I prefer Port Douglas over Cairns. It has better resorts (there are a mountain to choose from). Also if you want to go to the reef they all leave from Port Douglas. As far as the shopping goes it's not really a shopping mecca. Cairns has more shops - Myer and a shopping centre. Port Douglas is mainly touristy type shops with lots of touristy clothing etc. Heaps of day spa/pamper places too. The Mirage would be the ultimate place to stay I think - thats the one Christopher Skase built. Have a look at the tourist websites and you will find heaps of stuff on there. Have a great weekend away!
It really depends on your budget. Port Douglas is expensive, it's purely for tourists. There's not a lot of shopping there. There is a beach, which in September should be ok to swim.
As for Cairns, again the shopping isn't huge, but there are plenty of things to see. The tablelands, the reef, and many many more. Cairns accomodation is cheaper than Port Douglas.
If you're going to stay in Port Douglas, there are dozens of places that are just gorgeous. As for Cairns, I would recommend staying on either the Cairns Esplanade or one of the beaches esplanades (Trinity Beach, Palm Cove or Clifton Beach).
DH & went to Port Douglas for our honeymoon, seven yrs ago & loved it. Like the other ladies said, it is really touristy but I think it is really beautiful and you can do heaps of day trips from there. We stayed at TreeTops resort, which is out of the main st but a shuttle bus ran to and from the resort to the main st. We also hired scooters for getting around the town and then hired a car for our day trips.
Just a note that it takes about an hour (?, I can't remember exactly) to get from Cairns to Port Douglas, so make sure you take this into consideration to get the most out of your long weekend. Where ever you decide to stay, have a great time.
I would say Cairns as it is closer to everything to explore and all the tourist attractions.
You can got to Port for a day trip and all that there is their is touristy clothes and items it is mainly for the Japanese and overseas people really. I would maybe stay one night in Port thats all you will need and make it a Sat night so on Sunday you can wonder around the huge markets they have in the morning on a Sunday. There are alot of nice cafes/restaurants as well to have an early morning breakky before hitting the markets. The beach is nice and there is also a lookout to view the beach and mountains etc etc.
In cairns so many things to see and do it is never ending, you have the skyrail to Kuranda, the beaches (palm cove, Yorkeys Knob, Trinity Beach and more.)the tablelands - milla milla falls, curtain fig tree, crocodile farm on the way to Port Dougla is good too. So much to do in Cairns.
My vote would be cairns and stay at Palm Cove pure luxury on the beach: 5 star hotels are:
sea temple resort and spa, the reef retreat, peppers beach club and sap (outriggers was called)or angsana Resort and spa!
definately stay at Palm cove instead. Half way between the two and heaps to do at the resort there!
either way a great time to go up there is Aug, Sept.
enjoy
odette
It depends on what you are after, Port Douglas is beautiful and a great place to stay for a romantic weekend. Cairns is like any other tourist town, with shopping and lots of things to do as mentioned above. Thjat said you can also access the reef and rain forests from Port Douglas as well. For us when we were up there Port Douglas was a much more beautiful setting.
I'm in LOVE with Port Douglas! It has such a beautiful beach there, much nicer than Cairns and there is heaps to do - reef trips, markets, close to Daintree, etc. Cairns doesn't have much of a beach, but I am a beach girl though so it depends on what you like. Port Douglas has loads of great resorts and restaurants. Palm Cove is nice, but I found it small with no shops and got bored quickly (we stayed in the Mantra Amphora, a great resort). I may have enjoyed it more if we didn't have our DS with us! If it's only for a long weekend though, Palm Cove is a great choice.
I got married in Port Douglas so im bias! We love PD, its very different from Cairns, Cairns is more commercialised with the big shopping centres etc, PD has small boutiques and restaurants etc.
Stingers are a big problem at certain times during the year, so you will have to find out if the beaches will be open. But most resorts have swimming pools.
With regards to accommodation, we have stayed at both the Sheraton Mirage (when we got married) and at the Newport on Maccrosson (for a holiday) the price difference per night was about $250.00, and we much preffered the Newport, as it is such a layed back family run resort. The Sheraton Mirage was very very dissapointing. (but thats just our opinion)
I agree, it depends on what you're after. You said you love luxury - does that mean you'd want to stay at the resort all day? I'd go Port Douglas.
BUT, I looooove the tablelands... If it were me and DH and we only had a long weekend, I'd stay in a cabin at Lake Eacham or something. Lots of rainforest and walks and birds.
Tablelands are great. We loved in Townsville for 4 1/2 years so could go lots.
Like already said it depends what you are after and how much you wanted to spend. I found Port Douglas very expensive and abit snobby but certainly looked like it had some fantastic resorts if you could afford them.
