I didn’t get to spend a lot of time in Cairns as most of my trip was centered around diving I wasn’t intending to spend that much time on land. In total, I had about two full days to explore the city. Unless you intend to go on a bunch of day tours I would say 2 days is probably enough time. The city isn’t that large and there’s not a whole lot to do.
I flew from Brisbane to Cairns as I was short on time and the flight was in the same price range as bus tickets. I usually use the site Rome to Rio to figure out the best way to get from one city to the next. Rome to Rio will give you an estimated cost for all the modes of transportation available as well as links to book from there. Occasionally it does miss options though so it’s always a good idea to give it a quick google too!
Day 1
I landed mid-morning on Sunday, March 31st giving me the full day to explore. I booked a bed at Bounce Hostel mainly because they offered free shuttle service to and from the airport which costs anywhere from 10 AUD to 20 AUD. I personally hate taking public transportation with my two backpacks and avoid it at all costs. I always feel like no matter what I do I’m in the way on the bus and everyone is looking at me like is this woman for real. When necessary of course I will take the bus but if the price isn’t outrageous I’m always going to opt for a shuttle or an uber.
Luckily Bounce Hostel also has a room for luggage storage so I was able to drop my bags and go wander before check-in. I did a quick google where I, fortunately, found one plant-based cafe in the general area.
Lefew Teahouse and Kombucha Bar have plenty of very clearly marked vegan options including vegan pastries. I ordered the Falafel Wrap along with a glass of their house-made ginger and lime Kombucha. I had never had Kombucha before so I had no idea what to expect.
Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage, commonly used for its health benefits. It is very slightly alcoholic due to the fermentation process, but with around 0.5% alcohol content you’re highly unlikely to notice. The probiotics in Kombucha have been shown to improve gut health which may even be linked to the immune system. It’s also quite refreshing on a warm day.
The falafel wrap was delicious and super filling. It was so good I actually ended up back there a few days later for another wrap! Lafew’s is conveniently located across the street from Rusty’s market. On the weekends Rusty’s is packed with vendors of all kinds. Lots of local fruits and vegetables for sale as well as a couple of food stands. In the back, there’s a coffee roaster, Coffee Works, that even sells locally grown coffee which I found to be pretty cool. I didn’t know they even grew coffee in Australia. Apparently, they don’t grow very much of it and to be honest, I wasn’t super impressed with it. The flavor was decent but nothing overly exciting.
The market isn’t huge but I found myself wandering around for a half hour or so. It’s funny how many fruits and vegetables I was unfamiliar with. I would say I have a decent knowledge of food and can typically identify most items but here it was like I was on a different planet. I wish I had had the time to experiment with some of the foreign vegetables I found but my liveaboard started the next day and I didn’t want to carry around any leftovers.
I spent the rest of the evening walking around the city, most of the streets are lined with shops, bars, and restaurants. I needed to buy a couple of souvenirs as well as some postcards, there was no lack of souvenir shops around, the largest one being OK Australia. They have just about everything you could be looking for from t-shirts to local teas. My personal favorite finds there were these adorable reusable bags.
They roll up and fit inside the little pouch making them the perfect size to toss into your bag. I noticed plastic bags aren’t as common in Australia and almost everywhere charges for them so this little bag became a lifesaver. I always use reusable bags at home but I hadn’t even thought about it for my trip. I was happy to find a plastic-free option and it makes for a great little souvenir as well!
That evening I kept it pretty low-key I got pizza from Crust which is an Australian Chain but they have 3 varieties of vegan pizza. I had their pear and balsamic pizza which was quite a bit tasty. Usually, I would cook a lot more when I travel but for this trip, I was moving around every 2-3 days and with no access to refrigeration for hours I was afraid my food would go bad. I also found it to be fairly expensive to cook for one in Australia so it just made more sense for me to go out.
Bounce hostel does have a bar so I figured I would check that out after dinner. I was pretty disappointed with the vibe I got in the bar though. It just felt so clicky to me, it was like high school lunch all over again. Where do I sit and why don’t I feel cool enough to be here?
It just felt like somehow everyone had their groups there, were there no solo travelers here? Maybe it was just my own perception or the night I happened to be there but I just felt out of place so I only stayed for 1 drink before deciding to call it a night. I had an early start the next morning for my diving anyway so I wasn’t too upset by the outcome.
