A-Z Guidebook: Departing from Port Douglas Marina in Queensland

Q is for Queensland

During the 14 months we lived Down Under, we only traveled once to Queensland – Australia’s second largest state that covers the continent’s entire northeast.

Queensland’s main attraction is a gorgeous coastline stretching nearly 7,000km that is home to the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef system. Although there are dozens of tours exploring the GBR, I think your best option is to depart from Port Douglas.

During our long weekend trip to Queensland, we flew into the city of Cairns and quickly retreated up north to a quiet beach town called Palm Cove, which seemed less touristy than other destinations. I selected a snorkeling tour with Silver Series which allowed a bus pick-up from Palm Cove for an additional cost. The whole point of this trip was to have a relaxing weekend on the beach so we wanted to limit our driving as much as possible.

We quickly departed the bus once we arrived at the Port Douglas Marina and followed through an efficient queue that led us out to our awaiting catamaran. Palm trees and clear blue waters seemed to flank the marina in every direction I looked. I’m sure Port Douglas would have been a pleasant place to stay as well.

Of course the main highlight of this trip was snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef – an experience that we’ll never forget! If you’re looking for more articles about Queensland, then please check out: Dreaming of Palm Trees in Palm Cove, Under the Sea and Snorkeling Among Colorful Coral in the Great Barrier Reef. 

I’m linking this post to the monthly travel guide link up organized by Fiona, a fellow Australian blogger, at Tiffin Bite Sized Food Adventures. Each month features a new letter of the alphabet. This month is the letter “Q.” Please pop on over to Fiona’s blog to read more travel stories or feel free to link up your own!

(Note: Q can be a challenging letter. I thought of previous trips to Quintana Roo and Querétaro in Mexico and of course anything related to Queen Elizabeth or QueenVictoria. Good luck thinking of Q!)

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Dreaming of Palm Trees in Palm Cove

A Travel Guide on Where to Eat and Sleep in Palm Cove, Queensland

If you’re looking for a relaxing oasis in Queensland, we found the small seaside village of Palm Cove quite delightful.

Palm Cove, 27 kilometres north of Cairns, is named after the long stretch of palm trees that line the beach here in Northeastern Australia. Many tourists opt to stay in either Cairns or Port Douglas (both bustling locations) when visiting the Great Barrier Reef, but we found Palm Cove the perfect tranquil spot. We simply strolled along the beach, sunbathed at our hotel and enjoyed eating and drinking along the Esplanade during our weekend stay. That’s all we needed.

However, kayaks or windsurfers were available to rent if we had wanted to be more active.

Sunrise in Palm Cove

Not wanting to miss a single sunrise, we woke up early on both Saturday and Sunday. All we had to do was stroll across the street, less than 50 meters, and we were on the beach. I was surprised by how many people were up early exercising or taking photos like us. Trying to capture that perfect sunrise moment through the palm trees seemed to be a popular activity.

Where to Sleep in Palm Cove

Luckily, we had a Hotels.com free night to redeem, so we only paid 288aud (about $200usd) for two nights at the luxurious The Reef House. This boutique hotel was definitely one of the fancier ones we’ve stayed at in awhile and the price was just right too. The Reef House has two pools, and it’s best to arrive early in the morning (by 10 a.m.) if you want one of the lounge chairs.

The hotel offered a poolside honor bar by day and a staffed bartender after 5 p.m. when free punch and snacks were served. This was a fun way to chat with some of the other guests. Plus, who turns down a free drink? Not us!

Palm Cove offers a variety of accommodations from local apartment rentals and small motels to a spacious campground and caravan park.

Where to Eat in Palm Cove

Despite being a small town, you’re spoilt for choice on where to eat in Palm Cove. We enjoyed one the best meals at The Reef House Restaurant, which has been regarded as one of Cairns' top restaurants. Reservations are definitely recommended. I loved the restaurant’s signature dish of crispy skin Barramundi with a Thai red curry, Asian salad and rice! We also tried the local dish of Moreton Bay Bug (basically a small lobster) for the first time because of it’s strange name. Not bad.

We had two other dinners at Vivo Bar and Grill, which has an international menu with Asian influences and delicious cocktails, and a simple, homemade Italian pizza and salad at Il Forno, which seemed very family friendly.

For a casual, diner-like experience for breakfast or lunch, we sat outside at Pete’s Place. The menu here offers eggs, toast and bacon for breakfast and the likes of BLT sandwiches or fish and chips for lunch. For a more typical Aussie brekkie, head down the street to Cocky’s for poached eggs with avocado, pancakes or Eggs Benedict.

