Family Follies: Holiday for All Ages in Port Douglas by Yvonne Van Dongen
Featured Hotel in Port Douglas
Thala Beach Lodge
See all hotels in Port Douglas >
The key thing about organising a 10-day family holiday where the participants range in age from 8 to 85 is activity levels. Like Goldilocks, you want ‘not too little’ (for the young) and ‘not too much’ (for the old). You want ‘just right’. For everybody. Hmmm, tricky.
As the person charged with organising it all, I knew if things didn’t work out it would be my fault. Is this how travel agents feel?
New Zealand to Australia
I decided we shouldn’t fly too far. We needed warmth, convenience, comfort and variety. Australia was the obvious choice. Port Douglas was next, even though I think it’s a tad twee and soulless but “it’s not all about you is it,” said my sister archly. And Port Douglas is a great jumping-off point for the Great Barrier Reef and rainforest excursions.
I succumbed but added a four night stay in Dunk Island at the end as a personal indulgence. I’d been there before and knew that Cyclone Larry had been a blessing. Tired communal buildings have been rebuilt into smart airy pavilions with beautifully landscaped grounds.
We could hardly wait and, at the rate time flies these days, I felt like I didn’t. Almost as soon as I’d booked it, we were on the plane with our age-appropriate accessories – teddies, iPods and Sudoku books.
The flight on a cheap airline proved the old adage, 'you get what you pay for,' and my sister’s theory that wherever you are flying, be it a three hour journey or a 20 hour marathon, it takes all day.
Yes it took all day to fly to Port Douglas from Auckland. But it was warm on arrival although, for my tastes, definitely a little twee and soulless. But fortunately my tastes weren’t shared by the group, some of whom saw it as low-rise and charming. Besides, the welcome from the Freestyle Resort Apartment’s manager was winning. The beaming white-haired, pony-tailed woman made us feel like we’d been reunited with a long-lost favourite aunt.
The pool became an immediate magnet for the shrimps while the loungers round the pool demanded a book and a slothful adult needing to come to after that frightful flight.
Surprise Discovery
I could spend an entire holiday ‘coming to’ mind you. But shrimps and oldies want more action. So we walked into town, went to the Sunday Markets (usual third-world tat but some excellent local handicrafts), flicked idly through the resort wear in the shops and had a lot of bad coffee until we found the best cafes for caffeine. And the winners are: Java Blue, The Depot and Wait-A-While bookshop.
The surprise discovery of these idle days was cane toad racing. The activity is put on by the local pub, for the benefit of the tourists mainly, but with a comical MC and some pug-ugly toads the participants had to kiss before racing, it turned out to be a hugely entertaining evening. Probably the best use some of the five billion cane toads in Australia are put to, although, I’m told you can get a high off them if they’re licked.
We also went to the very best tourist activity in Port Douglas – breakfast with the birds at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary. Some of us went three times they liked it so much. Firstly the actual breakfast is terrific but, before you get there, the walk around the Habitat is a pleasure.
Having sat in mai mais and wandered round jungles all over the world hoping to catch a glimpse of some exotic creature I can tell you that a park where they are on hand is so much better. Instead of sighting a kangaroo as it hops into the distance, here you can feed them, as well as view the rare tree kangaroo, native to North Queensland. You can also hold a snake and let a koala’s claws grip you (for a price), inspect pelicans and strange stationary dust-balls, which are really birds called the Papuan frogmouth, duck as cockatoos and lorikeets swoop overhead and marvel at the freakish cassowary as it saunters past.
There’s information (but not too much) and hugely entertaining hosts, who put on a show at appointed times, and really you could happily spend the entire morning here. Again. And again. And again.
You could quite happily make endless trips out to the Great Barrier Reef too, but that costs a great deal more and, to be honest, my Lonely Planet, was right; the reef is, as they report, patchy in parts and it’s hard to feel the love when you’re one of 400 on the huge Quicksilver catamaran. But with the underwater viewing deck and semi-submersibles, which take you on an underwater ride, it’s perfect for all ages.
Exquisite Sandy Beaches
Privately I was counting down to Dunk Island but the men were busting to burn some rubber; a tad optimistic in the people mover we’d hired but a day trip to Cape Tribulation was do-able. It had everything: a river ferry trip, ancient rainforests, exquisite sandy beaches, rugged mountains and the occasional sequestered beach café.
It also has the antithesis of the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary. The Daintree Discovery Centre is billed as a rainforest interpretive centre but really it’s an expensive folly. An over-priced walkway over the forest floor with too much information (on panels and via personal audio phones for hire) and too few animals (never saw one apart from a few butterflies).
At last it was time for my own expensive folly: Dunk Island. It didn’t matter that the flight was cancelled and that we had to travel by bus and ferry. Yes, getting there took all day, but that just made the sight of the resort all the more welcome.
Truly I cannot fault a place where the meals can be paid for beforehand, the quality is excellent, the staff are young, eager and cheery, the island is a national park and the resort activities numerous. Almost too numerous for the senior citizen who risked being left behind until the children discovered she’s a dab hand at table tennis and no worse than the rest of us at pool.
The fact that I didn’t have time to finish my book, but squeezed in archery, kayaking, aqua gym, hiking and gambling at the faux casino is probably a good thing. At least, as my sister pointed out, I had all day on the flight home to read it. The truth was, I was so tired by then, I slept, which really is the only way to handle a cheap airline.
Inspired? Check out Travel Intelligence's listings for luxury hotels in Port Douglas