Hi,
We have an early flight out of Sydney to Cairns so need to be near the airport. Can you please give advice on a reasonably priced place to stay? Thanks!

Not offhand, but if you search www.wotif.com (last minute, or rather last-two-weeks, deals) you should find a few that fit the bill. Bear in mind though that the airport is fairly close to the city centre - I would think 20 minutes going in that direction early a.m., so there shouldn't be much in it. (Sydneysiders are welcome to pour cold water on that estimate if I'm wrong.)

The best value arund there would be the Ibis. However you still need to call a cab to get to the airport so if you are already staying downtown would only save a few minutes as the previous poster has suggested.

Thanks so much for the help!! I couldn't tell from the map how close the airport was to the city center! Thanks to you, now I know! I really appreciate your help!!!

Looking back, I wish we would have stayed closer to the city center when we had a similar siutation (landed in SYD at 7:30pm and had a flight out the next day at 9:50am). We stayed at the Ibis, and it was fairly miserable - the room had a loud humming noise tht made it sound like we were going to blast off at any moment. And we are honesty not that picky. We paid $115 for the one night, and I'm sure we cold have gotten something so much better and had a nicer dinner in the city (the food and service at the Ibis was not great). I would have gladly spent the extra 30 minutes to take a cab/shuttle away from the airport In fact, we had to wait 30 minutes for the Ibis shuttle to pick us up anyway. Good luck!

Thanks for the tip about the Ibis. We will definitely stay in the city center and take a cab, even though we have to be at the airport at5 am.! Appreciate the info!

5 am? Good Lord! What time does your flight leave?

I think I can almost guarantee a fast trip to the airport at that ungodly hour. You might have to give the hotel a few minutes to scare up a cab, though.

Hotels near the airport are uniformly pretty ordinary. I noted the Ibis was still $115 when I went past yesterday. Hotels in the city, however, will be significantly more expensive, even with wotif.com.

5 am is certainly way too early!!! Sounds as though the Ibis is about the only rec near the airport! Thanks!