How Much Is The Gordon River Cruise?

Two companies run the classic full day Gordon River cruise out of Strahan, and their published prices sit within five dollars of each other at the entry level. World Heritage Cruises, the family owned operator sailing from 18 Esplanade, starts at A$160 per adult. Gordon River Cruises, run by NRMA Parks and Resorts from its terminal at 24 Esplanade, starts at A$165. Both of those numbers buy a main deck centre seat on a roughly six hour sailing that includes lunch, a guided Sarah Island walk and a rainforest boardwalk stop, so the real question is not whether the cruise is affordable but how far up the deck plan you want to climb. Strahan River Cruises compares the Gordon River sailings from both operators on one page, and this guide goes a level deeper: every seat class, every child and family fare, the two concession discounts, the seasonal dinner cruises and the one extra ticket you may need to budget for.

How Much Is The Gordon River Cruise?

A seat on a Gordon River cruise from Strahan starts at A$160 per adult with World Heritage Cruises and A$165 per adult with Gordon River Cruises, both covering the roughly six hour morning sailing with lunch included. Those entry prices buy a main deck centre seat. Window seats, upper decks, children and families all change the total, and the full fare tables below break down every published price.

The two entry prices are not promotional: each one equals the operator's cheapest adult fare, the main deck centre or central seat, and both operators publish their fare tables openly on their own booking pages. World Heritage Cruises lists its fares as valid to 31 March 2027, and its from price of A$160 matches the live listing price for the morning catamaran cruise, which carries a 4.8 rating from 1,255 reviews. Gordon River Cruises prices its Main Deck Central seat at A$165 for the morning sailing on Spirit of the Wild, which holds a 4.8 rating from 1,635 reviews. The two ratings are effectively identical; the price gap at entry level is one coffee.

What separates the operators is everything above the entry fare. World Heritage Cruises sells four seating tiers on its Harbour Master II catamaran, launched in October 2020 and built in Tasmania, topping out at A$225 for an Upper Deck Window seat. Gordon River Cruises sells three tiers on Spirit of the Wild, its hybrid electric vessel with a "Whisper Mode" for the river stretch, and its Premier Upper Deck seat costs A$355, more than double the entry fare. Neither price structure is hidden: both operators publish them, and both live listings show the same from prices. The table below puts the adult fares side by side so the deck by deck comparison is immediate.

A few things stand out in that table. The main deck window upgrade costs more on both boats, and by the same amount on each, which buys the same benefit on either vessel: a seat beside the glass on the harbour crossing and the river run. The structures diverge at the top. World Heritage Cruises spreads its premium across two upper deck tiers at A$205 and A$225, both including lunch, a beverage and morning tea service on the upper deck. Gordon River Cruises instead concentrates its premium into a single Premier Upper Deck tier at A$355, which the operator positions as an upgraded experience on the private upper level of Spirit of the Wild. A traveller comparing the two boats purely on price would call the A$205 and A$225 WHC seats the middle path and the A$355 GRC seat the splurge.

The morning sailings themselves are close cousins. Both run about six hours, both depart from the Strahan Esplanade within a minute's walk of each other, both pass through Hells Gates, stop at Sarah Island for a guided walk, pause at the Heritage Landing rainforest boardwalk and serve lunch on board. The World Heritage Cruises morning Heritage cruise departs at 9:00am with check in from 8:30am and returns about 3pm; the Gordon River Cruises morning sailing checks in at 8:00am and departs at 8:30am, which makes it the first boat on the river, a genuine advantage on still mornings when the tannin dark water acts like a mirror. If you are weighing the total cost of the day rather than the fare alone, the two operators are within A$5 of each other at every comparable seat level except the top tier.

What Do The Seat Classes Cost On Each Boat?

