Cairns: 4-day itinerary including Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest
Cairns is a coastal tourist town, the perfect tropical holiday destination located in North Queensland in Australia. If you’re keen on visiting Cairns, then take delight in reading this post that includes some of the best activities and attractions you can cover in Cairns on a 4-day trip.
🚀 When is the best time to visit Cairns?
The northern part of Queensland has two seasons – the dry season (April to November) and the wet season (November to March).
December to March: Summertime monsoon season when the rainforests and waterfalls are at their finest, as well as the Great Barrier Reef since the water temperatures are perfect and visibility is quite high. Daytime temperatures range between 23 to 31 degrees often followed by evening showers.
April to June: Dry season begins when it’s still quite hot but the showers are absent making it the perfect time to do hot air ballooning and skydiving with average temperatures of 22-27°C.
June to August: Winter months that are not so cold, and thanks to plenty of sunshine the temperatures ranging from 17 to 26 degrees. The calm winds make for a great weather for sailing and even spotting the migrating humpback whales.
September to December: Spring time when plants are blooming and animals are more active. This is when the Reef gets more vibrant thanks to the annual coral spawning that occurs this time of the year. Daytime temperatures can loom at 30 degrees only going as low as 21 degrees, and humidity is quite high.
So any time, depending on what you want to experience, is a good time to visit Cairns.
🚀 Where to stay in Cairns?
Since Cairns is a tourist hub, you will find a wide range of accommodation options from 5-star hotels to backpacker-friendly places and everything in between including Airbnb. We stayed in 2 different Airbnb properties that were absolutely lovely and were brimming with tropical vibes! They tend to be cheaper than staying in hotels/resorts, and were a better choice compared to hostels as they were more spacious and came with a fully equipped kitchen. You can save AUD 50 by signing up for Airbnb using this link and book a lovely stay for your upcoming holiday!
🚀 How to get around in Cairns?
If you are a backpacker, the public transport in Cairns is a decent way to explore the city and the Northern Beaches. However, keep in mind that the buses are not as frequent as you would like them to be. On the weekdays they run every 30 minutes but on the weekends they run every 1.5 hours. The bus tickets are priced quite reasonably and vary depending on the zone numbers. An all-day ticket for Zones 5-6 costs AUD 5.80 that gives you unlimited rides throughout the day (we used this option to get from Cairns city centre to the Botanic Gardens and back). An all-day ticket between Zone 1 to 5 that covers Cairns city centre all the way up to the Northern Beaches is priced at AUD 9.40. Check out the Cairns Bus Network Map. Check out the zones and fares here on the TRANSLink website to plan your journey.
Hiring a car is also an option if you don’t want to join tour companies and prefer a DIY vacation to explore some offbeat places in and around Cairns that are not easily accessible buy public transport.
Cairns 4-Day Itinerary
🚀 Day 1 – Arrival, Botanic Gardens, Cairns Esplanade, Casino
Upon arrival at Cairns Airport, we ordered an Uber that drove us to our Airbnb which was located very close to the city centre. The road from the airport to the city is dotted with palm trees, and it felt like our tropical vacation began immediately!
After checking in and having lunch, we walked for 2 minutes to Cairns Central Shopping Mall and then boarded the bus from the stop nearby to head to the Cairns Botanic Gardens. We managed to spot some unique flora and fauna and we think that the pictures below will speak for the beauty of the place! Our favourite was The Watkins Munro Martin Conservatory that houses some of the Gardens’ most valuable and tender plants and a collection of local butterflies.
Next, we headed to the famous Cairns Esplanade Lagoon – it is here that many of the locals and tourists come to relax in the 4800 square-meter public pool deriving water as a result of the high-tech filtration system from the Trinity Inlet. Right beside the Cairns lagoon is the promenade for walking along the palm trees and the scene is quite lovely during sunset hour. There are also free fitness classes such as yoga, pilates and boxing that happen at the Esplanade.
