Hello all i've read through a lot of good advice from pat and Kiki and various others needed a bit more information. Wondering if the wonderful people of fodors forums can help.

My first visit to Australia and going to be in CNS during 12/27-12/30.

Getting around:
How far is palm cove from cairns city(casino's for my parents), and how much is to cost for cabs?

Can one cab everywhere?

Accomadation:
I'm really torn on this decision do i stay in the city or outskirts.
So far what i've heard is that palm cove is great. so i'm thinking either Outrigger or Angasana in Palm Cove.

1) Are there any other nicer ones that are closer to attractions like the sky-rail, Cairns city? Any in trinity beach? or do you just recommend palm cove?

Activites:
1) I'm a certified diver are there any dive center Recommendations?


Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance

Hello chungwng
It's a fair hop from Cairns city to Palm Cove - about 25-30minute drive and cab would be around AU$42. There is a public bus service connecting them - have never caught it but would imagine its about AUD$6-$8pp. Yes, you can catch cabs everywhere, but it will cost. Tours will pick you up at your accommodation. The Sofitel Reef Casino in Cairns city has its own 5star hotel/resort - maybe your parents would prefer that. Outrigger and Angsana in Palm Cove are both lovely, Angsana being absolute beachfront and Outrigger just over esplanade to beach, and there's masses of accommodation and some resorts at Trinity Beach. Beaches themselves are quite similar - I personally prefer Palm Cove as they've retained the magnificent old melaleuca trees (paper-barks). For certified diving day trips try Tusa Dive in Cairns, fast boats, good reefs, only take 28max per boat.

Sorry, I forgot - the new Sea Temple at Palm Cove is absolute beachfront as well as Angsana.

Palm Cove is great. The bus ride to Cairns is about 45 minutes or so, if I remember correctly, and it's only a few bucks. And the snorkeling and kuranda tours will pick you up at the hotel in Palm Cove.

Hi Chungwng

I really love Palm Cove but always stay downtown Cairns because I like the action.

So it is very easy to make the decision if you know what you want for a holiday break.

Cairns is a town, without pretense of any sort and has loads of backpackers, heaps of tacky tourist shops, tons of restaurants (many blah blah...but some very good). It has a few shoppings malls, cinema complex, casino, multi story hotels and depending on the moon, a huge mudflat. I just love it for some reason !

It has many many places to stay but close to the centre are the Hilton, Cairns International Hotel, Breakfree trilogy, Breakfree Royal Harbour, Outrigger Cairns. And as Pat mentioned also the Casino itself.

Palm Cove accomodations have more ground space, not a city atmosphere, more of a tropical resort small quiet town, lay by the pool with tropical drink. Walk along the beach. Read a book. More upmarket atmosphere, no backpackers!

Hope gives you a picture.

You can look at bus timetable here

http://www.sunbus.com.au/tt_cairns.php

( I bought 24 hour unlimited ride pass for about $8 from SunBus office, in arcade by main city bus terminus)

You may want to budget for cabs a little though because of heat you may not feel inclined to wait for a bus too often. Cabs are excellent, better than Sydney (way better)

Good on ya' Jane - I know what you mean, certainly Cairns city attracts backpackers - there's plenty to do so they don't die of boredom - and those happy backpackers of today will become established tourists of tomorrow - there is a certain amount of tackiness in Cairns, but not everywhere. What I like about Cairns is that is more
real,and more tolerant, in terms of the local people, the attitude towards our indigenous and TI people, still to found in the much maligned "touristy" Kuranda, but sadly no evidence of their existence in either Palm Cove or Port Douglas. And whilst I'm on my soap-box I've heard complaints about the multitude of Asian visitors in Cairns, - pop over to the Asian site on this forum and see how many of us lot visit this huge part of the world - we're all tourists the minute we leave home.

Hi Pat,

I didn't really notice Asian people in Cairns but being from Sydney I guess they form part of the natural Australian landscape for us. In fact maybe there are fewer ! So for me I noticed more the French...wow so many French people and they actually seem very nice and funny.

Also I did notice far more indigenous Australians and some of it was confronting to be honest. I think Sydneysiders do need to get out more.

Thank you all for your wonderful input, I've decided to stay in carins though i would've loved to stay at palm cove. I've acutally been put on a time restriction.

Now it's time to plan for Sydney and Melbourne.

Any Reommendations on hotels and things to do?

Hi, Pat you look like you can help us. My wife and I are visiting Australia next March. 3 weeks on Sydney coast and then 1 week in Perth. Our plan is to take a bus up the coast from Sydney stopping in Coff's Harbour, Noosa Heads, Rockhampton, and ending in Cairns. One day travel, 2 or 3 days in each location. We will then fly Cairns-Sydney-Perth. Anyway, any advice or hotel recommendations would be great.

Hi dirty harry: are those stopovers set in stone - the one that worries me most is Rockhampton - Cairns, it's over 1,000km. The most obvious break between these two towns would be Airlie Beach, the gateway to Whitsunday Islands. I know those buses move along, but the roads in Central and North Queensland are mostly only 2 lane - it takes us about 10 hours to drive from Cairns (where we live) just to Airlie Beach. There is very little to do and see in Rockhampton but nearby Yepoon is gateway to Capricorn group of islands, Great Keppel Island is quite lovely. By the way, Coff's Harbour is on coast of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital city, the other towns are in state of Queensland. "Sydney coast" would only apply to beaches around the metropolitan area. Both the Pacific Highway (New South Wales) and Bruce Highway(Queensland) hardly touch the coasts of either State (although its close in Coffs Harbour) so you need to allow some extra time for bus to travel from highway. Accommodation in the areas includes everything from backpacker to 5 star hotels/resorts - let's know your approximate budget.

