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THE GREAT BARRIER REEF: 3 DAYS IN CAIRNS
15/10/2020 by in Continent EN

The Great Barrier Reef : 3 days in Cairns, Australia

3 days in Cairns, Australia. The gateway to the adventure tour in The Great Barrier Reef, a natural wonder riches in biodiversity. Travel tips: swim, snorkel, dive, and sail.

Cairns is the gateway to the tropical north of the Australian state of Queensland. For those who enjoy the beach, the best options are: take a trip to the islands near Cairns or visit Port Douglas. It is possible to make a return trip to Fitzroy Island, Michaelmas Cay, or Green Island or to stay there. In Port Douglas, a neighboring town, there are beaches and the peaceful atmosphere is great for those who want to relax.

The main attraction of this coastal city is the Great Barrier Reef, an immense living structure known worldwide and composed of several reefs, islands, atolls and incredible biodiversity. The Great Barrier Reef (that is, the Great Barrier Reef, in Portuguese) is more than 2,300 km long and a large part of it is on the outskirts of the Queensland coast. There are several other cities in the state that allow access to the barrier, but Cairns is the largest and with the best structure to receive visitors.

Cairns city center has a lot of life, hotel structure, and good restaurants. There is no “swimmable” beach in the city, as the nearby sea has a small stretch of sand, the water is muddy and, mainly, because it has many jellyfish. But, there is a public swimming pool with saltwater in the area known as Esplanade, and there the visitor can swim at will and enjoy the pleasant environment of this city.

Tip: getting to know the great barrier is a real event in the lives of many people and a very special moment, so look carefully for the activities and the company that will do the tour. The most common and common activities in this place are snorkeling and scuba diving.

Check all maps of the region here.

When to go?

Cairns welcomes visitors throughout the year. The average temperature in the city is 25ºC; in summer it exceeds 30ºC and in winter it reaches 15ºC. Cairns is not too cold, the days are warm and the nights cooler.

If the option is to visit the region between November and April, the visitor can find tropical cyclones, which cause rain, strong winds and floods. They tend to happen on the north, northeast and northwest coast.

For those who prefer to visit places with fewer tourists, the ideal is to go outside the school holidays (December and January), avoid Australian holidays, and also the days around the Chinese New Year, when Cairns is taken over by Chinese visitors.

How to get there?

Cairns has a large airport, with a domestic and international terminal and is about 6 km from the city center.

For those who are in Brazil, it is necessary to first reach Australia, and then think about how to get to Cairns. There are no direct flights.

Cairns receives daily flights from several Australian cities such as Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, among others. The main airlines are Virgin Australia, Qantas, Jetstar and TigerAir.

Airport transportation: taxi or Uber are good options to get to your hotel/hostel, or look for information about shuttle service at your hotel/hostel.

Distances from Cairns:

NORTH

Palm Cove – 27 km (34 minutes)

Ellis Beach – 27 km (35 minutes)

Port Douglas – 68 km (1 hr 10 minutes)

Mossman – 77 km (1 hr 15 minutes)

Daintree – 125 km (2 hrs 25 minutes)

Cape Tribulation – 141 km (2 hr 45 minutes)

Cooktown – 327 km (4 hrs 15 minutes)

SOUTH

Mission Beach – 139 km (hr 55 minutes)

Places of interest in downtown Cairns to:

Tanks Art Center – 4 km (9 minutes)

Cairns Botanic Gardens – 4.5 km (10 minutes)

Cairns Airport – 6 km (10 minutes)

Kuranda Scenic Railway Freshwater Station – 11 km (19 minutes)

Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park – 13 km (18 minutes)

Skyrail Rainforest Cableway – 13.5 km (19 minutes)

Crystal Cascades – 20 km (26 minutes)

Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures – 42 km (45 minutes)

Josephine Falls – 75 km (1 hr 5 minutes)

Jungle Surfing Canopy Tours – 142 km (2 hr 45 minutes)

# 1 day: Fitzroy Island

We planned this trip with a short time, but we believe that the choices were the best, given the options that we later found in the local tourism brochures.

There are other very interesting points in the region, but for a long weekend the ones we chose served us a lot.

We started the trip in Sydney (where we live) at 6 am on a direct flight to Cairns.

After approximately 3 hours of travel, we arrived at the airport in this city.

We went to the car rental window, collected our car and set off in search of adventures.

An important tip if you want to enjoy the region a lot is to rent a car. We have already visited another gateway to the Barrier Reef (Airlie Beach), and there is not much need for a car there (since transportation between airports is easy, either by bus or hotel transfer from Proserpine, ie boat leaving Hamilton Island – see more about our route in this city here). In Airlie Beach everything is very small (the center) and to access the marina you can go walking.

In Cairns, the ideal is to rent. This option will give you freedom and easy movement around the city and surroundings. The visitor can also stay in the center and make the trip without a car, but we believe it will be more complete and enjoyable if it is with the mobility that the car provides.

After taking our official means of transport, we went to the hotel, changed clothes and from there we left for Malin Marina, where all boat trips depart.

Days before we boarded, we bought the transfer to Fitzroy Islandand also to the Barrier Reef, so we just went to the marina and took the boat at the indicated location.

We bought the transfer that is made by the island’s resort, and this was the cheapest value we found. We use Fitzroy Island Transfer and pay $ 80 per person (roundtrip).

Cairns Ferry Map
Cairns Ferry Map

We left the boat at 11 am and arrived on the island at around 11:45 am. It is only 45 minutes to this point.

