Cairns, AU

Craig Squire's long-running modern Australian dining room on Marlin Parade — the restaurant that put native ingredients (green ant, lemon myrtle, native pepperberry, crocodile, kangaroo) into the Cairns fine-dining conversation thirty years ago and still does it best.

The marina-front dining room and bar at the Cairns Yacht Club end of the Esplanade — Argentinian wood-fired grill, brick-oven pizzas, and the city's most-photographed sunset deck. Doubles as a long lunch venue and a late-night cocktail bar after the kitchen closes.

Thirty years on the Cairns boardwalk — the place locals send relatives for the rite of passage of barramundi, crocodile, kangaroo, and emu on one plate. Family-owned, family-priced, and unfussy in a strip that has gone increasingly upmarket around it.

Four converted trawlers moored at Marlin Marina Berth E31 — eat tiger prawns, oysters, mud crab, and Moreton Bay bugs on the deck where they were just landed. No bookings, no menu beyond the chalkboard, and the most-Instagrammed lunch in Cairns.

The Pier boardwalk restaurant where you pick the catch and the cook — grilled, battered, baked, or pan-seared, off a daily blackboard of what came in that morning. Wednesday-to-Sunday only; the rest of the marina is busier, this is where the locals eat fish.

The Cairns outpost of the Port Douglas craft brewery — in the heritage cargo shed on Wharf Street, with the brewing tanks visible behind the bar and a pub menu (wood-fired pizza, ribs, fish and chips) calibrated to the beer list.

The all-day bistro tucked between the Reef Fleet Terminal and the Pier — the place most reef-tour passengers don't realise is right there, doing a proper full breakfast through 11am and a casual lunch on the inlet boardwalk into the afternoon.

The churrascaria on the Esplanade at the Pacific Hotel — Brazilian-style all-you-can-eat where the meat (crocodile, kangaroo, emu, beef, lamb, chicken) comes around on skewers and you flip a card from green to red when you've had enough.

The one-hatted pan-Asian dining room inside the Reef Hotel Casino — Thai, Vietnamese, and Cantonese plates with native Australian crossovers (Moreton Bay bug pad thai, kangaroo larb). The room is darker than the cuisine suggests; the kitchen is more serious than the casino setting implies.

Bertrand Brun's French bistro on Lake Street — the dining room that turns thirty Cairns customers a night into French-speakers by the second glass of wine. Duck confit, escargots, steak frites, and a chalk-board specials list that hasn't changed in twenty years.

The cocktail-and-small-plates bar in a Bank Lane laneway — dimly lit, mezzanine seating, and a menu of bourbon-leaning cocktails and bar food (sliders, charcuterie, smoked brisket) that won bar of the year in Queensland twice running.

The Grafton Street laneway cafe with the muralled courtyard — the cafe most Cairns locals will name first when asked for coffee, with house-roasted single-origins and an all-day breakfast that does the bush-tucker thing (smoked kangaroo on toast) without making a meal of it.

The Esplanade-end coffee bar with a second Spence Street location — third-wave coffee from rotating local roasters, a single-page breakfast menu, and the only Cairns cafe most baristas at other cafes will admit to drinking at on their days off.

The Esplanade pizzeria that has been doing wood-fired Neapolitan-leaning pizzas longer than any other room in town — small, family-run, and the answer when the rest of the Esplanade strip is fully booked or charging twice the price.

Nick Holloway's hatted beachfront dining room on the Palm Cove sand — modern Australian with a tropical-pantry obsession (green papaya, finger lime, palm hearts) and the only kitchen north of Brisbane named Regional Restaurant of the Year by Gourmet Traveller.

The other beachfront restaurant on Williams Esplanade — a Mediterranean-leaning all-day room with breakfast on the sand, casual lunches, and dinner-and-cocktail service that fills the gap between Nu Nu's two seatings. The Palm Cove restaurant most locals book first.

The Trinity Beach trattoria on Vasey Esplanade — twenty-plus years of straight-down-the-line Italian (handmade pastas, wood-fired pizzas, osso buco on Sundays) opposite the beach, with the strip's best Italian wine list and the same family running the floor since opening.

The 1.5km circuit from the Botanic Gardens up Mt Whitfield — over 250 steps each side, a 40-minute lung-buster, and the view at the top spans the Cairns CBD, Trinity Inlet, and the airport runway. The locals' before-work training loop.

The 5.4km extension of the Red Arrow — a rougher, rooted, steeper trail that loops the ridgeline of Mt Whitfield Conservation Park and adds three peaks and 600m of climbing to the day. Two to three hours, recommended only for hikers used to Wet Tropics conditions.

