Cairns Holiday Must Do’s
Vacation Highlights
Check out our top five Cairns holiday things to do below. If you try to find an apartment or book accommodation on the Cairns Esplanade you will be within easy walking distance of the departure or pick up locations for all of these experiences.
Visit our Cairns holiday blog for more news and information about Cairns dining and things to do in Cairns.
1. See the Great Barrier Reef
2. Glide through the rainforest on Skyrail & experience Tjapukai
3. Be enchanted by the Daintree Rainforest & Cape Tribulation
4. Taste some tropical food & wine on the Atherton Tablelands
5. Get up close to wildlife
The Great Barrier Reef
Discover an amazing new world underwater and greet over 6,600 species of flora and fauna including bright tropical fish, coral and molluscs on the World Heritage-Listed Great Barrier Reef.
Over 50 tours depart Cairns Esplanade’s Reef Fleet Terminal for the Great Barrier Reef and islands daily – the only hard part about getting to the Great Barrier Reef is deciding which boat to go on! Contact our tour desk if you would like some help deciding.
Our favourite reef boats are locally owned and family friendly Reef Magic as well as the more intimate Ocean Spirit. We always have a great trip with these operators and their rates are affordable.
Whether you choose to dive, swim, snorkel or ride a glass bottom boat and not get wet, no Cairns holiday is complete without a trip to the Great Barrier Reef.
or visit our tour desk when you check in 
for more information.
Return to top
spacer
Skyrail & Tjapukai
Voted Australia’s best major tourist attraction for three years in a row, Skyrail Rainforest Cableway is one of the most special and unique rainforest experiences in the world. They’re both favourites of ours too!
Skyrail’s Cairns departure terminal is in Smithfield, 15-minutes drive north from Vision Cairns Esplanade Apartments. The 7.5km Skyrail rainforest cableway travels between Cairns and Kuranda showcasing panoramic views of World Heritage-Listed Wet Tropics rainforest, and the Coral Sea. You can leave your Gondola at two mid-stations to see the mighty Barron Falls and learn more about the rainforest from the forest floor. We recommend you travel to Kuranda on the Kuranda Scenic Rail and return to Cairns on Skyrail because the views are better on the way down.
Next door to Skyrail’s Smithfield terminal is Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Far North Queensland is rich with Indigenous Australian culture and history and a visit to Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park is an excellent way to meet some of these fascinating people and experience a taste of their incredible culture through bush medicine and food demonstrations, dancing, storytelling and performance.
Tjapukai have full day and half day tour options as well as a special night show followed by an Australian themed buffet dinner and live stage performance. Skyrail, Tjapukai and Kuranda Scenic rail offer affordable package tours, visit our tour desk when you check in for your Cairns holiday.
Combining a trip to Kuranda on Skyrail with visit to Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park is an ideal, family friendly way to experience the beauty of Cairns Wet Tropics rainforests while gaining and a first-hand understanding of the culture of its people.
or visit our tour desk when you check in 
for more information. Return to top
spacer
Daintree Rainforest & Cape Tribulation:
A scenic, one hour coastal drive North from Vision Cairns Esplanade Apartments will take you to the World Heritage-Listed Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation – the oldest surviving tropical rainforests on Earth.
A visit to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation is like a visit to an ancient living museum that haswithstood the tests of time and climate change for over 400 million years.
Home to 30 percent of Australia’s frog, marsupial and reptile species and 65 percent of our butterfly and bat species, the Daintree and Cape Tribulation rainforests boasts the largest range of plants and animals on earth – over 3000 species! Despite this impressive number, unknown plant and wildlife species are still being discovered here every year.
The Daintree River is home to some of the best croc-watching action in the country, and over 20 per cent of the country’s bird species, including the endangered Southern Cassowary (who number less in the wild than Giant Pandas) live in this region too.
Full day and half day tours depart Cairns to explore the Daintree and Cape Tribulation daily with pickups available at Vision Cairns Esplanade Apartments. Like the Great Barrier Reef, your trip to Cairns is not complete without being enchanted by the amazing natural beauty and wildlife of the Daintree and Cape Tribulation rainforest.
or visit our tour desk when you check in for more information. Return to top
spacer
Food, Wine & The Atherton Tablelands:
Cairns and Far North Queensland is home to an eclectic array of tastes and gourmet produce that combine to create a tropical fruit bowl full of fantastic food and wine experiences for you to savour.
Ninety per cent of all Australia’s bananas are grown in the rich soils surrounding Cairns and 80 per cent of the country’s coffee is grown and processed on the Atherton Tablelands, approximately a one-two hour drive west of Cairns.
Y
ou can hire a car and follow a Great Tropical Drive Food & Wine Trail or take a guided tour and enjoy an informative, narrated sightseeing and taste-testing experience of these and many other gourmet delights including ice cream, macadamia nuts, tea, mangoes, lychees, pineapples, gourmet cheese and produce, game meats and liqueurs while travelling through the diverse, picturesque landscapes of the tropical Atherton Tablelands.
to organise your Cairns holiday food and wine experience.
Or visit our Cairns page for information about Cairns food and Cairns restaurants. Return to top
Wildlife:
Cairns and Far North Queensland is home to over 6000 species of wild, native and endangered animals and birds, some of which cannot be found in any other part of the world.
Visit a wildlife park such as Rainforest Habitat in Port Douglas or the Cairns Wildlife Dome inside the Reef Casino (within walking distance from Vision Cairns Esplanade Apartments) and see crocodiles, snakes, koalas, birds and more.
Or explore one of the rainforest boardwalks, mountain or mangrove walking trails within 15 minutes drive of the city and see birds, insects, butterflies, reptiles and marsupials in their natural environments.
for help booking your bird watching, day time and nocturnal wildlife experiences with pickups from Vision Cairns Esplanade Apartments.
Return to top
