After an intimate and affordable Bali we splurged a bit, it being Enoc’s 30^th birthday and all, by booking a seven-day cruise along the state of Queensland, Australia. Our hope was to experience a few of the many wonders on the beautiful tropical coast. To maximize the experience, we arrived in Brisbane one week prior to departure and had a fantastic time exploring the city and local spots that were recommended by our hosts.

We found Brisbane to be more energetic and artsy than we anticipated. Still, it wasn’t as busy as Sydney and certainly not as artsy as Melbourne, but you can tell it is developing into a similar scene. In our opinion, Brisbane felt much more family oriented and obviously warmer since it is located on the northeast coast of Australia and is the capital of Queensland.

We enjoyed the local coffee shops around town, drinks and 2-4-1 chicken parmys on Wednesday night at The Flying Cock (which we randomly stumbled upon in Fortitude Valley and you should too if you’re ever in Brisbane), the exceptional Moreton Bay Bugs, and finally, the many evening markets throughout the city. Among our favorites were the lovely walks along the river in the Southbank area, riding on the train in Australia’s ever so efficient transportation system, listening to music on the streets, and the hip weekend Eat Street Market set on disused shipping containers at Portside Wharf.

Now, it was time to explore the coast and the iconic and most impressive natural landmark, the Great Barrier Reef. Our first port of call on the cruise was the beautiful Airlie Beach where we booked a sailing/snorkeling trip out to the pristine Whitsunday islands.

The Whitsundays are comprised of 74 islands that are located in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. At Airlie, there are countless one-day and multiple-day trips available for booking and exploring as much as your budget can handle. Surely, these activities are not cheap.

This was our first time sailing and can highly recommend it, as the views are stunning on these sparkling blue waters and white sand beaches. The only downside to the tropical coast can be the unpredictable weather.

After a gorgeous day out at sea, we were hit with a terrible storm causing us to cancel the next three destinations on our cruise. We were quite annoyed with the weather and did not want to be stuck on a ship for five days, but we quickly realized it was out of our control and made the best of it.

Fortunately, we were able to reschedule our scuba dive and snorkel at the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef. However, this meant we had to make some serious adjustments to our travel plans and took a heavy hit on the budget by booking a round-trip flight from Brisbane to Port Douglas and a two-night accommodation after cruising.

The experience and post to follow was certainly worth the damage.

Fun Fact: Cindy was hooked on watching The Voice Australia throughout the travels down under. One of the top candidates, Tim McCallum, who lucked out during the new Super Battles segment was casually performing on the street next to The Wheel of Brisbane. It was such a nice surprise to listen to his majestic voice live.

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