Cairns, the perfect place to start or end your East Coast Roadie, our fave photographer LY aka Lydia Collins hit U P Cairns and the epic tropical surrounds….
Lydia will be sharing her exact itinerary for 4 days in Cairns, including:
- Learning to scuba dive on the Great Barrier
- Exploring Cairns
- Heading on a roadie through the Daintree Rainforest
- Exploring Port Douglas
Read on to find out more about Lydia’s adventure with the gals hittin’ up the EPIC Great Barrier Reef, The Daintree Rainforest and Cairns.
Click images to see more.
Let The Adventure Begin
Day 1
One thing that Cairns is known for is Daintree Rainforest – the worldʼs oldest tropical rainforest, 80 Million Years older than the Amazon! ao heading here was an absolute no-brainer. We woke up early to head to Central Station to catch the North Bus to Kuranda (30minute drive). Hopping off at Kuranda town, we grabbed a coffee and headed to the Skyrail ticket office to purchase a one-way ticket that takes you to Smithfield. (this is the town at the bottom of the cablecar, but a return option is available).
Kuranda to Smithfield takes around 1.5 hours including the 3 stops you make. You can take longer at each stop as itʼs a hop on/hop off service. Thereʼs a great Ranger talk at Red Peak stop off thatʼs well worth doing!
Day 2
Another must-do when visiting Cairns is a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We jumped on the Passions of Paradise boat trip (8 hour day trip).
One of the big highlights for me was the Scuba Diving – the instructors on the boat were amazing and took their time to teach you all the things you needed to know to make the most out of your experience. Then when they felt like you were capable they let you take in the surroundings and dive unattached to the instructor. Later in the day, they gave the option of a second dive for 40 minutes!
Cairns is also known for itʼs party scene. Unfortunately, we went a little out of season but it was still worth while heading out! The Conservatory Bar, Woolshed and Gilliganʼs are all great places to check out and dance the night away.
Day 3
Port Douglas is an absolutely must and what better way to travel there than on a roadie!
We drove one hour north of Cairns up to Port Douglas and the drive is absolutely beautiful. It follows the coastline the whole way and the scenery is incredible. Port Douglas is a really beautiful town with lots of shops, coffee stops and places to stop for lunch. We had lunch at Betty’s Bohemian Beach Cafe and then headed to Four Mile Beach for an afternoon in the sun.
Day 4
We rented our wheels for a few days so decided to head to Palm Cove, situated half way between Cairns and Port Douglas. (30 minute drive from Cairns). I had some work with a resort located on the beach so was lucky enough to spend the whole day there!
Thereʼs no shortage of beautiful restaurants in this area, most are beachfront and offer amazing dishes. We headed to Portofino, a super delicious Italian! Iʼd also recommend NuNu, itʼs on the beach and the menu looked super tasty!
All planned with the help of RatPack
All my trips on the East Coast and our Campervan rental was booked through Sammy at RatPack Travel – the BEST rated travel agency in Australia, they offer 10% off every trip and rental, which makes it cheaper than booking direct! They create free personalised travel calendars and can give you SO much advice on where to stay and places to visit!
About the Author: Sammy
with RatPack Travel?
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From our RatPackers
Ben was amazing and went above and beyond to find us amazing deals and exactly what we were looking for. He did it all in record time too! We were very close to our travel date and Ben was doing so much for us so quickly! Definitely recommend
Mikey was fantastic from start to finish. He was so efficient and easy to talk to. 10/10 for him, would highly recommend the service. So happy I chose to go with RatPack Travel.
Friendly helpful and accommodating. Thanks Ryan. You made it all very easy.
Great service from Ben, came back with answers within minutes and walked us through the process, great experience, thanks Ben
George was fantastic, I came in very vague and he gave me the time and examples to lock in what we were looking for. He found great deals and was easy to talk to - he was able to give tips about the process without putting any pressure. Would recommend using Ratpack.
Ben made it so fast and easy for us to reserve our camper van for our trip in the fall! Excellent service!’n
I had a call with Ryan who was super nice, knowledgable and made me feel really at ease with making my decision. He asked me all about what I want to do and achieve on my trip, although I didn’t really want to pack too much in… nor gave much detail on what I want to do, he gave options and ideas for me to look into. He used his own experience as an example which was really helpful to hear and made me feel like I’m right at home with RatPack, I knew then I was making the right choice by talking to him. He answered any questions I had, even if they seemed like silly questions to ask. The booking process is really easy and straight forward, they do all the hard parts for you. Once Ryan talked me through my options, I made my selection and all I had to do was enter my card details for the deposit and I was done! Thanks to Ryan’s detailed and calm approach I knew I was booking with the right company/team. I can’t wait for the next step!!
George has been amazing. He put together the costings for our trip, and then I changed the dates completely and he redid everything and said it wasn’t a problem. I felt that he worked hard to get me the best deal, advised me which pickup town was the best deal, when was the best time to travel, and how I could save money by adding a day to our trip (yes, it was cheaper to go for 21 days than go for 20!). George sent through mountains of advice on travel destinations, camping sites etc. I would definitely recommend RatPack Travel and George.
The Ratpack team and specifically Ryan f were great for booking our dream New Zealand campervan trip. Ryan worked hard over several days trying to find the best possible deals for us and the communication was great with updates regularly. He was able to get us 2 vans that out did any other quotes that we received and we are really looking forward to our trip with Ratpack being by our side. Thanks a lot Ryan F!
Lovely people, more than helpful.
I am so stoked with the service I received from Ryan at RatPack Travel. He was so proactive and on the ball to help me with all my questions and variations. He gave me several options and gave me other things to look at to make sure I had all that I needed. Ryan did all the legwork in following up the availability of the type of van I wanted. If you are wanting to go on a Campervan holiday no matter how long or short, I would recommend RatPack Travel! They will be you support in every step of the process, in the lead up and while on the road. Thanks Ryan! You're a legend! They are a one stop shop when it comes to sourcing campervans and motorhomes from different providers! I nearly forgot to say - he got me a great deal on a newer model. ;)
Thijs and Gemma were just so lovely to communicate with and explained everything so well. Booked us our campervan seamlessly, and with a great deal too 😊 10/10 service from them both!! Couldn’t recommend more! 😊
Ben was super helpful, easy to deal with and always got back to all my questions nice and quickly, with all the campervan options out there we really didn’t know what one to go with but Ben did all the searching for us and made the whole process really simple.
Amazing and outstanding customer service, Ryan exceeded all expectations, he and his team found the perfect deal for us, if you are looking for renting a campervan in NZ or Oz, don’t look for more! Go straight to them and you’ll see you are in the best hands! 🙌
Greg was superb! We told him what we wanted in a camper van. Even with less than two weeks notice, he didn’t disappoint. We loved our camper van and it was perfect for the two of us!
