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Divers Den
4.5
1417 reviewsAbout
Founded in 1974, Divers Den has been a pioneer in Cairns' dive industry. It became the first PADI five star centre in Cairns in 1988, the first PADI five star Instructor Development Centre in 1998, and the first PADI Career Development Centre in 1999. Additionally, Divers Den introduced the 'floating hotel' concept, mooring a liveaboard vessel and transferring passengers daily.
As one of the largest and longest-established dive companies on the Great Barrier Reef, they offer world-class snorkel and dive adventures, from day trips to liveaboard expeditions, and exceptional training at their five star centre, both in-person and online. Their expert crew ensures a safe and enjoyable experience.
In early 2024, Divers Den was awarded PADI Eco Centre status, a rare honour given to only 48 out of 6,500 PADI dive shops worldwide, and the only one in Australia, recognising our commitment to sustainability and reef conservation.
What's Available
15 featuresECO Certified (Advanced Ecotourism) by Ecotourism Australia
Available Tours
AquaQuest Outer Great Barrier Reef Day Trip from Cairns
Experience the Great Barrier Reef on a day trip from Cairns with Divers Den, whether you're a snorkeller, first-time diver, or certified diver. Just 90 minutes from Cairns, you'll spend five hours at the reef, visiting two incredible dive sites selected from their exclusive moorings at Norman, Saxon, and Hastings reefs. These sites offer ideal conditions and an abundance of marine life, from colourful corals to turtles, stingrays, clownfish, and giant Maori Wrasse. Their vessel, AquaQuest, is purpose-built for diving and snorkelling, with a spacious dive deck, a sunken platform for easy water access, and state-of-the-art equipment. Relax on their large sun decks, enjoy air-conditioned indoor spaces, and fresh hot water showers. After a morning of reef exploration, recharge with a delicious buffet lunch featuring hot and cold dishes, salads, rolls, and tropical fruit.
PADI Open Water - Online
You'll complete the academic part of the PADI Open Water Diver course through online learning in your own time, and in your own language (available languages listed below). Sign up on the PADI website and make your way through the course material. This includes interactive presentations, video, audio, graphics and reading, along with short quizzes to gauge your progress. The eLearning portion takes around 12-15 hours to complete. Once you've finished your online PADI course, you can book your practical training at the Great Barrier Reef with then. This will include one day in the covered, heated pool at their five star PADI dive centre, and either two day trips or an overnight trip on the Great Barrier Reef. Please note that due to all the in-water skills lessons being completed in one day, participants need to expect a full day in the water (8 hours minimum). This may not be suitable for slower-paced learners, or people who need frequent breaks from physical activity. If a slower pace is needed, they recommend the 4 Day Open Water Course.
OceanQuest Overnight Liveaboard Experience
Their liveaboard vessel OceanQuest is the ultimate Great Barrier Reef overnight experience from Cairns. Spend your days and nights exploring the best outer Great Barrier Reef dive sites aboard our floating accommodation, with snorkel, intro dive and certified dive options available. Visit their colourful dive and snorkel sites during the day, and at night everything from the air conditioned cabins with en-suites, lounge and bar, are designed for your comfort. Their three-deck, 35metre catamaran is purpose built with a spacious dive deck, large open sundecks and hot, fresh water showers. All delicious meals are prepared by their onboard chef, including hearty breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Enjoy a well-deserved dessert treat after your day in the water! With more than 14 permanent moorings at Saxon and Norman reefs, and selected sites at Hastings Reef, snorkellers and divers of all levels can explore the reef and its diverse marine life from early morning to night. At night, relax in the lounge and bar. Or if you're keen for more undersea adventures, try a unique night dive experience like Sharks in the Dark or Fluoro Diving to make your time on board their floating reef hotel truly unforgettable.
PADI Open Water Course - 4 Day 1 Night Liveaboard
There’s nowhere better than the Great Barrier Reef to learn to dive! If you want to complete your PADI Open Water Diver training in just four days, but also include an overnight experience, this dive course is designed for you. Spend your first two days at our purpose-built, five-star dive training centre in Cairns, then develop your dive skills on a once in a lifetime overnight experience adventure on board our liveaboard vessel OceanQuest. Our world class instructors will make sure you’re thoroughly trained in theory and in the pool before you set out for the reef. During your overnight trip, we choose amazing sites at Saxon, Norman and Hastings reefs, so you’ll experience all the colourful treasures at these Cairns Great Barrier Reef dive locations as you gain valuable dive experience. Spending the night at the Great Barrier Reef and waking to sunrise on the water, knowing you’re about to become a PADI certified diver is a thrill like no other! After you’ve completed all your training dives you’ll also have the chance to take your first ‘fun dive’ before returning to Cairns.
