Cairns Resort Review

Have you holidayed at Cairns? Here's your chance to tell other owners what it's really like? How big is the pool? How hot is the hot tub? What do you wish you had known before you left home?

Wow vinny, that is shocking

we stayed at this resort in December 2009 & have nothing but praise for the staff & amenities. We had a rental car so access was no issue but hearing that they charged for supplies is appalling especially when that is what we pay all this money on ownership for + the housekeeping fees

Always find it funny how we fork out $$ for housekeeping but see notices that on departure we must clean up our dishes or place them in the dishwasher & start the cycle so that Housekeeping can simply empty the thing

My only gripe about Cairns was the groundsmen doing the morning clean up around the pool with those noisy Leaf Blowers right on 8am every morning. too bad if you actually wanted to sleep in on your relaxing holiday

Vinnie,
We were there in Carns in Feb 08 and did not have the problems that you seemed to have. It is so difficult trying to make other properties come up to the standards of WorldMark.

I have been to hundreds of timeshares over the years, 31 in the worldmark system alone. It is very seldom do I find my comfort level in condos outside of the worldmark brand. Some other companies units have been plush and over the top and some have been trashed and made you wonder who maintains these.

It is difficult for standards to remain high and to have workers to maintain those equal standards without rules and guidlines.

Worldmark has those guideline and their people do maintain that standard, if they completely own the resorts. That is why I always go to the on line sight for where ever we are going and do my home work before we book a place.

A star rating doesn't always mean the same thing in other parts of the world. Five stars in one place might get a two in another.

Always research prior to booking a place, make sure who runs it, Hiltons and Wyndham's don't always own everything their names are on.

We just returned from a week in Cairns - great place to visit and highly recommended.

WARNING - the resort lists phone calls will be charged $0.70 per call. What they don't tell you is that this is a connection fee and that there are additional charges/minute (calculated to the second). We were charged Aus $12.60 for two phone calls, totaling 6 minutes and 15 seconds, to arrange airport shuttle services. Quite a shock on checkout, I assure you.

Other than that, we enjoyed our stay immensely. We rented bicycles in town and rode in and out most days - it is about 7km each way. We also took the bus, and never spent more than 20 minutes getting to town. We never took a taxi anywhere. You can flag the bus and have it stop right at the gate to the resort. Cairns is small enough you can walk just about anywhere from the bus terminus; however small children might not be so keen at the end of the day.

We headed out of town for the rainforest tour (which also allows you to visit some very fine unspoiled coastline) and the reef diving tour (an obvious must do - and they do a great job of catering to folks who are less than fit or weak swimmers who would like to snorkel).

As noted in prior posts, the amount of dishwashing/dishwasher/laundry soap and toilet paper is limited, so you may need to purchase a small amount at the local grocery if you go through your supply. We were fine with our allotment, but it was just the two of us in the unit.

Overall, we were pleased with our unit and furnishings and would return for another stay. We'll just pay the $2 internet access fee to make our shuttle reservation rather than make any more phone calls!

Linda
Christchurch, New Zealand

Has anyone vacationed at Trinity Links in February? What is the weather like?

We were there in Feb 2008, We got wet a few times, but it always stayed very warm and pleasant. Rains most nights. One night it rained so hard the water was gutter to gutter deep in a matter of an hour. Took us 60 minutes to drive 4 miles; we could not see the stripping on the road so we stopped along with about 95% of the late night drivers. 20 minutes later the rain stopped and the water drained in 10 minutes somewhere and steam rose off the road. Remember it is Summer there and it is the tropics. Have FUN.

I was in Cairns between the 6th and the 11th and wanted to post a few observations I made while I was there that may help others. For what it's worth I am from the United States and traveled by myself.

