A trip through rugged outback country is the only way to reach our country’s northernmost point, the tip of Cape York, and Australia’s last frontier.
Cairns to the Daintree
A quest to the tippy top of Australia’s Tropical North is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The journey to Cape York begins in Cairns, heading north through the canefields to the ancient Daintree Rainforest. Stopping at Mossman Gorge in Daintree National Park, take the Ngadiku Dreamtime Gorge Walk with local Indigenous guides to learn the secrets of traditional hunting and gathering methods, and hear the sacred stories of the Dreamtime.
Cape Tribulation to Cooktown
Sealed roads are left behind as you hit the rugged Bloomfield Track, which starts at Cape Tribulation and carves its way through rainforest for 80 kilometres before cruising back onto bitumen for
the last stretch to historic Cooktown.
Laura and the ancient Split Rock
Heading inland, at the tiny settlement of Laura, a visit to the Quinkan & Regional Cultural Centre provides context for a tour of the ancient rock art galleries of Split Rock, known for its distinctive figures of the Quinkan spirits believed to live in the sandstone, and listed by UNESCO as one of the top 10 rock art sites in the world.
The home stretch
From Laura, it’s unsealed roads all the way to ‘The Tip’. This epic journey is one that award-winning tourers, APT Tours, knows well. Specialists in reaching the hard-to-reach and seeing the unseen, they’ve been operating adventures off-road through Australia’s remote outback country for more than 50 years.
APT’s custom-built 4WD vehicles are made for this journey.
APT’s custom-built 4WD vehicles are capable of traversing some of the world’s roughest terrain, including the Kimberley, Kakadu, Lake Eyre, Central Australia, Karijini National Park in Western Australia, and the Victorian and New South Wales High Country – just a few of the many destinations APT travels to.
On a Cape York journey, each day brings something special. Visit the old gold mining town of Coen, stop at the Archer River roadhouse, see waterfalls and giant termite mounds and an array of stunning birdlife, and learn about the Aboriginal and European history of this fascinating and remote region.
Arriving at the tip, spend some time on beautiful Frangipani Beach. From Punsand Bay, it’s a short walk to the edge of the peninsula for a photo with the iconic sign that shows you’ve joined the ranks of those who ‘made it’.
A photo with the iconic sign of Australia’s northernmost point is a must.
Cooktown & Cape York with APT Tours
11 days / from $8245 per person twin share
APT’s 11-day Cooktown & Cape York quest to the top of Australia’s Tropical North is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The tour’s exclusive Signature Experiences means you’ll be granted access (by helicopter, no less) to the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, a conservation area typically off limits to the public.
Take to the skies again on a scenic helicopter flight from Punsand Bay for a different perspective of the tip of Cape York, and spend the last days of the tour exploring Thursday Island and Horn Island in the sparkling Torres Strait.
Take a scenic heli-flight over Punsand Bay for a different perspective of the Tip.
APT’s 4WD journeys are designed for small groups – no more than 22 guests – escorted by a knowledgeable driver-guide and tour director. They’re committed to working with local Aboriginal communities, and are the only major tour operator with an advanced ecotourism certification in the Outback for their commitment to environmental and sustainable practices.
Book the Cooktown & Cape York tour before December 15 and save $1500 per couple. Trips run from May to September and can be combined with a Great Barrier Reef cruise.
For more information on APT’s Outback Wilderness Adventures, visit aptouring.com.au/Outback2020 or call 1300 341 214.
From must-eat tropical delights to blink-and-you’ll-miss-it destinations you’ll only find up in North Queensland, these are the best places to eat, drink and be merry in Port Douglas.
The tropical seaside paradise of Port Douglas is wedged between two magnificent World Heritage Sites – the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest – and surrounded by fruit farms, reef fishing hot-spots and growers of great regional produce. When it comes to where to eat in Port Douglas, we’ve made it simple: these are the best restaurants and cafes to put at the top of your itinerary.
Sip on iced lattes in a relaxed outdoor seating. (Image: Grant Street Kitchen)
Cuisine: Bakery Average price: $ Atmosphere: Relaxed Location: Shop 4/5, Corner Grant Street and Macrossan Street, Port Douglas
Flaky almond croissants and succulent pies (creamy prawn and coral trout, anyone?) are handmade onsite by the owners at this buzzy bakery that sits beneath umbrellas at one of the town’s busiest intersections. Come for breakfast or lunch – there’s an all-day cafe menu, too – or pick up pastries to enjoy with an aptly iced latte. Pro-tip? The duo behind the bakery also sell their goods at Port Douglas’ Sunday market, so you can enjoy the deliciousness in store or at home.
