8 days around Cairns/Port Douglas - help needed!

[busygirl8888]

Hello! We are planning a trip to Australia next July with our two older DC (18, 21) for possibly a last family holiday. We will have around 8 days in the Cairns area before flying down to Sydney for a week. We know Sydney well so that's no problem but I'm totally stuck sorting out an 8-day plan for Cairns (and around) and would really appreciate any advice. Should we book a campervan or is hiring a car and staying in hotels/Airbnbs more practical? We've been recommended holiday cabins at campsites but having checked a couple they all have minimum stays which isn't that helpful. We're also quite keen to stay in a rainforest lodge or similar at some point so might be no point having a camper as well. We'll probably mostly self-cater so would need to stay in places with access to kitchen facilities which is another consideration.

On the itinerary itself, interested in visiting Port Douglas, the Reef, the Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Atherton Tablelands, Kuranda, Mosman Gorge but unsure how long we should try to spend in each and which would be better with an escorted tour, rather than doing yourself? We don't have an unlimited budget so trying to keep it sensible. Any top tips or advice would be much appreciated!

My now DH and I were there several years ago so I can't give current advice. We were doing a much larger road trip so bought a 4WD and either camped in our tent, stayed at camp sites with cabins on site or used to the odd hotel. We did stay in a lovely place in the Daintree which was more like a glamping tent, within a lush/hotel setting. I shall link if I can find the name. We did a day of white water rafting on the Tully river. They picked us up from our accommodation but I can't recall where on the coast we were.

Do any of you scuba dive or snorkel? Cairns and Port Douglas offer many reef tours including liveaboards. A day trip is likely enough unless you do dive though. I'm sure there are a multitude of things to do in the tablelands, but we just stayed the one night in Atherton before heading to Port Douglas, where we stayed several days. My only memory of Mossman Gorge was stopping at the cultural centre before continuing out drive. I have a piece of aboriginal art I bought there which is on display in our house.

I'm afraid I'm not much help, but you could also post on the tripadvisor forum for Post Douglas/Cairns/Atherton area etc and ask on there. I hope you have a lovely time.

We loved Port Douglas!

Great day trip to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation organised through Daintree Safaris.

We spent about that amount of time around there and had an amazing time - was back in 2018. We hired a car and went to places ourselves which worked really well.

Best place we stayed was Lumholtz Lodge which had a lovely lady who runs it who has a vet background and looks after injured tree kangaroos etc so onsite there were tree kangaroos, bettong, possum, pademelon. She told us where to see platypus and cassowary and saw those too. She made lovely food.
https://www.lumholtzlodge.com.au/accommodation

We also spent a couple of nights here in a treehouse which was excellent and had pademelon, possum, wallabies, cassowary in the grounds.
https://www.canopytreehouses.com.au/

By Cairns we stayed in an AirBNB with tropical gardens which was lovely and good value for 3 nights - from there we did Seastar the small boat cruises to Great Barrier Reef which was amazing.

Also went to Kuranda, Daintree rainforest which were good and drive along coast is amazing.

We stayed in an Airbnb/small hotel place in Port Douglas for a week. From there we did organised trips to the Daintree, Mosman and Kuranda etc
Much nicer than a camper van.

When we stayed in Cairns we did a Great Barrier Reef snorkelling trip. We just had 2 nights there.

I think Port Douglas was the highlight of my trip to Australia. We went diving which was fantastic. Also did a wonderful river snorkelling trip down Mossman Gorge. The swimming was absolutely fantastic. Port Douglas itself was lovely, some lovely cafes and restaurants. Have a fantastic time!

Port Douglas and Cairns our my favourite places on Earth!
There is so much to do. Kuranda is a great place to visit. As is the wildlife habitat.
When we went, we stayed here: https://thalabeach.com.au

Oh brilliant! Thanks so much for all the replies: much appreciated! I'll do a bit more delving and will check out the Tripadvisor forum too. Lots to think about but it sounds like we will have more than enough to fill eight days. Just need to have a think about if we want a base like Port Douglas and do day trips from there or if we should keep moving around with different bases.

Id spend a couple of days in Cairns, then base yourself in Port Douglass for the rest of the time - with a hire car!

I was disappointed in Cairns - but it's a useful base for a couple of your destinations. Port Douglass was my absolute favourite place in Aus.

On the itinerary itself, interested in visiting Port Douglas, the Reef, the Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Atherton Tablelands, Kuranda, Mosman Gorge but unsure how long we should try to spend in each and which would be better with an escorted tour, rather than doing yourself? We don't have an unlimited budget so trying to keep it sensible. Any top tips or advice would be much appreciated!

I go to that area often. I’d suggest flying in to Townsville instead of Cairns, and then drive the Atherton route up to Mareeba then across to Cairns, and on to Port Douglas where I would base myself. I wouldn’t bother with tour groups for most things. Here’s an example itinerary.

Day 1 - Fly into Townsville, arrive early, pick up hire car, commence Atherton route. Stay overnight along route.
Day 2 - Continue Atherton route up to Mareeba, and over to Cairns. Stay overnight.
Day 3 - Head up to Port Douglas stopping at Hartley’s croc farm on the way (pre-book). Sounds naff but is great. Wander around Port Douglas.
Day 4 - Maybe a trip to Low Isles with snorkeling (pre-book with a group such as Quicksilver, you drive to their jetty/office in Port Douglas) and it’s a full day.
Day 5 - Karunda. You can drive and park at the skyway up and from memory there was some way of getting back over to the car from the steam train down. It’s a full day.
Day 6 - Trip to outer reef pontoon (again pre-book) for snorkelling, submarine etc. Full day. Drive up to Cape Tribulation to a rainforest accommodation.
Day 7 - Drive the route Cape Tribulation back to Daintree river (so some backtracking but coming up evening before would be limited light/view), and do Mossmon Gorge. Stay overnight.
Day 8 - drive to Cairns, look at waterfront water parks etc, drop car and fly out of Cairns.

They are many variations on this but that’s probably how I would spend 8 days.

I was disappointed in Cairns

well, yes, it’s quite a shithole really apart from waterfront/waterpark/water play area.

I already posted up thread and my experience was years ago. I felt Cairns had more back packer, relaxed vibes whereas Port Douglas felt more expensive and refined. Maybe its just a new town?

We had a very old 4wd which we'd driven from Perth via Darwin on dusty roads. I vividly recall in Port Douglas everyone turned to see the hicks in our dusty, filthy car as we drove along whereas in Cairns, so no batted an eye lid. 😆