Three kinds of island, one horizon

The islands off Cairns look similar on a booking page and are geologically nothing alike. Getting the difference straight is the single most useful thing before you choose, because it decides whether your day involves a rainforest walk, a beach, or a boat you never leave.

Continental island
A former coastal peak, cut off by rising sea level. Hills, soil, forest, walking tracks.
Coral cay
Sediment built up on a reef platform over thousands of years, now vegetated. Flat and low.
Sand cay
An unvegetated bank of coral sand on a reef. Shifts with season and storm.

Fitzroy Island

The closest of the group and the one that feels most like land. Fitzroy is a continental island roughly 45 minutes from the Cairns marina by fast ferry, most of it national park, with steep forested slopes rising off small beaches. There are walking tracks — a summit climb and a lighthouse track among them — a resort, and fringing reef close enough to snorkel from the shore.

It suits a visitor who wants the reef but also wants to walk somewhere, and it is the easiest of the six to do as a self-directed day rather than a guided one.

Green Island

A coral cay of a similar run from Cairns, and unusual for carrying mature rainforest on a cay this small. It is flat, walkable end to end in well under an hour, and ringed by its own reef, which means snorkelling begins at the sand rather than after a second boat ride.

Green Island is the most developed of the six, with a resort, day facilities and a jetty. It is the straightforward choice with children or with anyone who does not want to be far from a chair and a tap.

The Frankland Islands

A group of continental islands south of Cairns, national park, uninhabited, and reached by a different route from everything else here: boats run down the Mulgrave River and out through the river mouth rather than straight out from the city marina. The approach through mangrove country is a genuine part of the trip.

Visitor numbers are capped, so the islands are quiet in a way the closer two are not. This is the one to pick if what you disliked about the reef day you have already had was the crowd.

Michaelmas Cay

A vegetated sand cay on a reef roughly an hour and a half offshore, and one of the most important seabird nesting sites on the Great Barrier Reef. Tens of thousands of birds use it in season. Because of that, access is restricted: landing is confined to a marked section of beach, the rest of the cay is closed, and the boats that go there operate under permit.

Vlasoff Cay

A bare crescent of coral sand with nothing built on it and nothing growing on it. Vlasoff has no jetty, no shade, no facilities and no scheduled ferry; it appears in photographs far more often than in itineraries, usually from a helicopter or a private charter that anchors off it.

Its shape and size change with the season. Treat any picture of it as a portrait of one particular week.

The Low Isles

Two islands on a shared reef platform off Port Douglas rather than Cairns: a small vegetated coral cay with a lighthouse on it, and a larger mangrove island beside it. The lagoon between them is shallow and sheltered, which makes it one of the calmer places on this coast to put your face in the water.

It is a Port Douglas departure, so pair it with a night up the coast rather than trying to add it to a Cairns day. Current options are on our Port Douglas tours page.

Choosing between them

  • Want to walk somewhere with a view: Fitzroy Island.
  • Want reef straight off the beach with facilities: Green Island.
  • Want it quiet: the Frankland Islands.
  • Want birds and open water: Michaelmas Cay.
  • Want the photograph: Vlasoff Cay, by air.
  • Staying north: the Low Isles.

Departures, seasons and operators change. See what is running now on our Cairns tours page, or filter to reef and boat trips.

When to go, and what the season does

The dry season, roughly May to October, brings the settled south-easterly weather most reef days are built around. The wet season brings heat, rain and the marine stinger season on the coast, when swimming outside stinger nets and protective suits is not advised. Operators supply suits year round on reef trips; the sensible move is to take the advice on the day rather than a rule from a website.

Common questions

Which island near Cairns is best for snorkelling from the beach?
Green Island and Fitzroy Island both have fringing reef close to shore, so you can snorkel without a second boat trip. The Low Isles lagoon, off Port Douglas, is the calmest of the three.
Can you stay overnight on any of them?
Fitzroy Island and Green Island have resorts. The Frankland Islands are national park with limited camping by permit; Michaelmas and Vlasoff have no accommodation of any kind.
How far is Green Island from Cairns?
Roughly 45 minutes by fast catamaran from the Cairns marina, depending on the vessel and the sea.
Why is landing restricted on Michaelmas Cay?
It is a major seabird breeding site. Landing is limited to a marked strip of beach so nesting colonies are not disturbed, and the boats operate under permit within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Sources

Where this page states something a reader might want to check — a rule, a schedule, a decision — this is where it came from. Details change; these are the pages that change with them.