Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia.
Cairns: Your Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree
If you're after a destination that gives you tropical rainforest, world class reef diving, and a genuinely good food and wine scene all in one spot, Cairns ticks every box. We spent five nights here in Far North Queensland and came away wondering why we hadn't done it sooner.
Getting to Cairns
Here's a fun fact that surprises a lot of people: you can fly from Brisbane to Europe faster than you can catch the train to Cairns. The train takes around 25 hours, so unless you've got serious time up your sleeve, flying is the way to go. From Brisbane it's about two and a half hours, and from Sydney around three hours ten minutes. Cairns International Airport also connects directly to New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong, so it's a genuinely useful hub if you're combining Australia with other parts of the Asia Pacific.
A word of warning if you're tempted to drive up from Brisbane: don't. Once you're a few hours north, the landscape turns scrubby and there's not much to see along the way. We met a German couple who'd driven up and even they admitted they weren't doing the return trip by car. If you need wheels once you arrive, there are plenty of rental options right there in Cairns.
Where We Stayed
We based ourselves at the Shangri-La, right on the marina, and it was an excellent choice. The hotel itself is low rise but sprawling, with long corridors and hundreds of rooms, and depending on which side you're on you'll either be looking out over the pool, the beach area, or the marina with all its restaurants. It's about a ten minute taxi from the airport, and the location is honestly the best part. You're five minutes from the Esplanade in one direction, and five minutes from the Marlin Marina boardwalk in the other.
If you'd rather self cater, there are plenty of apartment style options along the Esplanade and Trinity Inlet with full kitchens, which suit families or longer stays. Budget travellers tend to head to Gilligan's, which has a lively social scene and a resort style pool right in the city centre. There are also holiday parks just out of town with cabins and water parks if you're travelling with kids, and if you want a quieter beachfront vibe, the northern beaches suburbs like Palm Cove have some lovely retreats and motels.
The Esplanade and the Lagoon
One of the first things we did was walk the Esplanade, and we ended up having breakfast at one of the cafes lining the boardwalk. It's a genuinely lovely spot, wide enough for walkers, cyclists and kids on scooters, and lit up beautifully at night with fairy lights through the trees.
The centrepiece is the free saltwater swimming lagoon, which is enormous (we're talking 4,800 square metres) and patrolled by lifeguards. There are shallow areas for younger kids, water fountains, shaded spots, and at one end it almost feels like an infinity pool looking back out toward the water. Surrounded by grassed parkland with toilets, showers and a cafe nearby, it's a brilliant spot for an afternoon whether you're a local or just passing through. Because here's the thing: you can't actually swim at the beaches near Cairns due to stingers and crocodiles, so this lagoon is where everyone goes to cool off.
Out on the Reef
No trip to Cairns is complete without getting out to the Great Barrier Reef, and we booked our day with Reef Magic. The reef itself is enormous, stretching over 2,300 kilometres along the Queensland coast and covering an area roughly the size of Italy, with more than 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands.
The boat departs Cairns at 9am and returns around 5pm, giving you up to five hours at their pontoon. Everything is included: morning and afternoon tea, a buffet lunch, and all your snorkelling gear including wetsuits. The pontoon sits right on the reef, so the moment you're in the water you're surrounded by coral and fish.
What impressed us most was how well organised everything was, from the gear to the entry steps into the water, which made it easy even with an injury. If snorkelling isn't your thing, there's a glass bottom boat with a guide, a semi submersible for a closer look, an underwater observatory, and even helmet diving for non swimmers, which is a unique experience we hadn't seen offered elsewhere. There's also the option to fly to or from the pontoon by helicopter if you want to skip part of the boat trip.
Eating and Drinking in the Marina Precinct
If there's one thing we'd tell you to prioritise in Cairns, it's the dining around the Pier and Marlin Marina. We ate exceptionally well here, partly because we were treating ourselves before a hospital stay, so we went all in.
Our favourite spot for drinks was The Salt House, just where the city promenade meets the marina. It's got a glamorous, tropical resort feel with fire features, water gardens, live music and a happy hour from 4 to 6pm with $6 tap beer and house wine. It's right on the water, close enough to watch the helicopters take off for the reef, and the vibe at sunset is hard to beat.
For dinner, Dundee's on the Waterfront has fabulous views over Trinity Inlet, an interesting wine list, and a menu built around Australian flavours including crocodile and kangaroo. We went with the duck, paired with a Granite Belt Shiraz, and it was magnificent enough that we actually photographed our food, which almost never happens.
Right next door is Ochre, where we had the rack of lamb and loved the open, breezy feel of the dining precinct generally. Even though you're technically indoors, the way these restaurants flow into each other with minimal barriers gives it an outdoor feel that suits the climate perfectly.
We also loved Tha Fish, so much that we went back twice. The red curry crab and prawn was a standout, along with the snapper. And at Piato, a Mediterranean spot, we had creamy garlic and herb Moreton Bay bugs with mashed potato, broccolini with chilli, and a strawberry tart for dessert that we're still thinking about. We paired it with a Tasmanian Riesling called Aunt Alice Down by the River, which might be the best Riesling either of us has had. It's mostly only available online, so worth tracking down.
As you can see we made the most of our 5 days in Cairns. We were blown away by the all the restaurants and cafes we went to. The food was incredible in all of them, and the wine lists fabulous. And to top it off we had fantastic views and thoroughly enjoyed our time in the capital of Far North Tropical Queensland.