat against $278 to Fitzroy with Fitzroy Island Adventures. The packages with snorkel gear or a glass-bottom boat start at $122 for Green and $126 to $134 for Fitzroy. Check the operators before you book.
Which island is better for kids? Green Island for anyone under school age: the beach and the patrolled swimming area are a short flat walk from the jetty, the glass-bottom boat suits the snorkel-shy, and the day can be as short as 5.5 hours. Fitzroy suits primary-age children and up who will enjoy the 1.2 kilometre return walk to Nudey Beach, the kayaks and the turtle talks.
Can you do Green Island and Fitzroy Island in one day? Yes. Big Cat and Fitzroy Island Adventures both sell a Two Island Explorer day. We have not done it and cannot vouch for how much of each island you actually see.
How long is the ferry to each island? About 45 minutes to either. Green Island is 27 kilometres offshore and Fitzroy Island 25 kilometres east of Cairns on Queensland Parks’ figures, and the Fitzroy crossing runs along the coast rather than into open water.
Can you camp on Green Island or Fitzroy Island? Fitzroy only. Queensland Parks does not permit camping on Green Island. The Fitzroy campground is $39 a tent a night for up to four people, bookable through Fitzroy Island Resort, and you bring all your own gear.
Is the Fitzroy Island summit walk hard? Queensland Parks grades it difficult: 4 kilometres return including a section of the steep Lighthouse Road, allow 3 hours, and it “should only be undertaken by fit and healthy walkers”. The 1.2 kilometre return Nudey Beach track is graded moderate with 45 minutes allowed.
