Flynn, Cairns: a bright, hospitable welcome at one of the city’s best locations

A luxury new hotel helps bring back the buzz to Cairns’ dress circle.

On your doorstep: the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon

The view is enticing, tropical and azure, and from this aspect, seven floors up on a balcony overlooking the Cairns waterfront to the Great Barrier Reef beyond, it’s hard to believe that technically, what we’re looking at is mudflats. But it’s high tide, and even on a bad day – a mighty 100mm of rain will fall outside our window in less than 24 hours during an unseasonably wet spell in April – the outlook from one of the city’s newest hotels is serene: an artificial lagoon off to one side, edged by landscaped gardens, gives way to the famous Esplanade, and after that an endless stretch of calm, turquoise sea.

Dive in: the pool at Flynn

It’s the sort of view people will travel half a world to see, and until a year or so ago they did. Then Covid struck. In Cairns, gateway to the reef, the opening of the Flynn hotel was pushed back from March 2020 to November, by which time domestic travel was slowly resuming. Today, with some hotels in the area only just reopening, it provides a bright, hospitable welcome at one of the city’s best locations, overlooking the beachless waterfront and surrounded by cafes and restaurants.

Flynn’s gym

Inside it’s all comfortable luxury, with 311 rooms featuring rainforest showers and bedside smart tablets. Our Sea room has that stunning outlook and a good sized balcony with plenty of room for a table and chairs. A perfectly positioned desk is set in an alcove with a floor-to-ceiling window that will eventually entice even the most dedicated to look away from their computer. A bright pink throw has been draped across the bed, and we’ve been left a personalised welcome note, hand-written in pink on a full-length mirror on one wall.

Beyond our suite there’s a compact glass-sided pool on the first floor, a 24-hour gym and, on the second level, the expansive main pool with glass inserts on its bottom, plenty of comfortable seating and another languorous view out to sea. An Eléme Day Spa is due to open in early June.

The hotel’s lower levels, which abut the waterfront area, house a soon-to-be opened whisky and wine bar, busy sidewalk gastro pub Boardwalk Social and in-house restaurant Flynn’s Italian. Dinner is only available three or four nights a week for now, depending on the venue. Breakfast, which is served daily, is a mix of the now rarely seen continental buffet and à la carte meals prepared to order – a combination that proved challenging for the small team of staff who were struggling to serve patrons during our visit. Sipping a latte from the self-serve coffee machine as we wait, we’re soothed by yet another unexpectedly lovely outlook through open-shuttered windows to the Coral Sea.

Outside, days of rain have worked their magic on the local foliage and the waterfront is brimming with life. Keen walkers stride past families strolling with prams, and the first of the day’s swimmers are already frolicking in the lagoon that doubles as the local swimming pool. Metres away, on the ever-busy Esplanade, a year-long project to expand the area’s outdoor dining precinct is almost complete – with the promise of bringing even more life to one of the city’s loveliest areas.

• Perfect for: Exploring tropical Far North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef.

• Must do: Check out Rusty’s Markets. Open Fri-Sun, this vast undercover space on Grafton Street showcases a cornucopia of luscious produce. Depending on the time of year, stalls groan with mounds of vibrant dragon fruit, local kipfler potatoes, persimmons, guavas and pawpaws. For a more complex taste of local flavours, head for one of the many food stands. At Ma Der’s stall, a small production line of women spend all day pounding out made-to-order serves of tasty Thai green papaya salad.

Flynn’s Italian

• Dining: Hotel restaurant Flynn’s Italian, recently opened in a large, noisy space overlooking the Esplanade, serves dinner Thurs-Sat; alongside traditional dishes are an entrée of marinated raw tuna with watermelon, blood orange and salted capers, and a main course of deliciously charred baby barramundi stuffed with fennel. Boardwalk Social (Thurs-Sun) serves gastro-pub fare including salads, pizzas and live music.

• Getting there: The hotel is 6km from Cairns airport, less than a 15-minute drive.

• Bottom line: From $247 a night for a city-view Urban room; from $292 for a Sea room.

crystalbrookcollection.com/flynn