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Cairns
City in Queensland, Australia

Cairns

Cairns is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical northeast coast of Far North Queensland.

Plan a trip to Cairns→From Maroochydore

In the 2021 census, Cairns had a population of 169,312.

Get in

Getting to Cairns

  1. 01
    Cairns International Airport

    The primary international gateway into the region.

  2. 02
    Cairns Station is right
See

Worth seeing

Cairns serves as the gateway to the region and is rather short of cultural sights. Besides some historic buildings from the colonial era, the Esplanade and the bars/pubs are the main attraction of Cairns.

  1. 01
    Cairns Regional Gallery

    40 Abbott St (Cnr Abbott & Shields Streets), info@cairnsartgallery.com.au.

  2. 02
    Cairns Museum

    Cairns School of Arts Building, corner Lake and Shields Streets, info@cairnsmuseum.org.au.

  3. 03
    Cairns Botanic Gardens

    The Cairns Botanic Gardens are about 4 km from the city centre, and a number of bus routes pass by the various entrances.

  4. 04
    Cairns Aquarium

    This is Australia's most spectacular aquarium, displaying 71 exhibits with more than 16,000 colourful marine habitats and 10 ecosystems.

  5. 05
    Cazaly's Stadium

    Time your visit right and you could catch a great game for just a couple of dollars.

Do

Things to do

Cairns is an adventure sports enthusiast's paradise: every second shop is a tourist information centre with signs blaring "dive dive" or "tandem skydiving". Its location close to the ocean, the mountains and the rainforest gives travellers lots of choices of activities.

  1. 01
    Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

    Allows solo diving and rebreather diving if you provide appropriate equipment.

  2. 02
    Passions of Paradise

    A 25-m modern, fast-sailing catamaran travelling daily to Michaelmas Cay, where the company holds a permit allowing passengers access to the beach.

  3. 03
    Pro Dive Cairns

    116 Spence Street, fax: +61 7 4051-9955, info@prodivecairns.com.

  4. 04
    Tusa Dive Australia
  5. 05
    Spirit of Freedom

    A 37-m liveaboard boat, covering iconic and remote dive sites.

  6. 06
    Airplay Hang Gliding

    Airplay offers tandem hang gliding flights of durations up to 1 hr and a free outbound shuttle service.

Eat

Where to eat

As with much of Cairns, you can divide the city into the Esplanade and the places within a block of it, and the rest of the city. The Esplanade is littered with bar and grill places supplying red meat and beer all in the one place, and with seafood restaurants. It's relatively difficult to find anything open before 11AM since they expect the clientele to be sleeping in.

How locals move

Getting around Cairns the local way

  • Go nextThis small town nestled in the rainforest-covered mountains just north of Cairns draws thousands of tourists each week and is perhaps the most popular day trip from the city.
  • Go nextGreen Island and Fitzroy Island, both resort islands that welcome day trips, are within 45 minutes of Cairns by ferry.

From Wikivoyage: Cairns, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.