22 Best Sights in Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

Hugely popular with locals and visitors, this stinger-free swimming enclosure on Airlie's shorefront has real-sand "beaches," adjoining children's pools, and sensor-activated lighting after dark. There are toilets, showers, and change rooms nearby, and all pools are patrolled by trained lifeguards year-round. Surrounding the lagoon are a children's playground and a tropical garden, crisscrossed with walkways and dotted with public art, picnic tables, and free electric barbecues. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; showers; toilets. Best for: swimming.

Just 5 km (3 miles) outside Mossman are the spectacular waterfalls and swimming-hole-studded river that tumble through sheer-walled Mossman Gorge. The Kuku Yalanji–run Mossman Gorge Centre is the starting point for various walks, tours, and activities. The most popular is the Dreamtime Walk, a small group guided 90-minute walking tour that runs four times a day, follows old Indigenous hunting tracks, and gives a deeper perspective on the connection between Kuku Yalanji and Country. There are several boulder-studded, croc-free swimming holes within the gorge, and a 2½-km (1½-mile) rain-forest walking track and suspension bridge. Swimming in the river itself is hazardous, crocs or not, due to swift currents, slippery rocks, and flash flooding. Keep your eyes peeled for cassowaries, tree and musky rat-kangaroos, Boyd's water dragons, scrub fowl, turtles, and big, bright butterflies—and try to avoid stinging vines (plants with serrated-edge, heart-shape leaves, found at rain-forest edges). If you intend to hike beyond the river and rain-forest circuits, inform the information desk staff at the Mossman Gorge Centre, which also has café/restaurant, gift shop, Indigenous art gallery, restrooms, showers, and visitor parking.

Knowledgeable marine biologists and conservationists give entertaining talks and multimedia presentations, usually to packed houses, about everything Great Barrier Reef–related, from sea turtles' sleep cycles to coral-killing starfish. Expect to learn more than you thought possible about the reef's evolution and the diverse inhabitants of this delicate marine ecosystem. The attached Marine Shop sells an array of reef-themed merchandise: T-shirts, DVDs, books, field guides, and souvenirs. Sign up for a Reef Teach seat by midday.

From the Skyrail terminal just north of Cairns, take a six-person cable car on a breathtaking 7½-km (5-mile) journey across pristine, UNESCO World Heritage–listed rain-forest canopy to the highland village of Kuranda, where you can visit wildlife parks and shop for local crafts and Aboriginal art. At two stations along the way, you can hop off and explore (the Skyrail ticket price includes a short ranger-guided rain-forest tour at Red Peak, and there's an information center and lookout at Barron Falls). Upgrade your ticket to the glass floor Diamond View Gondola, which depart every seven minutes, for an even better view. The cableway base station is 15 km (9 miles) north of Cairns. Many visitors take the Scenic Railway to Kuranda, the cableway on the return trip.

This palm-flanked stretch of sand—lined with jogging tracks and cycleways, picnic-friendly parklands, and hip beachfront bars—has two swimming enclosures and a long pier perfect for fishing. The beach and its permanent swimming enclosure, Strand Rock Pool, are fitted with temporary nets during stinger season, November through May. There's also a free, kid-friendly Strand Water Park. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; toilets. Best for: swimming.

This world-class wildlife sanctuary just off the Captain Cook Highway is divided into "immersion" wetland, rain forest, grassland, and savanna habitats, enabling close creature encounters with everything from koalas to cassowaries and crocs. The park shelters more than 180 species of native wildlife in its 8-acre expanse, including technicolor parrots, emus, kangaroos, echidnas, and reptiles. The exclusive breakfast with the birds dining experience, offered daily from 8 am to 9 am, is accompanied by avian residents so tame they'll perch on your shoulders—and may steal your food if you're distracted. Feeling brave? You can also book the Swim with the Salties experience to snorkel near estuarine crocodiles with only a sheet of Perspex separating you in the CrocArena. The nocturnal tour—a private two-hour after-hours tour—is also a special experience. 

