Need help with Atherton Tablelands / Daintree portion of trip planning
 

Hi everyone,

My husband and I will be in Australia for 2 weeks (1st time visit) end of June / early July 2009. After a 5-night stopover in Fiji, and 4-5 nights in Sydney, we will be in Cairns for 4-5 nights before taking a 3-night Spirit of Freedom GBR trip. After that we will fly back to Sydney for 2 more nights and then fly home to California.

I'm trying to plan the Cairns portion of the trip. We had originally planned to stay all 4-5 nights in Port Douglas at the Sheraton Mirage (using points) and take day trips from there. Hubby doesn't like to move around / change hotels too many times, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to stay in the Atherton Tablelands area for 2 nights, then go up to Daintree for 2-3 nights, prior to our GBR trip? Would you recommend this over staying in Port Douglas for all nights?

We'd like to do a few tours... Allan Gillanders for Atherton Tablelands and either Peter Baxendell or David Armburst, plus Dan Irby's sunset Daintree River Cruise, up in that area.

Not sure where we'd stay in the Atherton Tablelands area (Yungaberra? Specific suggestions?). As for the Daintree area, I've been looking at the Red Mill House B&B.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thank you.

Carole

Yungaburra is a good place to stay if linking up with Alan as that is where he lives.
There is a wide range of accommodation depending on your budget and desires. Quincan Retreat is not far out of town and very nice. Chambers Rainforest Lodges are like standard motel rooms. For more luxury try Eden House or Allumbah pocket cottages. I suggest that you have a look at www.yungaburra.com for a better idea.
I recently overnighted at Red Mill House and really enjoyed it. Trish and Andrew are soo helpful, have all the contacts off pat to make sure your stay goes really well. They organised the payment of my cruises with "Sauce" of Daintree River Experience. I did both the sunset cruise and the early morning one and did not regret it. While we covered basicly the same area we saw different birds and animals. A low tide will get you more kingfishers and at that time of year the crocs will be out of the water a lot.

Sounds like Saltuarius has got it all dwarfed down to size for you Snowhite and my only tip for you to round off a great trip would be to prune a couple of days off Sydney and one off Cairns and fit the Whitsundays in for a two/three day sail - http://www.ozsailing.com.au/ making sure you check out Whitehaven Beach - talcum powder sand.

And do check out the Yungaburra Pub - it's different!

And if you like the looks of things downunder downunder, I know of a great historical harbour side hotel you can buy for well less than one million and nearer to if not less than half a million of yours.

Thanks Saltuarius. I looked briefly at both Eden House and Allumbah Pocket Cottages last night. Will check out the other two as well. I looked at the early cruise too... just wondering if we can get anywhere on vacation @ 6:30!! :-)

Bushranger - We would LOVE to see the Whitsundays but didn't think we could fit it in... that means another flight too... just looking at Virgin Blue... we'd fly into Proserpine?

So our itinerary would look like this:

Sat (late p.m.) - Arrive Sydney
Sun – Sydney
Mon – Syndey
Tues – Flight to Propserpine (Whitsundays)
Wed – Whitsundays
Thurs – Flight to Cairns - Drive to Yungaburra
Fri – Tour Atherton Tablelands
Sat – Drive Yungaburra to Daintree
Sun – Daintree
Mon – Drive to Cairns - Board Spirit of Freedom (11:15)
Tues – SOF
Wed – SOF
Thurs – Disembark SOF (11:30) - Flight to Sydney
Fri – Syndey
Sat – Fly back to California

That's not too much? My husband says I always "overplan" so I was trying to be realistic... but if you folks think this is doable, I'll definitely consider it!

Thanks again.

Carole

Yes, I think it is too much because of the flights. The only flight direct to Cairns leaves Hamilton Island (and is expensive) so you have to get there by ferry from Airlie Beach. Only having one day in Airlie is a problem if the weather doesn't cooperate, and June/July IS the Australian winter. . . I don't think you'd be doing the Whitsundays justice and have a lot of transfers to worry about in a really short time. We have been to Australia twice, in 2004 in July and in 2007 in October. The problem with trying to find one place to stay for the things you want to do in the Cairns area is that the road up to the tablelands is QUITE windy and slow, so it adds to your drive times. In fact, the one we came down on which is the one to the north of the Tableland we NEVER want to do again (I know that people drive it every day for their work, but I was quite, quite motion sick and DH was on edge from all the curves.) You and your DH won't regret staying in Yungaburra for a day or two and then moving on. We stayed at a servicable and cheap B&B (actually an apartment) called The Gables. It's an historic house in the downtown area.

