I will be staying in cairns for 5 nights in september. Any suggestions on palm cove or port douglas. i will be traveling with my parents. we want to enjoy some beach time but i want to be in close proximity to a town with restaurants and shops. Any suggestions on which town and what hotel will be nice.

thanks

Lots of choices and not knowing you would be loathe to make a recommendation. Do not discount Trinity Beach from your considerations as there are some wonderful restaurants there and a wide range of accommodation choices.

Maria and I just spent a few days there relaxing and had a great time with lovely meals.

I am having a very difficult time deciding. I don't want to me in an area of total seclusion but we do want to relax somewhere beautiful. I want to be close (walking distance to shops and excellent restaurants) I have plenty activities planned during the day like cape tribulation, GBR, Karunda etc

Personally, I would stay in Palm Cove (or Port Douglas) and wouldn't stay in Cairns (only once having made that mistake and only because we had some Hilton points to use up). Others around here will have different opinions.

What sort of "shops" do you want to walk to? There are a number of resorts in Palm Cove (Reef House, Angsana, Peppers, Sea Temple etc.) as well as a number of restaurants (and various cafes etc.) all of which are within walking distance of one another - you can walk from one end of Palm Cove to the other in about 10 minutes....

http://www.palmcove.net/palm-cove-resorts.php

http://www.palmcoveaustralia.com/palm-cove-resorts/

http://www.palmcove.net/palm-cove-restaurants.php

http://www.palmcoveaustralia.com/con...staurants.html

I agree with above and would recommend Palm Cove over Port Douglas but I too, have just spent a couple of days at Trinity Beach and thoroughly enjoyed it.

We stayed at the Blue Lagoon Resort and would highly recommend it.(Though the resort is three story walk up -not sure how able your parents are sobepal) We dined at the onsite Blue Moon Grill and would also recommend that. The beach and more restaurants are about a 5 minute walk from the resort and we were not disappointed with any of the restaurants we dined at.

Next time I think I would give Palm Cove a try and there are many accommodation options though I felt that Palm Cove had a focus on the 'Spa' type accommodation.

We did a day trip up to Port Douglas, Mossman etc and we stopped at 'Goodies Cafe' in Mossman and my DH said it was the best Eggs Benedict he'd eaten.

I think the difference between Port Douglas and the other two options is that you could get away without a car at Palm Cove and Trinity Beach but I feel that Port Douglas is quite a bit bigger and a car would be necessary.

Just re reading your post again I don't think you'd find too many shops at PC or TB - Port Douglas would have more on the retail scene for sure.

Just another tip - I always hire my car through www.driveaway.com.au and they did a great deal with Thrifty and our airport contact there was enormously friendly and helpful - couldn't do enough for us.

After reading millions of different sites and forums, most people recommended port douglas over palm cove. so i booked at the Shantara which is walking distance to 4 miles beach and walking distance to the shops at the marina. i really hope this was a good choice because we wont have a car, must most of the tours that i will be booking do hotel pickups and drop offs. worse case scenario we can always find a cab. thank you all for the suggestions.