Set on 27 acres of bushland, this eco-friendly, family-run wildlife sanctuary shelters koalas, wombats, dingoes, wallabies, endangered bilbies, snakes, crocodiles, meerkats, a Burmese python, lizards, and numerous native birds. The sanctuary has daily free-flight birds of prey shows, crocodile and cassowary feedings, and venomous snake presentations. Visitors can hand-feed turtles at the billabong, meet the meerkats, snap a selfie with a koala, or have their photo taken holding a lizard, a snake, or a baby croc. Thrill-seekers can book a personal croc-feeding, with or without souvenir photo.

Occupying the impressive former Public Office Building built in the 1930s, Cairns Art Gallery houses a mix of local, national, international, and Indigenous artworks, including a fine collection of Australian photography. The shop stocks homewares, jewelry, prints, books, and gifts by local artisans and Australian makers.

This attraction in The Pier mall offers the most accessible opportunity to see koalas around, making it a great option if you are short on time. You can also get a souvenir photo taken with one of the cuddly creatures, with regular sessions held throughout the day, and see snakes, blue-tongue lizards, frogs that change color before your eyes, and native birds.

Meet sick and injured marine turtles and find out how they are rescued and cared for before being released back into the ocean at this volunteer-run center on Fitzroy Island. Half-hour talks for up to 15 people are held from Tuesday to Sunday at 12:45 pm and 2:30 pm, with priority going to resort guests.

Ten minutes' drive southeast of Airlie, Conway National Park is a 54,000-acre expanse of mangroves, woodlands, rocky cliffs, and tropical lowland rain forest that shelters the endangered Proserpine rock wallaby and other rare species, as well as sulfur-crested cockatoos, emerald doves, Australian bush-turkeys, and orange-footed scrub fowl. Most walking trails start at the park's picnic area at the end of Forestry Road, about 10 km (6 miles) from Airlie. Mount Rooper Walking Track, a 5.4-km (3-mile) circuit, meanders uphill through bushland to a lookout with breathtaking Whitsundays views. If time permits, and you're sufficiently fit, you can cycle, run, or walk the 27-km (17-mile) Conway circuit, starting at Forestry Road car park and ending in Airlie Beach. Swamp Bay track follows the creek to a coral-strewn beach with a bush camping area.

This UNESCO World Heritage–accredited center's elevated boardwalks and a high viewing tower enable you to overlook an astoundingly diverse tract of ancient rain forest. You can acquire information en route from handheld audio guides, expert talks, and the on-site interpretative center. Four audio-guided trails include a Bush Tucker Trail and a Cassowary Circuit, on which you might spot one of these large but well-camouflaged birds. Take the Aerial Walkway across part of the bush, then the stairs to the top of the 23-meter-high (76 foot-high) Canopy Tower. There's also an on-site café. Closed-in footwear is recommended.

This charming wildlife sanctuary houses kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, birds, and reptiles, including a resident croc. Guided tours run daily, at 10 am and 3 pm, and there is an on-site café.

Hartley's houses thousands of crocodiles as well as koalas, wallabies, quolls, snakes, lizards, cassowaries, and tropical birds in natural environs, accessible via boardwalks and boat tours. A lagoon cruise, on which keepers feed big crocs at close range, is included in your entry price. There are daily cassowary and crocodile feedings, snake shows, koala talks and croc farm tours. Most thrilling is the "Big Croc Feed," a private tour for up to four people. It's your chance to handle squirming baby crocs and pole-feed gigantic ones, and includes a guided tour and commemorative photo. Lily's Bistro showcases local delicacies, including crocodile, of course. Tour operators Beaches Meet & Greet and Down Under Tours offer transport or tours from Cairns and Palm Cove, while Exemplar and Brett's Tours are your best bet from Port Douglas.

A sprawling Spanish-style castle and gardens grace this offbeat National Trust site beside Mena Creek Falls. Explore the park on a self-guided botanical walk or 30-minute guided tour, enjoy Devonshire tea on the café's deck, buy local crafts, and admire the 40-foot waterfall. On hour-long flashlight-lit evening tours starting nightly at 6:15, you might spot eels, water dragons, fireflies, and glowworms. Allow at least three hours to explore.