We really enjoyed a few weekends in Cairns as it's so close to everything you can do what you like. We stayed at the Cairns Lakes resort and spa and got our apartment from rates to go and got them half the price. it's a fantastic resort that has everything but at the same time it seems to be quiet. We ended up going for Christmas 2005 and didn't book it until christmas eve online and we got a fab apartment for not much $. If you google it has its own website.
You'll have a great time whichever you chose as it's a great part of the world (Like already mentioned you can't swim in the sea between end Sept and end may/June because of stingers).
We got married at Palm Cove in August last year so I'm biased too We found that the further north you go from cairns, the classier and more beautiful (and expensive) it gets. Cairns doesnt have a beach so if that's what you're after I'd look at either Palm Cove or Port Douglas. As others have said, neither is the best for shopping (cairns is) but are the best for luxury. I'd recommend the Sea Temple Resort and Spa in palm cove and the radisson treetops in port douglas, or you could look at the Thala Beach Lodge, expensive but looks amazing, have a look at their website. Have a great time!!
I vote Port Douglas! I got married there too! Lots of nice accommodation - a lot is self contained modern apartment style, and there are really nice restaurants to eat at. You can still get to the reef from PD, you don't have to go back down to Cairns to do that stuff. If you like luxury, you will like Port Douglas. In terms of shopping, there are a lot of shops with "resort wear" and that kind of thing. There's markets on a Sunday morning selling local art and craft.
Palm Cove is lovely, lots of nice accommodation but not much to do there IMO and for reef tours and that kind of thing you will have to go to Cairns or PD. But Palm Cove is right on the beach which is the big plus. If you want the view, go to Palm Cove. Cairns itself doesn't have a beach, the beaches are out of town.
If you spring for hiring a car for a couple of days you can take it all in, go to Port Douglas, Palm Cove, Mission Beach, Cairns, Kuranda.
In PD, the Sheraton Mirage, the Rydges and Radisson Treetops are out of town, you need to be staying within coo-ee of Macrossan Street and then you can stroll everywhere. The Rydges was very disappointing, they said it was due for refurbishment when we were there in late 2005. It was very tired looking then. A friend stayed at the Radisson and didn't like it and actually moved to the Rydges. I was very unimpressed with Rydges so to me that doesn't speak well of the Radisson.
We have also stayed at the Meridian (self contained modern apartments, very clean, brand spanking new, just around the corner from Macrossan Street), the Outrigger on the Inlet (right in the thick of it in town, very nice room).
My friends stayed at the Cayman Villas (very nice modern self contained apartments, great swimming pool and BBQ area), another girlfriend stayed at a different Outrigger in the middle of town and her room wasn't as good as mine at the Outrigger on the Inlet. However, the Outrigger on the Inlet only has a tiny little swimming pool, really just a glorified bathtub, a big minus IMO. The swimming pool is essential because of stinger season which runs from October through to May.
I had a spa treatment at the Hibiscus (round the corner from Macrossan Street) which quite frankly was absolute heaven, very luxurious. I haven't seen the rooms at the Hibiscus though but other people who came to the wedding stayed there and thought it was lovely.
Note that not many places in PD have a view of the beach, everything is in town, the Mirage has an almost complete monopoly on a lot of that but I believe a Sea Temple type of place has gone up in PD that might have water views.
HTH.
Last edited by julesr; May 22nd, 2007 at 10:02 PM.
It's mostly just for the 3 of us to get away & relax together..hmmm, can't wait!
We don't have a Myer here & I hear there's a really good maternity clothing store in Cairns too. (For future possibilities...) I'm hoping DH will entertain DD at some stage so I can venture out to the shops alone!
I've found a place at Trinity Beach but it's a bit pricey. I guess we don't get away much though & it's only for 3 nights.
We honeymooned in Port Douglas in March this year. It was lovely! We went through the travel agent and our package was for 5 nights at the Radisson Treetops Resort (also called Mantra Treetops). It included breakfast every morning, 1 meal per person, a massage at their spa and 2 tickets for the Quicksilver Reef cruise, which took us out to the Outer Barrier Reef. The package was a bit expensive, but the week was great.
I'd say Palm Cove as well. We stayed at the Novotel for our honeymoon. It was lovely. There are heaps of hotel accom. right on the beach and some of them look pretty luxurious also heaps of little places to eat. We did day trips to Kuranda, Cairns and Port Douglas from there so it was a great place to stay. Have a great holiday wherever you decide
Oooh, I forgot to write back & say we booked in to a family holiday park in cairns that has self contained cabins and heaps a& heaps of stuff for kids to do!! Can't wait to relax and also do some heavy duty shopping!!!
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Cairns or Port Douglas for a holiday?
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