🌴 A relaxing weekend in Palm Cove & Cairns

A view along a boardwalk, over the ocean. It’s a bright day and clouds are stretched across the sky
Talking a hot walk down the pier

One of the perks of the credit card Nick has is that he gets a free domestic flight each year. We’re travel lovers so we like any excuse to see something new. The free flight can be really convenient, and in the past we’ve used it to go to Melbourne for a weekend, but this time we decided to have a bit of a romantic weekend away in a more tropical area. So we flew to Cairns and went up to Palm Cove, which is a short drive north of there. It was certainly the most north I’ve been in Australia, and the weather was rather humid and hot during the day, and raining during the night.

We flew up on the Friday afternoon and unfortunately there were delays to many flights, including ours, due to a fire in the airport traffic control tower in Sydney. 🙊 It didn’t really leave that big a dent in our evening, but I certainly didn’t like the airport lounge being full of people. On the flight I ended up writing some blog posts and working on some upcoming talks. 😊

We stayed at the Reef House in Palm Cove, and it was a rather fancy place with South Pacific decor, pretty much next to a beach. I didn’t take a tonne of photos of the place, but their website has plenty. Our room had a bath and we definitely used it – they also supplied aromatic bath salts.

On the Friday night we had Japanese at a restaurant called Kushi. I recommend it! We shared some meat skewers and sashimi, and I decided to order ice cream mochi for dessert, which was plain but exactly what my tastebuds wanted. That evening was also the first time I had had Japanese in some time. Kind of a big deal considering Japanese food is my favourite cuisine.

A restaurant table with a plate of small skewers of meat, and sliced raw fish on a separate plate
Mmm all that protein 🍣

We went for a walk around Palm Cove on Saturday morning. It was super hot and I didn’t bring sunscreen (though it was available at the hotel for free) so we made our walk up and down the pier and beach rather quickly. At this time of year it’s not safe to swim in the sea due to dangerous sea creatures, so you have to swim in a designated netted area. We didn’t end up swimming at the beach anyway.

A view of a beach looking partially out to the water. There is a boardwalk in the distance
It was a hot, lovely day!
A view of a beach, looking straight out at the water
A classic beach landscape photo 🏖️
A view of the ocean with part of the sand at the shore visible. There is a large island in the distance that seems to be covered with trees
Beautiful view at Palm Cove
A view of the ocean with some rocks at the shore, and the yellow sandy shore visible. There are many trees on the land very close to the sand.
A nice view of the ocean with the sand

I actually enjoyed the swing that was on the balcony of our room! At first I thought it would be really crap and not sturdy, but it seemed to be able to hold a lot of weight. I enjoyed swinging it, and I even almost fell asleep on it. It was extremely comfortable and at 5’2, I could pretty much lie outstretched on it.

A woman in a blue top and denim skirt lying on a comfortable looking wooden swing, on a balcony.
This swing was incredible
An outdoor dining area with wooden chairs and tables. In the background is a beach, the ocean, and many palm trees
The dining area of the Reef House had a nice view out
An irregular shaped bowl with some fries, garden salad and battered fish.
Lunch at the Reef House!

After browsing through the hotel spa’s packages, we decided to treat ourselves to an exfoliation and massage. It was very relaxing and much needed. ☺️ Massages can certainly be expensive and luxurious but we’re not spending that kind of money frequently, so it was a nice treat. There was a bit of a misunderstanding and the lady at reception said that the ladies working at the spa centre couldn’t do the treatments we wanted, but offered us something else. The exfoliation scrub was really what we wanted most. Mmmm yeah smooth skin. 😂 But it turns out the lady was mistaken, so that worked in our favour, haha.

A woman sitting across from a table with her arms slightly folded. She is smiling. On the table are two cocktails and some cutlery and plates
Me with a raspberry daiquiri of sorts, at a restaurant away from the hotel

I think we got a lot of sleep that weekend thanks to sleeping in lots and lots. 😴 We didn’t swim in the pool much but we did get in some pool time. Check out my cool single-armed bikini.

A swimming pool, on the far end are sun beds and partially in the water is a woman in a blue bikini, lying partially on her side. She is looking away from the camera
In the pool 💦 It was actually getting dark and beginning to rain at this point!

It was a bit of a last-minute thing after umm-ing and ahh-ing over the cost (ugh, tourism jacking up prices), but we rode the Cairns Skyrail cable car to get some nice rainforest views. It was a very long cable car ride and very humid, but a nice experience. I live for trees. I love trees. I’m totally a tree-hugger, haha. Seeing so much green in nature makes me happy.

A view from a cableway, where the lines for the cableway can be seen in frame, and some of the gondolas too. The landscape is lush and green with areas of grassland and several areas rich with trees.
The cable car goes up pretty high! 🚠
A view of a forest-like area on an incline, with a bit of roadway visible through some of the trees. It is a cloudy day
A sliver of road as seen from the cable car
A forest-like view of trees from a high vantage point. The sky can be seen and it is very cloudy and almost dusty.
One of the highest vantage points. I got bitten by a lot of mosquitoes here!
A very dirty waterfall with light brown water, seen from a high vantage point with lots of trees. There are lots of large stone faces in the waterfall’s flow
Barron Falls in portrait orientation made more sense!
A selfie of a man and woman smiling. The woman is wearing an orange top and the man is wearing a pattered blue collared shirt and has sunglasses on top of his head. There is a waterfall in the background.
Me and Nick with Barron Falls in the background ☺️
A view of the bottom of the waterfall in the previous image, with a high point of green headland
The bottom of Barron Falls

And after that we grabbed a quick lunch, headed to the airport and were soon on our way home. Although I used to think that visiting a city in your country was not that exciting compared to visiting somewhere internationally, I think it makes for a good short weekend away and I’ve been trying to embrace it more.

Going to a camping spot or heading on a road trip? You might be looking for a cheap ute hire for your trip if you don’t have your own.

A view from a plane window of the left plane wing. It’s a very cloudy day and a green part of the coast can be seen below, as well as the ocean, which looks like a cloudy brown
Flying back home

Not a lot of words for this blog post today, but enjoy the photos! 🌴

Leave a Comment

Comments on this post

I love Cairins it’s such as beautiful and friendly place, when I was there the weather reminded me of my hometown in Florida. That sounds so scare though, a fire, but at least you made your time in the airport productive. That hotel is so beautiful, and so are the photos here!

Reply to this »