Cairns: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Cairns, in tropical north Queensland, was founded in 1876 as the port for a goldfield, and today it is the gate to two World Heritage sites that meet here: the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics rainforest. Half a day on foot in town; hot and humid, and the wet season, December to April, brings downpours and cyclones.

A short history of Cairns

Aboriginal peoples lived on this coast for thousands of years before Captain James Cook passed by in 1770. The town was founded in 1876 as a port for the goldfields inland, and was named after the then Governor of Queensland, William Cairns. In 1891 the railway to Kuranda was completed, climbing between waterfalls and cliffs up to the tableland. After that the town lived from sugar cane. In 1981 the Great Barrier Reef was declared a World Heritage Site, and since then Cairns has been the main gateway to it.

The ten best sights in Cairns

1
Esplanade
Mudflats, birds and a boardwalk
2
Esplanade Lagoon
The free saltwater pool by the sea
3
Marlin Marina
Game boats and yachts
4
Cairns Museum
The town’s gold-rush story
5
Cairns Aquarium
The reef and rainforest without a boat
6
Botanic Gardens
Rainforest plants in town
7
Tanks Arts Centre
Shows inside wartime fuel tanks
8
Mount Whitfield
Rainforest trails above town
9
Barron Falls
Thunderous in the wet season
10
Crystal Cascades
Freshwater swimming holes

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Tours in Cairns →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Cairns:

Free walking tours in Cairns

The town between two World Heritage sites

Esplanade · Cairns has no beach in town: at low tide the sea retreats from a broad mudflat where migratory shorebirds, some flown in from Siberia, feed in their thousands along the boardwalk.
Esplanade Lagoon · A large free swimming lagoon built in 2003 beside the sea — because the sea here is no place to swim, with saltwater crocodiles in the estuaries and box jellyfish, stingers, in the warm months.
Cairns Museum · In the old School of Arts building, the story of a town founded for the Hodgkinson goldfield, which then lived on sugar cane, timber and the railway up the range — and only from the 1980s on tourism.
Rusty’s Markets · A covered market running since the 1970s, from Friday to Sunday, of fruit grown on the Tablelands — mangosteen, rambutan, black sapote, which tastes like chocolate pudding.
Reef Fleet Terminal · Every morning the boats to the outer reef leave from here, about an hour and a half to the reef edge. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest structure built by living things on earth, some two thousand three hundred kilometres long.
Night Markets · An evening market on the Esplanade with a food court of Asian kitchens, where the backpackers back from the reef eat cheaply; the fruit bats that roost in town fly out over it at dusk.

Up to Kuranda

The classic day from Cairns climbs the range to the rainforest village of Kuranda: up by the scenic railway, down by the cable car over the canopy, or the other way. A full day; book both ahead.

Botanic Gardens · The Flecker gardens, a rainforest of tropical plants on the edge of town, with a section of the plants Aboriginal people used for food and medicine.
Tanks Arts Centre · Beside the gardens, three huge fuel tanks built in the Second World War to store oil for the navy are now theatres and galleries, with a market on some Sundays in the dry season.
Kuranda Railway Station · The line up the range was built between 1882 and 1891, largely by hand, through fifteen tunnels and over gorges, to reach the tin and gold of the Tablelands; the station at the top is hung with ferns and orchids.
Kuranda · A village in the rainforest that became a hippie refuge in the 1970s and now lives on markets, a butterfly sanctuary and the trains and gondolas that bring the visitors up.
Barron Falls · A broad fall over the edge of the range into the gorge, a trickle in the dry season and a roaring flood in the wet, when the train stops beside it for the view.
Skyrail · A cable car opened in 1995 that runs seven and a half kilometres just above the canopy of the rainforest; it was built with the towers lowered in by helicopter, so as not to cut roads through the forest.

North to the Daintree

North of Cairns the road follows the coast to the Daintree, a rainforest older than the Amazon by many millions of years, which runs down to the reef at Cape Tribulation. A full day by car, or better two; crocodiles are in every river, so swim only where signs allow.

Trinity Beach · One of the northern beaches where swimming is possible, inside nets set out in the stinger season to keep the box jellyfish away.
Palm Cove · A village of resorts under old melaleuca trees along a beach, the quietest place to stay north of Cairns.
Mossman Gorge · A river of granite boulders in the rainforest on the land of the Kuku Yalanji people, who run guided Dreamtime walks that explain the plants and stories of the forest.
Daintree River Ferry · A cable ferry is the only way across the Daintree river by road, and calls for a bridge have long been resisted, to limit development beyond it; crocodile-spotting boats leave from the banks nearby.
Cape Tribulation · Named by James Cook in 1770, because just offshore his ship the Endeavour struck the reef and nearly sank — here, he wrote, began all our troubles. It is one of the rare places where rainforest runs down to a reef.
Crystal Cascades · Back south of Cairns, a chain of clear freshwater pools in the rainforest where the town swims on hot afternoons — no crocodiles and no stingers, the reason everyone comes.

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Getting to Cairns and getting around

Cairns Airport · Ten minutes from town
Reef Fleet Terminal · Boats to the reef leave here
Skyrail · Cable car over the rainforest
Kuranda Railway Station · The scenic railway’s end
Daintree River Ferry · Cable ferry into the Daintree

Cheap eats in Cairns

At the Australian counter: a meat pie with tomato sauce, barramundi and chips wrapped in paper, and from the Tablelands, tropical fruit to eat standing at the stall. Australia is expensive — a pie costs about five to eight dollars, fish and chips fifteen to twenty-five.

Rusty’s Markets · Fruit to taste
Night Markets · Cheap Asian food court
Marlin Marina · Fish and chips on the water

Nature and day trips near Cairns

The reef and the rainforest, the two great reasons to come.

Green Island · Snorkel from the beach
Cape Tribulation · Rainforest to the reef
Mount Whitfield · A forest walk in town

Things to do in Cairns with kids

With children: a free lagoon, an aquarium, a train and turtles.

Esplanade Lagoon · Safe swimming, free
Cairns Aquarium · Reef fish and crocodiles
Fitzroy Island · The turtle hospital

Museums in Cairns

The town’s story, the arts in the war tanks and the Kuku Yalanji.

Cairns Museum · Gold, sugar and rail
Tanks Arts Centre · Art in the tanks
Mossman Gorge · Dreamtime walks

Nightlife in Cairns

Cairns is a backpacker town: cheap pubs, bars with live music and late nights on the Esplanade after a day on the reef.

Esplanade · Bars along the water
Night Markets · Dinner first

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Frequently asked questions about Cairns

What is there to see in Cairns?

The top sights in Cairns are Esplanade, Esplanade Lagoon and Marlin Marina. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Cairns?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Cairns without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Cairns?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Cairns, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The town between two World Heritage sites.

How do you get to Cairns and get around?

The main ways are Cairns Airport, Reef Fleet Terminal and Skyrail. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Cairns, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Cairns that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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