Port Douglas - Car Hire or not?
 

Flying into Cairns for a week in Port Douglas area in September. Older couple who like their independence so would normally hire a car for the week from the airport. BUT seen so much about cars being quite limited to where they can drive as opposed to tour buses. (Daintree rainforest in particular). Opinions on whether to hire car or not please.

Personally I would hire a car in PD, there are plenty of tours but look at the cost for 2 people to somewhere like Miranda, a trip which is easy to do via car, cable car and train.

Maybe for the Daintree / Cape Tribulation part you do take a tour as most rentals can get you to the river but don't allow you to cross it, If you want to take a boat tour along the river to see the crocs, a rental car is fine to get to there

we were in PD for 5 nights and hired a car and wouldn't have wanted to be without it for getting to Mossman and just for going out in the evening - it's quite a long way from one end of PD to the other.

We were planning a tour to Daintree but unfortunately I got ill so we didn't go - we thought that was preferable to driving.

Kuranda was auto corrected to Miranda, which is about 2000 miles away

Oh! I wondered where Miranda came into it!
Thanks guys. You've just confirmed it for us. Car hire it is.

If you are looking for a coffee stop between the airport and Port Douglas, call into Palm Cove, one of the nicest little towns along the coast.