Cairns (Australia)

Cairns is a strange place in that you do not really go to Cairns to experience Cairns. It is more of a focal point for exploring other areas around it. That is to say that Cairns has not got lots of attractions in it's own right because it has but the vast majority of visitors will use it as a stopping off place to see both Cairns and other attractions. After our trip to Ayers Rock, Cairns was totally different but equally appealing.

...
...in "them thar hills" put Cairns firmly on the map in 1876 as a frontier town. When this began to die out Cairns began to thrive as a fishing and pearling area and the lush land was ideal for sugar cane plantations which are still abundant today.

It is difficult to believe that little over twenty years ago, Cairns was still a sleepy town but with the building of an International airport tourism exploded and Cairns is an extremely ... more

Cairns is a strange place in that you do not really go to Cairns to experience Cairns. It is more of a focal point for exploring other areas around it. That is to say that Cairns has not got lots of attractions in it's own right because it has but the vast majority of visitors will use it as a stopping off place to see both Cairns and other attractions. After our trip to Ayers Rock, Cairns was totally different but equally appealing.

***History***

Discovered by Captain Cook in 1770 it took a further 100 years before white settlers took hold, mainly due to the wet weather, vegetation and treacherous reefs. The finding of gold in "them thar hills" put Cairns firmly on the map in 1876 as a frontier town. When this began to die out Cairns began to thrive as a fishing and pearling area and the lush land was ideal for sugar cane plantations which are still abundant today.

It is difficult to believe that little over twenty years ago, Cairns was still a sleepy town but with the building of an International airport tourism exploded and Cairns is an extremely popular holiday destination for Australian and International visitors alike with a mind boggling 2.2m visitors annually. They have a permanent population of around 100,000 so it's more than half the size of Bolton. I would wager that there would be few who didn't enjoy their time there - we certainly did and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

Cairns is not a place you visit for the history and this goes largely uncelebrated. There are few museums worth note and little by way of historical museums

***Where is it***

Based in Queensland it is around 1000 miles from Brisbane and 1500 miles from Sydney, on the East coast of Cape York Peninsular. If you look at a map of Australia it is one the right hand side of the pointy bit in the top right. It enjoys a humid, tropical climate with temperatures rarely dropping below 20 degrees C and has a wet season (Nov to March when monsoons and cyclones can be expected) and a dry season April to November. However, it is in the tropics and it can rain at any time and averages 80 inches of rain pa. We arrived there via a flight from Ayers Rock (if thinking of visiting Cairns from the UK, as part of a trip to another part of Oz, check with the travel agent as it is common for free internal flights to be thrown into the mix).

The town is an expanse of hotels, low rises houses and various buildings sandwiched between the Ocean on the East and the rain forest to the West. It is in many ways a typical Australian town with the dangly cork hats, stubbie holders to keep your drinks cool, a vast array of accommodation and eating places all on the door step of outstanding natural beauty.

*Where we stayed***

There are lots of places to stay from top hotels to budget accomodation and they cater for anyone. We booked a one bed-roomed apartment at The Royal Harbour Tradewinds hotel on The Esplanade on-line (cost around £80 per night). Unfortunately the web site does not exist any more but a quick google search will bring up plenty of booking opportunities. Before we arrived however, we had a chirpy Cockney as a taxi driver from the airport who was a mine of useful information. Whilst we had an idea of what we wanted to do & see he made some recommendations for us which thankfully met our requirements. It was a very friendly introduction to Cairns which proved to be a common theme throughout our trip there. Whilst everything about it was truly appealing the people whose paths we crossed along the way made our stay more worthwhile.

The Royal Tradewinds is a modern hotel over-looking The Esplanade and check in was very simple and efficient. At £80 a night it is quite expensive for Australian standards but when we got to the room it was worth every penny. It was a self contained apartment with separate kitchen/bedroom and had all mod cons in terms of TV, DVD, stereo, washer, dryer and Jacuzzi with a fantastic view of the Pacific Ocean. Again, the staff were very friendly and one of the first things we did after unpacking was to visit the tour operator connected to the hotel to book our trips. The variety of trips on offer was mind boggling and I was glad we had an idea as to what we wanted to do as we could have spent all day deciding. Again, booking the trips was very easy and we were presented with a voucher and the costs were added to our hotel bill when we checked out.

***Eating out***

Like most places in Australia, Cairns is very cosmopolitan when it comes to restaurants. There is a wide variety with Asian & seafood being a major influence given where it is. We never actually ate in our hotel as we wanted to get out and explore the city (although it has more of a large town feel). To some extent you could actually be anywhere. There is nothing that makes it stand out from any other Australian City in the culinary department with the usual array of seafood, Chinese, Thai and local restaurants. However, we weren't there for the food and what was there was totally adequate so we were happy enough.

The Rattle & Hum Bar & Grill was chosen simply because of it's name and the fact it is named after a U2 album and also because it was very close to the hotel and we were starving. Similarly, another night was spent in the Night Markets Food Court which was directly underneath the hotel which had a vast array of cheap food, in a basic setting but with a great atmosphere. The last night was spent in The Harbourview Chinese Restaurant which was delicious. Truth is these types of establishments became the norm for our stay in Cairns given we were usually shattered by the time we got back from our trips and the trips we did go on mostly had food included so we weren't up for a major dining experience in the evening. Whilst undoubtedly Cairns has some top class restaurants if I wanted to experience culinary delights I would have stayed in Sydney.

There is also a plethora of bars and PJ O'Briens and the Fox & Firkin became regular stop off points of an evening simply to have a pint or three of ice cold Guinness and some live music. By then we re ready for bed as the trips we were on were had early starts.