The choice between staying in the Daintree area (which we havent' done, but sounds really great and is closer to your Daintree trips) and Port Douglas (which we have done and absolutely loved) is like between apples and kumquats---soooooo different! In PD you have the restaurant choice, the shops, and the ambience of a nice botique town--with the downside of being farther from your tours, and in the Daintree you have the rainforest all around, a unique environment--with the downside of being away from choices and a loooooooooong way from Cairns where the SofF takes off at I believe 11:45 am. You COULD stay in Cairns for the whole time (Pat W. has a great B&B that is centrally located called Lilybank) if you want to stay in one place. You'd still have the windy drive to and from the Tableland, long drive to Daintree, but be closer to getting to SofF on time. They won't pick you up from Pat's (or anywhere out of downtown Cairns) but we dropped our car at the town outlet of Dollar and the SofF people picked us up there.

Whatever you decide, be assured that you will have a great time!
Happy planning,
Sally in Seattle

It really depends on your interests, like how much do you want to see another city, Sydney not being too bad a one by any means, but think jetlag and how enjoyable it'll be dragging yourself around city sites while feeling a bit stuffed, and if it was me in your boots, I'd tweak a little (saving in and out of Sydney time for starters), and Sydney can be starting to get a bit bleak weatherwise towards July (winter here afterall though nothing like a northern US one)

Maybe even cut a day of Fiji(and have you decided on what you'll do there - some places are that third world grotty culture shock)

And just remembered I flew Brisbane - Fiji, so a bit more time to be saved there and you can even fly Nadi to Cairns (Qantas) - http://travel.webjet.com.au/webjetts...ryPoint=Flight but Brisbane may provide for better open jaw flight options, in at Brisbane and out from Sydney if that is possible with your carrier.

Get a connection ex Brisb.(short train ride between international and domestic) to Proserpine or Hamilton Island and do your anti jetlagging somewhere peaceful and balmy (and give yourself an extra day there - www.hookislandresort.com ), then head onto Cairns, the reef, daintree etc.

For a hinterland tour option, check out www.onthewallaby.com if you're up to a canoe paddle, maybe spotting a platypus at night.

With the time in transit you've saved, you ought to still have a few days for Sydney and be full of beans for it.

When we visited the area in mid-June, we stayed 3 nights at Eden House in Yungaburra, and 3 nights in the Daintree at the Exotic Fruit Farm. Both were great. The cottage at Eden House was very nice, and their restaurant was excellent (both for dinner and for breakfast, the latter included in the price of the room). They have a spa adjacent to the inn, where I treated myself to a wonderful hot-stone massage...mmm, wish I were there right now. Yungaburra was a good base for exploring other parts of the Tablelands. Temperatures were kind of cool and we did get some rain, but nothing that stopped us from doing what we wanted to do.

The Daintree was magic, and I would recommend staying at least 2 nights there, preferably 3. Exotic Fruit Farm was a great place to stay. Lots of things to do in the area.

Didn't get to Port Douglas, but we did spend a few hours at Palm Cove on the way north--very nice, right on a beautiful beach with lots of little kids learning to surf. Fun to watch!

I think your decision should be based on what you're looking to do -- both the Tablelands and the Daintree have wonderful opportunities for adventure.

The time you've scheduled for Sydney seems just right.

Thanks all, for the additional information! Actually, the International flights are set (FF mile tickets), SAN - SYD with a stopover in Fiji. I might be able to cut off a day in Fiji if FF seats are available the day before... should I look into that? Since, once there, we're flying to an outer island (90 min. flight each way) I thought the extra flight time would warrant us staying 5 nights.

By the way, Bushranger, we're planning to stay on Taveuni in Fiji... have you been there? Would love to hear input on that as I have not yet purchased the domestic airline tickets yet. The diving there is supposed to be superb off Taveuni and it looks like they have some nice hiking (waterfalls, coastal walks, etc.). How 3rd world is Taveuni?

The only other way to add in the Whitsundays would be to not include a GBR liveaboard diving trip (Spirit of Freedom, which I was planning to book this week), and instead do, say, a one-day trip to the reef. That would suit my husband fine (he's a diver, I only snorkel), but I've read to get to the really good reefs you have to do a liveaboard (but please let me know if otherwise). Our SOF trip goes to Cod Hole and the Ribbon Reefs. We may never be back to Australia so I want us to see the best of the best.