Around 1980 I took a bus from Sydney to Brisbane (about 1000 km), and swore never to do such a thing again. It left Sydney an hour late at about 1:00 am, and it seemed I'd only just drifted into a fitful doze when everyone was awoken at some pitstop for a paper mug of weak, lukewarm coffee. When I finally got back to sleep, no small achievement when you're sitting near a noisy baby and a smelly, busy lavatory, again it seemed only minutes before c&w music was blasting out of the speakers, presumably to put the long-suffering passengers off their breakfasts. It was like being in a travelling public ward, an unspeakable experience. Only my overnight train trip from Adelaide to Dimboola, another horror story, cam close. Have things changed in the last 20-odd years?

Hi Neil - when I was about 17 (which was way before 1980) I did something which my mother considered unspeakable and she packed me off from Sydney to my grandmother's in Adelaide for the Christmas holidays. On the bus. Not even the train. It was such a shattering experience that I've never been on one since, however am sure they are much improved these days, and if dirty harry has time for enough 2-3 day breaks, all will be well. Although surviving the eats at roadhouse stops could be a trial. My own daughter who lives in Byron Bay refuses to take bus to Cairns, thank God for the cheap airfares these days, which are sometimes actually cheaper than the bus.

Hi Chungwng, We stayed at the outrigger on cairns esplanade during september.The apartment was perfect, the views out over the ocean were to die for.

We were surrounded by some very good restaurants and cute little coffee shops.

The Australians have a problem with coffee but their cakes more than make up for the small cups of coffee.
Bacon is an other area which requires improvement.

Make sure you tell the waiter to ask the cook to cook it crisp or you will finish up with sort of warmed up ham. Don?t, ask for ketchup, or a can of soda.

The restaurant we enjoyed the most was mondes or mondos.
We met some people there off yachts in the harbor and ending up being kicked out at sparrows which by the way means very late or very early. Not sure which.

We did not make it to Palm Cove, so we can not comment on the accommodation there although we had a great time in Cairns. We were there just three days and spent very little time in the apartment. Be prepared to be busy, there is so much to see and do.

We did a boat one day to the reef and then took an aero plane up to Lizard Island the next day with daintree air services.

This tour is an absolute must; it was the best thing we did. We saw more during that one day than we had ever hoped for. Hundreds of miles of wet lands, rainforest mountains, huge sand dunes, Islands and of course the reef. The snorkeling was the best we had ever done the lunch was great and the pilot/guide was very helpful and informative.

Enjoy Australia !!!!!!!

Thanks Pat, nothing etched in stone yet. Your help is appreciated. We are talking the McCafferty's Greyhound bus all the way up to Cairns. They listed the towns I mentioned as stops, I assumed they stopped in town and we would need additional transport to our accomodations. We are looking at $100 CDN or so for nightly stays. Is that reasonable? Any suggestions? Thanks much from "getting colder" Canada.

hi dirty harry - MacCafferty's does stop at Airlie Beach which would be a great place to break the Rockhampton-Cairns leg and if it was possible maybe you could squeeze in a stopover at Byron Bay on Coff's to Noosa leg.

There are many accommodation options, NRMA in NSW and RACQ in Queensland are the official state motoring organisations and they publish accommodation guides covering everything, including star ratings for accommodation and advice on tours and local attractions. Jason's also publishes a Queensland accommodation guide and is available, free. www.jasons.com

Any comments/criticism of the Tradewinds Esplanade in Cairns? MrsMayers, was the restaurant you enjoyed the Mondo Cafe Bar & Grill??? Any other dining suggestions? Thanks, Jerry

Jerry, Tradewinds is an older resort/hotel a few blocks from the centre of things in Cairns, but easily walkable. I haven't been inside for years, so don't know if its been refurbished, but will try to remember to look when I'm in town later today.

If you look back to my posting of 8/28/04 you'll find a recent list of Cairns' restaurant awards.

Hi to Glk and Margo,

re: Tradewinds - I did a site inspection not too long ago and my notes read: "inside resembles a mental institution or prison". Now, if it had been dirty, I would have certainly noted that, as it's one of my pet peeves; but apparently...just..well, um..UGLY.

Hope this is helpful!

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

Well Melodie - you said it and I have to agree - its just one of those 70's-80's block high-rise-ish sort of places that you still find here and there. When I said it was "older" I didn't mean it was older in an interesting sense - there are some (still) much older places in Cairns with a sense of history which can be more appealling to some.

Hi glk11b,

Not entirley sure on the name Jerry and not sure where my last post just dissapeared to so if this posts twice you know why. lol

The restaurant is very easy to find as it is situated under and out back of the Cairns Hilton. Not sure if it is part of the chain but it is a fun, high quality, cheap place to eat.
Lots of locals were there on the both times we visited for a lunch and a dinner.

We went out to several restaurants in Cairns and did not eat at a bad one.
The selection of fresh food is enormous.

We sat out on the Cairns Esplanade one night with some shrimp as big as corn cobs and some white wine and some good company. That was nice.
We found the esplanade a great place in the evenning to sit and watch the world go by. The esplanade is just a 1 minute walk from the outrigger where we stayed.

You will not have any problems finding very very good fresh food in Cairns.

Good Luck !!!!!
Barb