I was shocked when i got to Carins and went looking for a carins cheap hotel i looked on the internet for days and I was unable to find anything that was at a price that I would be comfortable paying even the hostels in Cairns were expensive and not really a good value as far as I was concerned and I had almost given up all hope and then i found the Adobe Hotel a really good cheap hotel in Cairns.
The Adobe is your basic hotel with a few interesting twist they have a coin operated laundry and they have a kitchen that you can use as well the rooms are all air con and have TV little refrigerator and a coffee pot a very nice touch indeed.
There are several dive companies in Cairns that you can go out with but if you really want to get to the good adventure diving then you need to go out to the Coral sea and the Taka is the only boat that you want to be on if you are going to go that far out. great scuba diving very well run and very safe.