Great Places @ Cairns?

[eskaR]

Hey people Im going to cairns for holidays next week and would like to hear some great places that I can visit.

I will be staying in the inner city and will visit croc farm and the great barrel reef for sure but how far away are they from the city?

do i need to rent a car so that i wont be half handicap or cabs/shutter buses are good enough?

any other special places/things about cairns?

shops?

restaurants?

thanks in advance!

[Isola]

I haven't spent much time up there, so can't really let you know of any great places, but you will be best off getting a hire car. Cairns is really spread out the whole way along the coast. You'll waste too much time with public transport!

[choyda]

Hire a car: Try Sugarland rentals. They seem reasonable. They can pick u up from the airport too.

As in for things to see, not sure, I only went to Mission Beach when I was up there.

[-_-StRyDeR-_-]

if you hire a car go up the the karanda markets, or take the skyrail up there, huge shopping centre in the middle of cairns also to keep the misses happy

the mariner and resonably new lagoon (1mil refurb swimming area) is pretty good also.

use to be a place along the water called Charlies, and you could get $10 all you can eat seafood, but its been years since i was there and i dont even know if its still operating lol.

also if you hire a car, head up the mountain and see some of the daintree and national park areas, alot of them have awsome waterfall swimming areas.

Kind of depends what your into?

[Traditimeour]

We did the skyrail up kuranda, good trip, nice views.

Contact member JDfnq on here or JDR33 on the SAUQLD forum, he is/was the concierge at the casino, so he knows cairns.

[-_-StRyDeR-_-]

my dad was the one who treaked out the skyrail when they were building it, bloody hard walking through that rain forest area with no tracks haha

the old train from kurranda to cairns is a good trip also. nice views ect.

[Revhead]

It really depends on what you want to see. My wife and I went up there a couple of years ago, and with a bit of help from Joe (Jdfnq) and Ben (who isn't on here any more I think) we had a brilliant time.

+1 to getting a hire car/bike, there's a lot of things to see but most of it is a fair hike. Not hours on end or anything, but enough to be a pain in the butt on a bus, and a pain in the wallet in a taxi. And you'd miss out on some great drives.

We did the drive from Cairns to Kuranda, then Mareeba, just short of Innisfail, then back to Cairns, making a few stops along the way. There's some stunning scenery and quite a few waterfalls, it's worth pulling over and walking the short distance to them.

Earn some brownie points with the missus and take her to the Butterfly Sanctuary at Kuranda, the butterflies are attracted to bright clothing so if you're wearing reds and the like they'll land on you.

There's the Skyrail which, as mentioned, is excellent, it gets a little bumpy if the wind picks up but if you can handle being on a plane this is no problem.

At the base of the Skyrail there's a cable ski park, we didn't end up going but if it's anything like the ones I've been to elsewhere it'd be heaps of fun.

And most definitely, if you get a chance, drive up the coast road from Cairns to Port Douglas. Fantastic roads (except for the roadworks we encountered), fantastic scenery, and IIRC there was a pretty awesome lunch waiting for us in PD.

For dinners we mostly ate at the hotel, but we ate at a really nice Japanese restaurant just up the road from the casino one night.

Damn you, you're making we want to go back!!

[-_-StRyDeR-_-]

i lived in mareeba for 11yrs lol. but yeh this thread is making me want to go back again

[eskaR]

thanks heaps guys it seems that i have picked the right place for holidays.

there will be a car hire shop at the airport no?

will a GPS be enough to keep me on track?

[Isola]

There's the Skyrail which, as mentioned, is excellent, it gets a little bumpy if the wind picks up but if you can handle being on a plane this is no problem.

:thumbsup:

Plane = wings and engine

Skyrail car = no engine or wings = loosely tethered brick!!

No way in hell anyone will ever get me into a cable car.

[choyda]

thanks heaps guys it seems that i have picked the right place for holidays.

there will be a car hire shop at the airport no?

will a GPS be enough to keep me on track?

There are at the airport but Sugarland will (for free) come and pick you up from the airport, drive you to their place about 2kms down the road, sort out the paperwork and off you go. They'll drop you off as well. They were significantly cheaper than the mainstream brands. Cars were fairly new Hyundais.

[Revhead]

:thumbsup:

Plane = wings and engine

Skyrail car = no engine or wings = loosely tethered brick!!

No way in hell anyone will ever get me into a cable car.

There's also an argument that cable cars don't travel at 900km/h several km in the air, and if something goes wrong (assuming it's not broken cables!) you just stop where you are rather than plummetting to the earth

But yeah it is a little disconcerting when you first get on, just relax and enjoy it!

[-_-StRyDeR-_-]

But yeah it is a little disconcerting when you first get on, just relax and enjoy it!

Im sure you've heard that before? haha jkn

[dave32gtr]

Hey mate I live in Cairns and if you like I am happy to answer any question you would like to know. Pm me and give me your number or I can give you mine.

[Revhead]

Im sure you've heard that before? haha jkn

hahaha, glad I'm not the only one on here with a dirty mind

[Midnight Madness]

I was in cairns for a holiday about a year ago, hired a car and did the Atherton Tablelands circuit - was an awesome drive. Heaps of amazing waterfalls hidden away that we went swimming at.

www.tablelandsinfo.com

Also checked out Paronella Park, really cool old castle that a Spanish family built about 75 years ago that hosted QLD's first hydraulic power plant, can still see it there today. It's surrounded by kilometeres of sugar cane and banana plantations. Check it out!

http://www.paronellapark.com.au/ - pictures dont do it justice.

Also Mossman Gorge was really cool for nature walks/activities!