Cairns finds a place in the Australia plan because of three words – Great Barrier Reef! As they remind you, there is nothing remotely close to it in terms of size and variety. But, after we got there, a bunch of things made us like the place a lot – the promenade, the community vibe, the relative slow pace, and a general small town feel, though it isn’t really a small town!
Stay
We wanted a place that would give us a sea view, and be near enough to areas we were planning to visit. The Cairns Plaza was perfect, and delivered on both counts. The check-in time, and this seems to be standard across the country, is 2PM, but if you get in early like we did, you can leave the luggage there.
Get around
A 15 min walk along the promenade takes you to the Esplanade area and the Marina. We did this on all three days frequently. You could catch some feathered folks on their own walk, grab ice cream at Mooz and watch the world go by, or just enjoy the sights. We really enjoyed our walks to dinner. It was probably because it was the weekend, we could see a lot of groups in parks, cooking their own barbecues and making a picnic out of it. There were also street performances – we saw Yoshi do a great job with the guitar on the esplanade. All of this gave the place a lively yet laid-back feel, which we loved!
All of our tours had hotel pick-ups, except the GBR, for which we walked to the Marina. The only extra thing we needed to arrange was an airport drop, which we did via the hotel for $17 for the both of us.
See/Do
Kuranda is a day trip and typically people take the train up early, and the Skyrail down. We did the reverse because we had a tight itinerary, but don’t think we really missed anything. We booked this through VisitCairns, because we needed to go to Kuranda directly from the airport to save time. But it’s easily possible to plan this yourself. The journey takes about 1.5 hours with a few stops in between, where you can walk around and catch some stunning scenery.
We reached just in time for lunch and a 15 min walk took us from the skyrail terminus to the city centre. The map we got was quite accurate and we only had to ask around once when we couldn’t find our lunch destination. On the way (or back), drop in at the Kuranda Homemade tropical Fruit Ice cream stall for some unique flavours and a chat with the very energetic owner! There are multiple avenues to be parted from your money, all of them include shopping!
The Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary, I learned to my surprise, was privately owned. The ticket costs $20 pp, but it is a must visit. The burst of colours is matched only by the ecstatic sounds from children who discover “butterflies, butterflies everywhere!”. We spent close to an hour here before we ran off to catch our train back.
The trip back was on rail. The Kuranda station is lovely. The train’s interiors are like carriages from yesteryears and are as pretty as the rainforest views outside. The journey is about 1.5 hours and the greenery gradually gives way to farms and then urban habitation.
The Daintree & Cape Tribulation tour was booked via VisitCairns too, and arranged by DownUnder Tours. We almost did not do this on our second day in Cairns, thanks to the person at the hotel reception stating that we weren’t staying there. Luckily, we managed to call the tour company and have the driver pick us up before he had gone far. A full day trip, this starts with a visit to the Mossman Gorge Centre (via Port Douglas, which has a fascinating backstory involving a millionaire and a fugitive, played by the same person!) On the way we got to know of what’s called a wallaby – which I would have thought was just a small kangaroo!
Morning tea (we started at 7) was served at Mossman before we set off for the Daintree River Cruise, featuring mangroves and pretty birds, and if you’ve been good, crocodiles.
After a barbecue lunch, at a place that’s known and open only to a few tour companies, it was time for Cape Tribulation, which was less than half an hour away. A lovely beach, and quite peaceful too, at least while we were there. You’ll find a lot of patterns on the sand, apparently a key ingredient is crab crap.
I wondered about the name of the place and that of the nearby Mount Sorrow. Apparently, James Cook had a rough time here and named them in despair. His troubles weren’t really first world, but imagine getting to name things this way because you had a bad day. Fancy!
The long drive back had two key stops. The first was at the Daintree Ice Cream Company, where you could be the spoilsport (almost did!) and ask for vanilla or chocolate, or be touristy nice and humbly have the recommendation – exotic (homegrown) tropical fruit. They typically serve the latter as a combo, and the day’s mix had a coconut base with yellow sapote, Davidson’s plum (tangy!) and Wattleseed. They also had a jackfruit on display, which was standard for us, but exotic for everyone else, even more so when we told them about the different things we made out of it!
