12 Port Douglas essentials.
Relaxing in rainforests and swimming with turtles.
Port Douglas is a Far North Queensland town that is small enough to provide a restful tropical break, but large enough to have good food, indulgent yacht trips to the Great Barrier Reef, interesting markets, worldclass golf and a lively Carnivale if you visit during May.
After you arrive on your Air Niugini flight into Cairns, it is a 70-kilometre drive north along an easy-to-navigate highway that hugs the pretty coastline for some of the journey, with palm trees bending over the sand and turquoise water glimmering in the sun. Along the way, call into chic Palm Cove for lunch. This small hamlet is blessed with many good restaurants, including the beachfront Nu Nu, with a repertoire including wok-fried mud crab and red curry of locally caught reef fish.
Major car rental firms are based at Cairns Airport, ensuring a good and affordable choice of vehicles. Alternatively, there are coach services from the airport to Port Douglas.
Here are 12 must-do activities.
A trip into Mossman Gorge in the World Heritage-listed
Daintree Rainforest is a journey into lush rainforest with crystal-clear rivers
and streams.
1 Port Douglas Carnivale. It’s on this year, from May 22–31, and showcases food, wine, art and music. The 10-day event was originally a celebration of the start of the sugarcane harvest, but now marks the start of the tourist season. This year’s program includes a Craft Beer and Cider Festival, street buskers and artists, celebrity chefs, themed lunches (don’t miss the Jansz Longest Lunch), a street parade and much more. See carnivale.com.au. 2 Macrossan Street shops. The relaxed main street of Port Douglas is filled with cafes, restaurants, juice bars, surf wear stores, fashion stores, galleries and souvenir shops along several blocks. The cafes have plenty of outdoor seating, befitting of the warm climate. The Port Douglas Sunday Market takes place nearby, on Wharf Street. In the other direction, you’ll find the town’s Four Mile Beach. 3 Iron Bar cane toad racing. This rustic, corrugated-tin and timber bar and steakhouse restaurant in Macrossan Street is just as famous for its nightly cane toad races as its porterhouse. The races start at 8pm and involve a field of toads on a table. If you’re allocated a toad, it’s up to you to egg on the amphibian to the table perimeter. This is done with one of those party whistles where the paper rolls out. See ironbarportdouglas.com.au. 4 2 Fish Restaurant. This awardwinning seafood restaurant is an airy and modern place, with large bi-fold doors that open to an alfresco seating area on Macrossan Street. The blue swimmer crab is done nicely with Singapore chilli sauce and the atmosphere, with the open doors to the town’s main street, adds to a very worthwhile Port Douglas experience. See 2fishrestaura nt.com.au. 5 Take a yacht to the Great Barrier Reef. Imagine this. You are relaxing on the white deck of a slick catamaran, perhaps a crisp sauvignon blanc in hand, as the vessel cuts through the water on the way to the coral lagoon at the Low Isles. This half-day tour, from 1pm to 6.30pm, leaves Port Douglas daily and includes three hours at anchor. You can snorkel, lie on the beach or explore the tiny isle with historic lighthouse. As soon as I get into the water there is a loggerhead turtle swimming next to me and we stay together as unlikely swimming partners for the next 10 minutes. We float over the reef, which is crowded with giant clams and colourful fish. Snorkelling instruction, in-water assistance, savoury snacks and canapes are all part of the deal. There are also full-day and sunset tours. See sailawayportdouglas.com. 6 Face-to-face with crocodiles. We’re in the middle of a lagoon and there are crocodiles all around, the biggest of them a staggering five metres. They’re coming right up to our boat, snapping at meaty morsels on the end of a long pole held over the water. The crocodile tour is part of the offering at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures. This excellent wildlife park not only showcases crocs, but there are also snake shows, koala feeding, photo sessions with pythons, a cassowary and wetland tour, and other creatures to see such as emus, quolls and lanky monitors. Afterwards, lunch on an outdoor deck overlooking the lagoon can include a crocodile burger. See crocodileadventures.com.
7 Glass gallery. Some of the finest hand-blown glassware you’re likely to find is located in a small studio along a dirt road in tropical rainforest on the edge of Daintree National Park. The Hoglund studio, 40 minutes from Port Douglas, displays vases, bowls, perfume bottles and other ornaments, with nature-inspired colours. Former US president Bill Clinton is among the admirers of this glassware, having purchased some when he visited the gallery’s New Zealand studio. If visiting, leave time for lunch – or Sunday breakfast – at High Falls restaurant, where a timber dining deck overlooks a bubbling river. See hoglundartglass.com; highfallsfarm.com.au.
8 Tour a cocoa and sugarcane farm. Sweet Farm Tours is in the same vicinity as the glass gallery (see above). Find out all about cocoa and sugarcane on this working farm. The gift shop has local produce, including chocolates. See sweetfarmtours.com. 9 Mossman Market. Mossman is a quiet town about 15 minutes north of Port Douglas. The town’s Saturday market – with everything from tropical fruit to second-hand books, produce and craft – is held in parkland under the shade of big trees, between 7am and midday. My best buy is a jar of delicious green mango pickle. The town is also the gateway to Mossman Gorge. 10 Mossman Gorge. Located in the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest, a trip into the gorge is a journey into lush rainforest with crystal-clear rivers and streams. You can take a self-guided walk, or go on a Dreamtime walk with an indigenous guide. The Dreamtime experience starts with a smoking ceremony in which bad spirits are ushered away. The guide provides a fascinating commentary on bush food and survival as you meander along an easy track. The Mossman Gorge Centre includes a cafe/restaurant, indigenous art gallery, souvenir shop and helpful staff at the information desk.
See mossmangorge.com.au. 11 Indigenous art. Take an art workshop at the Janbal Gallery, where you are shown how to paint your own canvas, boomerang or didgeridoo in traditional style.
See janbalgallery.com.au. 12 Thala Beach Nature Reserve. Hang loose in a hammock strung under palm trees at the beach at this lodge-style getaway. The property is set in more than 50 hectares of forest and has access to secluded beaches 10 minutes’ drive south of Port Douglas. The hammocks are next to Herbie’s Beach Shack, a corrugated tin hut where you can buy afternoon drinks. The lodges are on stilts in the forest, some overlooking the ocean. Thala is eco-
friendly and offers nature tours and walks, stargazing and sea kayaking. The Osprey restaurant is high in the treetops and worth booking – for the setting and the food – even if you’re not a guest. The head chef is Luukas Trautner, who has worked in two European Michelin-star restaurants.
See thalabeach.com.au.