This post was written and titled “Living in Port Douglas” when we were planning to escape Port Douglas over a decade ago. We have lived in Port Douglas on and off since we emigrated here from the UK. We owned a beautiful house there, but we left to travel the world for several years in 2012. We returned to Port Douglas in 2020 – 2023. Port Douglas is a great place to live for the right kind of person. If you’re here looking for a guide to living in Far North Queensland, this may be it. This post is also about our experiences of living in Port Douglas as a young couple, a family with small kids, and now as over 50s with teens and young adult kids, and why we left. Read it, we hope you find our story of leaving for new adventures interesting, and we talk about the realities of life in Port Douglas and tropical Far North Queensland.
I am now a professional travel blogger living in Port Douglas, years ago, when I’d just started out, I had no idea Google would rank us so highly for this topic. I also had no idea my fledgling travel blog would become the huge global resource and success it is today. But here it is, you found it.
This is a personal post in the midst of a thousand travel guides but it should be useful to you if you are considering moving to Port Douglas Australia or Far North Queensland.
We left Queensland and it was a life-changing, amazing decision, and then we came back. That was also a good choice for us at the time. As the years pass different lifestyles and locations become better, or worse, for every family or individual. Port Douglas may be perfect for the phase of life you’re in right now.
I’ve updated this post from Vietnam, we lived there for a while, we’ve also lived in Romania, and London and visited around 50 countries since shipping out of Port. Today will live on the Tablelands and commute to Port Douglas for work. So we’ve seen the world and can compare and make informed choices on the positives and negatives of living in different places and climates.
Read on, the realities of living in Port Douglas.
Living in Port Douglas.
Port Douglas is a tropical paradise to many, but is living in Port Douglas as good as it sounds? Realities of living in the wet tropics of Far North Queensland, and that relaxed tropical vibe. Back then I wrote the following. The facts and guides to living in Port Douglas are later in the post. Can you save the image below to Pinterest? Thanks.
“With all this planning and talk of leaving to start new adventures, I’ve forgotten to mention that we’re already in what many would consider Paradise, a dream holiday destination. We’re up here in the tropics, living in Port Douglas, Australia.
Four Mile Beach is a short walk away, we practically live in a rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef is on our doorstep.
So why did I want to leave?
It was mostly because I have the soul of a nomad and always have, staying put isn’t for me and I craved the freedom I’d tasted as a younger traveller exploring the wider world.
We’d been living in Port Douglas for almost 5 years so tropical living had lost its shine and became our normality. The worries, problems and difficulties of daily life got in the way, as they do anywhere.
I lost sight of the good stuff while I was busy cleaning and paying bills.
I needed new adventures, new cultures and climates so we resolved to leave, packing our lives into backpacks, scooping up our then 6 and 8 year old kids and heading off into the sunset.
Port is lovely, but we’d done it, it was time for something else.
Realities of Living in Port Douglas
The reality is that living in Port Douglas isn’t the same as being a holiday maker here.
There was little that wasn’t expensive for us because we were trying to save for our travels rather than have a holiday blow out.
A trip to the reef for a family is about $800 to $1000 and Port Douglas restaurants, even take away food, cost a lot.
The cost of living in Port Douglas is high, other than (back then) house prices and fuel.
Those have only become more expensive over the years.
You can’t go many places from Port Douglas, Cairns is about an hour away, Townsville 4-5 hours, Brisbane is a 24 hour drive.
The climate and isolation can be challenging in Far North Queensland and there was only so much simple life I could take. The Daintree Rainforest is nice, sure, but I get tired of natural landscapes easily.
There really isn’t much to do locally, once you’ve seen the sights you just have to enjoy the scenery.
I missed London and the wider world. I love that through life we grow and come to know ourselves better.
What’s right at one time in our lives may not be right in two years or even two months time. What’s fun at first can quickly become boring.
Since leaving over 5 years ago we’ve spent the best part of 2 years living in a remote village in Romania, nothing could be simpler or more isolated, yet we loved it. It was right for us at that time.
I’d suffered badly from culture shock since relocating to the southern hemisphere. That was a surprise.
You wouldn’t expect that when switching between two countries that seem so similar as the UK and Australia, particularly when I already knew Australia and Australians pretty well. I’d already married one.
