DCF

Unless you go in June/July/August you need a car, especially for rainy days, but also to go to Palm Cove and Cairns.

The hotel is forty miles from the airport. The transfers to and from the hotel basically cost the same as two days car hire for a couple, more for a family.

Oh, also Cash and Points is poor value there. There is always a rate for less than $200 per night on sale, except the Australian winter school holidays.

GrizShel

Thanks for the tips. How is the drive from Cairns airport to there? Arriving about 1 PM on a weekday. Not use to driving on left side, so getting out of the city could be a little stressful.

andreirublev

It's straight highway all the way with maybe 5 traffic circles. It was my first time driving on the left too; super easy.

There's quite a few beautifully scenic places to pull off all along the way.

punkmonkey

Just completed a 3 day stay here.
The hotel stay was fine in general. Lots of service related issues, though.
(In fairness, I just completed a week on Thailand and then on to the PH Sydney, unfair comparators).
The first was at check-in. Room upgrade was a smoking room. Asked to be downgraded to original booking, they couldn't as they were fully booked. maybe tomorrow. Ended up taking the room for three nights as there was no smell in room and wife didn't want to repack to move.
The parking lot was full for a wedding, had to go back to desk to find out where alternate parking was located. Glad we finally found a bellman to handle our bags. The walk from the parking lot to the room with bags would not have been fun.

Room/Hotel decor: Not much more to say on this. Almost deserves a stay to see this for yourself. Comically outdated.

Breakfast. Offerings were good in general. Chose the full buffet instead of points. They could not find the breakfast included at the cashier each morning. They would write down our room number to check on it. Same thing each morning. Nothing on bill at checkout.

Checkout: There were charges for a roll-away mattress. There was one in our room. I did not request it and did not use it. The room was big enough for me not to be bothered by it. The charge was removed.

Overall, not that bad a stay. Very close to the beach. Great pools. You will have to drive to PD. Takes 5 minutes as most. Had dinner there each night. Internet speed was fine for me but mostly just light browsing.

timg

Looking to see the GBR when I am in Australia in a couple of weeks, and thinking of either this SPG property or the Hilton in Cairns. I'd appreciate thoughts on the two properties.

I'd also like thoughts on the area and weather. I understand its the rainy season until March. What can I expect the first week of April? Is it worth going, or should I try something further south?

Appreciate any guidance and suggestions. Will only have 2-3 days to visit.

m0hamed

Hilton means you can explore CNS, have more options for food and nightlife.

I like the Hilton if you have Club access and/or a Spa Room or higher.

We prefer the Shangri-La which is much more quiet which makes a nicer experience.

The weather on the outer reef differs from CNS.

DCF

My sister had five days there at Easter 2012. It rained all day every day, but I stayed on two more days which were okay.

igneous

trying to decide if I should stay here with points or just stay at the holiday inn in cairns with points in june. Have a day before and a day after a 4 day reef dive drip in the area, probably a day for relaxing after the trip and the day before to do the daintree/cape tribulation stuff

x9bull

Came back from a 4-nights stay x 2 rooms, and was overall very pleased with the property. Like many have already mentioned, the property itself is old ...... you get a feeling going back to the 90's... but other than that, everything was very nice. both of our rooms were upgraded to the pool/lagoon side. We were given 2 full breakfast buffet per room as plat benefit.

The outside of the hotel, the garden, the lagoon, were beyond description. (beach was a joke tho).. my family spent an entire afternoon just wandering around in the resort.

there's shuttle to the town and marina, which was like $5 pp? we didn't need since we had our own car.

There's a zoo just around the corner, which i thought was a must visit. it will only take you 2-3 hrs, but you get to feed and touch all kinda of birds and kangaroo ! we even met some baby kangaroos : D

CPRich

Anyone been here recently - I see a renovation started in May, running through early next year. I'm looking to stay next June. I'll probably go ahead and make the reservation - I can always cancel - but was wondering how the reno is going.

igneous

iirc the View from the wing blog went there recently and had a post about it

unclepants

We stayed here as a family of 5 about a month ago. The renovations didn't impact our stay at all.

CPRich

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....-barrier-reef/ - that helped a bit, though somewhat heavy on pix and light on text/details.

flymonthly

We had a short stay there at the beginning of the month and at least two buildings of rooms were closed for renovation. It didn't seem to have any impact on our stay since the hotel wasn't very full. Other than a mildew smell in our room and uninspired food in the restaurant, it was a very nice couple of days.

CPRich

Were you in renovated rooms? I'm not worried about the work impacting our stay - it's not until next June - but I'm debating here vs. a Hilton property in town. This property gets below average scores on various review sites, but I'm expecting the renovation to address it.

I may have to refresh/bump this request in the spring if the work is just starting.