Cairns: Day Trips?
 

Which day trips are worth doing from Cairns? How many days should I spend in this area? Any tips/hints would be appreciated. I plan on visiting Cairns in May.

We are staying at Port Douglas which is about a 30 min drive from Cairns. It is supposed to be a better place to stay than Cairns.<BR><BR>We are doing the following day tours: <BR>*Daintree Lizard Island, great reviews on this site<BR>*Daintree Rainforest<BR>*Kuranda Skyrail<BR>*We may visit Hartley's Crocodile Farm or eat breakfast with the birds at Rainforest Habitat if time permits.

If it were me, and it's only my opinion, I'd opt to stay in Port Douglas. There's more going on there. Cairns is kind of rough around the edges and not as nice as PD. We didn't get to Lizard Island and I wish we had but we did go snorkeling on the reef and fishing and loved it. Took the Kuranda Skyrail to Kuranda and the train back to Cairns. The Skyrail is awesome!

i just want to throw in the option of staying in palm cove (in the cairns vs port douglas debate). i thought it was a great alternative and close enough to cairns for convenience, but NOT in the city. we stayed at the angsana in palm cove (RIGHT ON THE BEACH) and there a number of other great hotels there (the sebel reef house, the clarion etc..)port douglas is actually about an hour drive from cairns so can be a little more of a hike if you're day tripping from cairns based companies (although port douglas has A TON of day tour trips as well). palm cove is about 20 minutes north of cairns. either way, many people like cairns and are very happy staying there. i would definitely recommend the day trip to lizard island (via daintree air) and a trip up to the daintree rainforest (we went with trek north safaris). also, we went to &quot;wild world&quot; in palm cove and you can &quot;cuddle a koala&quot; there as well as feed kangaroos, see croc feedings, wombats, and other indigenous australian animals...i'm SO jealous of you all and wish i were going back to the beautiful tropical north queensland soon! have a great trip!

Hi,<BR>Having planned to stay in Cairns last year, I was glad I was talked out of it by a friend who lives up the coast. He said to stay at either Port Douglas or Palm cove.<BR>We wanted peace and quiet and chose the Oasis at Palm Cove this place is heaven and is so accessible by public transport. Or use a hire car.<BR>Cairns is only 20 mins by bus and has everything you would need but its a bit tired and so full of people.<BR>Personally I would stay in Palm Cove to chill and take the great bus service to either Cairns or PD. The best of everything IMHO.<BR>I have 3 tips for you; firstly eat and drink at the surf club in Palm Cove its really homely and welcoming, secondly, DON'T eat or drink at the pub opposite Oasis its very unwelcoming (unless you are a local) and thirdly don't bother going to Green Island for a trip, there are far better places to go. There are plenty of posts on the subject on this Forum.<BR>We are back in Oz In December but not North Qld due to the odd weather then.<BR>But we will return !!<BR>Have fun <BR>Muck