Top 5 Things to Do with Kids in North Queensland, Australia

We spent one month exploring the North Queensland area of Australia from our home base in Palm Cove.

While we could probably have managed to do everything that we wanted to do in the area within a week or so, we planned an extended stay in Palm Cove to take advantage of a great monthly discount from our Airbnb (which had multiple swimming pools to keep the kids occupied every day) and to give us a chance to slow things down a bit after our busy time exploring Sydney.

This extended stay gave us plenty of opportunity to check out the area between Cairns and Port Douglas, and while we managed to fill our days there easily, we’ve only included our favourite things to do below.

Pretty much all trips to the Great Barrier Reef will require you to take an organized tour. We chose a tour run by Big Cat Reef Cruises out of Cairns, which took us on a cruise to a remote island in the middle of the reef for the day. While we did not have a great experience on this specific tour (read our full review here), and would not recommend Big Cat tours to others for a variety of reasons we won’t get into here, the Great Barrier Reef itself is spectacular and we still fee that it is absolutely a must-do when visiting northern Queensland.

We spent around 175 USD for our tour for our family of 4, which was a full day trip lasting around seven hours.

Another highlight in Cairns was the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway tour up to Kuranda Village — a gondola trip up a mountain and over the rainforest canopy, with several stops at rainforest stations along the way.  At each stop, we were able to get off the cable car and explore the rainforest via well-kept boardwalks winding through the foliage. The highlight for us was a stop at Barron Falls, a massive thundering cascade in the middle of the Barron River, which was absolutely gorgeous.

The cable car ride ends at Kuranda Village, a small touristy town at the top of the mountain. We didn’t much care for the town, and so chose to limit ourselves to a quick stop at the playground for the kids before beginning our descent on the cableway, which was just as stunning going down as it was going up.

You should note that for the return trip you can also take a scenic steam engine train ride on the Kuranda Scenic Railway instead of the cable car, which we would have done had the Skyrail’s website not told us it was closed. (Upon visiting the train station at the top of the mountain to check out the historic steam trains, we learned that the railway was actually running after all, but by this time it was already too late for us.) Also note that you should be prepared to pay slightly more to go one direction on the Skyway Cableway and the other direction on the Scenic Railway than if you choose to do both trips on the cableway, and that that while the origin points for the cableway and railway are not the same, there is a transfer service at the base of the mountain to get you back to your vehicle.

The total cost of the a return family ticket for four on the Skyway Cableway was 154 USD. 

Another great family activity in the North Queensland area is to take a hike through the Mossman Gorge, which is just beyond Port Douglas (approximately a one-hour drive north from Palm Cove or one and a half hours from Cairns). Along with stunning views of the gorge and its crystal clear waters, it also offers you the opportunity to experience the rainforest in a much more tactile way, tramping down rough-hewn paths, through ice-cold streams, and past enormous strangler fig trees nestled amongst the prehistoric foliage.

There is a fairly easy loop track hike through rainforest, which we managed in flip flops with our 5- and 7-year-olds with minimal complaints. This is not to say that we recommend this hike in sandals — proper hiking shoes would definitely have been preferable, since there are some rugged parts and also some parts that require you to traverse small streams — but rather that we managed it.

It was quite hot out when we did this hike fairly early in the day, even under the rainforest canopy, and so we would recommend avoiding doing it in the midday heat. You should also note that while entry to the park is free, you are required to park your car at the Mossman Gorge Visitor Centre and take a ten-minute bus transfer into the gorge, which costs just under 25 USD for a family of four. This was well worth the price of admission and we really enjoyed this spot.

The Cairns Esplanade Lagoon is a great stop for families located right in the middle of the Cairns waterfront.

This enormous pool has loads of shallower water for even the smallest kids to hang out in, lots of faux sandy beaches and grassy areas along its edges where parents can sit and watch their kids splashing around, and good, clean toilet and change room facilities. There’s even a McDonalds across the street for a cheap ice cream break.

This is a great place to beat the heat in Cairns and it doesn’t cost you a cent (unless you opt for the ice cream).

Our biggest complaint about visiting Northern Queensland in February is that the presence of marine stingers and saltwater crocodiles in the ocean make it too dangerous to swim in open waters.

The village of Palm Cove (where we spent most of our time) is stunningly beautiful, and also oppressively hot, and the ocean there looks so inviting beyond the palm trees lining the footpath. So it’s really disappointing that you aren’t able to just dive in for a swim, except in the single netted off area that has been cleared of stingers. But if you’re willing to stay confined to the netted area, a swim in the ocean can be very refreshing — just make sure you heed any warnings posted at the life guard station there.

Palm Cove is truly a wonderful backdrop for a swim, which can be chased with a drink or a meal at any of the patios along its lovely waterfront promenade. There’s also a small shaded playground right beside the beach in Palm Cove that makes a great stop before or after your swim.

Again, the price to cool down in the ocean is free (unless you opt for a drink or a meal, that is).