St Crispins
Cuisine: Modern Australian Atmosphere: Relaxed cafe Location: 9 St Crispins Avenue, Port Douglas
Located on the sugar-cane-centric Bally Hooley railway line, which was used to transport sugar from the now-defunct Mossman sugar mill and down to the wharf at Port Douglas, this all-day eatery enjoys views over the water and greens of the Mirage Country Club golf course. Tuck into cinnamon French toast with chargrilled local bananas or a crispy fried chicken burger (elevated with Thai-inspired chilli mayonnaise, thank you very much), and pair it with a Bloody mary, sparkling mimosa or strong flat white. Four-legged friends are welcome, too.
Lunch
Nu Nu
This beachside restaurant offers panoramic views of the ocean. (Image: Nu Nu)
Cuisine: Modern Asian-Australian Average price: $$$$ Atmosphere: Relaxed, tropical Location: 1 Veivers Road, Palm Cove
Technically in Palm Cove, a 40-minute drive south of Port Douglas, this beachside restaurant is a must-do if you’re in the region. Ask for a table outside, where you’ll be shaded by coconut palms and serenaded by the gentle waves while overlooking Double Island. The eatery is open from 7am to 10pm, off and on, but a leisurely lunch is the best time to experience the tangy signature thin slice of caramelised duck wrapped around a cube of pineapple, followed by spicy butter-poached reef fish with salted cucumbers and tall, glistening glasses of blood orange gin sours in true tropical spirit. Take the flavour to go, too, with a scoop of white-chocolate-and-macadamia gelato from Numi Ice Creamery (by the same folks), just down the road.
Salsa Bar & Grill
The light-filled Salsa Bar & Grill has a wraparound verandah with views of Market Park and Dicksons Inlet.
Cuisine: Modern Australian Average price: $$ / $$$ Atmosphere: Casual and fun Location: 26 Wharf Street, Port Douglas
An institution in Port Douglas for thirty years (just look at the signed plates stacked into the ceiling above the bar), this all-day eatery buzzes as loudly at lunch as it does at dinner. Diners on the wraparound verandah will enjoy sparkling views over Market Park and Dicksons Inlet. Wherever you sit, you’ll be amongst the hustle and bustle of experienced local waitstaff ferrying generous plates of linguine “pepperincino” with local tiger prawns, a jambalaya with chunks of crocodile sausage, and a lunch-friendly tropical cocktail, such as the “Gone bananas”, which features Bacardi, banana liqueur, coconut cream and fresh banana. Save room for dessert: the tasting platter is a sweet (and shareable) note to end on.
Melaleuca
The menu at Melaleuca champions local and regional produce.
Cuisine: Modern Australian Average price: $$$$ Location: 22 Wharf Street, Port Douglas
When freshly baked bread comes out in a paper bag, still warm, and is followed by thin, crispy slivers of pig ear, you know you’re in for a special kind of evening. The latter is perhaps a nod to the Scottish roots of Melaleuca ’s head chef, but the remainder of the menu is a thoroughly Australian affair, championing local and regional produce across dishes such as seared Tassie scallops with smoked bacon, pan-seared Daintree barramundi with a cauliflower puree, and homemade gnocchi with a creamy, nutty mushroom and pumpkin treatment. Sit outside – beneath soft festoon lighting and swaying palms – to make the most of the warm breeze, or settle under cover; either way, the indoor-outdoor dining experience here epitomises the Port way of life.
Afternoon Delights
Zinc
Share hearty meals and cocktails on a Friday arvo. (Image: Zinc)
Cuisine: Modern Australian Average price: $$$$ Atmosphere: Smart casual Location: 53-61 Macrossan Street, Port Douglas
Grab a table on the outdoor deck at this long-time eatery on one of Port Douglas’ main thoroughfares, where the cocktail list is extensive and the dishes – generous bowls of luscious pasta with fat prawns, whole barramundi fillets in a coconutty curry, and the signature eye fillet from Queensland’s Darling Downs – are piled high. It’s a family-run operation with roots in the local community, and you can find flavour from 2pm until the late evening. The Smoking Mandarin cocktail combines tequila and mezcal with zesty citrus to create a perfect complement to whatever is on your plate.
Wrasse & Roe
The ocean-centric eatery is a seafood haven. (Image: Wrasse & Roe)
Cuisine: Seafood Average price: $$$ / $$$$ Atmosphere: Casual dining Location: Coconut Grove Complex, 9-11/56-64 Macrossan Street, Port Douglas
It’s only fitting that you embark on a seafood expedition while you’re up in Tropical North Queensland; if hopping on a fishing charter isn’t on your agenda, then this relatively new ocean-centric eatery should be. Tuck into buckets of chilled locally-trawled prawns or a bowl of rich, tomatoey seafood marinara packed with calamari, mussels, clams and more, then cap off the afternoon with a suitably tropical passionfruit parfait. Seats outside are perfectly placed for people watching and making the most of languid summer afternoons.