Seat class is the main price lever on both boats, and the gap between the cheapest and most expensive seat is large. A main deck window seat costs A$195 per adult with World Heritage Cruises and A$200 with Gordon River Cruises, while the top tiers run A$205 to A$225 on the Harbour Master II catamaran and A$355 for the Premier Upper Deck on Spirit of the Wild. Children pay reduced fares in every class.

The seat decision is worth slowing down on, because it is the single biggest swing in what you pay, bigger than any discount or season. On the Harbour Master II, the four tiers are Main Deck Centre at A$160, Main Deck Window at A$195, Upper Deck Centre at A$205 and Upper Deck Window at A$225. On Spirit of the Wild, the three tiers are Main Deck Central at A$165, Main Deck Window at A$200 and Premier Upper Deck at A$355 for adults and children alike. The full breakdown, including what each tier adds, lives in the Gordon River cruise seat options guide, which compares the decks, the views and the inclusions in detail.

The inclusions explain part of the price ladder. With World Heritage Cruises, the upper deck fares include lunch, a beverage and morning tea served on the upper deck, so the A$205 to A$225 seats are partly a food and service upgrade, not just a view. With Gordon River Cruises, the Premier Upper Deck fare at A$355 is the operator's premium product on Spirit of the Wild, positioned around the quieter, more intimate upper level of a hybrid electric vessel. Whether that is worth the jump above the entry seat is a personal call; what the fare tables make clear is that both operators reserve their best service tiers for the upper deck.

The morning buffet lunch cruise on Spirit of the Wild is the listing that most price conscious travellers compare against the WHC morning catamaran, since both cover the same route for within A$5 of each other at entry level. The GRC listing, "Gordon River Cruise departing from Strahan", includes the chef prepared buffet lunch, the fish farm visit with a tasting, the Heritage Landing walk and the Sarah Island guided tour, and free cancellation applies. Its 4.8 rating from 1,635 reviews is the larger review pool of the two operators, which says something about how many people pass through its booking page in a normal year.

One practical note on the window seats: both operators price them as a per seat upgrade, and on a six hour sailing with roughly two hours spent on the open harbour crossing, the window premium is one of the better value upgrades in Tasmanian day touring. The centre seats still give full walk up access to the outer decks on both vessels, so nothing is hidden from centre seat holders; the window seat simply means you watch the rainforest go by from your table rather than from the rail.

Are Family, Child And Concession Prices Available?

Yes, both operators publish child, family and concession pricing, and the savings are real. Children pay from A$75 with World Heritage Cruises and from A$80 with Gordon River Cruises on the main deck. A family of two adults and children pays A$340 to A$425 depending on operator and seat class. Australian seniors card holders save 10% with World Heritage Cruises, and NRMA members save 15% with Gordon River Cruises.

Child fares are where the two operators price most differently. World Heritage Cruises charges A$75 for a child aged 3 to 16 in a Main Deck Centre seat and A$99 in a Main Deck Window seat. Gordon River Cruises charges A$80 for a child in Main Deck Central and A$90 in Main Deck Window. On the upper tiers, World Heritage Cruises lists its Upper Deck Centre and Window seats at A$205 and A$225 for adults, with the child price on those tiers set by the operator at booking; Gordon River Cruises sets the Premier Upper Deck fare at A$355 for adults and children alike, which makes the premier tier a poor fit for families with several kids.

The family fares deserve their own table, because they bundle in ways the per person fares do not:

Read that carefully, because the family definitions are not identical. The World Heritage Cruises family fare covers two adults and up to three children in both the centre (A$340) and window (A$440) tiers. The Gordon River Cruises family fare covers two adults and up to three children in Main Deck Central at A$345, but its window family fare at A$425 covers two adults and up to two children. A family of five wanting window seats pays A$440 with WHC and has no directly matching GRC product; a family of four at the window pays A$425 with GRC. For a family of five on a budget, the A$340 WHC centre fare is the cheapest full day on the water in Strahan.

