I’m determined to turn these boards into my personal Australia-planning resource. 
Any general recommendations for visiting the GBR, for maybe a day of scuba and otherwise general hanging-out? I know Cairns is the scuba capitol o’ the world or what-have-you, but does that mean it’s the overpriced touristy place to go? Any other recommendations in that area which might be a little more off the path?
Airlie Beach, Port Douglas. They are both pretty touristy though.
I hear the Daintree Rainforest is a must; lots of tourists but not so touristy, if you know what I mean.
Cairns itself is a bit of a ‘hole’ and it doesn’t even have a beach!! But it is a good base-camp for exploring all that the reef and FNQ has to offer, and does have excellent budget accomodation alongside the five-star hotels and stuff. It’s a regular town (unlike Port Douglas which struck me as too far up its own bum to see daylight) with supermarkets and non-touristy shops to cater to the locals, so if you’re on any sort of a budget…
Also, most of the reef-charters/scuba groups head out from Cairns (if that’s your thing), as well as bus tours to the Daintree, Atherton Tablelands and anywhere else you want to go.
More ‘off the path’ around FNQ generally means the places are more exclusive, with costs going up accordingly but not necessarily with greater ambience if you get my meaning. Cairns is a good knock-around town and as I mentioned, the best kick off spot to appreciate the rest of the region.
Have a grouse time!!
I always preferred Townsville to Cairns but I guess if you want the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns is a very good base. Agree with what has been said about Port Douglas.
To get the best diving/ snorkelling you have to go offshore a bit. I’ve been to “Reefworld” (everything in that neck of the woods is something-world) a couple of times and liked it. It’s about 40 km out to sea off the Whitsundays. Of those islands, Long Island is a little less resorty than most. I also liked a half-hour seaplane out of Cairns that parked off a reef.
The general things to remember: the reef is huge, hundreds of kms long and has good bits all along; the really good bits are some way out to sea and you have to get a boat out there regardless of where you stay; and some places have fringe reef off the beach, but this only cool until you’ve seen the real thing.
Yeah Cairns is a great place to stay. When I’ve been I stay somewhere cheap way up the esplanade and walk into town for stuff. There seem to be loads of people around even at 2am. Port Douglas is just a resort town with nothing attractive but the drive up the coast from Cairns is fantastic - The Cook Highway is on a skinny strip of land with the hills rearing up metres away on your left and a beach on the other side of the road on your right. One of my favourite Aussie drives.
Strangely enough the first bit of the Daintree you come to heading north is for me the most memorable experience I had there. You head off from Mossman to Mossman Gorge which has superb forest areas, great walking tracks and pristine swimming holes. Have a beer at the pub in Mossman, the locals like a chat during the day, and drive around town and check out some of the old buildings.
While you are in Cairns you only need to rent a car for the drive up to Mossman Gorge. For all the local stuff they have buses that pick you up at your hotel and take you to your boat, attraction, whatever and at the end of the day they take you back.
I think it is the most efficiently run tourist spot I have ever been to. I remember getting off a Reef trip and chatting to one of the women from the tour. She recommended the train trip to Kuranda since we had nothing on the next day. It sounded interesting so she took us back to her office made a few phone calls and arranged it all for us. And that seems to be everyones attitude - they don’t care who you patronise just so long as you are having fun.
Mind you I finally talked my parents into going in March this year and they arrived at the same time as cyclone Larry. I’m sure I never would have heard the end of that except due to all the refunds they received and the amount they were paid by, I believe, Amex for travel insurance, they actually made a profit.
Not exactly off the beaten path, but you must check out some of the Big Things - looks like the Big Captain Cook, the Big Marlin and the Big Barramundi would be good starters.