Renting a car in the Cairns/Port Douglas area
 

We would like to rent a car in Cairns the morning of Sunday, October 1, and drop it in Port Douglas the evening on Tuesday, October 2. Is this possible? Then late on Wednesday, October 4 (after a trip to the Great Barrier Reef; when do those generally end?), we (and our luggage) need to get to the Cairns Colonial Club Resort. What are the options for this? We won't need the car on Oct. 3 or during the day on Oct. 4, so I'd rather not be paying for it for those times. However, if there are large drop-off charges and costs of getting back to Cairns after the reef trip, that may be our best bet.

Thanks!

There are lots of bus services between Port Douglas and Cairns - only about a 45 minute drive - if you only need the car to get from point a to b would get the bus - Port Douglas is really easy to walk around.

Thanks, Karen 246. We would like to drive to PD so that we can see the sights along the way (and possibly go on to Mossman Gorge). We won't need the car once we're in P.D., but two days later we (and our luggage) need to get back to Cairns. Do you know of any rental agencies that permit dropoff in PD?

judilie, try Billabong or Thrifty Car Rentals, they both have offices in Cairns and Port Douglas, so they may allow a one-way rental with no return drop-off charges.

The best value door-to-door service between Port Douglas and Cairns is BTS, they charge AU$26 pp. Whilst Cairns Colonial Club is not in Cairns city, BTS will drop you there.

You are better off renting the car for a week or for the exact number of days you need. It's easy to drive in Australia just remind yourself to stay left. We used trifty and paid $39 AUD a day in June. The GBR trip will return to you to wherever you were picked up and most of the tour companies offer hotel pick up. You might be surprised at other things you decide to do and a car is nice to have. You can go up to Mossman gorge, you can go to the Tablelands and do wine tastings, coffee tastings, etc. You can go to Kuranda and do the sky rail which is a not to be missed.

Thanks, everyone, for your help with this. We're going to rent for two days with Thrifty, picking up in Cairns, dropping off in PD. On our last day in PD, we are taking a reef trip with Wavelength. (Thanks, longhorn55, for the recommendation about that.) For an extra A$23 per person, they will pick us up at our hotel in PD, keep our luggage during the day, and drop us off at our hotel in Cairns.

Wavelength is great, we were in PD in early Feb and it was their quiet season before the rain - Wavelength was fabulous, only 15 people and they looked after us magnificantly - our small son loved the whole experience.