On
this page you have some ideas for Cairns day trips.
Cairns
may have only one museum and only so many attractions
in
the town, but there are
a lot of
things to do outside the town, which you can do on a day trip.
You can take day trips to the Great
Barrier Reef, to the rainforest
village Kuranda, to Port Douglas, to Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation
in Daintree National Park, to Atherton
Tablelands, and to outback towns
such as Dimbulah and Chillagoe.
On top of that there are many activities
and adventures
that can be done on a day trip.
Northern Day Trips
Cairns
Northern
Beaches
The shortest and easiest day trips are those to Cairns Northern
Beaches.
You can
even catch a city bus. They
are small communities with sandy beaches, picnic areas, and little shops.
Palm Cove
and Trinity Beach are more upmarket, Holloways and Machans are
most laid-back.
Port
Douglas
Port
Douglas is a touristy town with some expensive accommodation,
great
restaurants and bars, trendy shops and a nice marina,
and the beautiful Four Mile Beach.
If you can, make it
a Sunday when there are the famous and colourful Port Douglas Sunday
Markets.
Mossman
and Mossman Gorge Mossman
is a
sugar cane town just north-west of Port Douglas. Although still more
like a country town, it is starting to get commercialised looks and
a few trendy shops. Particularly with the new Mossman
Gorge
(still beautiful) centre and the way they market it, the town will
sooner or later be another Port Douglas.
Cape
Tribulation
Cape Tribulation
is the coast between Daintree River and Kulki (the actual cape) in the
northernmost section of Daintree
National Park.
There
is a lovely beach, dense tropical rainforests and some nice boardwalks.
It is nice even though it is touristy and the
weather is often
rainy.
Trips
On the Water
Islands
off Cairns
There
are some great islands that you can visit either on day
trips or on a
longer stay. The closest ones are Fitzroy
and Green
Island
although some trips also go to Low Isles off the coast of Port Douglas.
Lizard Island is much further north, off the coast of Cape Melville in
Cape York.
Great
Barrier Reef
It is very popular to take a trip
from Cairns to
the Great
Barrier Reef. And it's a good idea too. Because the reef is
closest
to
the mainland up here, the trip to the reef is both quick and reasonably
cheap. The trips from
Cairns and Port Douglas are the best value in Australia. It's
a great day out!
Trips
to the Inland
Kuranda
Village
Kuranda is one
of the most popular of all
Cairns
day trips. It is a
small rainforest village north-west of Cairns on
the Great Dividing Range.
It is most famous for its markets,
but it also has some great bird and butterfly parks, a venomous animals
park, and some fantastic tropical
rainforest
around it
to discover.
Scenic
Train and
Skyrail
To get to Kuranda, you can either drive
there, or you
can do the classic tourist thing, catching the old scenic Kuranda
Train one
way, and Skyrail
the other.
It makes a great day trip and is well worth it
if you want to see the beautiful Barron
Falls and Barron Gorge National
Park.
Tjapukai
Cultural Park In
Cairns end of the skyrail trip
is
also the Tjapukai
Aboriginal Cultural Park - a great experience if you
are from overseas and want to learn about Aboriginal
culture. There are
both day and night tours, and you can learn how to throw a boomerang,
and enjoy a big a smorgasbord dinner.
Chillagoe
is a little outback town only 150ish km inland from Cairns.
There are
other cute little outback spots on that road like Dimbulah,
Mutchilba,
Petford, Lappa
and
Almaden, but Chillagoe
is the last one you likely manage on a day trip.
Behind it is Burke
Developmental Road to Normanton and Karumba.
Atherton
Tablelands South of Mareeba
(a town
between
Kuranda and Chillagoe) is Atherton
Tablelands - a beautiful area well worth a drive. It is cooler than the
coast and there are some beautiful towns,
lakes and rainforests that make some great Cairns day trips. You better
make a few, it's a little much to do the whole Tablelands in one day if
you want to do it properly.
Atherton Tablelands
Your closest way in is
to drive west from
Gordonvale - a small town just south of Cairns.
After
passing small communities like Little Mulgrave you will be crossing the Gillies
Range - similar to Kuranda range except it's woodland -
not rainforest.
And like the Kuranda Range, there is a lookout
point with
some great views over the surrounding landscape.
Danbulla
Forest Drive
After the range, you
first pass the turnoff to Danbulla
Forest Drive.
There is
another lookout,
... Lake Euramoo,
... the Mobo Creek Crater
walk,
... historical chimneys,
... and
the most famous - Cathedral
Fig Tree.
(being from Europe, my Mum
was amazed).
Lake
Tinaroo
Danbulla Forest Drive
also goes around Lake
Tinaroo.
It's very famous for freshwater
barramundi fishing,
... and is a great, and popular place for camping.
Tolga
and Kairi
West of Lake Tinaroo
are small towns Tolga
and Kairi.
There is a wood gallery, a museum and a historical railway station.
And there is a Second
World War Memorial Park at Rocky Creek - the whole
Tablelands area was a busy war site with training camps.
Atherton
South of Tolga and
Kairi is Atherton
- the largest town and administrative centre of the whole Tablelands
area.
There are the famous Crystal
Caves,
... a Chinese Museum,
... and Halloran Hill
- with views over the seven hills that surround it.
Yungaburra
South-east of Atherton
is Yungaburra
- a small town known for some good old Italian, Swiss and Austrian
restaurants.
Just outside the town is the Tablelands' most famous and easiest
accessible fig tree - the Curtain
Fig.
And a nearby creek is a good
place to see platypus.
Crater
Lakes
South of Yungaburra
are the two crater lakes
- Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham.
Around both are some rainforest
walks - good places to look out for amethystine python -
Australia's largest snake.
And there is also a famous pair of huge
kauri trees.
Malanda
South of the lakes is Malanda - another
nice small town.
Like many places on the Tablelands there are waterfalls,
... and a dairy factory
turned to a museum and restaurant.
But unlike most other places, the area around Malanda is a good place
to try to spot wild tree
kangaroos.
Millaa
Millaa
South of Malanda is Millaa Millaa - a
southern Tablelands town.
It is
also known for dairy
industry,
... also previous timber
industry,
... but mostly for all the beautiful waterfalls
that
surround the town.
You can
go for a drive and visit them all on the so-called Waterfall Circuit.
Ravenshoe
West of Millaa Millaa
is Ravenshoe
- famously Queensland's highest town and consequently with a very cool
climate.
Even here are some waterfalls,
... but more famously a large wind
farm,
... a historical train station,
... and some four wheel
drive tracks in the surrounding hills.
But more four wheel
driving can be done if you go a bit further inland to
Herberton and beyond.
Herberton
Here, the rainfroest
have been replaced by dry
open woodland, and the area has a lot more outback feel.
The old hotel, the Heritage Village,
... and the Mining Museum are all here thanks to the area's rich tin mining history.
The town is surrounded
by some tracks and trails,
... most good for walking as well as four
wheel driving.
Irvinebank
And even better does
it get if you go further
inland,
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Not to mention locals'
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This site uses British
English, which is the English we use in
Australia.
Disclaimer:
Although
best efforts have been made to ensure that all the information on this
website is correct, this site is not to be blamed should there be a
mistake.
This is the ORIGINAL Cape York Travel Guide run Locally on the Peninsula.