PADI Rescue Diver Course
Add to your dive qualifications with a PADI Rescue Diver certification through our five-star PADI Dive Centre in Cairns, gateway to the world famous Great Barrier Reef. As a PADI Rescue Diver you’ll learn to prevent and manage incidents, sharpen your observation skills and help others avoid problems, becoming a safer, more confident diver. The PADI Rescue Diver course is divided into three sections: Knowledge development, Skill development and Practical application. All three sections will be completed under the professional supervision and guidance of your Divers Den PADI Instructor. Once you’ve developed your Rescue Diver knowledge at our training centre, it’s time to set off on a two-day one-night experience on our liveaboard vessel OceanQuest. Here you’ll be expertly guided through the practical scenarios out in the open water of the Great Barrier Reef. If you don’t have a valid First Aid/CPR certificate, you can begin the PADI-endorsed Emergency First Response (EFR) course on your first day with us. Please contact us for details.
PADI Open Water Course - 5 Day with 2 Night Liveaboard
Offering five extra dives, including a free guided night dive, this five-day PADI Open Water Diver course including a two-night liveaboard stay is our most popular learn to dive option. After two days of expert tuition at our purpose-built Cairns dive training facility, you’ll hone your skills on the reef to become a certified PADI Open Water Diver. Make the most of your time on the water diving the Great Barrier Reef, exploring from early morning to night! Night diving is a regular activity in scuba diving, and to become familiar with the water at this time of day is a huge benefit. This free guided dive will expand your knowledge as a diver and give you a window into the weird and wonderful world that is night on the Great Barrier Reef. You’ll also have the opportunity to gain even more skills by adding on the PADI Adventure Diver course or PADI Nitrox Course, supervised by our expert instructors.
PADI Four Day Open Water Course (Day Trips)
Want to learn to dive in Cairns, the home of the Great Barrier Reef? With world class instructors and a five-star dive school, this is a convenient and affordable PADI Open Water Diver course. You’ll get all the top class tuition offered over two days of pool and classroom training at our Cairns learn to dive facility, as well as two memorable day trips to the Great Barrier Reef. These day trips are the perfect place to enhance your skills at two stunning reef sites with colourful and abundant marine wildlife. At the end of two day trips you’ll have completed four open water dives, and be a certified PADI Open Water Diver! That’s when the real fun begins…
Minke Whale Expedition from Cairns
Dwarf Minke whale diving trips from Cairns are a highlight of the scuba diving calendar, and one that can only be experienced at the Great Barrier Reef. Amazing encounters with these inquisitive whales happen at the peak of their migration every June and July. We operate four-day, four-night Minke whale expeditions every year during June and July. Spaces are limited and trips sell out quickly! Expeditions are open to both snorkellers and divers, with whale interactions strictly controlled. Dwarf Minke whales grow up to 8 metres (26 feet) long, and a closeup encounter with these majestic 6-tonne creatures is an experience you will never forget. Minkes often approach snorkelers, divers and boats, so there is every chance to see them close up. Their success rate for close sightings during a Minke whale dive over the peak season is over 90 percent and your interaction with the whales could last two hours or more! Minke whale expeditions take place on our liveaboard vessel OceanQuest. With air-conditioned cabins, each with en suite bathroom, a comfortable lounge and bar and an onboard chef delivering delicious hearty meals, you'll have everything you need to rest and relax after your minke whale encounter.
PADI Advanced Open Water - 2 Day 1 Night Liveaboard
Once you have completed your PADI Open Water Course, the next step is to enhance your scuba skills with the PADI Advanced Open Water Program. They offer regular Advanced Open Water diver courses from Cairns on their overnight vessel OceanQuest. There are no formal classroom sessions with this PADI course, and no exam! The only academic work required is to read the relevant chapters in the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Manual and complete the knowledge reviews at the end of each chapter. Then the fun begins! You will need a minimum of two days to complete your PADI Advanced Open Water Course on the Great Barrier Reef. Join them on board their overnight vessel OceanQuest for one or two nights or hop on two day trips on SeaQuest and return a certified Advanced diver! Your 5 training adventure dives include two core dives in Deep and Underwater Navigation. The remaining three adventure dives will be a selection of Night Dive, Peak Performance Buoyancy Dive, Fish ID, Underwater Naturalist and Boat Diver.
