Well, after a very long and miserable Melbourne winter, my husband and I decided to treat ourselves to a holiday – the real holiday kind – where you lie beside a pool, eat, drink and generally be merry! So we decided to head north for some good old-fashioned Queensland weather – beautiful one day, perfect the next. And we couldn’t have got anything more perfect.
We started our trip very early with a drive at 5:30am to Andrews Airport parking – efficient as always, they collected the car from us and had us ferried to the airport on the lovely warm shuttle bus that was waiting for us when we arrived. We arrived at the Jetstar terminal – a little apprehensive as our last Jetstar flying experience had not been great – and after a very short wait in the queue, we had our boarding passes (seats allocated thankfully) and were through security and at the gate with 10 minutes to spare – enough for a coffee to try and wake ourselves up! Once on the plane we were pleasantly surprised to find that the plane was empty and we had 3 seats to ourselves – makes an early morning flight much more appealing. We didn’t feel anywhere near as cramped as on our last flight with Jetstar, and the staff were far more pleasant as well. We even managed to win a lucky seat prize from The Good Guys (still to find out what it is)!
Once we landed in Cairns, Airport Connections Cairns transferred us smoothly to Port Douglas in their lovely air-conditioned bus (quite a change from Melbourne). 27° when we arrived in Cairns – who couldn’t ask for better weather. We arrived at the brand spanking new Outrigger Beach Club Port Douglas around 10am – and unfortunately were not able to check in until 2pm, so we went and enjoyed the local Sunday market in Port Douglas, had some lunch, and soaked up the sun by the pool before checking in.
Once checked in the concierge carried our luggage to our 1 bedroom apartment overlooking the beautiful lagoon swimming pool. Our apartment had everything you could want – fully equipped kitchen, large bathroom, king sized bed, lounge room with wide flat screen TV and a balcony with BBQ overlooking the pool. We couldn’t possibly have wanted more! There were only a few teething problems – one of the powerpoints was missing a cover and our fridge leaked water constantly for the week, but they didn’t bother us! The resort has only been open for 2 months though – so you expect these little things.
We did the fabulous Quicksilver Outer Barrier Reef cruise one day, and managed to snorkel out on the Great Barrier Reef in conditions that were perfect – flat water and no wind! We saw lots of different types of fish and enjoyed every minute of the day out there. Lunch and morning and afternoon teas were provided – although the morning and afternoon teas were pretty average – not enough food for everyone on the boat and only tea and coffee supplied. Lunch was a large buffet with enough options to suit everybody.
After a perfect 5-day stay, we returned on our shuttle bus to Cairns Airport for our late night flight home with Virgin – as always, they were great. Virgin Blue staff were very helpful at the airport and we were checked in smoothly as always. Our flight home was uneventful – smooth and on time – we even managed to arrive a little bit earlier than planned. Andrews Airport Parking were waiting for us when we arrived and we were on our way home within 20 minutes of leaving the airport.
Overall we had a lovely stay, and really enjoyed everything we did there. Port Douglas has a lot to offer both families and couples and I would highly recommend it for a holiday if you are looking for somewhere to enjoy beautiful weather and a lovely relaxed atmosphere.
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