Tours in the City of Cairns and Its Surroundings
The City of Cairns
Cairns is an excellent starting point for trips to the Great Barrier Reef.
The city of Cairns is located on the northeastern coast of Australia in northern Queensland, about 1,700 km north of Brisbane and 2,700 km north of Sydney. The city's population currently numbers around 150,000 residents.
This city was founded in 1876 to serve gold miners in the area and later as a port for transporting minerals and sugar cane.
Today, it is a vibrant tourist city, rich in attractions and very popular among tourists, mainly thanks to its tropical climate and being an excellent starting point for trips to the Great Barrier Reef, the nearby tropical rainforests, and special destinations further north in Queensland. You can find hundreds of activities and attractions both in the city itself and in its immediate and wider surroundings. Available to visitors in the city are bars and clubs, shows and movies, a casino, diverse night markets, galleries, and shops of all kinds. It features a long, beautiful esplanade along the coast with a giant lagoon in its center for free swimming.
Recommended Cairns Tours Booking from Viator:
Getting There:
The distances between Australian cities are on the order of thousands of kilometers, so anyone in one of the main cities in Australia will reach Cairns on a flight lasting about two hours (from Brisbane, for example) or more. Those arriving on an international flight from Bangkok or Hong Kong can land first in Cairns, spend a few days, and continue south to Brisbane, Sydney, or Melbourne. Alternatively, you can choose Cairns as your final destination on the way back home.
Great Barrier Reef
For details on a trip to the barrier reef, read the article: Cruising and Diving in the Great Barrier Reef
This reef, located along the northeastern coast of Australia, is a huge collection of reefs and islands with a total length of about 2,300 km! The reef covers an area of about 350,000 sq km, which is larger than the area of Great Britain. This reef hosts about 350 types of coral and about 1,500 species of fish.
Image courtesy of Reef Magic Cruises, Cairns Australia ©
The reef can be reached from towns and cities along the northern coast of Queensland, with Cairns being the best choice due to its status as a large, vibrant city offering tourists diverse additional entertainment options, as well as a relatively large port and an international airport with many flights arriving from around the world.
Trip to the Artists' Village of Kuranda and Tropical Rainforests
Details about a trip to Kuranda in the article:
Trip to the Artists' Village of Kuranda and Tropical Rainforests
The town of Kuranda is located in mountains surrounded by tropical rainforest, about a 35-minute drive from Cairns.
The town can be reached in three ways, all beautiful and unique. First, by driving through winding roads within rainforests. Second, on an old historic train that passes through forests, passes by the spectacular Barron Falls, and arrives at a picturesque train station in Kuranda located inside a forest. And third, via a long Skyrail cable car (7.5 km) above and through the rainforest canopy. Of course, the prettiest option is to combine them, traveling each way by a different means of transportation that appeals to you.
Cairns Beaches
The city of Cairns sits on a wide bay, and its port is located in the heart of the city. It features a yacht marina and a large terminal serving the many boats carrying travelers daily to the reefs and islands of the Great Barrier Reef. From the marina leads a beautiful Esplanade promenade, running right alongside the sea with lawns and parks, plenty of outdoor sculptures, and paths for walking and cycling.
In the heart of the promenade is a spacious lagoon with sandy shores, lawns, and wooden decks, where residents and visitors can swim for free.
The lagoon was built because the beach next to the promenade is not suitable for swimming, exposing a vast muddy area at low tide. Adjacent to the pool are showers, restrooms, and coin-operated lockers for those interested. In general, Australia knows how to pamper its residents with beautiful parks equipped with everything needed for outdoor recreation: tables, excellent grills, lawns, restrooms, and various sports and recreational facilities.
The city's good sandy beaches are actually spread over several kilometers along its northern coast and can be reached via the coastal road called Captain Cook Highway. Driving time to them is between 10 and 35 minutes from the city. Adjacent to these beaches are the city's northern suburbs.
The first beach, Machans Beach, is located right after the airport and is the closest to central Cairns.
The beach is sandy, but it is next to a river mouth and therefore less recommended due to the risk of crocodiles, which prefer being near river estuaries. Generally, on all beaches in Cairns and north of it, there are warning signs for swimmers indicating a danger of crocodiles and deadly venomous jellyfish (their main season is during the Australian summer when the water is warmer, between November and April). Of course, these signs took away all my desire to get near the water even when the beach was sandy and the water pleasant for swimming, but that doesn't stop many locals from taking a dip—well, everyone gets used to living in their own swamp...
A five-minute drive north of this beach is Holloways Beach, and after another 5 minutes is Yorkeys Knob Beach. Trinity and Kewarra beaches are a 25-minute drive from Cairns. Kewarra Beach features a stretch of sand shaded by a row of trees right along the shore.
After Kewarra is Clifton Beach, followed directly by Palm Cove Beach.
Palm Cove Beach is Cairns' finest beach and is even considered one of the best in Australia (not in my opinion, due to the risk of crocodiles and venomous jellyfish). It was named the cleanest beach in Queensland and the friendliest in Far North Queensland. It is a long beach with pleasant sand, lined with palm trees that provide beauty and shade for beachgoers. At the edge of the beach is a concrete boat ramp, followed by a long pier extending deep into the sea where many anglers try their luck. Beyond the row of trees along the beach are hotels, restaurants, and cafes. Sailboat, kayak, and jet ski rentals are available on site. Naturally, the beach also has good grills and picnic tables.
Nearby this beach are additional interesting tourist attractions:
The long Skyrail cable car over the rainforest leading to Kuranda
Cairns Tropical Zoo
Cairns Night Zoo
Outback Opal Mine gemstone mine shops
and Hartley's Crocodile Adventures park.
The next and furthest beach from Cairns (35 minutes from the city) is Ellis Beach.