Visiting Australia- Cairns or Brisbane?

[ChefsKisser]

We are visiting Aus next June and planning our itinerary- planning a week in Perth (family event so non negotiable!) and one in Sydney but have a week in between where we aren’t sure what to do. Options are:

• fly to cairns and do a week in Queensland. Stay in palm cove or port Douglas as everyone says it nicer and do whale watching trip, see alligators etx.
• fly to Brisbane and do either Sunshine Coast and Noosa or Gold Coast and Byron bay.

we have two small kids and want the middle week to feel more chilled and like a holiday. If you know Aus which would you recommend?

As you have the time, it would be a shame to get to Australia and not see the Great Barrier Reef.
Indeed, if there were only one place I could visit there, it would be the reef, so Cairns, no question.

We did a trip with older children Sydney
Cairns and port Douglas then over to Perth
Both Queensland places were lovely.
I'd find it hard to recommend one over the other although we were v fortunate and spotted wild Cassoway parents with chicks in the daintree so so lucky
I must say that the trip we went on to the Great Barrier Reef to the quicksilver pontoon was the most expensive and worst experience we had .
It was an awful overcrowded boat trip out there and then human soup off the giant plastic float.

It cost a bomb as well so I'd look fir other options if I were you
Sorryto be negative

Noosa on the Sunshine Coast is my favourite place in the world. It will be winter there so probably not swimming in the sea weather but nice during the day and cooler at night/early morning. Beautiful beaches, a national park, close to Australia Zoo, Hastings Street is a lovely street with restaurants, boutiques and art galleries.

Oh and also Blueys world theme park is opening in Brisbane this year! And when Bluey goes on holiday to the beach it is recognisably Noosa.

I absolutely love Cairns and the area north of Cairns.

But I wasn't there with little kids.

Port Douglas and Noosa are both gorgeous - you couldn't go wrong with either. At that time of year, I'd be more inclined to go to PD as it will be warmer.

Port Douglas definitely , I stayed there for three months, lived in a tent, worked in Cole’s. I loved it there. June is the tourist season as it’s their winter, so no jellyfish and crocodiles in the sea band the weather is nice.

Noosa is lovely!!
Have a barramundi burger for me!

Thanks so much so far. I would love to see the Great Barrier Reef but the kids are too young to snorkel so not sure if we would really be able to see it? Port Douglas and palm cove look great. I’m thinking at Brisbane we could do 3 days going north to Sunshine Coast and noosa then maybe 3/4 going south to Gold Coast and even down to Byron bay which is meant to be lovely.

Cairns/Port Douglas/Palm Cove - no competition!

A friend of mine described Brisbane as Birmingham with sunshine.

How old are the kids? The tour operators are very well set up so they may be able to provide them with some specialised floats or you could take a kind of net boat (mesh suspended in a hoop of pool noodles - the kids sit and float and can stick their heads in the water if they want). There is also a ‘submarine’ type tour at at least one of the tour operators.

I’m from Brisbane and would go to Cairns. Winter is the best time to visit and there’s so much to do between the Reef, tablelands and Daintree.

How young are your children? If you go to Cairns, you can do a day trip to Green island. You can snorkel off the beach there so not as scary as a boat. My 4 year old snorkelled easily there though he had snorkelled before in Western Australia. Even if you don’t snorkel as a family, the Daintree is still worth it, I think, with small children. Crocs cruises, rainforest etc.

@Warringahvoter theyll be 5 and 7, older child would be fine I think but younger might struggle with snorkelling.! They could paddle though and we could tag in snorkelling with the older one! Thank you the Daintree does look brilliant.

I lived in Brisbane for many years. I would advise you to go to Cairns and Port Douglas. That way you'll get all the lovely beaches and rainforest that you would get in Brisbane and Byron but you'll also get the Great Barrier Reef. The only things you'll miss out on are surf beaches and Brisbane city. You can do the surf beaches in Sydney, and tbh Brisbane city is pretty ordinary. Both places will have loads of things for kids to do. Enjoy your trip.

Port Douglas or Palm cove. (I'm not far from Brisbane.) It's the best time of year. Southern Qld will be too cold to swim.

See if you can do a glass bottom boat thing for the kids (although close to the shore the coral isn't as nice, Green island has this). Preferably outer reef. Or see what different operators offer.

Crocs (no alligators here), there's wildlife parks or the Jumping croc boat tour.

Check out the Daintree, Mossman gorge, and do the Kuranda Skyrail & train loop (Kuranda's markets are pretty old & grim, though).

FNQ is pretty amazing. Personally I think Brisbane, the coasts & Byron are over crowded & far to touristy.

What's the weather like in March? We have 10 days to fill in Australia and can't decide whether to fly to Fiji or see more of Australia. (Visiting family in Sydney)

Noosa looks lovely and it's pretty reasonable.

I loved Moolooloaba on the Sunshine Coast when we needed a week chilling with the kids on a long Australia trip.

Absolutely lovely. One of the best months to travel. The heat has tempered a bit and the sea is lovely and warm. Great time to visit Noosa.

If you’re in Sydney consider a road trip up the coast depending on how much time you have. Total drive time is about 10 hours, you can break it easily into overnight stops around Coffs
Harbour and Byron Bay.

I loved Noosa and Byron so much when I went, so that is clouding my judgement. I do think that the reef with little kids wouldn't be as easy, especially if their swimming isn't great. I did go a long time age, so things will have changed, but watching whales splashing about from the headland at Byron is one of my most treasured memories. Also, previous person said about Bluey world opening by then, so of your kids are of that age, it would be great.

Aargh it’s so hard they both look great. I’m leaning towards flying to Brisbane doing Noosa (kayaking in the Everglades, the ginger tour thing, beaches etc) for 3/4 days then staying at the south end of Gold Coast doing a couple of the theme parks, a day trip down to Byron bay and chill there. I feel like whichever we don’t do this time we will want to do if we ever go back!

June will be cold in Brisbane but a good time to be up further north, if you're imagining a beach holiday. But there's possibly a bit more to do outside of beaches like the theme parks, so it just depends on how much you're anchoring on "beach holiday"!

We did a lot of travelling around Australia a decade or so ago and Brisbane was nicknamed Boring Boring Brisbane. It's literally (insert any grey city).

Noosa, etc. are nice but bland.

Cairns and environs are a bit more special and completely different to anywhere else in Australia. Go there.