Travel tips for Cairns

Cairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, so entry requirements are the same as for the rest of the country — there's no separate visa or border crossing to plan around, whichever city you fly into first. The currency is the Australian dollar; cards are accepted almost everywhere, though a little cash still helps at Rusty's Markets, the Night Markets and small roadside stalls on the Tablelands.

Getting around is where the real planning sits: a rental car suits a trip built around the Atherton Tablelands, the northern beaches and the southern coast, since driving is on the left and the highways are generally well sealed, though flooded causeways in the wet season are a real hazard — "if it's flooded, forget it" is an official warning, not a slogan; local buses cover Cairns and the near northern beaches, while the Great Barrier Reef, Kuranda and the Daintree are almost always visited on an organised day tour with hotel pickup rather than by self-drive, since a rental car adds nothing on the water and the Daintree River crossing is a cable ferry rather than a bridge.

Cairns parking is manageable and mostly free away from the immediate city blocks, which is worth factoring in for a city-centre stay. The main way in is Cairns Airport (CNS), about seven kilometres from the centre and the main international gateway to the tropical north. Weather shapes the trip more than in many destinations: the dry season, May to October, brings 17-26°C, low humidity and calm seas, and is the best time to visit without much debate; the wet season, November to April, brings 24-31°C, heavy afternoon downpours and the cyclone season, though the waterfalls run at their fullest and the rainforest is at its most dramatic.

The Atherton Tablelands sit noticeably cooler than the coast year-round, since the plateau rises 500 to 1,100 metres above Cairns. The sea runs around 24°C in the southern winter and 29°C in summer. Electricity runs on Type I plugs at 230V, the emergency number is 000, and the time zone is Australian Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10, all year — Queensland never switches to daylight saving, unlike most of the rest of Australia. Driving is on the left.

Tipping isn't customary in Australian restaurants — rounding up or adding a little for great service is appreciated rather than expected — and bargaining isn't part of shopping at markets, though it's worth keeping children and pets well back from the water's edge at any river, estuary or mangrove, since saltwater crocodiles live along this entire coast.