The two concession discounts sit with different operators. World Heritage Cruises gives Australian seniors card holders 10% off, which on the A$160 entry fare is a saving of A$16 per person. Gordon River Cruises gives NRMA members 15% off with a promo code listed on its homepage, which on the A$165 entry fare is about A$25 per person. Neither discount is stackable with the other, for the obvious reason that they belong to different companies, but if you hold one of those cards, it is worth checking which operator your card favours before you book. There is more on travelling with older relatives or mobility considerations in the kids, seniors and accessibility guide.

What Is Included In The Gordon River Cruise Price?

Both morning cruises include the full roughly six hour route: Hells Gates, the aquaculture or fish farm pens, about two hours on the Gordon River, the Heritage Landing rainforest boardwalk, a guided Sarah Island walk and a served or buffet lunch. One extra to budget for on the World Heritage Cruises sailing is a National Parks Pass, which that operator does not sell; buy it from Parks and Wildlife Tasmania.

The inclusions list is long, which is why the A$160 to A$165 entry price holds up. Both operators run the same 65 nautical mile route, about 120 km in total, crossing Macquarie Harbour, passing Hells Gates at the harbour mouth, viewing the salmon and ocean trout farms, then running about 40 km to the mouth of the Gordon River and spending about two hours on the river itself including the boardwalk stop. Lunch is included on both morning sailings: World Heritage Cruises serves a seated lunch of local Tasmanian produce to your seat, and Gordon River Cruises serves a chef prepared buffet. The GRC sailing adds a tasting at the fish farms; the WHC sailing adds a stop at a Huon pine sawmill on the return leg.

The parks pass point matters for the World Heritage Cruises sailing specifically. The operator's own FAQ states that the cruise travels into the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park and that a National Parks Pass is needed, that WHC does not sell it, and that it is bought from Parks and Wildlife Tasmania. Parks and Wildlife confirms that a valid parks pass is required for entry to all of Tasmania's national parks, so if you do not already hold one from earlier travels in the state, factor it into the total cost of the WHC day. Many visitors arriving via Cradle Mountain or the Franklin river country already hold a pass; day visitors coming straight to Strahan may not. The pass is a parks entry requirement rather than a cruise fare component, so it never appears in the fare tables above.

Beyond the pass, there is little to add to the bill. Morning tea is included on the WHC upper deck tiers, the lunch is included for everyone on both morning sailings, and the guided walks at Sarah Island and Heritage Landing are part of the fare, not paid extras. The Sarah Island stop is a guided on shore walk through the ruins of the penal station that operated from 1822 to 1833, an eight hectare island with more than 180 recorded escape attempts, and the Heritage Landing stop is a raised boardwalk through temperate rainforest where living Huon pine lines the path. Neither operator charges separately for these; they are the substance of what the fare buys.

How Much Are The Evening Dinner Cruises?

The evening dinner cruises start at A$160 per adult with both operators, the same entry price as the morning sailings, with dinner served in place of lunch. They run on limited seasonal dates only: the Gordon River Cruises dinner cruise sails 27 December 2026 to 2 January 2027 and 14 to 24 February 2027, and the World Heritage Cruises afternoon dinner cruise runs 27 December to 16 January.

The dinner cruises are the most misunderstood products on the Strahan wharf, because travellers often assume they run nightly. They do not. The Gordon River Cruises evening dinner cruise, "From Strahan: Evening Dinner Cruise on the Gordon River", operates only from 27 December 2026 to 2 January 2027 and again from 14 to 24 February 2027, with check in at 3:00pm, boarding at 3:15pm and a 3:30pm departure for about six hours. The World Heritage Cruises afternoon dinner cruise runs only from 27 December to 16 January, departing 3:15pm and returning about 8:30pm. Both include a buffet dinner; the GRC sailing gives Main Deck passengers a complimentary drink at Hells Gates and Premier Upper Deck passengers an open bar, while the WHC sailing adds afternoon tea and a beverage on the upper deck. Since the dinner sailings leave mid-afternoon and return after dark, staying close to the wharf makes the day far easier, and our guide to choosing between Strahan and Queenstown as your cruise base weighs the practical differences between the two towns.