At 12pm we were already heading to one of the island’s beaches, Nudey Beach. One of the most sought after and famous places there.

This beach was considered the best in Australia in 2017 and became famous for this reason.

The walk to it, leaving the port, is approximately 10-15 minutes. Quiet walk and with some beautiful points for photo.

We stayed at that point on the island almost all day. We used the beach to relax.

After more than 2 hours at the site, we continue to the port region and the beach in front of the resort.

We stayed there for a long time and when the time for the return arrived, we went to the boat and headed for Cairns.

We arrived in the city at 6 pm, went to the car (which we parked in a public car park – $ 11.50 for approximately 8 hours) and drove towards our hotel.

We closed our day at a local bar in the hotel with dinner and beer.

Review de Hotel

We stayed at the Palm Royale Cairns Resort.

The hotel has a good physical structure, has a swimming pool and facilities and the room is also very good.

The location is a little further from the center (about 10/15 minutes by car), however if the tourist is not driving there are free transfers from the hotel to the center.

We booked a double room with a private bathroom for $ 185.14 for two nights with breakfast included.

# 2 day: Barrier Reef 

For the second day, we booked a day tour by boat to the Barrier Reef.

We bought in advance through the company’s website and in the early morning, at 7:30 am, we were already at the port to start the day’s activities.

We bought the tour through the Reef Trip website and the package cost $ 115 per person. The tour is the cheapest we found in the region, and it served us very well. Included in the tour were: fruits for breakfast, barbecue and salads for lunch, snorkeling equipment (mask and fins), and coffee and tea available all day.

This company uses the term budget (cheap) for its boat tour, because everything the customer needs extra, he needs to buy on time (scuba diving, breakfast, etc.). This makes it easier for those who want to pay cheaper and gives flexibility for those who want to buy additional ones.

All the other companies we researched had values ​​in excess of $ 220 per person.

As we said, we started very early, at 7:30 am. We stopped the car in the same public parking lot (we paid $ 16 per hour for approximately 10 hours) and went by boat to the Barrier Reef.

On this tour, the itinerary consists of 2 stops at different points of the Great Barrier Reef.

We arrived at the first stop around 10 am. We stayed there for about 2 hours. After this activity, they served lunch and left for the second destination of the day.

We stopped once again at Barreira and the boat stayed another 2 hours on site for everyone to enjoy snorkeling or scuba diving.

The return happened at 15h and around 16h30 we are already arriving in Cairns .

From there, we went for a walk through the center and the Esplanade , some photos and we were satisfied.

We ended our day with a special dinner at a local restaurant that serves Brazilian style barbecue, Bushfire.

The restaurant is Australian, but does the barbecue in the Brazilian style. They have a promotion that starts at 5:30 pm and ends at 7:00 pm ($ 39.90 value – all you can eat, that is, eat at will).

After the restaurant, we continue to the hotel and get the rest we deserve.

# 3 day: Port Douglas

For the third and last day of the long weekend in the Cairns region, we chose to continue our road trip towards the coastal city of Port Douglas .

We continue on our road trip along the Great Barrier Reef Highway to this city. The road runs along the sea almost in its entire length, and takes the tourist to know the several beaches in the region (the Northern Beaches ).

The trip takes about 1 hour, and there are some points of interest along the way. We decided to stop at Rex Lookout only. The beaches and some parks were by our window making scenery!

Cairns coastline map
Cairns coastline map

We arrived in Port Douglas (we put the center on Google maps) and stopped the car to explore the place.

We walked towards the city’s main beach, Four .Mile Beach. We took some pictures on it and went to the lookout (viewpoint) that has on this beach.

After we were satisfied, we continued walking along the main street of the small town and enjoyed the sunny Sunday.

There was still time to visit a local craft fair that was taking place this sunny Sunday. We walked a little further along the shore and after we were satisfied we returned to the car.

After visiting Port Douglas and getting to know some of the city’s attractions, we set off towards Palm Cove , another small coastal town in the region.

This ‘little town’ is next to Cairns, and we did it on the way back to end our trip.

We stayed in Palm Cove for about 2 hours enjoying the scenery and in the late afternoon we chose a place to have lunch.

After lunch, at approximately 3:30 pm, we proceed to return our car and wait for the flight back to Sydney.

In this way, we closed the long weekend itinerary in Cairns and region.

SOUL Viajero review

We visited the two main entry points of the Barrier Reef in Australia, Airlie Beach (check out our postAirlie Beach (confira nosso post here) and Cairns and our impressions were:

  • Cairns has more infrastructure (both hotels and restaurants and access to tours);
  • Airlie Beach is much smaller and perhaps for some more charming;
  • The tours from Cairns are very good and the options are equally varied. Visiting options for Fitzroy Island and Green Island are great;
  • There are many companies in Cairns that make trips to the Barrier Reef, we believe that even more than Airlie Beach;
  • The highlight of Airlie Beach is the tour to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Whitehaven Beach. In addition, of course, tours to Hamilton Island, and the fly-by at the Heart of the Reef (be sure to take this tour by plane or helicopter);
  • In Airlie Beach only one company does the tour to Pontoon in the Barrier Reef, Cruise Whitsundays, in Cairns, at least 3 have this type of station inside the Barrier and do this style of tour;
  • In general we believe that a combination of the physical structure of the city of Cairns with the tours / places available in Airlie Beach would be ideal. But as this is not possible, visit both, if it is accessible, or make the choice that most appeals to you in the light of these comments;
  • The two cities have different options for accommodation and tours that fit all budgets. Look for the best one for you!
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