There
are a few different kinds of Cape York tours.
But is it a good idea to
take one?
A Cape York trip is so much more fun when you can do the four wheel
driving yourself.
You can stop and stay where you want and go in on
your own pace.
Even planning
your own Cape
York trip adds to the fun.
But if you still decide
for a tour, I
am sure you have your reasons.
Firstly,
there are two main kinds of tours:
* the ones that start in Cairns
(or
elsewhere outside the peninsula),
and take you there, and do
the whole
Cape York trip for you; and
* the ones that start in places like, Daintree, Cooktown, Weipa, Tip of
Cape York or Thursday
Island, and take
you around in the local area.
Then there are different
ways to do
the tour:
* You can take a bus tour,
which takes you from Cairns all the way to the Tip, and the bus is 4WD
so you get to be driven
through creeks on some exciting four wheel
drive tracks.
* You can take a bus tour
in
different places like Cape
Tribulation, Cooktown, Weipa, Tip of Cape York. Most
are four wheel drive buses, but in some places, for example Cooktown,
you can also get a two wheel drive tour of the town.
These are the most common
kinds of
tours.
Then there are:
* Motorbike tours
- they
mostly start in Cairns and take you all the way to the Tip;
* Light plane and
helicopter flights
- there are both kinds - the ones that start from Cairns and fly you
all the way to the Tip and Torres Strait Islands; and the ones that you
can jump on in places like Seisia,
Punsand Bay and Loyalty Beach.
* Boat tours
- all
local ones, and start in many different places including Cooktown,
Weipa, Aurukun, the Tip
of Cape York
and Torres Strait Islands. Some
are wildlife watching tours, most are fishing (coastal/river fishing
trips
include wildlife and croc watch anyway).
* Ships/cruises
- these start
in Cairns and take you to places like the Tip of Cape York and Torres
Strait Islands.
All the above
tours of
course are the
kind where you just jump in their vehicle / bus /
motorbike,
helicopter etc.
On the Land - Bus and Tagalong
Tours
Below are some
Cape York tours, but mostly in
southern Cape York and Cairns.
Tours
from Cairns
Most tours from Cairns go to the Great Barrier Reef,
Fitzroy and Green
Island, sailing,
scuba diving
and
white water
rafting. There are also adventure
sports, scenic
flights, and 4WD
tours to Cape York.
Tours
from Port Douglas
Much like Cairns, most Port
Douglas
tours are about water
activities such as Low Isles,
outer reef,
sailing and fishing. There
are also flights and other adventures, as well as trips to Daintree
rainforests.
Cape
Tribulation Tours
Cape Tribulation has a lot of different
tours, mainly to the world famous Daintree rainforests. There are 4WD
tours, guided walking tours, horse riding, white water
rafting etc.
Cooktown
Tours
Cooktown has guided town tours, as well as 4WD tours to national parks,
the
outback
and the rainforests
outside the town; and some
boat tours -
mainly fishing
and croc
watching.
Great
Barrier Reef Trips
The best places to take a trip to the Great Barrier Reef
are Cairns and Port Douglas, although a reef charter can also be
organised
in Cooktown.
Tagalong Tours
But there is one more kind - the
tagalong tours.
These are for people who want to do the four wheel drives themselves in
their own vehicle, but don't like to go alone.
These
mostly start in Cairns, and do the whole trip with you (all are
listed and updated in the Destination
Guide).
Overland Safari Tours
The northern ones -
the overland
safari tours
to the Tip (and all the ones mentioned above), are in the
Destination
Guide along with fully
detailed
information with prices and
contact details of each company.
In the Air
- Cape York
Air Tours
Helicopter
and light airplane
flights are a great way
to discover places.
Up here they are particularly popular around Cairns, Port Douglas
and Cape
Tribulation, where you can fly over massive areas of World
Heritage rainforests
and world's largest coral
reef - the Great
Barrier Reef.
But there are also air
tours further north,
and there is a lot of natural beauty to watch from the air: tropical
rainforest, bays and beaches, rocky headlands, red bauxite cliffs,
black granite boulders, white sand dunes, and so on. And and
there are also the
tours that
take you
to the Tip of Cape York
and the northernmost
point of Australia.
