We spent a couple of weeks in Cairns, a friendly city in Far North Queensland. Best known for its proximity to The Great Barrier Reef, we enjoyed exploring Cairns off the reef. There’s a lot to do!
About Cairns
Cairns is a small city with a lot of visitors, who come for its two World Heritage sites: the aforementioned reef and The Daintree rainforest. Although Cairns’ population is only about 150K, compared to Sydney’s 5.5 million, its bustling waterfront and nightlife make it feel bigger.
Cairns has an easy to navigate downtown, which is well designed for the climate. Even in a beating sun or heavy rain, you can walk through the city protected by all the awnings and covered pedestrian pathways.
Cairns Highlights
One of our last major stops in Australia, exploring Cairns off the reef was fun. We visited in September, which is spring, but felt like summer with sunny days and temps in the mid to high 20sC. The city has an excellent food scene, and the Esplanade is perfect for strolling or cycling. We had the time to visit some beautiful parks and waterfalls. Since we knew we’d get out on the reef from Go, we focused on land activities.
Markets
One of the highlights of exploring Cairns off the reef is Rusty’s Markets, the large farmers’ market, located in the heart of downtown. Open Thursday through Sunday, it was the perfect place to stock up the boat with fresh produce at a good price. Many go to grab a coffee or a meal. Rusty’s is a popular place on the weekend.
We were very excited to try Cairns’s Night Markets for the Asian hawker style street stalls. The reality wasn’t as good, however, with precooked food in pans that they pile into takeaway containers. We prefer to order ala carte but that was thin on the ground at the night market. Don’t skip it altogether, there are still some good options like the sushi and skewers, a variety of tourist shops, and many massage stalls. It just didn’t live up to our expectations for dinner.
Eating in Cairns
With a broken refrigerator in a town with access to the best fresh food Australia has to offer and a multicultural restaurant scene, you’d better bet we ate out a lot.
We had our choice of every type of Asian cuisine, plus Mexican, Indian, and, of course, Aussie favorites. We used Cairns as almost our last hurrah in Australia, and it was great. That broken fridge was a good excuse! Here are some of our favorites.
fetta’s greek taverna
On one of our first days in Cairns, we had lunch at this cute little Greek place. It had been ages since we’d eaten Greek, and it will probably be a long time since we do again. We feasted on traditional Greek salads and dips and were very happy with our choices.
Fetta’s Greek Taverna, 97/99 Grafton St, Cairns City
Iyara by Sakare Thai
After giving up on the reheated choices at the Night Market, we fortuitously found this excellent Thai restaurant. Located a flight up, above the busy street traffic, Iyara by Sakare Thai will not disappoint. We loved the freshly prepared food with Thai flavours. If we’d stayed in Cairns any longer, we would have eaten here again.
Iyara by Sakare Thai, Level 1/91 The Esplanade, Cairns City
My little bakehouse
Our favorite Aussie food in Cairns were the award winning meat pies from My Little Bakehouse. We were going to take them with us on our excursion, but they were so fresh when we bought them, we ate them at that moment. If you’ve spent time eating in Australia or New Zealand, you know about their delicious meat pies. The pies at My Little Bakehouse have a savourty filling with lots of flavor all wrapped in a light and buttery crust. After that, we’ll have difficulty finding many of the same caliber for a while.
My Little Bakehouse, 97 Grafton Street, Cairns City
prawn stars
A highlight of Cairns’ food scene were the Prawn Stars seafood boats at the marina. Board a boat where they sit you at a communal table and feed you fresh seafood at fair prices.
Prawn Stars, Cairns Marlin Marina, Cairns City
Cairns Nightlife
With all the young backpackers and overseas workers, it’s no wonder Cairns has a lot of nightlife choices. From breweries to cocktail bars and Irish pubs, this is one of the biggest party towns in Australia. We didn’t scratch the surface, but these are some highlights.
coral sea brewing
Our favorite bar in Cairns by far was Coral Sea Brewing, not least because we made friends there. But, also, the beer is great and they have nightly happy hours and it’s a friendly relaxed spot.
Coral Sea Brewing, Bank Lane, Cairns City
flamINGO’S COCKTAIL BAR
One of our first stops in Cairns clued us in that this is a party town. With young Australians drinking and dancing, and tiki decorations everywhere, Flamingos is just plain fun. Top that with yummy tropical and non-tropical drinks, you can’t go wrong on a Saturday night in Cairns.
Flamingos, 43 Esplanade, Cairns City
hemingways brewery
We stopped in at Hemingways a couple of times in our wanderings down the dock from the marina. It’s huge and they serve a wide range of house brewed beers. We preferred the vibe at Coral Sea. This is more of a family place where a lot of people bring their kids, so if you’re in Cairns with kids, now you know where to go.
Hemingways Brewery, Wharf Street, Cairns City
pachamama rooftop bar
We went to Pachamama for happy hour margaritas on the rooftop. It’s only on the second floor of a hotel so it wasn’t a fab view, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.
Pachamama, Crystalbrook Bailey, Level 3/163 Abbott St, Cairns City
mcginty’s irish bar
We went to McGinty’s for the traditional Irish music session. The pub not only offers traditional music, but the decor also. All the available space is covered in Guinness and other Gaelic paraphernalia. And, as you’d expect, they serve Irish beer on tap. The music was pretty good, if a little low-key the night we went.
McGinty’s Irish Bar, 41 Shields Street, Cairns City
Sculptures and Street Art
Cairns has a walkable downtown, and a lovely Esplanade along the waterfront. While ocean swimming isn’t ideal thanks to crocs and rough seas, there’s a centrally located pool with nice fountains open to everyone. Sculptures of marine life are scattered along the Esplanade to the north and the pier to the south. Conveniently, the marina is positioned in between the two.
We not only found sculptures while exploring Cairns off the reef, we found some colorful murals. The best spot for these murals was the alley near our favorite brewery, Coral Sea Brewing.
Exploring Cairns Off The Reef: Outdoor Attractions
We spent some time cycling along the Esplanade and to the Botanical Gardens, and both were very pretty. The Botanical Gardens has a special orchid collection and even has a music venue where I’d love to see a show!
For our favorite outdoor spot in Cairns, we needed a car. Cairns was busy in September, with a lot of Aussies escaping winter on top of all the foreign visitors seeing the sights. Still, we found a rental car and went to the waterfalls and pools of Crystal Cascades. We weren’t the only ones escaping the heat at this beautiful freshwater swimming hole, which is free of crocs part of the year. Fortunately, we went during dry season and didn’t have to worry about crocs. In that hot sun of Far North Queensland, the water in this pool was cool and refreshing.
You won’t get bored exploring Cairns off the reef. As you can tell, it’s a fun city with a lot to see and do.
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Our most favourit was clearly McGinty’s Irish Pub. During our time in Cairns, they had some traditinal Irish festival going on, with lots of live Irish music and meals. Of cours we did not hesitate to down a few pints of healthy Guiness.
Sounds like you were there at a good time, Kobi. And the Guinness was tasty!
I really like Cairns, particularly around the Marina. But I usually stay north of Cairns at Trinity Beach as I love the slow lifestyle.
Good selection of things to do in Cairns. Would love to visit Crystal Cascades, without the crocs of course!
Yes avoid crocs at all costs, Susie!
Cairns sounds like the perfect last hurrah in Australia, with its incredible looking food (and of course access to the reef and rainforest).