346km (215 miles) N of Townsville; 1,807km (1,120 miles) N of Brisbane

Once a sleepy little sugar town, Cairns is blooming and booming. It's no wonder, as it's a gateway to tropical North Queensland and the only place on earth where two World Heritage-listed sites -- the Wet Tropics Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef -- are side by side. Explore the reef and offshore islands and be humbled by the lush Daintree rainforest, home to half of Australia's animal and plant species. Slip into the distinctive pace, heat and style of tropical Cairns.

Cairns Esplanade offers top-to-bottom-dollar shopping plus an array of food halls, but its sparkling jewel is the manmade lagoon on the Esplanade, where you can cool off from the heat. Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park spotlights the indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the Kuranda Scenic Railway winds up and along forested hillside tracks carved out by early settlers. Make the return trip on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway offering unbeatable ocean views as it glides above the rainforest canopy.

Cairns offers an unusually wide range of foreign cuisines for a city its size. The young (and young at heart) come to Cairns for bungee jumping and white-water rafting. However, diving, snorkeling, and sailing are definitely the big fish here.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s Cairns & Tropical North Visitor Information Centre, 51 The Esplanade (  tel. 1800/093 300 in Australia or 07/4051 3588; www.cairnsgreatbarrierreef.org.au), has information on Cairns and the surrounding area. It’s open daily from 10am to 6:30pm and 10am to 6pm on public holidays; closed Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, and Good Friday. The center also has a little stall of secondhand books for a couple of dollars each and claims to sell the cheapest bottled water in town!

City Layout  The focal point of the city is the Esplanade, which has a 4,000-sq.-m (43,000-sq.-ft.) man-made saltwater swimming lagoon, with a wide sandy beach, and surrounding parkland, with public artworks and picnic areas. Suspended over the mud flats and providing a platform for birding, a timber boardwalk runs 600 m (1,968 ft.) along the waterfront and is lit at night. A walkway links the Esplanade to the Reef Fleet Terminal, the departure point for Great Barrier Reef boats.

Downtown Cairns is on a grid 5 blocks deep, bounded in the east by the Esplanade and in the west by McLeod Street, where the train station and the Cairns Central shopping mall are situated.

Heading 15 minutes north from the city along the Captain Cook Highway, you come to the northern beaches: Holloway’s Beach, Yorkey’s Knob, Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, and Ellis Beach.

Croc Alert!

Dangerous crocodiles inhabit Cairns’waterways. Do not swim in or stand on the bank of any river or stream.

Getting There

By Plane  Qantas (  tel. 13 13 13 in Australia) has direct flights throughout the day to Cairns from Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne, and at least one flight a day from Uluru and Alice Springs. QantasLink also flies from Townsville. Virgin Australia (  tel. 13 67 89 in Australia) flies to Cairns direct from Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. Jetstar (  tel. 13 15 38 in Australia) flies from Brisbane. Tigerair (  tel. 03/9034 3733) flies from Melbourne and Sydney. Some international carriers serve Cairns from various Asian cities and New Zealand.

Cairns Airport (  tel. 1800/177 748; www.cairnsairport.com.au) is 8 km (5 miles) north of downtown. A 5-minute walk along a covered walkway connects the international terminal with the domestic terminal. Airport Connections (  tel. 07/4099 5950; www.tnqshuttle.com) will meet all flights at both terminals. Transfers to the city cost A$14 adults and A$7 children 2 to 12, and it also runs transfers to the northern beaches and Port Douglas. Bookings are essential. Sun Palm Australia Coach (  tel. 07/4087 2900; www.sunpalmtransport.com) provides transfers from the airport to the city and northern beaches. The one-way fare is A$14 for adults and A$7.50 for children 2 to 11 to the city, and A$23 for adults and A$12.50 for children to Palm Cove.

A taxi from the airport costs around A$29 to the city, A$55 to Trinity Beach, and A$68 to Palm Cove. There is a set fee of A$190 to Port Douglas. Call Cairns Taxis (  tel. 13 10 08 in Australia).

Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Redspot, and Thrifty all have car-rental offices at the domestic and international terminals .

By Train  Long-distance trains operated by Queensland Rail (  tel. 1800/872 467 in Queensland; www.queenslandrail.com.au) run from Brisbane several times a week. The 160 kmph (100-mph) Spirit of Queensland takes about 24 hours and costs from A$369 for a business class seat. Northbound trains leave Brisbane at 3:45pm on Monday and Friday; southbound runs depart Cairns at 8:05am on Wednesday and Sunday. The new trains feature luxury business-class seating, with an entertainment system for each seat, including multiple movie and audio channels, and lie-flat airline-style “railbeds.” A railbed between Brisbane and Cairns costs A$519.

The Sunlander, which runs three times a week between Brisbane and Cairns, takes 31 hours and costs from A$161 for a sitting berth, A$268 for a sleeper, or A$899 for all-inclusive Queenslander class (only available twice a week). Trains pull into the Cairns Central terminal (  tel. 07/4036 9250) on Bunda Street in the center of town.

By Bus  Greyhound Australia (  tel. 1300/473 946 in Australia, or 07/4051 5899 in Cairns; www.greyhound.com.au) buses pull into Trinity Wharf Centre in the center of town. Buses travel from the south via all towns and cities on the Bruce Highway; they also run from the west, from Alice Springs and Darwin, via Tennant Creek on the Stuart Highway, and the Outback mining town of Mount Isa to Townsville, where they join the Bruce Highway and head north. The 48-hour Sydney–Cairns trip costs A$484; the 29-hour trip from Brisbane is A$302.

By Car  From Brisbane and all major towns in the south, you’ll enter Cairns on the Bruce Highway. To reach the northern beaches or Port Douglas, take Sheridan Street in the city center, which becomes the Captain Cook Highway.

Getting Around

By Bus
  Sunbus (  tel. 07/4057 7411; www.sunbus.com.au) buses depart Cairns City Mall at the intersection of Lake and Shields streets. Buy all tickets and passes on board and try to have correct change. Bus nos. 110 and 111 travel to Trinity Beach and Palm Cove. Routes and timetables change, so check with the driver. Most buses run from around 7am until almost midnight.

By Car
 Avis (  tel. 07/4048 0522), Budget (  tel. 07/4048 8166), Europcar (  tel. 13 13 90 in Australia or 07/4034 9088), Hertz (  tel. 07/4051 6399), and Thrifty (  tel. 1300/367 227 in Australia or 07/4051 8099) have offices in Cairns city and at the airport. Redspot Car Rentals (  tel. 07/4034 9045) has an airport office. One long-established local outfit, Sugarland Car Rentals (  tel. 07/4052 1300), has reasonable rates. Britz Campervan Rentals (  tel. 1800/331 454 in Australia or 07/4032 2611) and Maui Rentals (  tel. 1300/363 800 in Australia) rent motor homes.

By Taxi
 Call Cairns Taxis (  tel. 13 10 08).

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