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Great Barrier Reef: Cairns is the closest gateway to the Great Barrier Reef - the world’s largest, most spectacular coral reef system - where diving, snorkelling, sailing, cruising and island hopping are a part of everyday life. The Great Barrier Reef can be reached in less than an hour by boat. Green Island is the most popular destination on the reef. It has a world class resort. Day and half day tours to the reef, for either snorkelling, diving, or simply viewing the reef, operate daily out of Cairns.
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Millaa Millaa Falls
Atherton Tablelands: Les than an hours drive from Cairns, The Atherton Tablelands is an area of world heritage rainforests, waterfalls, national parks, crater lakes and volcanic formations, set against a backdrop of rolling green hills. Its numerous villages cater providing services such as accommodation, dining and shopping facilities for locally grown produce like wines and coffee. The most famous of these is Kuranda, the village in the rainforest.
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Hinchinbrook Island: squatting off the coast of north Queensland, Hinchinbrook is basically two large islands joined by a long sand isthmus which has developed so there is a narrow sandy beach facing south, then a few substantial dunes and a vast, impenetrable mangrove swamp cut by sinuous channels. From the air it is one of the true wonders of the Australian coastline. With its lush rainforests, rugged, misty and heath-covered mountains, sweeping sandy beaches, rocky headlands, paperbark and palm wetlands, mangrove-fringed shores and extensive open forests and woodlands, Hinchinbrook Island National Park is one of the world’s most outstanding island parks.
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Ellis Beach, Cape Tribulation
Daintree Rainforest & Coast: Daintree and Cape Tribulation are home to the oldest tropical rainforest on earth where World Heritage-listed rainforests meet the Great Barrier Reef. Daintree is just 100 km north of Cairns or 45 km north of Port Douglas. There is a variety of accommodation available and rainforest tour options. The Daintree River ferry provides southern access into the Daintree rainforest and the sealed road to Cape Tribulation passes through 150 million year old rainforest in the lush Alexandra Range, to spectacular lookout points and glorious tropical beaches.
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| Visiting The Region: The Facts |
How to Get There: The twice weekly Tilt Train passes through all the well known Queensland coastal destinations between Brisbane and Rockhampton, and between Brisbane and Cairns.
It's a long drive (1,682 km/23 hours) but travelling the length of Bruce Highway (Brisbane to Cairns) takes you to just about every coastal Queensland location worth seeing north of Brisbane. If you don't have the time or inclination to make the drive, Cairns has an international airport that is connected by air to all of Australia's capital cities.
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Best Time To Go: North Queensland is a tropical region, so there are two very distinct seasons - Wet and Dry. The Wet season (January to April) brings steaming hot temperatures, high rainfall and high levels of humidity. The up-side of the wet season is that the rainforest is amazing, everything is so Green. The bird life is spectacular and the waterfalls are stunning - more often than not they are raging torrents. The dry season, which is at its mildest from July to September, sees little or no rain, low humidity, pleasant days with equally comfortable, balmy nights. April to September offers the clearest skies, while November and December are the hottest time of the year. July to September is the peak tourist season; if you are planning to visit then, you are advised to book your travel arrangements in advance, especially during school holidays when the best accommodation gets booked up anything up to six months in advance. Every month of the year offers something different here in Cairns.
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