Sally - I read most of your 2007 trip reports and I know you loved the SOF, which is actually one of the reasons I kept it in the itinerary (since you said you enjoyed it as a snorkeler).

Also, I did not know about the road conditions up to Daintree, maybe it would be good to stay up there and only deal with them once?

Bushranger - I'll look into some of your suggestions (other than the flights that are already set). How much jet lag do you think we'll have? I was hoping that the Fiji stopover would help with that.

Aprillilacs - looks like you would recommend less time (1 night?) in the Tablelands and more time (maybe 3?) in the Daintree (assuming I have 4 nights)? Thanks for your recommendations. I did see the Exotic Fruit Farm, but haven't looked into it yet.

I'm glad to hear further recommendations... just trying to fit things in nicely so it doesn't become a race to get everywhere. I promised my hubby I would not do that to him again, as I've done in the past...2 nights here, 2 nights there, a flight here, a flight there. My hubby works 2 jobs (he works at night from home from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. as a software developer.... then he also is a flight instructor from mid-day to early evening most days and on the weekends too) so he needs some amount of relaxation! I work long days as well, so we'd like to tone it down a bit for this trip.

This is our first trip in ages without kids, by the way!

Thanks everyone. I look forward to further advice.

Carole

If you're looking at http://www.taveuniislandresort.com/ the culture shock ought to be quite pleasant for I was thinking of Nadi itself and some places on the main island, but any outer islands are the place to be, my time having being spent north of Viti Levu, and yes, kind of forgot the Fiji stop re jetlag in Sydney, and should not really be an issue on arrival there.

I'd still look though at whether you can get a good connection to the Whitsundays Vs additional in and out, and then one way of getting to Cairns/tablelands you may want to consider is hiring a car at Airlie Beach for when you look at the ferry to Hamilton Island, flight to Cairns and then a backtrack drive to the Yungaburra(southern end of the tablelands), that'll take up the best part of a day and it would not be much longer to drive from Airlie Beach, perhaps even doing a couple of hours of it the afternoon before.

Put that into the context of the SOF liveaboard trip being for serious divers prepared to spend a seriously big fist of dollars, and to me a great waste if you're only going to snorkel and if Hub ain't too fussed, though I would be seeing the Cod Hole is renowned as being one of the worlds best dive spots - only the dollars being what stops more of us getting there.
But anyway, what I meant by context was if he was happy to save a heap and do a couple of dive trips, there being heaps - http://www.thetourspecialists.com/tours-reef.html, you'll get plenty of great snorkelling in at other places too, and then stopping at Townsville between Airlie Beach Hub could also dive the http://www.yongaladive.com.au/ and Townsville also has http://www.reefhq.com.au/ and http://www.magnetic-island.com.au/ for overnighting there.

Hope that helps and with husband not ever sleeping! he does need a break and that'll be best not having too much in the hustle and bustle of Sydney.

Hi Carole

the 'Daintree' is an area which covers the Daintree Coast and also Daintree Village which is furthest south and closest to Port Douglas.

You asked about road conditions to the Daintree. To enter the Daintree Coast, you cross the Daintree River on the car ferry, and then follow a winding sealed road through the Daintree National Park all the way to Cape Tribulation - a spectacular drive in its own right. This road is now fully sealed and in July you could expect to drive from Port Douglas to Cape Tribulation in about 90 minutes. This road crosses 2 causeways which can flood in the wet season - this means about 10 days out of 365 - and the possibility of this happening out of season in June July is VERY small. Even when the causeways flood, they are usually open again within a couple of hours.

If you are looking to experience the Daintree Rainforest, then I would recommend the drive to Cape Tribulation and a walk with Prue from Cooper Creek Wilderness.

For more info on the Daintree Coast and places to stay visit www.daintreecoast.com

Save the Whitsundays for your next visit and do them justice OR go there and forget the greater variety in wildlife of the Atherton Tablelands and Daintree.

Bushranger, there are plenty of snorkellers who appreciate and enjoy liveaboards, a 71yo woman, fit (but unable to dive as is a sometime asthmatic) I know has recently done Undersea Explorer, a 6 night liveaboard (and scientific vessel) out of PD which includes Cod Hole and Ribbon Reefs and was totally thrilled. Never once was she made to feel "out of it" for not being a certified diver.

cawhite, you need more time for Whitsundays to do that justice, and I would be looking at summer or at least later in year for that one. Temperatures for reef and coast in FNQ should be similar to Fiji.

Here's a site for accommodation with local hosts who will be able to help with anything you need to know for both Tablelands and Daintree/Cape Trib - www.bnbnq.com.au

Thanks again everyone!

Bushranger - Glad to hear we'll be OK on Taveuni. We did look at the Taveuni Island Resort but we're saving our pennies so we can do the Spirit of Freedom (you're correct... going on that trip will be a big fist of dollars!). I think we've decided on the Coconut Grove Beachfront Cottages... it's currently #1 rated on Tripadvisor. www.coconutgrovefiji.com.

Capetribber - Thanks for the Daintree Coast vs. Daintree Rainforest information. I think I was lumping them together as one place. The Cooper Creek Wilderness tours look fabulous too. I wonder how they compare with Pete Baxendell's tours?

Salturarius - Yes, I think, unfortunately, we will not be able to do the Whitsundays this time... due to time constraints and the time of year we'll be visiting. We do like to be near the water (hey, we live in San Diego) but we just can't fit everything in.

Pat - That link to the Tablelands & Daintree / Cape Tribulation accommodations is very helpful. I can see I have my research cut out for me!

I'm sure after looking at this wealth of information I'll be back with more questions!

Thanks again.

Carole

Pat,
I've never said that people would neither enjoy or appreciate the SOF or other liveaboards, that be entirely up to desire on experience and $$$ and nor did I say that anyone is going to be made feel like a fish out of water.

When it was mentioned that Carole's hub was not too fussed and that Carole would love to see the Whitsundays, I've merely offered up options for consideration, but you take it anyway you want.

Having been to the Whitsundays and Cairns region a number of times (and not in summer for winter is best time to miss humidity, heat, storms, possible cyclones, flooding, more mosquitoes and stingers in the sea) I have a view and so do you.

Well, I appreciate the responses from everyone... so thanks!

And yes, hubby is only a "vacation diver" (once per year or so)... he would be fine going once or twice... but it seems, in this case, the really good reefs are accessible by overnight / liveaboard stays.

Can anyone recommend an option of flying out for a 1-day dive trip that isn't over the top expensive? I see Daintree Air has an expensive 9-day option... are there other options for just one day?

Daintree has (or had--don't know if they cancelled it) a one day trip to Lizard Island which was fabulous. The thing about the SofF is if you have a partner to snorkel with. If your DH is diving and you are snorkeling by yourself, well, it might be scary. They do go out 4 times a day (plus a night dive which snorkelers can't go on) so it is really all the time in the water. The divers and staff were very nice to us and would have had a staff member go with us if we needed it. The best, most memorable, fantastic snorkeling was when they took us out about 3/4 mile and we drifted back. I would not have wanted to do that alone!! I think you can get good snorkeling on a day trip, just not as much. It depends on how "hard core" you want to be! We wanted a LOT of snorkeling for the time period. Daintree Air's one day to Lizard has great snorkeling plus the flight to and from over the sea and the rainforest. Hard decisions!
Sally in Seattle

I reckon if Hub is only into doing a couple or a few dives at most Carole and you to do some snorkelling, whilst for sure the diving and snorkelling can be more superb further away from where the masses have been, it'll be a toss up between that and deciding on other more general diving locations and you still get some great snorkelling.
I saw one report re fly/dive that if also looking for a flight out and back in one day, that may be impossible owing to the "do not fly for 24 hours after diving" rule.

Further to thoughts about Whitsundays, I reckon being June/July, you could really minimise time in Sydney as afterall it is not as though you do not have cities on harbours, and so then you will have the time for more options up north where it'll be warm balmy weather without being too hot.

Thanks Sally - I did not see the one Daintree Air day option, but will look again.

Bushranger - Yes, we have have cities and harbors here... we live in the San Diego area... so maybe we could minimize Sydney. I've just heard it's such a great city! We'll think about that as well.

Thanks Sally - I did not see the one Daintree Air day option, but will look again. My husband and I are both private pilots so we'd really love that!

Bushranger - Yes, we have have cities and harbors here... we live in the San Diego area... so maybe we could minimize Sydney. I've just heard it's such a great city! We'll think about that as well.

Also, our SOF trip does include a low level flight back... so as long as the altitude is low enough, it's supposed to be OK after diving (I don't yet know at what altitude they fly... but I'm going to ask).

oops... I botched up that correction! Sorry for the double post.