PADI Open Water & Advanced Course - 6 Day 3 Night Course
Spend two days tackling the theory and pool training at our five-star PADI Dive Centre, then head to the outer reef for a four-day three-night stay on our liveaboard vessel OceanQuest. During your course you’ll pack in as many as 15 dives (including two at night). Explore the Great Barrier Reef and see everything from colourful corals, anemones, Nemos, sharks, rays, turtles and nudibranchs at our outer reef dive sites, while you gain skills and experience as a scuba diver. By the end of your six-day dive course you’ll have not only your PADI Open Water Diver certification but also your PADI Advanced Open Water certification. This means you’ll be qualified to explore depths of up to 30m! In between dives, relax in comfort on board OceanQuest. Soak up the sun and the views on deck, fuel up for your next dive with tasty meals prepared by our onboard chef and sleep soundly in your air-conditioned cabin with full en-suite.
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Reviews & Ratings
Francois Esterhuizen
Google review
Just got back from the 2 night, 3 day live aboard trip. (End of May 2026) I cannot recommend this enough. We are experienced divers, so just did ‘fun dives’. The daily dive spots picked by the team was great. We saw plenty of coral and great marine life. I was impressed by how well run the boat and schedule is managed by the crew. The scuba equipment was good quality and in good condition. The crew/operation was also very safety oriented. Meals were more than enough and better than expected. The accommodation and facilities were good. I feel this was all excellent value for money. We did 10 dives over 3 days. 2 of which are night dives. Shout out to the crew on the trip of the 26th to 28th of May 2026. You Guys and Girls were great!
Ximena Ortega Bajos
Google review
I had an amazing experience completing my PADI Open Water Diver certification in Cairns with Divers Den, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone considering learning to dive. A very special mention goes to my instructor, Stephen Meagher, who made the entire course fun, exciting, and extremely well taught, and it was always so much fun!!! With Steve, you always felt guided, confident, and enthusiastic about what was coming next. His enthusiasm and excellent knowledge of diving made learning all aspects of the course truly interesting, and he explained everything clearly and patiently. He also helped me understand how to use my body in the deep to properly control my dive, which made a huge difference. Thanks to his guidance, I felt very confident in my skills by the time I finished the certification, and I always felt safe during the learning dives. The marvel of the Great Barrier Reef is truly hard to put into words. The amount of marine life you get to see, combined with the amazing underwater and above-water views and perfect weather conditions, makes it a completely unique and unforgettable experience. I especially recommend the night dive, where you get to see many reef sharks in their natural environment, it was absolutely incredible. Overall, all the crew and guides were fantastic and made every dive feel both safe and fun. I can’t wait to keep exploring new dive sites, and I’m so happy to have gained these new skills and a new activity to look forward to. An awesome experience that I would 100% recommend.
Eli Bentham
Google review
We stayed 2 nights on the liveaboard, did an intro dive and snorkelled the rest of the time. It was a brilliant experience start to finish. The reef was amazing and the rooms were great. The food was also much better than anticipated! All the crew were very supportive and made the experience. Especially Gautham and Steven who made time to explain what we were seeing and were overall very friendly and down to earth. Would recommend to anyone and hope to be back in the future with a diving certification!
Le Guennec Emma
Google review
We booked the 3 days 2 night trip, and it was AMAZING !! With 10 dives in total, you have the time to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef and all of the animals. The night dives were such a great and scary experience !! All of the staff is very very nice, and helpful. Deanna the boat manager is awesome, and Liam a very great guide, but overall every dive instructor is great. We also met very nice people on OceanQuest :) The food is very tasty, especially breakfast and dinner, yummy !! Rooms are big, but we would have hoped to have a better view in ours (we were at the very front, facing the ropes). If you’re a bit seasick in general, take seasick pills, the boat can be quite rough and bouncing a lot if there’re big waves and wind. This experience will remain in our memories for our whole life, thank you so much !! 🫶🏼
Angele Rapa
Google review
Such a wonderful experience. We enjoyed it so much! We had a full day at 2 outer reefs. Guide was snorkeling with us all the time, keeping us safe and giving us information about the marine life we were seeing. We had around 3 hrs snorkeling during the day. All the staff were fantastic including Chris (mainly at bar), Ryan who was our guide and all the others
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Where you'll be
319 Draper Street
Cairns QLD 4870