Cairns Travel Guide

Cairns at a glance

Cairns is a small tropical city in far north Queensland, at the top of the east coast backpacker route. Most travellers end or start their east coast trip here, and come for one reason: the Great Barrier Reef.

The town is compact. The Esplanade runs along the waterfront, with a free swimming lagoon, a boardwalk and the marina where reef boats leave every morning. The streets behind are packed with hostels, tour shops, bars and cheap restaurants. There's no beach in the centre, just mudflats at low tide, but the Esplanade Lagoon makes up for it.

From here, day boats head to the outer reef for snorkelling and diving, and liveaboards stay out for days. Green Island and Fitzroy Island are closer reef islands.

North of Cairns, the Daintree is the oldest tropical rainforest on earth, meeting the reef at Cape Tribulation. Inland, the Atherton Tablelands have waterfalls, crater lakes and the village of Kuranda, reached by a scenic railway and a cableway over the rainforest.

From about November to May, box jellyfish and irukandji make sea swimming dangerous, and the wet season brings heat, humidity and heavy rain.

Four to six days covers the reef, the Daintree and Kuranda.