Popular destinations booking out as tourists rush to Cairns region

Families are heading to Cairns in big numbers with a surge in bookings for the upcoming school holidays. If you haven’t secured a place yet, you might struggle.

KELLIE and Hadley Tomamichel have been travelling around Australia full-time for two years with their three children in a self-contained van.

They don’t usually struggle for spots to stay, typically needing a spare space in a caravan park. But the travel bloggers have rolled into Far North Queensland at peak time for accommodation as sites all along the coast are booking out.

“Coming up to school holidays it’s been tricky,” said Ms Tomamichel.

“We just managed to get into Cairns Coconut up the road, which was lucky, but we’ll go inland the next couple of weeks as the coast is so busy because of school holidays.

Kellie and Hadley Tomamichel with their children Lacie (5), Aaliyah (1) and Carter (3) are travelling through FNQ in their van but will head inland soon as they cannot find available accommodation along the coastline heading into school holidays. Picture: Isaac McCarthy

“We can’t get into Port Douglas or Palm Cove, that’s why we’re heading inland.

“We’ll be going up to Cape York in a couple of weeks. We’re waiting for school holidays to be finished though because we’ve heard it’s super busy during that time.”

Many accommodation businesses are overflowing as the domestic and international tourist markets sprint back into Far North Queensland, and the school holiday period hasn’t even started yet.

Many hotel, holiday house and luxury apartment businesses have been without vacancy since the beginning of June.

Carly Brady, the manager at BIG4 Port Douglas, said her powered sites are almost at 100 per cent occupancy.

Port Douglas is at maximum capacity coming into the school holidays. Booking.com may provide last minute listings for desperate holiday-makers.

“We’re pretty full, but we’ve got space still at our unpowered sites,” she said.

To the south at Mission Beach, a tourism delight on the Cassowary Coast, holiday parks and camp grounds have a smattering of availability during the school holidays, and almost none over the weekends June 24 to 26, July 1 to 3 and July 8 to 10.

“You’re a bit late,” exclaimed one holiday park manager when she thought the Cairns Post was inquiring after accommodation for personal holiday reasons.

Angie Morgan, owner of Tropical Hibiscus Caravan Park, said she still has availability.

“The grey nomad market book up to 12 months in advance,” she said.

Mission Beach is a popular destination during the school holidays. Picture: Tourism Tropical North Queensland.

“I didn’t predict last year would be the most manic in 13 years, but I also didn’t predict this year would have the quietest starting season for me, so it’s difficult to say what is going to book out and when.”

Lychee Tree in Port Douglas, is fully booked until September.

“I don’t think anyone has vacancy,” said the manager, who requested not to be named.

“If you want something, Booking.com is pretty much the only place you’ll find availability.”

For those still looking for accommodation, Booking.com has up to 24 listings for Cairns over the busy school holiday weekends, but few options have more than five rooms available.

Originally published as Popular destinations booking out as tourists rush to Cairns region