What is there to do in Port Douglas?
We ended our three weeks in Australia with three nights in Port Douglas. The small beach town is like Airlie Beach, but more tropical and more grown up.
The best things to do in Port Douglas are:
Explore Four Mile Beach
Take a boat tour to the Great Barrier Reef
Go to the Daintree Rainforest
So that’s what we did…
Day 1: Great Barrier Reef tour
We joined a Wavelength tour to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef and it was one of the best experiences we had in Australia – if not one of the best experiences of my life. It’s impossible to express how amazing it is to see the reefs and marine life up close. And the guides on Wavelength really add to the experience. They are professional marine biologists and champion divers who share their knowledge and help you feel safe the whole time.
And if the weather isn’t great during your time in Port Douglas, don’t let that put you off. It was raining when we booked our trip, but the reefs are 50 km off the shore. So you never know how the weather will be once you get there. And even with wind and a bit of rain, it didn’t affect our snorkelling experience at all.
Find out more about our trip with Wavelength in my blog here.
Day 2: Daintree Rainforest
Now this is an activity where the weather really does matter. We were in Port Douglas a couple of months after a bad cyclone had hit and a lot of repair works were being done along the roads and in the forests. Trees had fallen and mudslides and floods meant many of the popular walks in the rainforest were inaccessible.
Before heading out we had checked the Queensland Traffic website and Daintree Ferry Twitter for road and forest conditions. But once we got to the Daintree Ferry, the worker told us that there was only one walk we would be able to do. We didn’t make it 10 minutes on the other side of the river before a tree fell about 20m ahead of where we were stopped at temporary traffic lights. So our trip to the rainforest abruptly ended and we had to turn around!
On the way back, some roads were already starting to flood from the heavy rain. And if you’re stuck on the wrong side of the river when floods cause the ferry to stop then there’s nothing you can do but wait.
If our day had gone to plan we would have:
Visited Mossman Gorge (which is on the right side of the river but the clouds were too low for it to be worth the 92m elevation)
Jindalba Boardwalk
Coopers Creek
Cape Tribulation
Day 3: Explore Port Douglas and Four Mile Beach
The small town of Port Douglas is laid back, quiet, and beautiful. It’s so green and tropical, and the aptly named Four Mile Beach that lines its eastern side is a calm and peaceful place to walk, run, or just sit and chill. The only problem is that you can’t go in the water due to marine stingers and crocodiles… But it was brown with silt from the rainforest during our visit so it wasn’t hard to resist the temptation.
Despite the weather not being great, it was still warm and a stroll along the palm-lined beach still felt like a fun and relaxing end to our Australian trip. Many hotels here also offer free bike hire, so cycling around the town is another great way to explore.
We also surprisingly had some of the best food in Port Douglas. The Mexican and Jungle Fowl were the perfect dinners to complete our three weeks in Australia.