Salty's, at 208 Bourbong St (tel 07/4151 6422, fax 4152 4938, www.saltys.net ), offers probably the cheapest four-day dive course in Australia ($169), though this uses shore dives with poor visibility and few fish; for $580 you get trained boat diving around the Bunker Group reefs and Lady Musgrave island (qualified divers get the same trip for $495 plus equipment rental). Bundaberg Coach Tours (tel 07/4153 1037 or free call 1800 815 714) run day-tours featuring the rum distillery and other sights twice a week ($60), seasonal turtle-watching night tours to Mon Repos ($18), and twice-weekly day-tours to Agnes Water and 1770 ($60). Detours (tel 07/4159 3883) take smaller groups on request to 1770, Agnes Water and Deepwater National Park for $90, though only three hours or so is actually spent on site.

Central accommodation options include basic beds and inexpensive meals at the Grand Hotel on 89 Bourbong St (tel 07/4151 2441; $35-50); the Backpackers & Travellers Lodge , opposite the bus terminal on Targo Street (tel 07/4152 2080; under $20), a clean but usually full hostel; and the rough-and-ready City Centre Backpackers , at 216 Bourbong St near the train station (tel 07/4151 3501, ccbackpackers@interworx.com.au ; under $20). Both hostels specialize in finding seasonal farm work for travellers and most residents are there to work. For a motel , drive west of the station down Bourbong and take your pick. The closest campsite is Finemore Caravan Park on Quay Street (tel 07/4151 3663; cabins $35-50). At Mon Repos Beach, the first-rate beachfront Turtle Sands Caravan Park (tel 07/4159 2340) is right next to the turtle rookery and comes with an aspiring restaurant , cabins ($35-50) and tent sites. Everywhere will be full over the Christmas holidays, and the hostels are reluctant to take advance bookings except in the quieter months from January to March.

The cafA©s and hotels along Bourbong Street are about the only places in town that provide good food and after-dark entertainment; the Grand Hotel and the Old Bridge Steakhouse , over the bridge on Perry Street, are both geared towards grills; or try the good-value counter meals at the Old Bundy Tavern , at the junction of Quay and Tantitha streets.

Moving on , trains and long-distance buses - Greyhound Pioneer (tel 13 2030), McCafferty's (tel 13 1499) nd Premier (tel 13 3410) - head up the coast to Gladstone and down to Childers and beyond; for Agnes Water and 1770 , Barbour's Buses (tel 07/4974 9030) run a twice-weekly afternoon service from the post office on Barolin Street ($20 return, $15 one-way).