Background
In July 2022, we took a family trip to Sydney and Cairns, Australia. We started our trip in Sydney for 2 nights and then traveled by plane to Cairns before returning to Sydney for one more night. When we think of Australia, we think of the Opera House and the Great Barrier Reef. The kids love Octonauts and nature shows and knew how special it was that we were able to visit the area. North Queensland was gorgeous. It has an amazing tropical climate, beautiful beaches, and a stunning rainforest close by. It has an amazing tropical climate, beautiful beaches, and a stunning rainforest close by.
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Day 0: Getting To Cairns
Did you know that Australia is about the same size geographically as the continential US? We flew from Sydney to Cairns on a 3 hour flight. The cost was $300 per person round trip so not cheap but reasonable. This was our first time flying a domestic flight in a country not the US. They let you bring drinks! LOL They also were not strict on security or ID checks but Jetstar the airline was strict on checking those carry-on bag sizes! Ha!
When traveling with layovers or to new cities, we always check the website of the airport and the Priority Pass Lounge website prior to the trip. The Chase Sapphire Reserve card (in addition to others) comes with Priority Pass, which gives you access to lounges at various airports. Often, it is more common internationally. An awesome perk also offered by this lounge benefit is meals covered at some restaurants. In the Sydney Domestic terminal, there was a bar where you could get reimbursed 100 Australian dollars for free. A fantastic deal. We currently get this benefit from the Chase Reserve card but other cards offer this benefit as well.
In Cairns, we took an uber to our AirBnB about 10 minutes from the airport.
Day 1: Great Barrier Reef Cruise
This was an amazing day. We picked Quicksilver Cruises because they received good reviews for being family-friendly. A bus picked us up from our AirBnB at 8 in the morning and we took a bus to the city of Port Douglas to check-in. You could also drive there yourself. After check-in, we walked to the large boat that took us out to the platform area literally on the reef.
The boat was nice with snacks, drinks, bathrooms, and comfy seating for the ride. We did experience a lot of turbulence and seasickness. Highly recommend taking some meds to prevent. But the staff was lovely and prepared with ice chips and trading out bags of sickness for clean bags and providing towels and kind words. They know what they’re doing lol. On the boat, a marine biologist showed some educational videos and after about an hour and a half, we arrived at the Agincourt Reef around 11.30am and connected up with a ramp to a large platform
The boat had everything including scuba diving areas, a small submarine, helicopter tours, underwater observatory and tons of snorkeling. We started by suiting everyone up in provided wetsuits, getting set-up with masks, snorkels and fins and headed out together. There was a ton to see including massive coral of different shapes and sizes, anenome, schools and schools of fish, turtles, and more. The kids did fantastic and were loved it!
After about an hour, we took a break for lunch which was offered on the boat. Salads, meats, cheeses, shrimp, Chinese beef, a good mix of hot and cold items.
After lunch, we split up and Ben went diving farther out in a deeper area than we had been with the kids. The kids and I did a semi-submersible tour that ran every 30 minutes. We thought the tour was amazing and I told Ben he should be jealous of us but really we should have been jealous of him because he saw thousands upon thousands of fish and much cooler fish in his dive. Oh well, we’ll need to go back. I was happy with our experience. At 3 pm, they blew the horn and we headed back to the boat to head back to the Marina and take the bus back to our AirBnb.
Upon our return, we took an Uber to the Esplanade area for dinner and souvenir shopping. We also explored the boardwalk area. If we had more time, this would be a cool area to spend more time at. In the summer months, there’s a large pool in the area and an aquarium nearby as well as other museums.
Day 2: Kuranda Skyrail, Koala Gardens, and Markets
On our second full day in North Queensland, we headed to the town of Kuranda. There are different ways to get to Kuranda including driving, a scenic train, a gondola, and public buses. We took a (cash-only!) city bus to the Skyrail Smithfield Terminal and took the skyrail gondola from there to the town of Kuranda. Note that you’ll need skyrail tickets ahead of time.
The Skyrail was a little scary…. for Benjamin 🙂 The kids had an absolute blast. The gondola passes over several rivers, a gorgeous waterfall and stunning views of the reef and ocean. There are 2 stops along the way with small overlooks, small learning areas, and restrooms. Check out these views!
We spent around 3 hours in the town of Kuranda. Our first stop was to Koala gardens. We spotted numerous Koalas napping, including a momma and her baby! There were areas to pay extra to hold a koala and an interactive area to feed wallabies and kangaroos. There were also a few other animals such as crocodiles, quokka, wombats, and lizards. Smaller than other zoos like in Sydney but the closeness of the animals was really cool. Nearby, we explored some of the market areas and listened to a didgeridoo! We ate lunch at at the Kuranda hotel. Delicious! We tried to take a boat ride but the boat was full and we didn’t have a reservation. Oh well. We took the skyrail and bus back to Cairns. We played in our hotel pool, ate some dinner and packed up to head back to Sydney the next morning.
More Australia Posts
Read all of our Australia posts at the following links:
