How To Spend 4 Days In Cairns

If you’re planning to spend 4 days in Cairns, you’re not going to be short on things to do!

This tropical paradise in Far North Queensland has everything from ancient rainforests to stunning coastal tracks and a vibrant city centre.

Most people head to this part of Australia to visit the Great Barrier Reef, and while that might be your plan too, we want to show you everything else there is to do while you’re here!

4 Days In Cairns Full Itinerary

After spending 3 months working and living just outside of Cairns, it soon became one of our favourite parts of Australia. This itinerary is curated with our most memorable experiences during that time, and things we consider a must while visiting Far North Queensland.

Listed as the country’s 4th most popular tourist destination, after Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The tropical vibe here is much more relaxed than the other locations and with so many nature escapes located close to the city, there were times we had to remind ourselves where we were!

Day 1: Explore The City

Let’s kick off day one with a bit of time exploring Cairns to get your bearings and learn a bit more about this relaxed city.

While Cairns doesn’t have a beach, it does have the Esplanade Lagoon which is popular with tourists and locals alike. The Esplanade is a public swimming pool and park area that offers a safe space to swim away from the risks of crocodiles or sharks… Yes, those are very real risks in Cairns!

Surrounding the lagoon you’ll find free showers, public toilets and free BBQ’s (perfect for those of you who are travelling by camper!) as well as plenty of shops and cafes.

Dogs are allowed to visit the Esplanade as long as they are on a lead and not allowed too close to the BBQs, play park or lagoon.

From the lagoon you can explore along the coastline via a 5km boardwalk that gives you great views back over the city and coast.

Remember not to get too close to the water. Crocodiles are a huge risk here. If you want to find out more about that, we have a post here!

At low tide, you will be able to see various birds making the most of the mud flats and mangroves to hunt for crabs or fish left behind by the tide. For anyone wanting to see some of Australia’s unique birdlife, spoonbills are commonly seen here, as are many other smaller shorebirds.

Hemingway Brewery

A short walk from the Esplanade is the popular Hemingway Brewery that does good food, but also offers a great place to hangout in the evening too. This is the place to go if you’re looking to connect with other backpackers and travellers while you’re in Cairns!

Providing there are no cruise ships docked, they also have a great view over the harbour. We stopped here for a couple of drinks during our day walking around the city and found it to have a really good atmosphere with friendly staff.

Cairns Botanic Gardens

If you’ve read a few of our other city guides, you’ll know that it’s never long before we head to the botanical gardens!

Just a 45 minute walk away from the Esplanade, (directions here) Cairns Botanical Gardens are free to enter and offer more than 10 unique landscapes to explore for as long as you want.

From the Aboriginal Plant Use Garden, where you can learn about the uses for various plants found all around Australia, to the Rain Forest Boardwalk, there’s plenty to discover here. Our favourite part, however, was the Watkins Munro Martin Conservatory which houses carnivorous plants!

Photo Credit: Andrea Goes Places

Day 2: Do A Great Barrier Reef Tour

The second day of your four days in Cairns, we’re going to recommend you tick off that bucket list item and head out to the Great Barrier Reef.

Even though we spent 3 months living nearby, this is one activity that we actually chose not to do. Shocking, I know, but we were planning an epic road trip from Cairns to Darwin that was going to take several weeks so we chose to put out money aside for that instead. We don’t regret that decision.

Anyway, there are so many Great Barrier Reef Tours available that it can be hard to choose which one to do. Since we don’t have a personal recommendation to pass along, we’ve done some research to find the best rated tours to see what they offer:

Snorkel & Scuba Dive Full Day

This tour is run by The Divers Den and with over 900 reviews on Get Your Guide, it’s one of their best selling Great Barrier Reef tours.

Setting off from Cairns Marlin Marina, you’ll be on the water for roughly 8 hours, which includes 2 exclusive outer reef locations, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

Green Island Full Day Tour

The second most popular tour on Get Your Guide is the Big Cat Green Island Cruise.

This tour leaves from Reef Fleet Terminal, and lasts for 8 hours but has less of a focus on snorkelling and scuba diving – although they do provide snorkelling gear if you want to have a go!

While the majority of the trip is on a catamaran, it seems they also offer semi-submarine or glass-bottom boat tours too. So I think this is a great option for those travelling with younger kids who might not be able to snorkel just yet but still want to see marine life.

Great Barrier Reef Flight

If, like us, you don’t want to spend a full day at sea to visit the reefs, you can see them from above via a scenic Great Barrier Reef flight!

