Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, was the most memorable highlight from my trip to Australia. I booked a tour with a company called Quicksilver, recommended to me by my friend who had booked with them a few months prior.

The Great Barrier Reef is located off the coast of Northern Queensland. As you can see from the map below, the reef is enormous — spanning over 1,000 miles in length. It’s larger than the Great Wall of China and is the only living thing on earth visible from space!

There are several areas in Queensland that you can choose as a starting point to book a Great Barrier Reef tour, but I was told Port Douglas was one of the best. On the day of my tour, Quicksilver sent a bus to pick me and others up from our hotels and brought us to our boat. After a 1.5 hour (bumpy) boat ride, we arrived to Agincourt Reef! (You can see it is located in the middle of The Great Barrier Reef on the map above.) On the way out to the reef, we enjoyed coffee, tea and… seasickness medication. Luckily I didn’t get seasick though, so the medicine must work. A marine biologist gave an informative presentation filled with facts about the reef and a preview of what we would be seeing.

The varying colors of water were even more remarkable in person and the shadow in the background is part of the reef

Quicksilver offers a few options for how you can explore the reef when booking a tour. You can choose to:

• Free snorkel – which is included in your ticket and allows you to jump on and off the boat at your leisure and snorkel within a roped area
• Scuba dive (they include free lessons on the boat)
• Guided snorkel – which allows you to swim further away from the boat and see more of the reef with a marine biologist
• They also offer helicopter tours to see the reef from above and an underwater observatory to see the reef from below without getting in the water (good for small kids and people who are unable to swim)

Since I was traveling alone, I opted to pay a little extra to book the guided snorkeling tour. It was worth it! For one hour we swam along the reef, stopping along the way to learn more about what we were seeing. After the tour, we swam to the boat to eat lunch, and then I jumped back in the water to do a bit more snorkeling on my own. In total, we were at the reef for about three hours.

It was completely surreal once I dipped my face into the water and this incredible underwater world revealed itself to me. It was so quiet under there, with nothing but the sound of my own breath. I couldn’t believe how many fish I saw, happily swimming in and out of their little coral homes. We even saw a family of clownfish in their own anemone home- like Nemo! I was so grateful for this experience– it totally took my breath away and exceeded my expectations. This is a once in a lifetime, bucket list opportunity that is not over hyped. It’s truly magical.

While the particular reef we saw hasn’t been completely bleached (which occurs when coral gets stressed and turns white, but doesn’t mean it’s totally dead) we did learn more about the status of the reef. With rising sea temperatures and other factors, the reef is in a really delicate position right now. The good news is, however, is that parts of the reef are very slowly beginning to recover as the coral has found ways to adapt and stay alive.

This all just urges me to continue finding small ways to help make our planet a better place for all living things. The ocean is the biggest ecosystem on Earth and needs to be protected and cared for. Seeing all these fish in their home, with their sweet little lives, made me realize how much of an impact human behavior can have on an ecosystem. From the sunscreen we wear, to the products we use on our lawn– it all ends up in the ocean. The exciting news is that while I was there, Australia already put a plastic bag ban in place and they no longer use plastic bags in stores. That’s a fantastic start for the health of our oceans.

Here are a few more ways we can help save the Great Barrier Reef.

Have you ever snorkeled or wanted to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef?

You can read more about what to expect on a snorkeling tour with Quicksilver here.

For more on Australia read these posts or check out the video below:

• Arriving in the Land Down Under: Brisbane
• Kangaroos, Koalas, and Wallabies… oh my!
• Soaking in the Sunshine Coast
• Thala Beach Nature Reserve
• The World’s Oldest Living Rainforest
• Roadtrippin’ Queensland, Australia
• Saying Goodbye: My Final Days in Australia