Port Douglas 3

Port Douglas is the premier and original tropical Queensland town for travel.

Dining options in town are good, with hotel and resort restaurants adding to the mix of eating places in the main street. A good choice for a sit-down lunch or dinner is The Court House Hotel at the top of Macrossan Street. Built in 1879 as the local courthouse, the grand two-storey building survived a devastating cyclone in 1911 and became a landmark of the low-lying town. You can book a table on the deep upstairs verandah and look out over the water, cooled by (thankfully quiet) ceiling fans as you tuck into delicious seafood or steak.

Port Douglas also excels at takeaway fish and chips, which you can buy for under $10 on Macrossan Street and eat on the grassy area along the waterfront. On Sundays this is the location for the Port Douglas markets, which are of a surprisingly high standard, with lots of local artists and craftspeople selling their works. The atmosphere is fun and friendly, and you’ll soon have an extra bag to take home if you’re not careful. Next to the market area is another Port Douglas landmark: a pretty little weatherboard church with cute wooden pews and a huge picture-frame window overlooking the water.

When you’re ready to venture further afield, there are plenty of day trips north to the magnificent Cape Tribulation, “where the rainforest meets the reef”, although you need more than a day to do that natural wonderland justice. For reef trips, Port Douglas has a plethora of operators to choose from, with options ranging from snorkelling and diving to glass-bottomed boats and semi-submersible vessels.

I recommend steering well clear of the major operators, which carry up to 400 passengers on one boat. Outfits such as Wavelength, Sailaway and Calypso use much smaller boats and hence take only small groups, meaning you get a much more personal experience. The smaller operators also tend to visit better sites, with the large outfits restricted to certain areas. For example, passengers on Green Island tours are limited to snorkelling off the beach, where the water tastes of diesel fuel from the large boats pulling in and out, and the underwater scenes lack the colour and diversity for which the reef is famous.

On a smaller boat, you often have the chance to snorkel and chat with marine biologists and other specialists who have an infectious passion for the reef and its creatures. The range of fish is striking. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll have the quasi-spiritual experience of swimming among graceful sea turtles.