Would you like to stay in Palm Cove?

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Snorkeling Among Colorful Coral in the Great Barrier Reef

Since it’s the midst of summer here in Australia, I can’t help but think about beaches and tropical destinations.

Australia has heaps of beautiful destinations to visit, but one of the most tropical places we’ve visited so far is the Great Barrier Reef. The reef covers a whopping 344,400 km2 and includes more than 3,000 coral reefs in Northern Tropical Queensland.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park contains about 600 different types of coral – which come in an underwater rainbow of colors and different shapes and sizes. When I was snorkeling over this coral, I was in awe! And I also was concerned about not kicking my flippers into the nearby coral.

Luckily, we even saw the Great Barrier Reef at low tide when the tops of the coral reefs are exposed to the air. What a sight!

Coral forms the backbone of the reef and is where many fish and sealife call home. There are two main types of corals — hard and soft. I don’t know much about the biology of coral, but from what I understand the softer corals are the ones that are often more visually striking than the hard variety. Soft corals are especially important as they serve as home to marine algae, which is one of the reef’s most essential food sources for the small fish, and then bigger fish eat the small fish. Such is the circle of life!

Sea anemones are related to soft corals and is therefore actually a living animal - not a plant.
Do you see the lil Clown Fish?

Looking back through my photos, it appears that we saw quite a bit variety of both hard and soft corals on our snorkeling trip. I only hope that this stunning underwater world maintains this beauty as it’s threatened by global warming, illegal fishing and the Crown of Thorns.

If you visit Australia, definitely make sure to explore the Great Barrier Reef! (Oh, and maybe rent an underwater camera like we did too.)

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Under the Sea: Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef

Imagine having nearly five hours to enjoy the magical Great Barrier Reef in Tropical North Queensland!

Well, part of the time you’re relaxing on a catamaran and then you get to hop off the boat into the clear turquoise waters of the Coral Sea. We enjoyed a wonderful snorkeling trip on the Silver Sonic through the Quicksilver group, based in Port Douglas. This is a smaller tour, with about 80 people maximum, compared to some tours which can be like 200 to 300 people. The tour isn’t cheap at 224aud ($164) per person, but we figured this was probably an once-in-a-lifetime experience so we went for it.

And we certainly were NOT disappointed either! The sea is teeming with more than 1500 different species of colorful tropical fish in every shade of the rainbow too. Our tour included three stopping points which allowed us to see a variety of fish and coral in the outer reefs, which are supposed to have some of the best diving and snorkeling sites.

Hubby braved his first diving experience and took to it like a fish in water. His dive (an additional 65aud ($47)) included personal instruction and a 30-minute intro dive. He loved it!

The biggest fish we saw was a Maori Wrasse, pictured above with my husband. This guy scared the crap out of me, but this species is really friendly and the boat staff fed it some bait so we could take photos of “George”. The Maori Wrasse can live up to 30 years and grow to over 2 meters in length.  Unfortunately, this fish is eaten in many southeast Asian countries but is listed as endangered on the Union for Conservation of Nature list, since 2004.

Meanwhile, I suited up in a lycra suit because the water was a bit chilly and to protect myself from sunburn or potential jellyfish. Then I went snorkeling. I’ll admit I was a bit freaked out in the middle of the sea by myself. So on our last two stops, I strapped on a life jacket vest to help keep me afloat in the water and then I felt much safer.

We also rented an underwater camera from the company for about 65aud, but again the cost was worth it. I took more than 300 photos of the marine life in the Great Barrier Reef, plus it kept me occupied instead of worrying about floating away. Ha! I saw so many different kinds of fish that I couldn’t even identify them all.

The Parrotfish are easy to spot thanks to their parrot-like ‘beak’ and they are abundant in the Great Barrier Reef. The Parrotfish use their ‘beaks’ to bite off and eat the soft and hard corals in the sea.

The yellow Butterfly Fish is another easy one to recognize because of its distinctive body shape and what looks like a long ‘nose’. One interesting fact is they usually travel in pairs and tend to mate for life.

And we found a Nemo (clown fish)!

Check out all these bright blue colored fish too!

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If you visit Australia, I highly recommend taking a snorkeling trip in the Great Barrier Reef too! This trip was worth every penny, and I have a ton of colorful photos of our memories here!

Is snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef on your bucket list?

 

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