Cairns and surrounds

Why come here

• The only place on Earth where two UNESCO World Heritage sites — the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics rainforest — meet.
• Reef day trips are genuinely a day trip: outer-reef pontoons, liveaboards and small-boat operators all leave from the marina.
• The Daintree and Cape Tribulation are drivable, and Aboriginal-guided walks there are among the best cultural experiences in Australia.
• A real dry season — May to October is reliably warm, clear and stinger-free, which is rarer in tropical Australia than people expect.
• It is the northern anchor of the Pacific Coast Way and the start of the Great Barrier Reef Drive.

Cairns and surrounds

Everything on this map is a day trip or a short hop from Cairns — the way Tourism Australia itself organises the country, around a gateway city and the destinations it opens up.

Things to do

1. Spend a day on the outer Great Barrier Reef

   Snorkel or dive the outer reef from a pontoon or a small boat. The reef is at its clearest May–October. Choose an operator working in a Green Zone and certified by Ecotourism Australia if you want the lowest-impact option.

2. Drive the Daintree to Cape Tribulation

   Cross the Daintree River by cable ferry into 180-million-year-old rainforest, walk the Dubuji and Marrdja boardwalks, and stand on the beach at Cape Tribulation where the rainforest meets the reef.

3. Take an Aboriginal-guided rainforest walk

   Kuku Yalanji guides run walks through the Daintree and at Mossman Gorge, covering bush medicine, food and the stories of Country. This is the single best way to understand what you are looking at.

4. Ride up to Kuranda and Skyrail back down

   The heritage Scenic Railway climbs through Barron Gorge to the rainforest village of Kuranda; the Skyrail gondola glides back over the canopy. Do the train up and the cableway down.

5. Snorkel Fitzroy or Green Island

   Closer, cheaper and shallower than the outer reef — a good half-day, and a good option for families or anyone unsure about a long boat ride.

6. Swim the waterfalls of the Atherton Tablelands

   Millaa Millaa, Zillie and Ellinjaa falls form a compact circuit an hour and a half inland, through dairy country and crater lakes — a good wet-weather day.

7. Day-trip to Magnetic Island

   From Townsville, a few hours south — 23 bays, granite boulders and one of Australia's most reliable places to see wild koalas on the Forts Walk.

Where to base yourself

• The Esplanade & city centre

  The lagoon, the boardwalk and most of the hotels — walkable, and where the reef boats leave from.

• Palm Cove

  A quieter beach village 25 minutes north, with paperbarks along the sand and the better restaurants.

• Port Douglas

  An hour north — Four Mile Beach, smarter hotels, and the shortest run to both the outer reef and the Daintree.

• Trinity Beach & the northern beaches

  Residential, cheaper, and a short drive in — good if you have a car and want space.

• Kuranda & the Tablelands

  Up in the rainforest — cooler nights, waterfalls and markets, for a night away from the coast.

5 days in Cairns

1. Day 1

   Arrive, and get your bearings

   Settle in on the Esplanade, swim the lagoon, and walk the boardwalk at dusk when the mudflats fill with birds. Book your reef day now — the best operators fill up, and you want the option to move it if the wind turns.

2. Day 2

   The Great Barrier Reef

   A full day on the outer reef. Two or three snorkel or dive sites, a marine biologist on board with the better operators, and back into the marina by late afternoon.

3. Day 3

   Daintree and Cape Tribulation

   Drive north through Port Douglas, cross the Daintree ferry, and give the day to boardwalks, a Kuku Yalanji guided walk at Mossman Gorge, and the beach at Cape Trib. Stay the night up there if you can.

4. Day 4

   Kuranda and the rainforest canopy

   Scenic Railway up, markets and the Barron Falls lookout at the top, Skyrail down over the canopy. Afternoon free in Palm Cove.

5. Day 5

   Tablelands, or the reef again

   Waterfall circuit and crater lakes on the Atherton Tablelands — or, if the reef day was weather-affected, use this as your second attempt.

Eat & drink

Tropical north Queensland eats seafood, tropical fruit and a lot of Asian influence — Cairns has been a working port with Chinese, Japanese and Torres Strait Islander communities for well over a century. Port Douglas and Palm Cove have the higher-end kitchens; Cairns itself is stronger on markets, night food and the Esplanade's casual end. Look out for barramundi, mud crab, Spanish mackerel and reef fish, plus native ingredients — lemon myrtle, davidson plum, finger lime — increasingly on menus.

• Rusty's Markets — Friday-to-Sunday produce market in the city — tropical fruit you will not have seen before, plus cheap hot food.
• The Cairns Esplanade strip — Casual, open-late and walkable from most city hotels — the default first-night option.
• Port Douglas' Macrossan Street — The best concentration of proper restaurants in the region, an hour north.
• Palm Cove's beachfront — Paperbark trees, sand a few metres away, and the region's most pleasant place to eat dinner.

Getting there & around

Getting there. Cairns Airport has direct international flights from Asia and New Zealand plus domestic services from every Australian capital; it is a 10-minute drive from the city. Port Douglas is an hour north by shuttle or hire car. The Pacific Coast Way road trip from Brisbane takes about 10 days.

Getting around. You do not need a car for reef trips — operators pick up from city hotels. You do want one for the Daintree, Cape Tribulation and the Atherton Tablelands. The Daintree River cable ferry is the only crossing north; 2WD is fine as far as Cape Tribulation, and 4WD is required beyond it on the Bloomfield Track.