Cairns is largely a budget town although does however cater for everyone. In all the bars the clientele was a mixture of back-packers, locals, seasoned travelers and pensioners alike. The atmosphere is very buoyant which is what you would expect from what is effectively a major tourist resort. However, there was no sense of any trouble brewing or things getting out of hand. Everyone was in holiday mood and nothing was going to spoil that.

***What we did***

Cairns is the gateway to three natural wonders which are Atherton Tableland which is the vast area of rainforest to the West, Cape Tribulation/Daintree to the North which is a world heritage site and the Great Barrier Reef about 90 minutes boat ride away. On this occasion the Great Barrier Reef was not part of our plans as we had planned to visit at some other stage of our trip and so had to resist the urge on this occasion although there were dozens of tours available.

We were there for three full days and had a packed itinerary. We actually wanted to go hot air ballooning over Atherton Tableland although this is subject to last minute cancellation dependent on the weather and given we had no time to waste we had to pick trips that were going to go ahead irrespective of the weather.

We booked two trips via the hotel and I would urge any visitor to do the same as the staff have a detailed knowledge of what's on offer although it may help beforehand if you have an idea of what you want to do. Alternatively, you could book the trips yourself on-line beforehand. If you are driving then you can do these trips alone although we preferred the guided tours as you could use the knowledge of the guides and get to the places much quicker, especially if you are on tight timescales.

Kuranda Tour

The first trip booked was the "Kuranda" tour with Tropical Wings (can be viewed on www.tropicalwings.com.au). This cost around £50 each (£25 child) but was full day tour starting at 7:30 when we were picked up by coach at the hotel. There were four parts to this tour starting with a short journey to the Skyrail terminal which is a ski lift up the mountain and over the Rainforest with Kuranda "The Village in the Rainforest" awaiting you at the other end. You feel a little queasy at first but soon get used to it.

Kuranda is a sleepy village catering exclusively to tourists. It is quite small but packed with gift shops, cafes, Aboriginal artifact shops and the Rainforestation Wildlife sanctuary which was the next bit of our itinerary.

This is a nature/animal reserve and the first thing we did was take a trip on an Army Duck which went through the reserve both on land and water. It was then straight on to a tour of Aborigine traditional with Aborigines leading the tour and showing us a little of their customs and tools.

From there it was a trip around their animal reserve meeting the kangaroos, koalas, cassowary (a large bird that is known to attack humans and which I had never seen before) and other native Australian species.

The final bit of the trip was a near two hour train journey from Kuranda back to Cairns. This was a very special trip meandering through the rain forest and stopping off at selective points for photo opportunities. You would need to book this in advance although our ticket was part of the itinerary.

Overall, for £50 a head I feel this was a complete bargain. We saw many things we wouldn't normally experience (or think about seeing) and if you did all the activities individually under your own steam it would cost a lot more. Whilst there was a lot in this itinerary we were never at any time rushed and a lot of the stuff could be done at your own pace with you simply meeting up with your party at an agreed time and place (which was easy to find).

Daintree Explorer

Whilst a lie in would have been welcome the next day was another early start and this time it was the "Daintree Explorer" run by Trek North tours (www.treknorth.com.au). This again cost around £50 a head. This trip covered around 200 miles in total and we were heading for the Daintree River around 80 miles north of Cairns and situated on the edge of Cape Tribulation National Park, an area of outstanding beauty. All through this trip there were plenty of stop offs with the first being Mossman Gorge and a trek through the rainforest. Again, this was similar to the day before but still enjoyable. It was then on to Daintree Village for a coffee and souvenirs before we were dropped off for a cruise of Daintree River. Again, the guides were tremendously knowledgeable and we saw our first crocodile within minutes, that the guide said was 4.5 metres although it was difficult to tell other than the fact I did not fancy getting out of the boat.

It was then onto the Daintree Teahouse for fresh caught Barramundi and chips and a tropical fruit tasting to finish. At this point I certainly wanted a nap but there was no time because we were off for a trip around a pineapple plantation.

From there it was on to Port Douglas with the first stop The Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary which by this point was becoming a lot like other habitats we had seen over the last two days but a great experience nonetheless.

We had some free time in Port Douglas including a stop at a look out point at Four Mile Beach.

This was another superb trip with a packed itinerary, great attractions, unique experiences and friendly people. Worth every single penny. Like the day before we would not have seen so much if we had done this on our own and it was certainly much cheaper doing this as part of a package.

Surprisingly there is little by way of decent beaches. Perhaps unsurprisingly this is because between October and May you cannot swim within 500 metres of the shore due to box jellyfish being present and coming into contact with one of these is deadly if not treated immediately.

***Conclusion***

Before our trip I was a little worried as Cairns seem to come with a somewhat seedy reputation for catering for budget, back packing tourists. To some extent this is true - they are catering for the mass market but there was no sign of seediness at all. It is not a place you will go to simply because you want to visit Cairns but merely to use as a gateway to other places near it, of which there are plenty.

I defy anyone to leave Cairns saying they didn't enjoy it (unless of course a cyclone comes through town whilst you are there). There is plenty to see and you can do this at your own pace. The people are very friendly due to them serving predominantly the tourist industry and so they are well honed at it and genuine. However, the lack of history leaves it somewhat soulless but this is more than made up for by what it does have to offer. When we went in September it was relatively cool but humid and in the peak summer months the heat & humidity can become unbearable.

If you are planning a trip to Cairns then planning is the operative word. It is unlikely you will go to Australia and then feel the urge to go to Cairns due to time constraints and it's remoteness. If you are going then have an idea what you want to do beforehand. 

...less