How to Spend 4 Days in Cairns
Cairns, the perfect place to start or end your East Coast Roadie, our fave photographer LY aka Lydia Collins hit U P Cairns and the epic tropical surrounds….
Lydia will be sharing her exact itinerary for 4 days in Cairns, including:
- Learning to scuba dive on the Great Barrier
- Exploring Cairns
- Heading on a roadie through the Daintree Rainforest
- Exploring Port Douglas
Read on to find out more about Lydia’s adventure with the gals hittin’ up the EPIC Great Barrier Reef, The Daintree Rainforest and Cairns.
Click images to see more.
Let The Adventure Begin
Day 1
One thing that Cairns is known for is Daintree Rainforest – the worldʼs oldest tropical rainforest, 80 Million Years older than the Amazon! ao heading here was an absolute no-brainer. We woke up early to head to Central Station to catch the North Bus to Kuranda (30minute drive). Hopping off at Kuranda town, we grabbed a coffee and headed to the Skyrail ticket office to purchase a one-way ticket that takes you to Smithfield. (this is the town at the bottom of the cablecar, but a return option is available).
Kuranda to Smithfield takes around 1.5 hours including the 3 stops you make. You can take longer at each stop as itʼs a hop on/hop off service. Thereʼs a great Ranger talk at Red Peak stop off thatʼs well worth doing!
Day 2
Another must-do when visiting Cairns is a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We jumped on the Passions of Paradise boat trip (8 hour day trip).
One of the big highlights for me was the Scuba Diving – the instructors on the boat were amazing and took their time to teach you all the things you needed to know to make the most out of your experience. Then when they felt like you were capable they let you take in the surroundings and dive unattached to the instructor. Later in the day, they gave the option of a second dive for 40 minutes!
Cairns is also known for itʼs party scene. Unfortunately, we went a little out of season but it was still worth while heading out! The Conservatory Bar, Woolshed and Gilliganʼs are all great places to check out and dance the night away.
Day 3
Port Douglas is an absolutely must and what better way to travel there than on a roadie!
We drove one hour north of Cairns up to Port Douglas and the drive is absolutely beautiful. It follows the coastline the whole way and the scenery is incredible. Port Douglas is a really beautiful town with lots of shops, coffee stops and places to stop for lunch. We had lunch at Betty’s Bohemian Beach Cafe and then headed to Four Mile Beach for an afternoon in the sun.
with RatPack Travel?
Day 4
We rented our wheels for a few days so decided to head to Palm Cove, situated half way between Cairns and Port Douglas. (30 minute drive from Cairns). I had some work with a resort located on the beach so was lucky enough to spend the whole day there!
Thereʼs no shortage of beautiful restaurants in this area, most are beachfront and offer amazing dishes. We headed to Portofino, a super delicious Italian! Iʼd also recommend NuNu, itʼs on the beach and the menu looked super tasty!
All planned with the help of RatPack
All my trips on the East Coast and our Campervan rental was booked through Sammy at RatPack Travel – the BEST rated travel agency in Australia, they offer 10% off every trip and rental, which makes it cheaper than booking direct! They create free personalised travel calendars and can give you SO much advice on where to stay and places to visit!
From our RatPackers
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This was the best customer service I ever experienced! I highly recommend you if you are looking for a Van or Camper to leave your email address so somebody of their team can get in touch with you. They compare for you all camper hire company’s and you can choose with one suits you the best. I literally talk to this awesome lady from Holland (as I’m only available after 8pm MEL time, so the arrange for me a call with somebody from the EU team for free) and she got our dream van for the most incredible price few minutes after we talked! And not even one day later I got my booking confirmation from the camper company. Their service is free of charge as they earn commission of your booking but this doesn’t cost you a cent. I did my own research before but the deals they give me was way better than I could find by my own. I highly recommend to get in touch with this team and let them find your Van. They literally saved us our fuel cost for a 3 weeks travel from Cairns to Sydney. Yes- that’s almost $1000 they saved us! Go and get your van! You won’t regret it.
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Really straight forward helpful and friendly people!
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