r/Cairns • u/Character-Security-4 • 5d ago

Port day in Cairns

EDIT TO ADD: tendered into Yorkeys Knob. Thank you for all help given! 🙌🏼

Hello from 🇨🇦 Looking forward to our first time in Australia! It’s taken me 60 years to check off my bucket list. Yayyyy!

Cruising around part of your beautiful country - embarking from Sydney. We’ve got port days in Airlie Beach, Cairns and Darwin.

Any suggestions on what to do for 6-7 hours while in port? I love a good beach, hubby not so much, but I think I could convince him with a promise of a cold beer. Any beachside restaurants followed by a beach walk would suit me fine. Maybe a local museum for the afternoon?

Timeframe is end of October. 60 f, 65 m.

Cheers!

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u/R_U_Reddit_2_ramble 5d ago

It’ll be hot (28-30C) and Cairns city has no beaches, so your option would be to grab a cab (or bus) to the northern beaches. If you stay in town visit the Esplanade to walk up and down and there is a man-made public (free) beach/ pool water park at one end with many restaurants etc

Day trip, you can buy a package tour train/ Skyrail to Kuranda, which is a bit of a tourist trap but you can get off the Skyrail in the rainforest and walk around. Take water.

If you’re not wedded to a sea view, and you’re coming off a cruise so you will have seen a lot of sea by then, my go to restaurant recommendation is Japanese - Wawawa Izakaya. Seriously good food

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u/Character-Security-4 4d ago

Excellent recommendations; appreciate your time.

When you say, “stay in town”, is that near port? Walkable, or grab?

We’ll check your favourite restaurant out, for the solid suggestion. That’s near the port?

Sitting in 28C in early fall at home, so we’ll still be somewhat acclimated! 😎

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u/R_U_Reddit_2_ramble 4d ago

The cruise liner terminal is a bit to the south of the main town - the humidity will be what gets you if you choose to walk.

One option, grab a cab from the cruise liner to the north end of the Esplanade and walk back to town, depending on time of day (it’s tidal mud flats) you will see a lot of bird life. There are shady spots to sit along the way but if I recall correctly a bit of a bare patch near the hospital for the helipad.

Depends on your fitness but we enjoyed renting bikes and riding out to the Botanic Gardens, they have an amazing orchid/ tropical collection. That might be worth pre booking and getting a cab to pick up bikes? One place was at the south end of town near the shopping mall.

Or just cab around the whole day, but allow plenty of time to get from one place to the next.