The freshwater swimming hole 15 minutes from the CBD — a 1.2km paved track along the Freshwater Creek with rock pools and small waterfalls the whole way, plus the rope-assisted scramble up to Fairy Falls for hikers with traction. Free, croc-free, and the locals' summer cool-off.

The waterfall and swimming hole that sit underneath the Kuranda Scenic Railway viaduct — the train passengers crane to see it from above, the hikers walk in along the Douglas Track and swim in it from below. Two-hour return from the trailhead, free, no facilities.

The 75m falls 45 minutes inland — granite escarpment, multiple plunge pools above the main drop, and a campground at the trailhead. Less-trafficked than the Crystal Cascades because the last 4km of access road is unsealed; 2WD-passable in the dry season.

The 3.4km loop from the southern end of Trinity Beach over Earl Hill — 194m of climb through rainforest to two lookouts (Trinity Beach to the north, Yarrabah Range to the south), then back down to the sand. The northern-beaches equivalent of the Red Arrow.

The 7.5km cableway from Smithfield up to Kuranda over the Barron Gorge rainforest canopy — two intermediate stations (Red Peak, Barron Falls) with free ranger-guided boardwalks at each, and the most-photographed approach to Kuranda. 90 minutes one-way if you stop at both stations.

The 1891 heritage railway from Cairns Station up to Kuranda — 37km of switchbacks, 15 tunnels, and the Stoney Creek and Barron Falls viaducts along the way. Two daily departures from Cairns; one-way takes 1h45 and includes a stop at the Barron Falls viewing platform.

The high-ropes course and small-zoo combo on the roof of the Reef Hotel Casino — koalas, freshwater crocodiles, and a saltwater croc named Goliath in a netted dome, with a zipline that runs the perimeter and the option to climb the outside of the casino building itself.

The locally-owned eco-certified catamaran out of the Reef Fleet Terminal — Michaelmas Cay and Paradise Reef in a single day, full snorkel kit included, intro and certified dives optional. The mid-range reef-tour pick for travellers who want a smaller boat than Quicksilver.

The 2018-built three-venue arts complex on Florence Street — the 940-seat Pavilion, the 400-seat Studio, and the outdoor Munro Martin Parklands amphitheatre next door. Programming runs from Queensland Ballet seasons to JCU graduations to the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair.

The 180-stall produce-and-everything market on Grafton Street since 1975 — exotic tropical fruit (durian, mangosteen, soursop, custard apple), Far North Queensland farmers, hot food stalls, and the place locals stock the weekend kitchen. Friday-Saturday-Sunday only.

The 70-stall covered market between the Esplanade and Abbott Street — souvenirs, Aboriginal-art shops of varying provenance, jewellery, massage chairs, and the hawker-style food court at the back. Open nightly 5pm-11pm; not where you buy serious art, but the post-dinner walk-through every Esplanade hotel sends guests on.

The Marlin Marina terminal building where every major reef-tour operator checks in — Passions, Reef Magic, Sunlover, Reef Experience, Down Under Cruise & Dive, and the Quicksilver shuttle to Port Douglas. The day starts here for anyone going to the outer reef.

The 4,800sqm saltwater swimming lagoon on the Trinity Inlet foreshore — Cairns' answer to having no swimmable beach in the CBD (the muddy inlet is croc territory). Free, lifeguarded, open year-round, and the gravitational centre of the Esplanade boardwalk strip.

A three-storey aquarium dedicated entirely to the freshwater and marine ecosystems of Tropical North Queensland — the Wet Tropics streams, the mangroves, and the reef in sequence. Opened 2017 and the wet-weather backup for every Cairns trip the reef weather scuttles.

The Flecker Garden in Edge Hill — one of the country's most significant tropical plant collections, with the heritage palm avenue, the gondwanan heritage garden, and the freshwater lake on the lower terrace. Free entry; the visitor centre runs free guided walks weekday mornings.

The rainforest village above the Barron Gorge — the destination both the Skyrail cableway and the Scenic Railway terminate at. Heritage and Original markets run daily, the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary and Birdworld are walkable from the platform, and most of it empties by 3:30pm when the last train leaves.

The northern-beaches suburb 17km from town — a long sweep of pale sand, a stinger-net enclosure in the wet season, and a single beachfront strip of restaurants on Vasey Esplanade. Quieter than Palm Cove, with cheaper accommodation and the same west-facing sunsets over the range.