Tropical North Queensland is one of the most enchanting regions in Australia, and Port Douglas is one of our favourite coastal towns in Australia. We just love it up there! “Port” is hip, it's happening, it's chilled out but also a little upmarket and a great place to holiday as a family with a nice balance of relaxation and adventure. Just a little way offshore you have the world's biggest reef system - the Great Barrier Reef and then hugging the coastline is its very good friend, the oldest rainforest in the world - the 140 million-year-old Daintree Rainforest. Port Douglas is just an hour's drive north of Cairns, and after jumping off our flight we picked up our rental car to drive the newly named and spectacular Great Barrier Reef Drive with the Coral Sea on one side and the forest on the other.
It's a windy road but offers plenty of opportunities to pull over and admire the numerous beaches and stunning views. First stop was Ellis Beach for breakfast. The Ellis Beach Bar & Grill sits right across from the beach (5 mins North of Palm Cove) and offers a cool and casual vibe serving up good food and coffee - we recommend the Brekky Burger (bacon, egg, roast tomato, avocado, rocket & hollandaise).
A little further along the drive, we stopped off at a little cove filled with hand built rock towers - apparently they are called cairns! Look out for them on the right-hand side and maybe your kids will enjoy building their own tower.Before no time we arrived in Port Douglas to spend a few days exploring the local area, to enjoy sunset views, palm trees and to eat great food.
Port Douglas is a great base for getting out and exploring the magic of the Great Barrier Reef, one of the world's natural wonders. Consisting of 900 islands and 2,900 individual reefs, it's the world's largest coral reef and the largest living structure on the planet. If this is your first time visiting the Reef, consider going to the Outer Reef because that's where the best snorkelling and diving can be had. You might only visit the Reef once, you will want to see it at it's best! We chose a tour with Quicksilver Cruises that took us to the renowned Agincourt Reef, a jewel-like ribbon reef on the very edge of the Great Barrier Reef. To get to Agincourt Reef from the marina in Port Douglas takes about 80-minutes by high-speed catamaran. This tour moors at a large pontoon which means you get off the catamaran and spend your time based on a spacious activity platform which we found most practical for us with young kids.
The pontoon gives you room to move around without being confined to a boat, and from the pontoon you can choose to snorkel, dive, watch the fish feeding from the underwater viewing platform and underwater observatory, ride in the semi-submersible or even take a helicopter flight over the reef.
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