Tropical splendour

An hour’s drive north of Cairns, the idyllic resort town of Port Douglas is situated on a rainforest-covered peninsula with great restaurants and breathtakingly beautiful beaches, in close proximity to the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest.

The term resort town isn’t used loosely here. The place is literally crawling with resorts of every sort, from the affordable and family-friendly to the super glamorous and outrageously priced. Thankfully they’re all low-rise and surrounded by forest so they’re not terribly conspicuous at all, leaving the town and its beaches quite unspoilt.

Some of the resorts have gone to great lengths to meld unobtrusively into their surrounds, including Radisson Treetops Resort and Spa where we stayed for a couple of nights. The resort was built amid the rainforest, not on top of it, with the various buildings and restaurants linked by boardwalks taking you through the trees, which are particularly pretty at night when lit by candle light. There’s even a natural creek running straight through the property. It’s probably as close as you’ll get to nature without camping.

Having said that, the Radisson Treetops is quite luxurious, particularly with its massive state-of-the-art spa, located in a series of tree houses. The resort is also just a five-minute walk to the stunning Four Mile Beach, which really leaves you in no doubt you’re in tropical paradise. Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson were photographed last year exercising on this beach while in town filming the movie Fool’s Gold.

Indeed Port Douglas is a magnet for celebrities, politicians and high-flying executives due to the beauty of the place, luxurious accommodation and the area’s isolation. If you don’t want to be spotted by the paparazzi, this is the place to holiday. And the locals go out of their way to protect the privacy of visiting VIPs, nearly always refusing to talk to the press about who is secretly in town.

The most famous face to appear here was probably Bill Clinton, who has holidayed in Port Douglas with his family a number of times. Like most A-listers he chose to stay at the biggest, most extravagant and most famous resort in town, the Sheraton Mirage. Built in the 1980s by none other than Christopher Skase, it was this place that truly put Port Douglas on the map and turned it into a tourist mecca.

We stayed at the Mirage for one night to see what it was really like. Located right on Four Mile Beach, its 400 or so rooms sit surrounded by a man-made lagoon, gardens and a golf course. The d?r of the place is very 1985, full of marble and pastels. The resort is almost like a monument to the excesses and opulence of that period in history. Apparently there’s been talk of updating the place but that would surely be a shame. It should be kept as a time capsule to the 80s -“ a very extravagant time capsule at that.

There are regular shuttle buses that travel into the town’s centre, stopping at all the major resorts along the way. In town there’s a great range of trendy caf? restaurants and drinking holes, many of which wouldn’t look out of place in Surry Hills or St Kilda. There’s also a fabulous market every Sunday morning, where locals and tourists go to buy organic produce, art and crafts.

While the natural wonders of Mossman Gorge and the Daintree are just a short drive away, to get up close to the local wildlife it’s a great idea to visit the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary in Port Douglas, which houses cassowaries, crocodiles, kangaroos and koalas, to name just a few of the residents. The best thing about this attraction is the kangaroo enclosure, where you can get right up close and walk amongst them, feed them and even have a cuddle.

But the absolute must-do activity for visitors to Port Douglas is a boat ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. Tour company Quicksilver operates several tours on a variety of vessels to various parts of the reef every day. The boats leave in the morning to allow for a full day of snorkelling, scuba diving or lounging in the sun, with lunch and afternoon tea provided.

Swimming over giant clams while massive gropers and a sea turtle swam by was an unforgettable experience for us. To see more of the reef we took a ride on a glass-bottom boat which revealed some of the more colourful coral formations.

Unfortunately we had only three days in Port Douglas, which really wasn’t enough time to do everything we wanted to, such as spending more time lying on Four Mile Beach. But it’s quite possible that even a few months up there wouldn’t be enough.

Useful websites: www.rainforesthabitat.com.au, www.quicksilver-cruises.com, www.radisson.com/treetopsau, www.sheraton.com/portdouglas.

The author stayed in Port Douglas courtesy of Radisson Treetops Resort and Spa and Sheraton Mirage.