Port Douglas – Queensland, Australia

From Bali it was super cheap to fly to Cairns so we decided we’d take on Australia’s east cost from north to south. We’d heard that Port Douglas just north of Cairns was really nice so after one night in Cairns we headed up there, figuring we could come back to Cairns on our way back down the coast.

Luckily for us the hostel we’d booked – Port Douglas Backpackers – offer a free shuttle bus between there and Cairns on Tuesday’s, Thursday’s and Sunday’s. The normal bus is about $35 each for one way so getting it for free was a pretty cracking deal!

I loved Port Douglas from the second we arrived – it’s so cute! It’s dead small with only really one street of shops, restaurants and bars. The wooden white buildings and palm trees lining each road is so pretty and the marina on the coastal inlet opposite the rainforest and mangroves is stunning. On a clear day you can sit on the banks of the marina or in the nearby Anzac park and watch the sun setting behind the mountains. So gorgeous! Just stay a few metres back from the water… There are no shortage of crocodiles in those waters!

If you want to swim safely, you can head to the beautiful four mile beach (main pic). Its golden sand is lined by palm trees and the sea is gorgeously clear and warm. The sand is also covered in little crabs that roll the sand up into tiny balls as they eat the nutrients from it. If you get too close they’ll dart back into their holes, but it’s great to lie on the beach, soaking up the sun and watching these little critters scuttling about. Unfortunately, for such a long beach, you can only swim in one small section of it where the lifeguards are. They patrol their area for crocs and shut the beach if any are spotted so you’re pretty safe. The rest of the four miles you’re on your own and it’s really not worth the risk.

Port Douglas is definitely a holiday destination so it has a really relaxed vibe, but there’s not a huge amount there. However, there are so many trips you can go on to see the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Read about our rainforest trip here or our reef trip here!

One thing we particularly enjoyed here was visiting Wildlife Habitat. According to George, if you haven’t seen a kangaroo you’re not officially in Australia, and although we wanted to see wild ones, this centre was supposed to be pretty good so we headed there.

It cost $34 for a five day entry pass, and you can see all the Australian wildlife you’d expect – kangaroos, koalas, crocs, wallabies, pelicans, emus and all sorts of other crazy types birds including the endangered Cassowary. You can even hand feed the kangaroos and have a quick cuddle with a koala, which was all so much fun. I practically had to tear George away from the roos! We went twice as it was really great and we’d missed the daily morning crocodile feeding the first time we went.

Another bonus for Port Douglas was that there seemed to be loads of work around, so if you want work in north Queensland it’s not a bad place to head to!