Cairns Travel Forum

My husband and I are planning to fly into Syd the begginning of Nov. We have 3 weeks to travel. Open for suggestions please-Best ocenfront places to stay w great views or fabulous beaches? We love to snorkel and plan to try diving. We like spending time on White sandy Beaches. We want to stay in Beachfront hotels all along the coast up to Cairns but I had no luck finding any on expedia.com. Hard to tell from their pictures online.
What are the Best Beaches to stay at on the E coast.
Syd-Brisbane-Townsville(great barrier reef)-& Melborn(12 apostles)? We would like to go 3 days on a catamaran or like to the great barrier reef and little islands like South long island or like, any boat places? Any little bit of info will help us plan this better so it doesn't seem so stressful to me. Thanks so much
Las Vegas

hi
gosh if you are driving 3 weeks isn't really that long!!
had planned to do the same thing 2 years ago..
spent alot of time in Syd and drove out to the blue mountains for a couple of nights.(unmisseable)!!
then flew to Cairns for 10 nights.had 3 on a yacht out of cairns on the reef!! quite an experience!! and 5 nights at mission beach Time goes sooo fast!!
I would enjoy and see little rather than rush and see everything but be shattered!!
It was all great and I plan to go back to do a bit more!!
If you want more details....maybe yacht details or the cabin in blue mtns reply back
Good luck

Yes, definately hook out to the Whitsundays, you may well get stuck there, they're a wonderful place to see the reef. If its beaches you're after Melbourne and the Apostles is quite a good way out of your way, especially if you're landing in Sydney and wanting primarily to see the Northern NSW and Qld beaches (which are definately the best)

Thanks for you info- so you think we should stay longer than 3 weeks if we can? Yes if you have names of a Yacht tour you liked plese let me know, and the cabins too that's sounds very desirable. How far up north should we drive. Going north whats the best beach to end our journey north? I havn't gotton our ticket yet but we were going to fly to Melborn (12 apostles)after we drove to Townsville and stayed up and around that area. And Mission beach what was that like? Hey how expensive is it to eat? Like a sandwich at a pub. Or a mixed drink or beer?
Thanks

Fly into Melbourne and drive up to Townsville? Ouch.

You sound as if you are primarily after beaches and sun etc. Melbourne isn't necessarily the best for that at beginning of November: spring weather rather than the heat of January/February will greet you.

You could easily spend your three weeks driving north out of Sydney as far as the NSW/Queensland Border! Just back from Byron Bay region - beaches around Byron Bay, Lennox Head, Brunswick Heads, Ballina are spectacular. Its well set up for tourism without being over-run. As you cross the Qlnd border, you immediately hit the developed Gold Coast (wall to wall high-rise aprtments and hotels) and then Brisbane. After Brisbane comes the Sunshine Coast - more exclusive than the Gold Coast (and thus more expensive) but still developed 9although some beautiful locations). Still to experience the delights of Whitsunday Islands - but heard only positive things.

Keith

Hi Beth. Welcome to VT. I agree with the others, you've got to take the distances into account. Sydney to Cairns is over 2500 kilometres, that's around 1600 miles. Cairns is the main jumping off point for the GBR by the way. No beach there but the northern villages just out of town have good beaches. Townsville is around 180 miles south of Cairns and has a beach right in town. Melbourne is the opposite direction, 600 miles south of Sydney. I think you need to go in one direction, and if you can, fly into Sydney and out of Cairns. Obviously saves backtracking big distances if you can.
In Sydney itself, I'd suggest Manly, great beach and several hotels across the road from it. Or come north a bit to the Central Coast where I live, great beaches hotel across the road from the beach. Further north, Coffs Harbour has beach hotels, Byron Bay, then into Queensland with the Gold Coast south of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast north. Brisbane itself doesn't have beaches.
For sailing I'd say the Whitsunday Islands for sure. You can go on crewed boats or crew yourself - what they call bareboat charters.
Have a look around VT member Aussie pages for some unbiased info, it's a great way of planning your trip and getting tips and advice.

hi again Beth
stay as long in Oz as possible you will never be bored!!
don,t miss blue mountains we stayed at the Binda creek cabins and I'm still looking for a contact address or tel no for you. The cabins are great value,extreemly clean and are set quite high so you look down into a small valley(there are also loads of kangaroos about)!!Oh they also have a fire and when we were there in early November it was cold enough to light!!
I think you would love the whitsundays loads of friends have been and said they were heaven!! Thats next on my list!!
We flew to cairns from Sydney,and intended to drive whitsundays and back!! got to mission beach and stayed there instead ,its pretty quiet in Nov ,but enjoyable for a few days!! stayed in a room at the eco village ~great pool!!
didnt like cairns, too busy for me and no beach!!
stayed at Rydges port douglas!! there is a beach here but in Nov you shouldn't swim(anywher north beaches) because of the jelly fish!!

That's a good point about jellyfish. In the tropical north they can be a big problem in the warmer months. Some beaches have netted areas so you can swim safely. If you see a warning sign, do not ignore it!

www.downunderdive.com.au
were the co we used from cairns onto the reef they do several reef adventures. we took our 7 year old daughter, and the sleeping area was BASIC!!! shared toilets etc However the guys on board were great and looked after us amazingly!! I snorkel only (cant pop my ears underwater) but it was still great and the divers with us were impressed!! I believe best diving is further south...mainly because less people go therefore less coral damage however the reef is still a long way off shore!! We were not only amazed how far but also quite sea sick!! It was in all the most amazing experience!!
also in area take skyrail to Karunda!!
food we found was really cheap!! But we are Brits!! probably a bit cheaper than states food ??!! havent been over your part of the world in quite a time check out the other v t oz guides!!
enjoy!! Kim

Kimij, you're right - most people don't realise how far offshore the GBR is. The outer reef that a lot of the operators go to is 75 kilometres out.

There are some great beaches in the Whitsundays. Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island is a must although there's no resort there. You can anchor your sailboat overnight or I think there's camping on the island somewhere. There are also day trips by catamaran or helicopter. South Long Island sounds good. There's also Hayman Island (top end) and Hamilton Island both of which are resorts in the Whitsundays.
I've always wanted to go to Lizard Island north of Cairns - white sandy beaches and it just sounds awesome.
Fraser Island north of Brisbane is also worth a few days. There are freshwater lakes with white sandy beaches on this huge sand island.
Byron Bay in NSW also has nice beaches.
Cape Hillsborough National Park near Mackay is really nice and I think there's a small resort there...