Note the review columns honestly: these are small pools. Twelve reviews and 23 reviews respectively, because these seasonal sailings simply do not run often enough to accumulate the thousand plus reviews of the morning cruises. A 4.9 from 23 reviews is a good signal, not a statistical mountain, and a 4.5 from 12 reviews says very little either way. Judge the dinner cruises on their itineraries and dates rather than their ratings.

The price logic of the dinner cruises is straightforward: at A$160 from, they cost the same as the morning entry fare while substituting a dinner for a lunch and an evening harbour crossing for a morning one. For travellers already in Strahan over the late December to mid January window, the WHC afternoon catamaran is the natural second day on the water, or a first if the morning sailing is full. The WHC listing notes free cancellation, so checking dates costs nothing.

When Is The Cheapest Time To Book A Gordon River Cruise?

Published seat class fares stay the same across the year; what changes is the schedule, not the price. December to February is the driest and warmest period at Strahan, with mean rain days of 10.1 in January against 19.9 in August, and both dinner cruises run in that summer window. World Heritage Cruises does not sail on Christmas Day or through August, its annual maintenance month.

Neither operator publishes seasonal fare bands. The fare tables above are the fare tables: a Main Deck Centre seat on the morning Heritage cruise is A$160 whenever the boat sails, and the operator lists those fares as valid to 31 March 2027. What the calendar controls is availability. The summer window from late December to mid January carries both dinner cruises, the fullest schedules and the biggest crowds; the winter months carry the most rain, the shortest days and, in August, no World Heritage Cruises sailings at all, as the operator closes for its annual maintenance across 1 to 31 August 2026. For later Augusts, check the dates: the operator has listed August as its maintenance month.

The weather numbers explain why the shoulder seasons are the value pick for travellers flexible on timing. Strahan's mean rainfall runs 77.4 mm in January and 68.8 mm in February, against 176.4 mm in July and 181.4 mm in August, and rain days with at least 1 mm run from 10.1 in January to 19.9 in August. Mean maximum temperatures sit at 21.2 degrees in January and February against 12.4 in July. Daylight matters too: about 15 hours in mid summer against about 9 in mid winter, and a cruise that returns at 3pm lands very differently in each. The trade is simple: summer gives the best light and the fullest schedule, autumn and spring give smaller crowds and the same fares, winter gives moody rainforest and the highest chance of a wet crossing. The full month by month picture, including what to pack, is in the seasons and weather guide.

One booking behaviour worth knowing: the WHC morning catamaran carries a "likely to sell out" note on its listing, and both operators' summer mornings fill first. The cheapest strategy is not waiting for a price drop, because none comes; it is booking the seat class you actually want early in the window you want. If the morning sailing is full on your date, the seasonal dinner cruises and the other operator's morning sailing are the fallbacks, both at the same A$160 entry level.

Is The Gordon River Cruise Worth The Price?

On the numbers, yes. Both morning cruises hold a 4.8 rating, from 1,255 reviews for World Heritage Cruises and 1,635 for Gordon River Cruises, and each covers 65 nautical miles, about 120 km, including a guided Sarah Island walk and a rainforest boardwalk inside a World Heritage area of more than 1.58 million hectares. The two dinner cruises are newer listings with small review pools, 12 and 23 reviews.

Strip the day down and the fare buys a lot of surface area. The cruise crosses Macquarie Harbour, which the WHC FAQ describes as three times the size of Sydney Harbour, about 315 square kilometres of shallow fjord water stained dark by tannin leached from the Gordon catchment. It passes Hells Gates, the narrow harbour mouth named by convicts and reshaped by a breakwater and dredging works between 1900 and 1902. It delivers two guided shore stops, one at the ruins of a penal settlement that was for a time the largest shipbuilding yard in the colonies, and one on a boardwalk among Huon pines of extreme age. It feeds you lunch. Six hours, one fare, no upsells on the wharf. If those six hours are what you're budgeting a whole day around, the hour-by-hour breakdown of every Gordon River sailing shows exactly how the time is spent.