The second was Rex Lookout, by which time I had completed a nice nap. This is closer to Cairns and offers a breathtaking view of the coast!
We were dropped back by around 6.30. Our tour guide was cheerful and funny, but at least a couple of times, he said things that made me wonder whether he really liked doing this. But wait, this isn’t the post for that!
The Great Barrier Reef. We dropped in on our last but definitely not the least adventurous day in Cairns. Most tours start early in the day, and sometimes hop across multiple points before returning by sunset. We chose Skedaddle because full day island hops aren’t really our favourite way to spend a day, and these guys had a half day tour that started at 11, which got us back around 4.30 too! They also take you to the Outer reef, and not the nearby islands which get crowded.
Alexa was our captain and yes, she did have an answer for everything! 🙂 The only exception was lunch, which we expected because of the tour timing. We did get coffee and biscuits, and made this an excuse to drop in later at Mooz for a filling milkshake!
We only snorkeled and didn’t dive, but marine life cooperated and the sights were stunning. As per our guides, the GBR isn’t dying as the popular narrative would have us believe. It just had a bad couple of years recently because of heat waves, and has since been recuperating, thank you very much. Quick wave to Nacho (“like dance”, he said, he has been to India! :D) who took good care of us under water and shot a few photos as well, including one of me attempting the Indian rope trick. No, it didn’t work.
(2 photos courtesy Skedaddle)
Eat/Drink
Breakfast was not part of the deal, but is available at the hotel. We used that on the second day since we had an early start, but on the third, tried out Muddys Cafe, which was opposite our hotel. The tea and coffee were good, and though the food took some time to make its way to our table, we liked that too. The beach view helps pass the time. A good time to mention that this was the time D started going millennial on me and ordering avocado based items!
At Kuranda, our predetermined choice was the Frogs Restaurant, the key attraction being a roo-croc-emu platter. Roo being kangaroo. The meat was tasty but I have to admit the real winner here was the peanut based dip they gave with it. We tried the Barramundi as well. And yes, we finally got a taste for Kombucha too! I am putting it right up there with avocado! 😐
Our our first evening, we celebrated my sinus absence with a visit to the local brewery – Hemingway’s. The beer was decent, and the names more interesting – Pitchfork Betty’s being an example. The crowd was busy watching rugby whose rules were alien to us. Though it is on the waterfront, you don’t really get a view. The smoked lamb slider was very good as was the chilli carnivore pizza. The latter had an ingredient named nduja, which the person who took the order had to google too! Basically, pork! The salt and pepper squid was just ok.
On our second night in Cairns, we had dinner at Piato on the Marina. We arrived just in time to catch a table, it got crowded immediately after. The Clams Mariniere we tried was a bit salty for our taste but the beer and wine helped. The veal escalope was much better and left us stuffed! Not stuffed enough for ice cream on the way back though.
We saved Ochre for the last dinner. We had reserved a table before we left for the reef trip but when we got there, we learned that they had gotten the time wrong and let the table go. We had to wait a bit but finally got one with a view of the water. The Australian Antipasto featured Salmon green ant gravlax, smoked kangaroo, an emu wonton, Davidson plum chilli sauce, and smoked crocodile among other things. We then tried the sugarcane mackerel sticks, which I would have really liked except it also involved pineapple attack! The Chocolate trio made sure we ended the meal on a happy note.
Shop
For all queries, you have the Night Market, which was only a 5 mins walk from the hotel. It has a bunch of shops that sell everything from souvenirs to opals to massages, and yes, it has a food court too, which reminded us of the ones in Penang, Hong Kong etc.
Itinerary
We spent 3 days in Cairns. On Day 1, our flight from Sydney landed around 10.30, a 3.5 hr flight. We spent the day in Kuranda. The second day was spent on the Daintree and Cape Trib tour – we could find no tours that started late. On the third day, we were on the GBR tour. We took the 6.15 AM early flight to Melbourne on the fourth day.
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