Dinner
Nautilus
Nab an open-air table beneath a canopy of palms at Nautilus. (Image: Toby Stanley)
Cuisine: Modern Australian / Seafood Average price: $$$$ Atmosphere: Rainforest retreat Location: 17 Murphy Street, Port Douglas
Dishes of blushing pan-seared scallops and succulent kingfish tartare look especially appealing when they’re ferried out to open-air tables beneath a canopy of palms at Nautilus , a Port Douglas institution and locally recommended must-visit dining destination. It’s been here since 1954, so the street cred is legit, and the menu puts tropical produce on a pedestal. The five-course degustation menu (available in vegetarian, pescatarian and seafood-free variations, too) gives you a little taste of everything, but you’ll want to add the signature crispy-skinned whole coral trout, which comes out vertical atop a pool of sticky, sweet, oh-so-moreish caramel sauce.
Jungle Fowl
The menu at Jungle Fowl features homegrown ingredients from their kitchen garden. (Image: Chrissie Cosgrove)
Cuisine: Modern Thai Average price: $$$ Atmosphere: Youthful, fun and funky Location: Shop 2/28 Wharf Street, Port Douglas
The fun factor is turned up to 100 at this Thai restaurant , where the bright, colourful murals keep pace with the vibrant dishes. Happy hour runs from 5-6pm and includes $12 cocktails such as the makrut lime-spiked mojito or zesty Thai-twisted margaritas alongside $10 ginger-topped beef-brisket bao. The rest of the time, you’ll find pinchable portions of prawn-topped betel leaf and shareable chilled squid salad keeping pace with spicy green curry and Angus laced with snake beans on a menu that features homegrown ingredients from the kitchen garden out back. (The six-course banquet menu, at $83 per person, is a great way to get a taste of everything.)
Seabean
Seabean is within a short walking distance of Wharf Street. (Image: Catseye Productions)
Cuisine: Spanish Average price: $$ / $$$ Atmosphere: Lively Location: Shop 3/28 Wharf St, Port Douglas
Open Thursday to Sunday, this tapas-centric restaurant turns out pintxos and paella to deliver a trip to Spain without the jetlag. Consider the perfectly portioned terracotta bowls of grilled Spanish chorizo with poached pears, fishcakes made with local barramundi served with spicy tomato jam, or classic patatas bravas dusted with paprika, then order them all. Bite-sized pintxos change regularly, the paella is generous and piping hot, and dessert – Crema catalana served in a coconut half – is unmissable. Plus, it’s all within walking distance to both the water and the downtown action.
Knock-Outs
Bam Pow
The signature pineapple dish at Bam Pow. (Image: Supplied)
Cuisine: Vegan / Asian Average price: $$ / $$$ Atmosphere: Relaxed Location: 79 Davidson Street, Port Douglas
Neon lights and board games help this vegan eatery pump up the fun – but the funk is innate in the menu as well. Beyond the happy hour specials (refreshing $12 margaritas in shades of watermelon, spicy and classic, $7 beers and a banh-mi-and-beer combo for $24), the menu straddles the Asian fusion brief to produce flavour-packed dishes of chilli-topped dumplings, crispy eggplant tempura and a zesty papaya salad topped with a crunchy cassava crackle. With cuisine this creative, you won’t miss the meat at all.
Harrison’s
Find an idyllic spot to dine on the lagoon-side deck. (Image: Harrison’s)
Cuisine: Modern Australian Average price: $$$$ Atmosphere: Poolside elegance Location: Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas Rd
While it’s now located within the massive 147-hectare Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, this eatery has been a part of the fabric of Port Douglas since 2007. It moved over here in 2017 and has been turning out luxurious degustation dinners and a la carte plates of citrus-cured reef fish, whole Queensland crayfish dressed in brown butter, and Hervey Bay scallops tossed in XO sauce ever since. The lagoon-side deck is the place to be on a balmy Queensland evening, where your meal’s backdrop will include lush palm fronds and the symphonic sounds of crashing waves from the beach further afield.
Treehouse Restaurant, Silky Oaks Lodge
The Treehouse Restaurant boasts lush views of the rainforest.
Cuisine: Modern Australian Average price: $$$$ Atmosphere: Tropical luxury Location: 23 Finlayvale Rd, Finlayvale
Technically in Finlayvale, still in Douglas Shire, this exceptional eatery enjoys stunning views over a private stream of the Mossman River with tables nested within a cavernous open-air dining room serviced by a capable, passionate culinary team. The menu changes regularly but makes a point of featuring local produce artfully presented with flair. Lunch is a set affair, with options for a two- or three-course selection including dishes such as fluffy smoked potato raviolis with pork ragu, kingfish cured in macadamia milk, and slow-cooked lamb shoulder with kunzea and black lemon. Settle in for the afternoon and let the gentle soundtrack of the river guide you between courses.