There is a night market every night starting at 4 pm in Cairns that I wish I had checked out! It’s down by the beach so it is a bit of a walk from Bounce but you can walk just about anywhere in Cairns in about 30 minutes so it’s not that far.
Day 2
After my liveaboard, I had one more day in Cairns before heading south to Townsville. I decided to stay at a different hostel to see how the vibe was somewhere else. This time I went with Mad Monkey Backpackers. Once again I was too early for check in so I dropped my bags off and headed out.
There’s a nice little walking path down by the beach that I wanted to check out so I headed that way first. The view of the beach wasn’t all that pretty. There was a lot of muddy looking sand and no real waves to speak of. I suppose the beach is different everywhere but this wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The walkway did have nice views ok the mountains off in the distance though so that was cool.
I had booked an afternoon/evening tour with Wait A While tours. They boasted a 90% success rate in spotting a Platypus in the wild which is really what I was looking to see. The tour was quite expensive, $199 AUD however it was about an 8-hour tour that including tea, snacks, and dinner. The tour goes out into the Atherton Tablelands which is a tropical rainforest located just a few hours outside of Cairns.
About 30 minutes outside of Cairns we made our first stop. Down a couple of side roads, there was an open plot of land with about 15 Wallabies just hanging out.
They were so cute to watch hop around! Not exactly the huge Kangaroo I was hoping to see in Australia but I was not disappointed by these little fellas. Fun fact I learned on the tour, almost all species of kangaroos and wallabies can suspend pregnancy. Sounds crazy right?! That’s because it is. Basically, the female becomes pregnant very quickly after giving birth, this new fetus develops to a certain point (around 100 cells) and then just stops developing until there is room in the pouch for the new joey. I’ve never heard of anything like that! If only humans were able to do that!
We made a couple of other random roadside pit stops to see Flying Foxes and Tree Kangaroos. The tour was off to an incredible start, the tour guide seemed to know exactly where to look for all the animals!
As we made our way up into the mountains you could see a storm rolling into the mountains. It was eerie to watch the clouds come in and take over the mountain.
We stopped for tea and a snack at a lake which offered a beautiful view but unfortunately not much wildlife. We did see a couple of large lizards hanging out on the tree though. I think the rain had some of the other wildlife hiding, but the night was still young and I was optimistic.
We starting looking for Platypodes (yes that is the plural form of Platypus) shortly after. As it turns out they’re actually much smaller than I was picturing. I always thought they were roughly the size of a beaver, nope they’re only about a foot long!
We were very lucky and actually got to see two of them together, a male and a female. The female got scared off after a couple of sightings but the male hung around for awhile! I, unfortunately, had left my phone in the car for this so I only had my camera. It was dusk and my camera just would not focus on the Platypus without a flash but the flash would have scared him away so this is the best photo I got.
We went to dinner after seeing the Platypus, it was just a small restaurant nothing fancy. The food was ok nothing impressive but they did have a vegan option, spaghetti but as soon as I ate it I got a stomach ache. I thankfully didn’t get sick but I was definitely uncomfortable for the rest of the night.
It was dark by the time we finished up dinner so it was time for the night portion of the tour. Many of the animals that lived in the rainforest were nocturnal making the night portion more exciting than the day part.
As we walked along the forest you could see all these little eyes looking back at you, really cool but also kind of creepy. My camera doesn’t take great night photos so I didn’t get a ton of shots in the dark.
Overall I would definitely say the tour was worth the price. Yes, it was an expensive tour but we did see a lot of animals including the platypus which is very hard to find. The guide was very knowledgeable and was able to answer almost all of our questions. I would definitely recommend them if you’re looking to do a wildlife tour in Cairns.
The tour got back to Cairns a little after 9. I checked into the hostel, which in fact did have a better vibe than bounce. My roommates were friendly enough and the rooms seemed recently remodeled which was nice. There are only a couple of showers/toilets for the whole floor of dorm rooms though which is a little weird. There was a bar downstairs that was quite crowded but I was too tired to go check it out.
I probably could have spent 1 more day in Cairns to kind of just relax and maybe check out a local bar/brewery but I don’t feel like I missed anything overly exciting. Do make sure you have at least 1 day to see e Great Barrier Reef though! There are tons of tours and dive shops that offer day trips for scuba diving or snorkeling. Check out my blog post 3 Days Diving The Great Barrier Reef to hear about my experience with Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.
