Cairns Travel Forum

My wife and I are traveling to Australia in February 2010 for 2 weeks and know that this is the hot/rainy season in Cairns. Consequently, I wanted to see if people though it was still worth visiting Cairns/Great Barrier Reef for a day to go diving/snorkeling or would we better served spending all of our time in the south? As an fyi, we also plan to go to Sydney, Melbourne and drive along the Great Ocean Road for a couple of days.

If you didn't want to go as far north as Cairns, you could go to the Whitsundays (Airlie Beach/Hamilton Island) for the reef and to dive/snorkel

Yes you are right about the rain and the heat but you must not forget the cyclones as well they are very severe AND CAUSE A LOT OF DAMAGE I WOULD NOT ADVISE YOU TO BE ON THE ROADS AT THAT TIME. I have traveled north Queensland in the wet season and have left one town and arrived at the next only to learn that the town we just left has been isolated by floods no one could get in or out and we were lucky this happened all the way down the coast. We were traveling to Ipswich. I now live in Perth on the west coast very beautiful at that time of the year. Hope to be of some help.

Hello:)

Two weeks isn't a lot of time to *do* many parts of Aus.

It will be summer in the southern states and Sydney and Melbourne have so much to offer. Spending 5 days in Melbourne area wouldn't be too much at all. You could do the Great Ocean Road in a relaxed manner...leaving Melbourne and travelling as far as Warrnambool.You could do this over 3 days 2 nights and really take in what it has to offer. From Warrnambool you could go into the Grampians ( Halls Gap ) and then head back to Melbourne via the inland roads.
The Great Ocean Rd is sooo much better if you can do it over a couple of days, especially over this time of year.
Melbourne city, you can spend two plus days just doing all the different Museums, art galleries, river cruise, etc.

Sydney is the same, you can do the city easily, Habour area and then a trip to the Blue Mountains area.

Now,living in Cairns I would more than love to sell this area to you.I love living in Paradise:) Even in Feb, this area has so much to offer. It doesn't rain every day and even if it is hot and humid you can survive it:) But you really need to spend more than one day here, apart from the fact it will take you approx 4 hours to fly here from Melbourne, about 3 from Sydney. If you had 3 whole days to explore it would be different. Coming all this way just to do the reef, well I am not sure that would be worth it.

You don't mention where you are from on your homepage.

If you could organise your tickets to fly into Melbourne, then fly up to Sydney, then fly to Cairns for 3 days and home from Cairns, that would save time. Flying home from Cairns might mean flying Cairns to Brisbane and ........
Or there could be a flight from Cairns to ........

Oh, the drive from Melbourne to Sydney is about 10 hours....a day!!
Being on a time frame of two weeks I would fly between these cities.

Check out Virginblue and Jetstar airlines for prices between cities.
Also sometimes you can get a good deal of inter Aus airtravel with your tickets to fly here. There are many flights going from Melbourne to Sydney, so you could just wait until you get here to book those.

I agree with Anne 12,I too would love to say come to Cairns but you need more than 1 day to appreciate this area.February is very hot and humid and yes it is our cyclone season--we may or may not have a cyclone--the reef is great to visit all year and many people visit during the wet season to experience it.
Remember the southern states are prone to summer storms,bush fires etc--so where ever you decide to go the weather is always a risk.
Australia is a big country so for your two weeks you will need to be selective.Flying is the best way when you only have limited time.
Enjoy your trip.

I too add my vote to the "give north Queensland a miss in Feb/March" push. You may just have a perfect 3 or 4 days but if you don't it could "put you off" our beaut land for ever. I have an imperfect log of just some of this year's summer weather events in Qld at :http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/a7fc5/#TL...enough to put me off wanting to head north in mid-summer.You'll find heaps of stuff to do in the other areas you plan to visit.

May be late to reply but I agree with those that suggest there is risk in February wherever you go. Cairns itself does not flood, some streets may if unlucky enough to be on that street but it has never affected me. Cairns has been cut off from flooding further south at Tully, Ingham, Whitsundays region but Cairns is built to handle heavy downpours.

Melbourne for eg had that horrible fire tragedy and temps up to 47, have been in Sydney in February and big billowing fires and very oppressive heat.

Not sure how it is exactly worse in the north perhaps peopel with no real experience or a once off. So risk in February. the good thing is about the rain in the north is that is it an experience. Like seeing it snow in the colder countries for us tropical folk.

Reefdweller,I live in Cairns and it has been flooded lots of times--I have witnessed the Barron River.Freshwater creek,Centennial Lakes and other water channels that have broken banks and flooded houses.Cairns CBD has flooding every year and the council is trying to fix this problem.Cairns is built on a delta with tidal dangers--so if we get a cyclone along with a king tide,we are in trouble.This year we had to wait for a ship to bring in supplies as even the airport was out of service,so on that note I have to say you are misinformed.

No that is incorrect, food was cut off due to flooding in Ingham. I am sure it was front page news for days on end. Often it was the Tully that cut the town off or the year before nearer Townsville. Really beggars belief you do not understand why supplies cannot come through. We get our food from trucks, not planes. The Post has a website if you do not get the newspaper. In Cairns the flooding is minor, localised and quick to recede in comparison.

I do not know where you live,but I am a Cairns girl and beg to differ with you.
I know because I have been through lots of flooding in Cairns City and suburbs.
Go back and look at the all the pics in the Cairns post and you will then see.
I am not going to argue with you because the poster does not deserve that--if you like you can email me regarding this.

No I will argue here because this last year there was incredible flooding in many areas due to a year with very intense rainfall. In comparison to those that did suffer Cairns only had some minor street flooding that receded quickly as I suggested in my first post on the subject. Our food was brought in by flight and barge due to flooding in Ingham, not flooding in some Cairns streest that lasted what? 2 hours? To suggest we were cut off for 8 days due to flooding in Cairns is so up there in fantasy I do shake my head.
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/02/11/27975_local-news.html

And I beg to differ with you because my workplace has been flooded on many a wet season and our home was flooded--the barge had to bring in supplies because the airport was out of action and yes Ingham,Tully etc are usually cut off first so I am not arguing with you on that point--what I am disagreeing with you about is your saying that Cairns never floods and I know for a fact it does.We are often cut off because Mulgrave River floods and thats only down at Gordonvale and then the Barron River so we are cut off due to that.This year was a very wet season and I am not saying that that our supplies are bought in by ship except for this season--yes they are normally trucked up or come by rail-I once again say to you that I am a Cairns local--are you? Many shops and houses were flooded out for days (when did I refer to 8 days?) Whitfield--Manoora--Manunda--Westcourt--Parramatta Park--Freshwater were some of the suburbs under water this year.So we could go on forever about this--so I am choosing not to fall into what I consider a dead end.Regards.