palm cove
 

can any one provide any information on palm cove, north of cairns. meaning accomodation, restraunts, things to do, accessibility to local attractions, including the reef.
thanks

We stayed at the Oasis in Palm Cove about 2 years ago. It was fantastic - beautiful apartments (the best we've ever stayed in) , large swimming pool and nice village setting. There is not much to do in the locality, however if your happy with a pool and a beach then its great. There are many excursions to the reef and to the nearby rainforest, although l would recommend hiring a car and visiting these places as tours can sometimes be annoying.

There are restaurants in the town, but it is not a huge town and is not the size of Cairns. Its a lovely place and l certainly would stay there again.

Hi colmandliz,
Palm Cove is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been lucky enough to stay.
It is smaller than Port Douglas, intimate almost and although there are a few more hotels now than when we went there the standard of accomodation is fabulous wherever you decide to stay.
Check out this website, hope it helps

http://www.palmcove.net/

Muck

Far Horizons is a lovely restaurant right on the beach (Angsana Resort) at Palm Cove and the Spice Market in the Novotel is winning awards. You can be picked up from the wharf there for certain reef trips, but to my mind they are not necessarily the best trips. Any reef trips going out of Cairns will pick up by coach or small bus from Palm Cove - it's actually a suburb of Cairns - my favourite for snorkellers is Ocean Spirit to Michaelmas Cay - they also have a semi-submersible.

Palm Cove is about 20 minutes north of Cairns with a regular bus service linking the two.
If you are into golf, the Novotel is set on a large area of land, adjacent to the beach and has it's own golf course.

I am going to PC this February and found a good deal on wotif.com. The Outrigger Beach Club for $140 AUS (and that's including tax) for a spa room (w/ a private spa on balcony). Since that is a last-minute site, these rates only become available for 14-days ahead of time. But if you are willing to wait, (you didn't mention when you were going) that site also has other discounted Palm Cove hotels, so I figured it wasn't that much of a risk. I booked my flight then waited and luckily got to book it for 5 nights.

The resort is 5-star and looks really nice - but keep in mind I've never been there. The only drawback is that they only have 1 restaurant (dinner only) and they don't have their liquor license. At first this sounded like a definite negative, but I called and asked if we could bring our own, to drink by the pool, etc. and they said sure we could and they would provide us w/ buckets of ice and cups, etc. So we figured we would really save some money if we did this, and just walk to other restaurants for our meals. They have free pick-up and return from the airport (in a Rolls Royce no less).

The Beach Club looked amazing when we passed in on our trip. Made me very envious! And Palm Cove is a lovely place. We are planning to go back.

thanks everyone for all your help. we have decided on the outrigger, didnt know about their lack of bar licence though.

We stayed at the Novatel and found a great rate on their internet site. It's part of Accor hotels. We had a suite there at a great rate and the place had a bar, good restaurant, deli, small store, golf course. It really had a lot going for it. I think our rate was well within $140 AUD and we were there in March.