let's try an analogy? palm cove: cairns as _______: noosa ?
 

when you have a moment- can someone explain whether "hastings street" is as bustling as that main drag in cairns?

we like some activity, but would rather not have parking hassles or that feeling of "get me away from all these people!"

we have stayed in palm cove and enjoyed its calm sophistication. is it possible to find that sort of atmosphere in noosa? what would that town be called and does it have cafes and a bit of activity, or would we be happiest on hastings' street if we require dining choices?

thanks/cheers!
kerikeri

p.s.
would mooloolaba be a better idea for us?

kerikeri,
Hastings street's bristling with Melbourne lawyers & their wives, girlfriends, readily identified by the white garb, heavily embelished with as much gold as can be fitted on a still-moving body. Oh and, the spray-on tan. Tandoori chicken is the local term. (LOL) Fewer backpackers than "the strip" in Cairns.

I've been going there for 20+ years on a very regular basis, visiting friends & we like Noosaville and those areas along the river. Also Sunshine Beach, Boreen Point.

Occasionally venture down to Hastings St, but really, believe the majority of restaurants there are over-priced and just a tad too precious, whereas really excellent places just down the road.

Parking has been much improved with the clearing of the road at the bottom of Hastings street, and a carpark is now where the old caravan park used to be. There's also parking on the RHS up near the French Quarter, and around the back of the Sheraton. It's just Hastings street itself which is very difficult.

Bokhara, I used to live at Noosa Heads, sounds like nothing's changed much in Hastings St. Did they move the caravan park to some lesser site or has it just been swallowed up by development? As is happening to the van parks up here in FNQ.

Kerikeri, Palm Cove is quieter than Noosa Heads, but the developers are moving in there fast, too, sad to say.

While nothing like the Espalande at Cairns, Hastings Street is now a hectic strip and a parking nightmare, at least the last couple of times we bothered to detour into Noosa, a snobbish, overpriced and overrated location as far as I am concerned. We can more than afford Noosa these days, but fail your designer clothes and feel like lunch or a coffee in your board shorts, don't expect it to be a pleasing experience. Frankly I would prefer a coffee surrounded by the backpackers on the Esplanage in Cairns than the company of the crowd Hastings Street has cultivated.
I am not talking about the national park, it's great and well worth the visit if you like costal walking.

Mooloolaba we really love, but it is at risk, so if you have the opportunity enjoy it while you can. We get to the sunshine coast a couple of times a year and have been staying at the Landmark but more recently have switched to Caloundra every second trip, it still has a way to go for real dining choice but a couple of good one's at Kings Beach. Mooloolaba has a great range of restaurants and it always appear to have a car space at the wharf complex or directly behind the main street. Like most of the coast, the increase in holiday apartments has seen the place change and the pace of that change is on the march.
I think the same thing is happening at Palm Cove where we honeymooned over 30 odd years ago in those now old rooms to the left at the Sebel Reef House, these days we love going there for dinner but prefer to stay at Trinity Beach for the tranquility.
So, in my view the short answer to your question is Mooloolaba and they make great coffee at the place on the corner under the landmark resort.

Agree with Mooloolaba as a comparison to Palm Cove. Best ladies shoe shop in Queensland on the corner of main shopping street, opposite the beach!

thank you all for your excellent level of detail and razor sharp observations.

that is most useful in planning.

Pat: The caravan park's long gone, I'm afraid. Probably 15 yrs or so.

(Quate frankly m'deah, one carn't porsibly imaghine whaat taype of peeeple maht inhaabit seuch an estahbleshment ! Cerhtainly noht we of the 4wd Toorak Tractor/Mosman Maurader ilk! Ah meanh to sayh, theose taype maayt broosh agahnst may whaite linen pahnts as I'm brohwsing in Hastings Street!)

Have you been to Noosa lately? You'd be shocked/mortified/aghast to see what's happened up there. "Down there" for you, I guess. McMansions in the swamps (sorry, "man made lakes & canals"). To quote my dear Mum, "It'd make a Parson weep!" No doubt about it, "concrete cancer" is all too viable a term ... and not just in old blocks of flats, alas. No doubt about the old saying "money can't buy taste", either, unfortunately.

Still .... the yacht club's as good as ever. Never see any of the Melbourne Mafia/ Mosman Matrons there. The locals are far, far too unimpressed by 'em for them to be comfortable. And, along the river, some brilliant places - restaurants, cafes and small developments with location-aware architecture. Sunshine & Sunrise are still there, and some of the additions, houses, apartments & restaurants, down that way are, IMHO, very well done.

It's such a joy to find an architect who can design something of quality which reflects it's location .... and, there are a few. Just TOO few !

I think my all time favourite "The Jetty" at Boreen Point may have closed - now THAT was something special. Remember taking a boat up there, long languid lunches/dinners with the koalas loping along the verandah rails, kookaburras coming in for entrees ..... aaahhhh !

Oh, and one day .... this stretch "nipple pink" limo depositing a couple of "stars" - who clearly thought they were coming to lunch in Las Vegas! I'm not sure who did the best "Stifled gaffaw" .. us or the poor owners!

Ah Queensland --- perfect one day, ? the next!

Bokhara, that's too funny! Its many moons since I lived there and I guess the last time we passed through would have been 4 years ago, but I can see what you mean! Couldn't park near Hastings St then either.

You'd have thought Queensland would have stopped the man-made lake and canal development by now, but no, there's one emerging out of mozzie infested swamp land at a Cairns northern beach as we speak and the environmentalists are rightly going nuts. It's a pity they can't think of a more original name for it than Blue Waters, they haven't said how they'll be keeping the crocs out, either.

Pat ! Perhaps that's the answer ... encourage the crocs ! Tell 'em white shoes & "Tandoori chicken" are delicious. You're right, though. I remember shaking my head in amazement when they built on that swamp on the GC. And here on the Northern Beaches in Syd, there's a whole infestation of "town houses" on the old sewage treatment works site at Warriewood. Still stinks in summer, and it's in a flood zone, but the poor fools paying $700-$900k (!) either can't see, think or bother to look at historical maps. I guess it's a consolation that if it ever rains again they'll have "water frontage" (LOL). We have so much vacant stock on the market right now from frenetic re-zoning of old beach house blocks to medium density - blocks of 40+ flats that the developers must be taking quite a bath. And, of course with the NSW Gov't's exit tax + land tax, it's not too hard to see why investors are flocking up your way ... and taking (NSW Premier)Carr's example & investing in NZ.

Cheers - envy you in balmy Cairns tonight - winter's lobbed here over the last couple of days. And, for my sins, I'm off to freeze my wotzits off in Canberra for 3 days on Tuesday!

Bokhara, except for a bit of a jaunt in Noosa and a few years in Adelaide and Brisbane, before coming to Cairns, spent most of my life on Sydney's Northern Beaches, namely Newport and Avalon. Tell me about Warriewood Valley, its one of the most depressing sights you could imagine these days. Those enormous, hideous houses on virtually no land. It wasn't too many years ago when when my kids rode horses around there when when it was market gardens and odd stoush with the Croatians and the Bosnians on a Saturday night! Just for a bit of excitement.

sorry keri-keri, we've got a bit off-subject here.