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Arrival and information
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Downtown Cairns
is the grid of streets behind the Esplanade, overlooking the harbour and Trinity Bay.
Buses
arrive at the end of the Esplanade at
Trinity Wharf Transit Centre
, while the
train station
is 750m away under the
Cairns Central
development between Bunda Street and McLeod Street (the bus terminal may also eventually move here from Trinity Wharf). If you're staying in a hostel, you'll usually be picked up at the Transit Centre, and possibly from the train and airport if you give advance notice. The
airport
is about 7km north, along the Cook Highway. A
taxi
from the airport into Cairns costs $11; a
shuttle bus
($5.50) connects with most flights and delivers to all central accommodation. Sunbus, the
local bus
service, is based at the
Transit Mall
on City Place (Lake St), and serves several beaches north as far as Ellis Beach; passes are available for a day, week or month and you can get free
timetables
from the driver. You may also be able to
rent bikes
at your accommodation. If you're after a secondhand car, or want to sell one, head for the Esplanade, scene of an informal trade amongst backpackers; backpackers' cars are also advertised on the
notice board
in an arcade beside the museum at City Place.
Unofficial
tourist information centres
abound, each promoting its favourite tours, though accommodation and many businesses in Cairns can offer much the same. If you want to browse through piles of tour brochures or need less biased advice, head to the information office just outside the Transit Centre on Wharf Street (Mon-Sat 7.30am-6pm, Sun 8.30am-6pm). Cairns also has several contact points geared to helping out
backpackers
with accommodation, travel bookings, notice boards and
work
; two close to each other at City Place on Shields Street are Backpackers World/World Wide Workers (tel 07/4041 0999,
www.worldwideworkers.com
) and Travellers Contact Point (tel 07/4041 4677,
cairns@travellers.com.au
); both also offer cheap phone and internet deals. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Australia,
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