These flights last around an hour and everyone is guaranteed a window seat. Having since done a small plane tour to see whales in New Zealand, this is the experience that I would go back to Cairns to do if we could.

Day 3: Atherton Tablelands

Next up on your 4 day in Cairns itinerary is a trip to one of the best places in the region… The Atherton Tablelands.

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the rainforests here and think it deserves a full day from Cairns. Especially if you’re travelling in your own campervan, or have hired a car from Cairns.

The most popular thing to do in The Atherton Tablelands is the unofficial waterfall loop which takes you past, you guest it, several incredibly beautiful waterfalls.

Ellinjaa Falls was our favourite from the loop, with Millaa Millaa Falls being the busiest and most commercial thanks to being a backdrop in several shows, adverts and music videos. If you want to see this waterfall without the crowds, you’ll need to get there early!

Once you’ve finished exploring the waterfalls, make your way back via the town of Atherton for a bit of a wildlife detour because this is the best place to see wild platypus in Australia! If you stop off at Peterson Creek, and wait patiently enough, you’re almost guaranteed to see this unique mammal cruising through the water.

If you don’t have your own car, but want to see the waterfalls, you can join a guided tour of the Atherton Tablelands.

Day 4: Discover Mossman Gorge

The final part of this Cairns itinerary is spent at Mossman Gorge, the gateway to the Daintree Rainforest which is the world’s oldest rainforest!

There are several self-guided walking tracks that follow the Mossman River and zig-zag through the forest that surrounds it, but you can also do a few different guided tours here, including the Aboriginal DreamTime Walk which will tell you more about the local beliefs that are interwoven with this part of the country.

You can easily spend a full day here. There’s a cafe on site, or you can pack a picnic. Entrance to the gorge is technically free, however, to avoid congestion they have introduced paid parking with a shuttle to get you into the main area. You can park for free and walk up, but the road is quite sketchy without a proper footpath, especially when it’s busy.

If you don’t have your own car, there are plenty of day trip tours that leave Cairns. This one includes lunch and a river cruise to see wild crocodiles!

Alternative Itinerary Options:

While we’ve already outlined the ideal 4 day Cairns itinerary, we recognise that not everyone will want, or be able to. do the Great Barrier Reef.

Since Cairns isn’t a massive city, below is what we recommend to do instead!

Kuranda & Barron Falls

Kuranda is a quirky little hippy town not too far from Cairns that has an awesome vibe with plenty of boutique little crafts shops, cafes and nature to explore.

There are several ways to reach Kuranda from Cairns, with the easiest (and cheapest) being to drive yourself if you have your own cat.

Alternatively, you can take a 7.5km cable car ride from Smithfield over the rainforest and waterfalls for a truly scenic one of a kind trip. 

Another option is to take the scenic train from Cairns to Kuranda. This is a 2 hour tour that includes several short stops along the way.

If you want to experience it all in one bumper day trip, this guided tour offers exactly that with hotel pickup from Cairns too!

Once you’ve had your fill of the scenic transport, head on over to Barron Falls to be truly amazed by its sheer power! It can be seen from both the scenic rail and the skyrail, but there’s something different about walking to the viewpoint and spending a little extra time admiring it.

In winter, there will be nothing but a trickle, so it’s best to visit in summer if you can.

The boardwalk to the lookout is well maintained and suitable for pushchairs & wheelchairs. However, dogs are not allowed in this national park (a common theme across the whole of Australia)

Photo credit: Just Wander

Is 4 Days in Cairns Enough

Considering we spent 3 months living in the area, we think 4 days in Cairns city is plenty if you want to do a few day trips like we’ve outlined in this itinerary.

However, for the rest of the Tropical North region, we think you need at least a week to be able to visit Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation which both ideally need a couple of days each.

If you’re doing a full working holiday visa in Australia and have an extended time to explore, we highly recommend hitting up this region. Work was easy to find and there’s plenty to do that just isn’t possible on shorter trips.

Where To Stay In Cairns

There are plenty of beautiful hotels and hostels available in Cairns. We had our own campervan, so we were staying in that. The NRMA Cairns Holiday Park is close to the centre of the city, with all of the amenities you need it’s a great place to base yourself.

Put your dates into the search bar below to see availability on the map!

Final Thoughts About Visiting Cairns

I hope this Cairns itinerary has given you a good idea about what you can squeeze into your short time in this tropical paradise.

With 4 days in Cairns, you’ll be able to see the highlights of the area and no doubt leave wanting to come back for more!