My wife and I plan to visit the Port Douglas area. We are visiting in February, so I understand it will likely be hot. I'm having trouble deciding where to stay for 3-4 nights, north of Cairns - Port Douglas or Whitsunday Islands. We want to do some diving and visit the Daintree forest. When I query lodging, it seems to be either budget hotels or high end resorts. Is it better to stay in Port Douglas and travel out to the dive sites and the Daintree forest? Obviously it would be hard to get to the Daintree forest from the Whitsunday islands. But I do like the idea of being surrounded by the Barrier Reef.
We are looking for a relaxed beach vibe, not too noisy, decent views. Around 500 +/- per night (Australian Dollar).

I'm a bit confused. Did you realise the Whitsundays are a long way south of Cairns? You could fly to Prosperpine, then the jumping off point for the islands is Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour. Which island are you thinking of? Hamilton Island has an airport.

I really like Port Douglas and you can do lots of day trips from there. I like staying close to the main street so places to eat, shops, the beach and market are all walkable. There's a wide range of accommodation, we loved By the Sea.

February will be hot and humid with tropical showers. Often you can't swim at the beaches for safety reasons.

Actually - I'm the one who is confused! A friend mentioned it was an option nearby, and I assumed it was close! I should have looked at a map first. Like a lot of folks who've not been to Australia, we assume the distances are closer. So, the Whitsunday Islands may be off for us.
Port Douglas...
I assume if I go out in a dive boat to the Barrier Reef, you can wear a body suit for protection? Any recommendations for dive companies? My wife doesn't Scuba, so it will be snorkeling.

Hi Amysdad & welcome to the Australia Forum. As KayF say, Port Douglas is not in the Whitsundays - and the Whitsundays are more about sailing & resort islands than about the Great Barrier Reef. The airports for the Whitsundays are at Hamilton Island & Prosperpine; the latter is about 675kms from Port Douglas. The airport for Port Douglas is at Cairns, about 65kms south.

This map may be useful to you in orientating yourself and seeing where various places are.
Australia – size map: https://www.virtualoceania.net/austr...ustralia.shtml

February is not ideal for Far North Queensland. It's wet season, possibility of cyclones and deadly marine stingers in the ocean off the beaches - so you need to wear stinger suits - or swim in hotel pools. The stingers are not usually an issue out on the Great Barrier Reef, which is about 1.5-2 hours boat trip off shore.

If you have some flexibility in your travel times, I'd suggest you come May-October for optimal weather & experiences in the area. However, if you're stuck with February, it can work for you - just be aware you may need to be flexible, make sure you have good Travel Insurance and a workable Plan B. Or ... consider somewhere further south - Lady Elliott Island for example. That won't give you the Daintree, but you won't have marine stingers either.

Not sure where you're coming from - but if you're not New Zealanders, you will need Visas. Use this link & apply before you book any flights or accommodation.
VISA FINDER: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visa...sa/visa-finder

Thanks for your help! The distances in Australia are deceiving to first time travelers. I didn't realize how close PORT DOUGLAS was to the Equator. I assumed similar to Hawaii - but I was off 1000 miles. I took your advice and looked at Lady Elliott Island. I liked it so much that I booked the last queen cabin available! LEI never showed up when I looked for islands in the BR. We are already planning on 3 nights in the Gold Coast, so this was an easy decision! I like the idea of a remote island with no internet or TV. Thank you!
This looks like an ideal spot. As a diver, the proximity of the reef is literally a walk off the island. The flight from the mainland looks great too.
We are now flying into Coolingata from Sydney the day before. We will stay a few nights and head back to the Gold Coast.
Thanks again! Great advice!!!

A friend stayed at Lady Elliott Island recently and loved it. Hope you do too. I'm not sure that it's on the reef, it's a long way south. How do you get from the Gold Coast to Bundaberg, or to the Island? Two flights?

LEI has flights from 4 locations. One of them is from Coolingata. We are going to fly from Sydney the night before, as the flight leaves at 6:45. We fly in and out of LEI from Coolingata. Afterward, we plan to stay with friends in the town of Gold Coast.
From my reading, LEI is the southernmost island in the BR, The only island with a landing strip.

Bokhara2 - What a great recommendation on Lady Elliott Island. For me - it was the highlight of our trip to Australia. You get all the advantages of the Barrier Reef and no issues with jellyfish. You were right, the island is far enough south that it doesn't have the severe weather issues further north - for this time of year (February).
We took a small plane (1 hour) connected to LEI. They fly out out 4 locations on the mainland. LEI has a landing strip - I think the only island with one. The facility - an eco-lodge - are what you would expect. Good clean rooms, service, but basic, fitting their "eco" focus. Food was cafeteria style and of excellent quality.
I could walk out of my cottage, go 30-50 meters and in the water. Loads of great diving. A lot of scuba diving opportunities. I scuba dive, but this is one location you really don't need to. I free dived alongside scuba divers, so really no advantage.
The island is also a bird sanctuary, so if you don't like the sound of LOTS of birds, it may not be for all. I liked it, but my wife needed ear plugs (which they provide).
Thanks again Bokhara!

You're most welcome, Amysdad & I'm delighted it all worked out so well for you.
When were you here?

You must have just missed Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which luckily morphed into a Category 1 and then XTropical cyclone Alfred but still did a lot of wind & flood damage - and was a lot further south than Queensland's usual cyclones. https://www.9news.com.au/national/tr...8-6118d26e574c

In my part of the of the northern Gold Coast, the power went out last Thursday & came back on yesterday morning (Sunday ). Our apartment complex is right on the Broadwater but luckily had no damage, except for some flooding in the basement garage when our generator driven pumps failed, and some of the penthouse rooftop gardens were badly damaged. We were able to use the generator to charge mobiles (cell phones), power banks etc. And people showed who they are, as we all do when things get tough. The vast majority of ours were brilliant. The two "ratbags" were on show for all to see.

In the random way of cyclones, trees were down, a couple of roofs off and roads flooded not too far away. The beach erosion from what became an East Coast Low was horrific.
Some of the hinterland areas were much worse hit and even in a 5km radius of here, some people don't have power (electricity) restored yet. At its height, there were some 350,000 people out on the Gold Coast but now it's down to about 100,000. Some of them may have to wait another week or 2 because of terrain/complexity of the fixes.

We should, but don't have much of our electrical supply under ground & you would know the combination of high wind/trees/electrical lines isn't a great mix.

I'm very grateful we escaped as lightly as we did - and that we had the long lead up (3-4 days) that allowed anyone with a working brain cell to prepare. I like candle light even if it's battery powered, but I'm not mad about having it & the little battery powered Christmas lights pulled out of my storage cupboard as the sole light source for more than a few days (haha). We were very lucky - some semi-rural properties depend on electricity to pump their water as well - so no power, no water, no flushing toilets etc. Phew in more ways than one, we had no water disruption.

More than you wanted to know and I'm glad you didn't get to meet Alfred. He's a slow moving toad.

All the best & come back to see us again. Now you know - there's a bit more to explore