My husband and I are planning to spend about a week in Port Douglas. We are having trouble choosing accomodations, because all the 4 star apartments sound about the same. We are considering Martinique, Driftwood on Macrossan, Port Douglas Apartments and The Garrick House for their close proximity to the beach. Do you think Macrossan street is a good location? The Hibiscus looked great too, but farther away from the beach. Thanks in advance for your ideas!

A travel agent based in Sydney informed me of a place called Cayman Villas. It was built or opened in December 2000 and is contemporary. It has a very nice-sized pool. I plan to stay there in March. The complex has rentals and sales units. They have a website at caymanvillas.com.au, I believe. Book directly through the resort, rather than a travel agent to save money or the hassle of a large deposit.

We've stayed at Hibiscus Lodge and can highly recommend it. They are relatively cheap for the area. They are bit further from the beach than the others, but still only a couple of minutes walk.

Maria, <BR>Port Douglas is pretty small and all these places are within a 5-10 min walk of the beach and main street. The Hibiscus looked nice (we were in PD in June) and is still close to town/beach. I thought Martinique and Driftwood (both on lower Macrossan from memory) looked good. The upper half of Macrossan is where all the restaurants are and the lower Macrossan leads on to the beach. To give you an idea, to walk quickly from one end of Macrossan St to the other would take about 10 mins. <BR>At the other end of Macrossan (away from the beach) is the marina where the boats go to the reef. Hope this helps a bit. <BR>Kay

Kay <BR>You seem to know Port Douglas quite well,so have you heard of Port Douglas Retreat, Archipelago Apartments or Coral Apartments? <BR>We're trying to decide where to stay and everything looks nice so some advice would be great! We don't really want to spend more than AUS$150/night so that excludes some of the more spectacular places but there seem to be a lot of good value apartments that looks nice as well. <BR>We have thought of Hibiscus Gardens as well but they were already full for the dates we wanted.

Cecilia, <BR>You're right, there are lots of nice apartments that are close to everything and not expensive. We stayed at the Port Douglas Queenslander which was fine, and next door was the Outrigger. They are both probably in your price range. Location was great. <BR>I don't know the places you mention, but looked them up and Coral Apartments is a bit too far out of town in my opinion, Archipelago's position looks great, the beach area is very nice and you are not far from shops and restaurants. Location of PD Retreat also looks fine. <BR>Two good sites you might like: <BR>www.jasons.com.au <BR>www.pddt.com.au <BR>Hope this helps a bit. Kay <BR>(Just remembered walking past The White House which looked lovely and is also in a good position - not sure of cost.)