Cairns is the best city to visit in north Queensland. It’s relaxed and tropical, the weather is always warm and it is one of the best places for trips to Great Barrier Reef. In the city there are Cairns Museum, Cairns Night Markets and the lovely Cairns Marina. Just north are Machans Beach, Wangetti Beach and other northern beaches. Townsville may be the biggest city in north Queensland, but travellers tend to spend longer time in Cairns. Here is Cairns travel information, and in the end of the page is a Cairns map.
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Lagoon. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Travel Cairns: City Center and Esplanade Cairns city center is next to Trinity Bay between Cairns Esplanade and Sheridan Street. Mulgrave Road that comes from south (Bruce Highway) passes by Earlville shopping centre and Parramatta Park Showgrounds before it turns into Aplin Street that goes right to the Cairns Esplanade.
Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Travel Cairns: Central City If you arrive by train, you’ll first come to the Cairns Central.It is the town’s central train station as well as a large shopping centre with lots of clothes’ shops, camera shops, bookshops, all kind of speciality shops and a large eatery. It is also here as you can catch the train to Kuranda.
Travel Cairns:City Place and Cairns Museum Across the road from the main entrance of the shopping centre is Shield Street which goes right to the Esplanade. On the way to the Esplanade it passes the City Place – a pedestrian shopping mall, where there are lots of souvenir shops, pubs, restaurants, the City Place Amphitheatre, and Cairns Museum. Along the side streets are Rusty’s Bazaar Markets and Orchid Plaza. There are also plenty of hotels and backpackers hostels on these streets.
Cairns Lagoon and Cairns Pier In the northern end of the Shield Street you’ll come to the Cairns Esplanade, and right to the Cairns Lagoon, always full on backpackers as well as locals having a dip or sunbaking in the adjacent park. East of the Lagoon is the Cairns Pier – another shopping mall with shops, restaurants and bars, and an Aquarium called Undersea World where you can discover the tropical marine life and watch shark feedings.
Travel Cairns: Cairns Marina East of the Cairns Pier is Cairns Marina with lots of yachts and fishing boats, and south of the Marina is the Marlin Jetty; and the Trinity Inlet where you can catch a ferry to Fitzroy Island. Cairns Yacht Club is also here.
Travel Cairns: Cairns Casino West of the Trinity Inlet is the Reef Hotel Casino, which is much more than a casino – you can stay here (although it’s not cheap); and on the top of it is the Cairns Rainforest Dome – a wildlife park with tropical rainforest and lots of Australian animals such as kangaroos and koalas, but also crocodiles, snakes, turtles, lizards and many kind of Australian famous birds such as kookaburras.
Travel Cairns: Cairns Esplanade Back on the Cairns Esplanade, there is a lovely walking trail with information signs about Aboriginal people and views over the surrounding mountain ranges. There are also barbeques and picnic tables here, and further north there are mudflats that attract many interesting wetland birds such as ibises, pelicans and spoonbills.
Esplanade. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Travel Cairns: Cairns Night Markets Also on the Esplanade are the famous Cairns Night Markets, a great place to have a dinner in the food court, and scroll through the market stands - there are clothes as well as a lot of souvenirs.
Night Markets. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Travel Cairns: North Cairns If you keep walking north along the Esplanade, you will come to North Cairns, where there are lots of eateries, expensive hotels but also backpacker hostels, the Tobruk Memorial Swimming Pool and the Royal Flying Doctors Service.
Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Travel Cairns: Flecker Botanical Gardens Here are also the beautiful Flecker Botanical Gardens. It is a very green pace to be – amongst lush tropical plants and some impressive large tropical flowers.
Botanical Gardens. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Cairns Tropical Zoo and Mangrove Boardwalk Further north, on the way to the airport is a mangrove boardwalk, in the extensive mangrove swampland that surrounds the road to the airport. Mangrove habitat is very interesting and the boardwalk is worth checking out if you like nature. About 20km north of town is the Cairns Tropical Zoo where you can see the usual Australian animals like koalas and kangaroos, wombats and crocodiles.
Mangrove Walk. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Things to Do in Cairns; Sail and Dive Adventures There are heaps of things to do in Cairns. The shopping is endless, but if you get enough of it, you can go snorkelling and diving with Down Under Dive, Deep Sea Divers Den or Pro-Dive. Raging Thunder and R’n’R will take you to white water rafting to as far as Tully River – the best place in Australia for the activity. You can also go bungee jumping with AJ Hackett and skydiving with Skydive Cairns.
North Queensland Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef Attractions Cairns is an excellent place to discover the life of coral reef on the Great Barrier Reef. There are many Great Barrier Reef Diving Trips offered by Compass, Noah’s Ark Cruises, Passions of Paradise and Tusa Dive. Uncle Brian’s Tours makes trips to Atherton Tablelands, and if you want to discover the north queensland rainforest in Daintree National Park - Billy Tea Bush Safaris, Cape Trib Connections, Down Under Tours and Jungle Tours can take you there.
Cairns Bars and Restaurants There are also lots of nice places to eat and drink in different parts of the town. There is always good dining at the markets; the whole Cairns Esplanade (the street side, not the coastal walk) is lined with eateries and there are also plenty of pubs, bars and good restaurants on the streets around the City Place. Some of the most popular ones are Gilligan’s Bistro on Grafton Street, and Tandoori Oven, Sawaddee and Wool Shed on Shield Street.
Machans Beach, Wangetti Beach and other Northern Beaches North of the town are the Cairns northern beaches: Machans Beach, Holloways Beach, Yorkeys Knob, Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Ellis Beach and Wangetti Beach. Most are quiet small communities with a nice beach, but Yorkeys Knob gets lively around the sailing club; and Palm Cove is more like a heavily developed tourist town – not my cup of tea but if you like a lot of concrete buildings which house expensive hotels and posh restaurants, head there – the beach is stunning.
Here's a Cairns map, where I have tagged the places that I mentioned on this web page. You can click on the tags to see what places they are, and double-click anywhere on the map to zoom it in and see the places closer. Drag the map to move around, and if you want to see the satellite image with Google Earth, click on "Sat" in the top right hand corner.
NOTE: This website is written in British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all correct in the language used in Australia.
