What to do In Cairns, Australia With Kids
Back before my husband and I had kids, we ended our 6 month, around-the-world backpacking tour with a week at an Island in the Great Barrier Reef. It was the perfect antidote to the "work" of non-stop travel through sometimes challenging destinations like Cambodia, Myanmar, the Middle East and Africa.
The area was beautiful and we spent long days snorkeling, sailing, and picnicking around the island. Still, I've always hoped to return to the area and explore the rainforest. Within the next few years I'd love to return with the kids and take a roadtrip through the area.
Luckily, I won't have to work too hard to find things to do in and around Cairns (the launching point for most trips to the Great Barrier Reef). Peace, who runs the website Cairns Family Holidays has pulled together a fantastic list of things to do in and around Cairns, and very generously entered them in our Cairns With Kids city guide. If you are considering a trip to the area, you should definitely check out her site for even more great ideas. I'm also enjoying her Cairns Family Holidays Blog
Cairns is a beautiful city. It is the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and is surrounded by expanses of pristine rainforest to the North, South and West. For families there is plenty to explore and experience, learning about the reef, the rainforest and the people of Australia as you go. Here are a few of my favorite family fun ideas!
Discover the magic of the rainforest, which is home to possums, wallabies, tree kangaroos and a host of colourful birds. Take a trip on Skyrail, the rainforest cable car, which takes you to the rainforest village of Kuranda and take the historic train down the mountain back or visit Crystal Cascades an absolutely beautiful national park just outside of Cairns.
No trip to Australia is complete without a visit to the Great Barrier Reef. Tours to the reef and local islands depart daily from the Cairns Reef Fleet terminal. For families with children under 5 I recommend a half day trip to beautiful Green Island. See the reef from a semi-submersible or a glass bottom boat and explore this beautiful coral island in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. For older children try a trip to the Outer Reef where you can spend the day on a large pontoon and take the children on a guided snorkelling tour. Sometimes you’ll see whales, dolphin, green sea turtles, manta rays and sucker fish, if you look really carefully you might even find Nemo too!
The Cairns Botanical Gardens are the ideal place for a family picnic parents can stroll through the leafy tropical gardens while children explore the maze-like pathways which lead to secret waterfalls and ferny grottoes. There are a host of unusual flowering plants and if you look carefully you’ll find frogs, butterflies and colourful beetles hiding amongst the lush greenery. Entry is free and the gardens are open 7 days a week. Just next door to the Gardens you’ll find the Tanks Art Centre where travelling exhibitions of photography, sculpture, contemporary installation and fine art by local artists can be seen.
Kids will love getting up close and personal with some of our amazing animals. Cairns has a number of great wildlife parks where they can feed the kangaroos, hold a giant stick insect and learn more about Australia's unique creatures. My favorite is Cairns Tropical Zoo where you can have your photo taken with a koala, wombat or baby crocodile and see the amazing free flight show.
Thank you to Peace of the website Cairns Family Holidays for contributing this ist of things to do in and around Cairns. Check out her site and the Cairns Family Holidays Blog for more fun ideas.
Related LinksCairns, Australia With Kids
5 comments |
Posted on March 11, 2009 |
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Mara Gorman on March 11, 2009 at 6:14 p.m.
You don't know how much I want to go to Australia! This post is duly bookmarked. Thanks Peace!
Fred Smilek on March 12, 2009 at 8:57 a.m.
Kangaroo's are soo cool, I'd love to have one of them as a pet. To bad they are pretty fierce boxers. I have to check out Cairns, because I have always wanted to go to the Barrier Reef.
Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan. http://www.fredjsmilek.com
Sharlene on March 12, 2009 at 1:30 p.m.
Sigh. I would love to go to Australia. I will someday. I tried to go but instead I became pregnant with twins. Totally worth it of course but a part of me is sad I didn't get to go before the children came. Oh well. It will be more fun when I go with them right?
MB on March 12, 2009 at 6:40 p.m.
I think Australia is one of the best places to travel with kids. Of course I'm biased since we go there every year with our kids and my husband is Australian. But, serioulsy...Australia has something for everyone.
Jennifer on January 15, 2010 at 2:18 a.m.
I've been to Cairns twice with my kids, aged 3 and 5, and then 5 and 7. As well as the suggestions above, Cairns city itself has two of the best public playgrounds in Australia. Right by the main tourist area (next to the Shangri La hotel) is a free, totally open, artificial public pool, which is made as a beach (ie there is pure sand covering the concrete underneath) which has shallow parts for toddlers to play in and deep parts where people swim laps.
And about 1-2 km walk up the boardwalk along the mangrove beach is the Muddy Flats playground, which is a massive public playground with flying fox, fountains, etc etc. And it has a cafe in the middle of it.
And in Kuranda (mentioned above) there is a fabulous butterfly farm, which my younger son absolutely adored both times we were there - butterflies everywhere, which will land on you, if you hold still.