• Should I rent a car? Yes! I had read other posts saying that the day tours would pick you up directly at the resort, and so I really agonized about whether I would need a car or not. It seemed like I probably wouldn't use it much, and I was also quite worried about driving on the left side of the road. In the end I decided to rent one and I am so glad that I did. The resort is a very convenient short drive away from the heart of Cairns, but it's definitely not close enough to walk. I drove into town every night to get something to eat and just walk around, and thought on multiple occasions how relieved I was that I had decided to rent a car. Additionally, I ended up driving many places I wanted to go rather than signing up for a day trip (and even went to some nice waterfalls where no day trips went).
  • Will I be able to drive on the left side of the road? I'm not going to lie: The initial drive from the airport to the resort was completely nerve-wracking, but I honestly could't believe how quickly I got used to it. Unless the thought of doing so completely terrifies you I heartily recommend trusting yourself and going for it!
  • Turning at red lights: In general you can't turn at a red light like you can in the states. In some places there will be a sign clearly telling you it's ok to turn left, but otherwise just wait until the light turns green.
  • Faster cars go in the right lane: I didn't think about this until I was actually on the road driving, but this, like everything else, is reversed: When there is more than one lane slower traffic stays in the left lane, and faster traffic goes in the right.
  • Two lane roundabouts: There are a number of these on the Captain Cook Highway which you might end up taking, and they caused me a lot of confusion the first time I encountered them at night (although once I finally figured out what was going on it made perfect sense). If you want to stay on the highway (i.e. continue driving in the same direction) you can be in either lane. If you want to exit to the left, however, you must be in the left lane when entering the roundabout, and if you want to exit to the right you must be in the right lane when entering.
  • Don't underestimate how much time you will need to return to the airport: I had become a bit overconfident in how comfortable I was driving in Australia and didn't leave the resort as early as I should have. Fortunately I made my flight, but just barely. I ran into many little problems that made the return trip take longer than I had planned on, all but one of which were my own fault and a result of being unfamiliar with driving. I don't really have any specific advice, but thought I'd mention my experience in the hopes that it might help someone else avoid the same fate .
• How much cash will I need? I was able to use a credit card for everything I needed. The only time I used cash was because I got flustered buying bread when I had trouble using my card, and I ended up paying with cash because I was getting embarrassed (I'll elaborate on what I learned in the bullet point below this one). If, like me, you prefer a credit card I would recommend getting a small amount of cash at an ATM at the airport for emergencies but otherwise your card should be fine.
  • PIN or Signature? I found that when using a card the most common sequence of events would be for the cashier to ask "Check, Savings, or Credit?", and then "PIN or signature?". My impression is that using a PIN is what most Australians use. Tourist-centered places seemed to anticipate that I would want to sign, but some (like the place I bought bread) assumed I would want to use a PIN. The secret, I found, was to just always ask if I could use my signature.
• Paying at a restaurant: This is actually something I never quite figured out completely, and so if any Australian is reading this please feel free to clarify or correct . I found that if I didn't ask for my check (I believe they call it a "bill") it would never get brought to me. Moreover, I got the feeling in the last place I ate that even asking the waiter for the bill was odd, and that maybe the expected thing to do was for me to just go up to the cash register and ask to pay. So, if you find yourself waiting around at a restaurant after you're done eating and wondering why, your server is probably wondering the same thing .
• How is the resort? I haven't been to that many WorldMark resorts, but this one was my favorite. I think many of the complaints I've seen posted here are valid, but if my two cents are worth anything I really enjoyed myself. I thought the units themselves were really nice, and I loved all of the trees/plants outside and how it looked. I never saw anyone use the pool the entire time I was there, so I never did either (if I had been with someone else I would have but it felt weird getting in by myself ), but it really looks pretty and I loved going to sleep with the sound of the waterfall outside my window every night.
  • Will they really schedule all of your activities at the front desk? I had read numerous people mention this, but I still felt worried going there without having anything planned, and wondered if I would regret not scheduling things online before I left. If you have similar concerns, let me put your mind at ease: The front desk was very helpful in talking me through everything and calling places to set things up.
• Should I do an introductory scuba dive if I've never done it before? I had never done snorkeling or scuba diving before, and my intention was to just do snorkeling (and if I really loved it try an introductory dive in Fiji, where I was traveling to after Cairns). Once I got on the boat, though, the guy talked me into doing a dive. Even though he just did it to make his company more money and I agreed because I'm easily persuaded, I am so glad I tried it. I can't guarantee that everyone will like it, but if you have a slight nagging voice in your head that maybe you might want to try scuba diving I encourage you to give in!
• Is it worth going to the Tjapukai cultural park? I was planning on going to this, but the lady who helped me at the WorldMark desk talked me out of it. I talked to a few other people over the course of the next few days, though, and decided to visit it after all. I ended up really enjoying it and was glad I visited. If it doesn't look interesting than I wouldn't recommend going (it's not that great), but I wanted to share my experience in case anyone else finds themselves in my position. If it's something that looks interesting to you I would advise going and I bet you'll enjoy it.
• Is it worth going to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures? This was something that I almost certainly wouldn't have gone to if I hadn't read so many positive things about it beforehand. I ended up going, though, and really had a good time. If you're on the fence about it, my advice would be to go, especially for the Crocodile Attack Show and the ride around the Crocodile Lagoon. Besides the crocodiles you can see kangaroos, koalas, and cassowaries (these were the only cassowaries I ended up seeing in Australia), and I had a really good time.
• Is it worth going to the Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda? This was an optional add-on in one of the day trips I did, and I thought it sounded like a fun thing to do. The place itself was very interesting and pretty, but I think I would have been happy spending 5-10 minutes there. Instead, I had a guided tour which probably took about 45 minutes (including a delayed start from when we arrived in Kuranda). This meant that I had about 10 minutes to run around the rest of the famous city furiously taking pictures and hoping I wasn't missing anything. If you take an organized tour to Kuranda that offers the Butterfly option I would not do the upgrade and just pay the entrance fee yourself (or skip the butterflies altogether).

I think those are all of the tips I thought of that I wanted to share, but if I think of any more later I will add them. If anyone has any followup questions let me know and I'll do my best to answer them!

I and some friends stayed at Cairns in January of 2018. The room was very nice and loved the pool. One thing that I found different was that if you run out of the things in the starter pack salt pepper coffee or TP you had to go to the store and get more, not like N American WM. Other then that the resort was great.
Stayed for two weeks, would say to see Hartlys and the train sky-car Kuranda trip. Did a live-aboard through Diver Den 2 nights 3 days, very safety oriented would defiantly go back. In Cairns go to the new Aquarium easy to spend most of a day.