On the Water
- Cape York
Cruises
Well the most popular
cruises to
the area are those that come to Cairns from down south; and also the
ones that take you out to the Great Barrier Reef (the more real Cape
York cruises are further down on the page).
Great
Barrier Reef and Cairns
Cruises
Other
than that, most of
the cruises in this part of
Australia go to the Great
Barrier
Reef.
You get to snorkel, see corals,
fish and
other coral
reef animals, and may also spot
some other marine animals
like
dugongs, large turtles, and a few
different types
of whales and dolphins.
And there are cruiser
ships that come from down south to Cairns, they stop at
Yorkeys Knob - one of the Cairns Northern Beaches.
And there are cruiser
ships that come from down south to Port Douglas.
Even though all those are not real Cape York cruises, they are cruises
to the area.
Real
Cape York Cruises
But is there
also such a thing as a Cape York cruise?
Well actually there is,
and I cannot wait to do it one day, and put it all up here.
A proper cruise to Cape York is done with Coral Princess,
a Cairns based cruise company that has relatively small cruiser ships.
They do a few different
cruises in the area, such as Pacific Islands, New Zealand,
Papua New Guinea, Great
Barrier Reef, Cape York, Arnhem Land and the Kimberley.
Their Cape York cruise is combined with
Arnhemland and Darwin. Their two vessels that do this route have
slightly different routes. The smaller one - Coral
Princess - stops
at
places like Lizard Island (apart from the beaches there is some
interesting history), Stanley Island (Aboriginal rock art) and Davey
Reef (swimming and snorkelling), Forbes Island (swimming and snorkelling) and Magra Island (beach combing and bird watching), Tip of Cape York, Thursday
Island and Horn Island
(overnight stay at the resort). After that you fly across the
Gulf of Carpentaria to Nhulunbuy (Gove) in Arnhemland (art centres,
stay over night). Back on the boat, the cruise continues along the
coast of Arnhemland and stops at Elcho Island (local artists), Liverpool River (river
tour) and Maningrida (art centre, museum); Cobourg Peninsula (Port Essington, Black Point), Tiwi Islands (meet Tiwi
people), and Darwin.
The other vessel, the
Oceanic Discoverer,
does the same Cape York cruise except that you miss Horn Island but
cruise across the Gulf of Carpentaria (so there is no flight).
Once in Darwin this Cape
York cruise
ends and doesn't return to
Cairns - you can fly
back, or rent a
van and make it a fun trip through the Gulf Savannah!
Cargo Ship Cruises from
Cairns to the Tip
There are also some cargo ship cruises, one is (UPDATE 2015 used to be) Malu Titan to Torres Strait Islands.
And the other, the Cape York cargo ship cruise is the Trinity
Bay cruise
from Cairns to the Tip, which is quite popular, since it
is a
cargo ship so you can bring your vehicle and drive one way, cruise the
other. All the details in
the Destination
Guide.
Get
this 50 pages
guide totally for FREE.
It
contains information that helps you getting started with planning of your trip.
You get to make early-stages desicions such as when to go, how long time you
should take, how to get
there and get
around, where
to stay (general info), what
will it cost..
and a short insight to what is there to see and do in Cape York.
This complete 300 pages
travel guide is all you need before and during your trip. Besides the
background chapters on the peninsula's history and wildlife; and the comprehensive detail about all
the places (down to prices, opening hours and full contact
detail), it has invaluable information on at least 10 four wheel drive tracks,
at least 30 guaranteed FREE
camping spots on the Cape (and at least 150 on your way to
the Cape), at least 40 best
swimming holes, all mapped; as well as practical things -
from fuel, roads, wireless internet and mobile phone reception,
how to deal with the national
parks booking rules; and Aboriginal land entrance and camping permits
and alcohol restrictions - to vehicle preparation and accessories and necessary recovery
gear by my vehicle-recovery-guy partner).
Not to mention locals'
tips on how to spot that croc and palm cockatoo ;-)
If
you liked the books or
this website, let others know about it!
Link to it from your website, your blog, your forum post... Share it on Facebook, Tweet
about it...
Every link helps other travellers!
Thank you for doing the
right thing and letting others know :-)
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.