Offering shade and serenity less than a mile from the CBD, Townsville's colonial-era Queens Gardens occupies 10 verdant acres at the base of Castle Hill. Bordered by frangipani (plumeria) and towering Moreton Bay fig trees, whose unique dangling roots veil the entry to the grounds, the gardens are a wonderful place to picnic, stroll, or amuse the kids. There are play areas, a hedge maze, formal rose garden, fountains, and a lovely rain forest walk. A compact aviary houses bright-plumed peacocks, lorikeets, and sulfur-crested cockatoos.

Centuries-old relics from the HMS Pandora (the ship sent by the British Admiralty to capture the mutinous Bounty crew), which sank in 1791 carrying 14 crew members of Captain Bligh's infamous ship, are among the exhibits at this repository of the region's maritime, natural, and Indigenous history. There's a fun introduction to North Queensland's culture and lifestyle, a shipwreck exhibit, and the ecology-focused Enchanted Rainforest. Displays of tropical wildlife, dinosaur fossils, local corals, and deep-sea creatures round out a diverse public collection.

Meet the three koalas that call this attraction home, as well as turtles, snakes, lizards, freshwater crocodiles, and the impressively large wombat, Harry, on a ranger-led tour. There are two 1½-hour tours to choose from daily, departing at 10:30 am and 12:30 pm. You can also book a breakfast with the koalas experience, in which you enjoy pancakes served with native jams and bacon and egg rolls alongside your new friends.  

At the base of the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, this park offers many opportunities to learn about indigenous Djabugay people through exhilarating dance performances, hands-on workshops in traditional fire-making, spear and boomerang throwing, arts and crafts, didgeridoo lessons, and talks on bush tucker and natural medicines. You can buy Aboriginal artworks, artifacts, and instruments (including didgeridoos) at the retail gallery on-site; café fare, buffet lunches, and dinners are also available. One of Australia's most informative cultural attractions, it's also one of the few that returns profits to the indigenous community. Ticket options include Tjapukai by Day and Tjapukai by Night, the latter a nightly four-course buffet dinner/performance package.

Spot wallabies, echidnas, goannas, and hundreds of bird species at this terrific wetlands conservation park crisscrossed by walking and biking trails, and dotted with bird blinds and a wildlife-viewing tower. You can take the easy, hour-long Forest Walk to see kingfishers and honey-eaters, the Pallarenda to Tegoora Rock circuit for wetlands overviews, or several other walking and biking trails (with estimated walk times ranging from 30 minutes to five hours). The 5-km (3-mile), two-plus-hour-long trail from Bald Rock to Mount Marlow is worth the uphill trek for the glorious regional panorama at the summit. Most trails start from Bald Rock parking lot, 7 km (4½ miles) from the park entrance on unpaved roads.

This extraordinary complex on the edge of Undara Volcanic National Park, 275 km (171 miles) or a four-hour scenic drive or rail trip from Cairns, supplies the complete Outback experience: bush breakfasts, campfire activities, lava-tube tours, and guided evening wildlife walks, plus a range of distinctive accommodation. Vintage railway cars have been converted into comfortable (if compact), fan-cooled motel rooms with their own en suites. You can also stay in a modern, air-conditioned "Pioneer Hut" with private veranda, fridge, and bathroom (A$195 per night in high season), in a safari tent; or at a powered or unpowered site with shared amenities. One-night "budget" self-drive packages that incorporate tours, campfire activities, and swag-tent accommodation cost A$217 per person in high season, with meals; or from A$321 per person with swankier accommodation. Two-night packages including meals, rail-carriage or Pioneer Hut accommodation, and tours range cost A$497 per person in high season. Other packages include transfers to and from Cairns via coach or on heritage train The Savannahlander. Drink and dine on-site at Fettler's Iron Pot Bistro; breakfast at the Ringers' Camp.

Surrounding the highest sheer-drop waterfall in Australia is glorious Girringun National Park, in which ancient rain forests accessible via scenic walking trails shelter rare plants and animals that include the endangered southern cassowary, platypus, and musky rat-kangaroo. You might also spot eastern water dragons, saw-shelled turtles, and crocodiles here. Around two hours' drive north of Townsville, the park is the start of the Wet Tropics Great Walk, suitable for experienced hikers. For day-trippers, there are two spectacular lookouts and some scenic short walks, such as the 45-minute Banggurru circuit along Stony Creek's bank, or the steeper, two-hour walk to the base of the falls.