We will be in Cairns in mid-February. From the great information on this forum I realise that Daintree and the Atherton Tablelands are very different, but which one might be the better choice given it will be the wet season?
We would like a small-group tour and prefer less crowds. For
Atherton I am looking at Wilderness Eco Safaris. For Daintree I'm having more difficulty finding a small tour company leaving from Cairns.
Any opinions would be very gratefully received! Thanks.

Daintree is in a super wet area. That may influence your thinking one way or the other but each is likely to be wet.

It will be wet, but the waterfalls on the Atherton Tableland should be great.

We are Aussies and we spent some time up north in October.
Loved the Daintree lots to see and beautiful tropical flowers.
Went crocodile cruising on the river and loved Mossman gorge. Great for a swim.

We did take a drive up to the Atherton Tablelands which was nice but not as good as the Daintree and Cape Tribulation.
We saw lots of small group tours at the Daintree

Happy touring!

If you stay up on the tablelands you should get some relief from the more humid conditions you would experience in the Daintree which is more coastal - you'll get an idea of the humidity as soon as you hit Cairns.

Aussie_10,
Where did you go on the Atherton Tablelands? This area has more of just about everything the Daintree has except crocodiles and buttressing on the trees. If you made the mistake of only going to Kuranda, lots do, you missed nearly all of it.

It has more types of rainforest, more types of vegetation types other than rainforest, more of the endemic animals from invertebrates to mammals and birds, more waterfalls, more swimming holes...

Looking out my window on a cool overcast morning I can see three species of butterfly: hear Brown and Dusky Honeyeaters, Fairy Gerygones and Pied Buttcherbirds call and two species of cicada.

Aussie10 - there's a big difference between Daintree in October than February, when llandaff is coming to region.

Coastal humidity and heat is the reason many locals from Cairns and Townsville flee to the Tableland in summer, as well as all the natural attractions which abound there.

But what I don't understand is how little information there is available on the area in some guide books; have just looked through Fodors 2009, nary a mention, except for Mareeba Wetlands (wrongly described as being northwest of Port Douglas). Have also spoken to many a US tourist who has no idea of Tableland's existence, except for Kuranda which can hardly be counted.

"...Mareeba Wetlands (wrongly described as being northwest of Port Douglas)"

Pat, that is probably because the person writing it drove north from Port before heading west and south and then west again. They just forgot the longest part of the drive.

FYI (not yours Pat, you will know already) Mareeba Wetlands is closed. Prospective reopening in April.