Queensland > Cairns

Cairns in the tropical north of Queensland is the only place in the world where two World Heritage-listed sites, the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforest are side by side. This is an area where the rainforest meets the reef, reaching right down to sandy beaches from which you can snorkel. Cairns is the gateway to these natural attractions, as well as man-made tourist destinations such as the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. It's also a good base to travel to and explore the Barrier Reef.

 

When international tourism to the Great Barrier Reef boomed a decade or two ago, the once small sugar-farming town of Cairns boomed along with it. The town now boasts outstanding hotels, offshore island resorts, big Reef-cruise catamarans in the harbour, along with a multitude of tourist activities.

 

The 110 million year old Daintree rainforest just a 2 hour drive north of cairns has examples of plants that are fossils elsewhere in the world and exist in living color. The Daintree is part of the Wet Tropics, a World Heritage-listed area that stretches from north of Townsville to the south of Cooktown, beyond Cairns, and plays host to half of Australia's animal and plant species.

 

If you are spending more than a day or two in the area, it is well worth taking the short trip to Port Douglas and Kuranda, the village in the rainforest.  Kuranda can be reached by taking the worlds longest cable car system, Skyrail where you can relax as you float above the canopy if the trees.  A trip to reef is also a must whilst here whether it is to the low isles or the outer barrier reef it will be a trip which will be long remembered.