Who we built this for
Cairns is a base as much as a destination. Most people here are heading somewhere — the reef, the tablelands, Port Douglas — and what they need is somewhere good to eat either side of that, which is a different job to guiding a city.
So this covers Cairns City properly, and then Port Douglas, Palm Cove, Kuranda and Trinity Beach as the places people actually spend time, rather than treating everything outside the city as a footnote.
We keep it honest: a venue makes the guide when we have enough to describe it properly.
Right now we cover 1,024 places across Cairns, organised into 28 categories and 11 suburbs — from Cairns City, Port Douglas, Kuranda to Trinity Beach. Our biggest sections are restaurants (134), where to stay (125), parks (92), shopping (79), tourist attractions (75).
Coverage centres on Cairns City, Port Douglas, Palm Cove, Kuranda, Trinity Beach and Edge Hill. Restaurants and accommodation lead, which reflects how the region is genuinely used.
We're not a spam directory and we're not trying to list everything. We'd rather list places we can describe from real source material than pad the site with venues we have nothing specific to say about.
Why holiday reviews need adjusting for
The Spot Score
Every venue gets a Spot Score — our own independent rating that weighs a venue's reputation, popularity, the quality of information available about it, how well it fits its category and how fresh that information is. It's our score, not a paid placement and not a copy of a Google star rating. You can read exactly how it works in our editorial policy.
How listings are produced
Listings are compiled from each venue's own published information and Google Places data, with AI assistance for drafting. Drafts are checked against that source material before publishing. We do not visit every venue, and a listing never implies a visit or an owner confirmation unless it says so explicitly. When a reader reports an error we log it and correct the listing.
Honest sourcing
We only state things we can stand behind. Where details such as opening hours or menus come from a third party, we treat them as a starting point and encourage you to confirm with the venue directly. We're upfront about where our information comes from — see how we create content.
One of thirteen Australian guides
Cairns Spots is one of a growing network of independent Australian city guides, each dedicated to a single place — from Brisbane and the Gold Coast to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Canberra, Darwin and Tasmania. Same standards, same honest approach, applied city by city by people who care about getting their patch right.
Tell us if something's changed
Know a spot we've missed? Submit a venue — the best tips come from locals. Spotted something out of date? Let us know and we'll fix it.