The honest comparison is not between the two operators, whose entry fares differ by A$5 and whose ratings are identical at 4.8, but between the cruise and everything else a visitor can buy in Strahan. The half day and shorter harbour products elsewhere in Tasmania routinely cost more per hour than A$160 across six hours. The West Coast Wilderness Railway, the other signature west coast experience, sells its journeys in a comparable band, and the evening play in town, The Ship That Never Was, adds a separate ticket on top of a cruise day. Against that backdrop, the buffet lunch cruise looks less like a splurge and more like the standard price of a full day in this part of Tasmania.

Worth also depends on what you would do instead. If your Strahan time is a single day, the morning cruise is the activity that reaches the places a car cannot: the Gordon River mirror, Sarah Island, the harbour mouth. If you have two days, the second day belongs to the free and cheap shore side of town, the Peoples Park stroll to Hogarth Falls, Ocean Beach and the Henty Dunes, all covered in the free things to do in Strahan guide. And if you are still building the itinerary, the question of how long the Gordon River cruise takes is answered alongside this one, because six hours is the frame every other plan has to fit inside. If you want to widen the plan beyond the town itself, the guide to day trips from Strahan covers which routes work from this small west coast base and which simply do not.

The fare tables in this guide are the operators' own published prices, and the live listing for each sailing shows the current fare at the moment you book. Between the two morning cruises, the decision rarely comes down to money: it comes down to the 8:30am or 9:00am departure, the hybrid electric vessel or the Tasmanian built catamaran, and whether the A$355 premier tier or the A$205 to A$225 upper deck tiers speak to you. Pick the seat, and the price follows.

Common Questions About Gordon River Cruise Prices

How Much Is The Gordon River Cruise?

From A$160 per adult with World Heritage Cruises and from A$165 per adult with Gordon River Cruises, for a main deck centre seat on the roughly six hour morning sailing with lunch included. Window seats cost A$195 to A$200, upper tiers run A$205 to A$355, children pay from A$75, and family fares run A$340 to A$440.

Do Gordon River Cruise Prices Include Lunch?

Yes. Both morning cruises include lunch: a seated lunch of local Tasmanian produce on the World Heritage Cruises sailing and a chef prepared buffet on the Gordon River Cruises sailing. The WHC upper deck tiers also include morning tea and a beverage. The dinner cruises include a buffet dinner instead.

Is There A Senior Or NRMA Discount On The Cruise?

Yes, one each. World Heritage Cruises gives Australian seniors card holders 10% off, about A$16 on the entry fare. Gordon River Cruises gives NRMA members 15% off with a promo code listed on its homepage, about A$25 on the entry fare.

How Much Is A Gordon River Cruise For A Family?

World Heritage Cruises charges A$340 for two adults and up to three children in main deck centre seats, or A$440 in window seats. Gordon River Cruises charges A$345 for two adults and up to three children in Main Deck Central, or A$425 for two adults and up to two children in Main Deck Window.

Do I Need A National Parks Pass For The Cruise?

For the World Heritage Cruises sailing, yes: the operator's FAQ states the cruise travels into the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, that a National Parks Pass is needed and that WHC does not sell it, so buy it from Parks and Wildlife Tasmania. Check the parks requirements for any other sailing directly before you book.

Are The Dinner Cruises More Expensive Than The Morning Cruises?

No. Both dinner cruises start at A$160 per adult, the same entry price as the morning sailings, with dinner in place of lunch. The catch is the calendar: the Gordon River Cruises dinner cruise runs only 27 December 2026 to 2 January 2027 and 14 to 24 February 2027, and the World Heritage Cruises dinner cruise runs only 27 December to 16 January.