Spent 3 nights at Crystalbrook Bailey, great location so easy to walk around town. Love the exposed concept of lobby area, the greenery and artwork everywhere showcasing local artists.
Learnt so many new things about this property for instance:
Did you know Crystalbrook Bailey Residences are Pet Friendly for your four-legged friends?
Arte their delightful lobby bar offers a complimentary glass of wine for you to sample a drop you haven’t tried before between 4-5 pm Tue to Sat.
The hotel regularly partners with aspiring artists to showcase their work in lobby exhibitions and generally opening nights are free to attend.
Enjoy a beverage at Pachamama by the pool, take your book to read or enjoy a swim.
Great steaks to be enjoyed at CC’s Bar & Grill and the coffee each morning by their local Barista is second to none. The breakfast staff on shift were a delight to see each day with their welcoming smiles and attentive service. Veg and Non-veg options available.
Thought provoking but well worth a visit is booking the Turtle Hospital Tour at Cairns Aquarium. You can add this to your ticket entry when purchasing online. The Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre is a not-for-profit volunteer organisation that cares for rescued Sea Turtles with locations on Fitzroy Island, James Cook University, and the Cairns Aquarium Reef & Research Centre.
The tour teaches you about the 6 species found around Australia. Sadly, all are classified as endangered, vulnerable, or critically endangered. This behind-the-scenes tour showcases the amazing work in rehabilitating and nursing Turtles back to full health then it’s back to their home in the ocean and our Guide provided idea’s of sustainable living practises we can all adopt to ensure the conservation of Marine Turtles. After the tour we enjoyed looking at the Aquarium at our leisure. Allow yourself a minimum of 4 hours to have a good look around.
Enjoyed a walk around town taking in the local scenery – The Esplanade walk, Cairns Lagoon, past numerous Waterfront restaurants and cafes to my lunch venue Wharf ONE Café. The coffee was fantastic and my meal so enjoyable, snagged a great table looking out over the water. Great service, Veg & Non-Veg options available, such a perfect day.
Cairns Food & Wine Tours, this was a full day tour that offered so much to see and experience. Wonderful Driver/Guide collects you from your Cairns hotel. Full commentary throughout, breakfast, shopping, morning tea, farm walk & platypus spotting, lunch, wine tasting, afternoon cheese, chocolate, fruit tastings, shopping, spirits tasting then an ice creamery. Honestly, we ate so much, the food, great company of fellow passengers, our amazing Driver/Guide, the products we visited, even a sing a long in the bus on the way home made for a great day out. Veg & Non-Veg options available.
Driving south of Cairns past the industrial areas, new housing estates and lush farmland we turned off at Gordonvale, drove past Walsh’s Pyramid – with a height of 922 m, the distinct pyramid appearance, gives the mountain its name. For those interested in hiking there is a track. Note this is Grade 5 track so very experienced walkers only, refer link for Queensland National Parks & Wildlife. We then head up the Gillies Highway. This is a very winding road (approximately 19 km long) with so many bends I lost count but the reward is breakfast at Lake Barrine Tea House. Yummy breakfast and coffee on arrival, (pre-ordered the day before). Time for a quick walk around the Tea House before going to the gorgeous township of Yungaburra for morning tea and shopping in Winter & Mann. If I had one suggestion it would more time in Yungaburra to explore at our leisure. This store stocks the best North Queensland products from food, artwork & fashion, plus the owners Anna Winter & Stuart Mann are just lovely humans.
Lunch stop was Australian Platypus Park and a walk around the lush vegetation to their spring fed pond to spot Platypus. It was a delight to spot 2, even in the rain. Local wine on offer to try and as well.
Off towards Atherton our next stop Gallo Dairyland, a real working dairy property. Very yummy chocolate and cheese tasting with an option to buy more from their store or walk around the grounds. We left for The Humpy at Tolga to try locally grown fresh Fruit. I was also really impressed with the great range of GF products available for sale. Everything from pasta, coffee to locally roasted nuts, quirky knickknacks this is a very popular stop and nice to see not just tourists but locals having a yarn with the staff and popping by to purchase. Hitting the road again we arrive at Mt Uncle Distillery in Walkamin and enjoy a tasting of gin, rum, vodka, or single malts, many are award winners. Beautiful grounds to enjoy, it was also very interesting hearing about harvesting and growing the Agave plants on site.
When you think you cannot possibly fit anything more in, we make a call into Emerald Creek Ice creamery, Mareeba for some seriously good ice cream! More options to buy local products as well, we loved sitting outside under the tree canopy and enjoying our dessert and chatting about our day. Heading through Kuranda and down the range we make our way back to Cairns very content with our day trip, so great to visit another region in Far North Queensland to enjoy good food, produce, company, the beauty of nature and best part was everyone could relax and just enjoy the views whilst our awesome Driver/Guide Chris took care of everything for us.
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