We then visited the Cairns Reef Hotel Casino to check out what the casino looked like inside. It was a pleasant surprise to see a laid-back vintage style casino that had both a fancy and quaint appeal to it. No pictures were allowed to be taken inside the Casino, so we just had a stroll and exited.
🚀 Day 2 – Northern Beaches (an option to squeeze in the Kuranda Scenic Train Ride or the Skyrail if you wish)
We were keen on having a relaxing day today before our tours scheduled for the next two days, so we decided to take it easy and go beach hopping to the North part of Cairns to take in some gorgeous Cairns sunshine. There are several beaches to choose from including Palm Cove, Yorkeys Knob, Trinity Beach, Holloways Beach and Machans Beach. This was also a fantastic opportunity to try out some nice local restaurants and cafes across the beaches! Our favourite was Palm Cove Beach and the views of the mountains in the horizon was simply mesmerising.
If you have a car, you can drive further north past Port Douglas and enjoy the markets there every Sunday morning in Rex Smeal Park at the end of Macrossan Street. You will find exotic fruits and vegetables, coffee, arts and crafts, jewellery, and clothing. Rex Smeal Park is truly special and is also best known for its sunset evenings. The Mossman Markets on Saturday mornings are also lovely where local organic produce, handcrafted products, homemade cakes and jams, essential oils, and many more items await you.
If you want to be a little more touristy on this day, you can opt to go to Kuranda via the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway and/or Kuranda Scenic Railway. Additionally, you can stop by and have a cultural experience visiting the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park.
🚂 The Kuranda Scenic Train leaves from Cairns Central Train Station (8:30am/9:30am) and Freshwater (8:55am/9:55am) each morning and goes through a windy track up the mountains and past the Baron Waterfall, eventually into the Kuranda village where little village markets await you. The journey takes close to two hours and costs AUD 50 one way.
🚡 The Skyrail is also another fantastic option to look at the world’s oldest tropical rainforest from bird’s eye view. The cable car traverses above the rainforest canopy between Smithfield and Kuranda with a stop over at two rainforest mid-stations Red Peak and Barron Falls. A one-way Skyrail Experience will take approximately 1½ hours to complete. For a return (round-trip) experience, you should allow 2½ hours. The skyrail journey also costs AUD 50 for a one way ride.
🚀 Day 3 – Great Barrier Reef
On our third day, we had a tour booked to explore the Great Barrier Reef where we visited two spectacular outer Great Barrier Reef destinations namely the Norman and Hastings Reef. Visiting the Great Barrier Reef can be expensive, but if it’s something you would want to do once in a lifetime, then don’t think twice and go for it. Your trip to Cairns would be incomplete without it. Read more about our fantastic Great Barrier Reef experience here and marvel at the awesomeness of the underwater world! We had our first scuba diving experience and my experience made for a hilarious story.
🚀 Day 4 – Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation
On our last day, we experienced an unforgettable day of discovery and adventure exploring the oldest rainforest in the world. It was a 13-hour day packed with heaps of activities all organised by an experienced local tour guide. The highlights of the day was visiting the flourishing Daintree National Park and white sandy beaches of the World Heritage Listed Cape Tribulation. Read more about the rainforest tour here!
At the end the day, we asked the tour driver to drop us at Cairns Night Markets which is open till 11pm each night. Here you’ll finds lots of food choices to indulge in as well as souvenir shops to buy some local goodies such as handmade artworks, the famous Daintree Tea and the Kuranda cookies! The Rusty’s Markets is also a fantastic place to grab some fresh produce to fix yourself a dinner if you like.
If time permits, you can extend your trip and visit Fitzroy Island or Green Island (45 minutes ferry ride from Cairns) or Michaelmas Cay (2 hours ferry ride from Cairns), the Atherton Tablelands (one hour south-west of Cairns), have a hot air balloon ride or go skydiving, and discover many of the magical waterfalls in Cairns!
I was lucky enough to have my friend @onelittldreamer come with me for this bucket-list worthy vacation! We had a whale of a time and we fish you all the best in planning your trip to Cairns! Keep palm and holiday on 😉🐳🐠🌴