But there are cultural differences between the UK and Australia and becoming an expat is never a seamless transition.
When we first arrived I was blown away by the spectacular wildlife. Now, I’m used to the giant green tree frogs in our garden, spotting the odd snake, looking at rainbow lorikeets and cockatoos from my windows and seeing the occasional cassowary in the rain forest.
The crocodile we see hanging out on the river bank is just part of the scenery.
It’s so pretty, we’ve got a tropical beach to walk on and I can see the mountains from my garden.
I took the photo above, I can go to that spot any day and see the mountains that are our backdrop, falling away to the bluest blue sea. Somehow, it has become the view on the way to the supermarket.
I need to wake up and smell the frangipani.
We’ve had opportunity to explore more of Australia with the boys, they’ve been to Sydney, Perth and Canberra, know Queensland pretty well, from Cooktown in the North, down to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
We’ve had some brilliant camping trips, on the coast and inland, up on Lake Tinaroo, where it’s safe to swim with no fear of crocodiles or marine stingers.
We’ve been to rodeos, watched bull rides, camped in the bush at a 3-day Aboriginal dance festival, patted endless kangaroos and koalas, seen wild pigs, sea turtles, enormous grouper and dolphins.
We’re yet to see a whale up here, we really should get out to the Great Barrier Reef again this whale season.
We grow bananas, papayas, kaffir limes, jack fruit, and all the makings of a seriously good green curry in our garden.
I love my garden. I remember sitting in our little house in London dreaming of growing more, now, living in Port Douglas, I have a tropical garden full of new and amazing produce and I’m still not content to stay.
We were picking passion fruit yesterday, they are delicious still warm from the sun. In season we can pick up wild mangoes from the ground. I don’t think I’ve ever had mangoes so sweet and perfectly ripe.
All this isn’t enough to keep me here.
Christmas in the tropics is nothing like it was back home, I miss my parents, the tree is fake, it’s too hot, too light, we don’t have turkey and roast potatoes, there is a lot to get used to for any expat.
Instead we have a few days in my husband’s 5 star resort hotel, luxuriating in the pool, cocktail in hand. Being a chef’s widow does have its perks.
But, you know what? This year, our sixth topical Christmas, I’m starting to get the hang of it, it feels good, different, but not bad. There is a certain coziness about being in the house in the air-con, looking at the Christmas tree twinkling away.
The boys are growing up surrounded by the miracles of nature, frogs, lizards, dazzling blue butterflies, fruit bats and lorikeets are there to be enjoyed and wondered at.
They can roam the bush, the beaches and rain forest trails. They can swim in the sea when there are no crocodiles or stingers about, failing that, swim in a lake or an icy cold stream .
Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef is a very rare treat, it’s expensive, but when it happens it’s spectacular.
We have kayaks, my eight-year-old can paddle his own now, we can take them out and look at the coral on a calm day. We go fishing and actually catch fish big enough to eat.
We caught a stingray once, you never saw two boys more excited.
I’m sure, when they are older, they’ll look back on living in Port Douglas as a happy and adventure filled time.
Living in Port Douglas, Weather
And tropical weather, boy is that interesting! One of the hazards of tropical living is cyclones. We’re yet to see a serious one, we were in Sydney when Yasi came through because we ran away. Luckily she wasn’t too devastating in Port.
A tropical storm is just amazing, you never got so wet. It’s wonderful to hear the frogs croaking their appreciation as the first raindrops fall.
The weather is very hot for pretty much all of the year in Port Douglas, and humid. I struggle with the climate and the kids never wanted to go outside in the heat.
How can I not want to stay in Port Douglas?
There must be something wrong with me to not want to stay here, surely? Why would I want to leave? I don’t work, the boys don’t go to school, it sounds idyllic even to me.
The problem is, I can’t sit still and I know I have choices. Port Douglas is an amazing and beautiful place to live but I need to be out there in the wider world, exploring and experiencing new places and cultures. I’ve got that travel bug real bad. Owning a house and being tied to a mortgage clips your wings. I feel trapped. I thought it was what I wanted but now it’s not.
But that’s good, how do we know what we want if we don’t try a few options for size? I can do something about it, I made this trap, I can unmake it. We all have options.
I have one more plan, for now, to take full advantage of where we are at the moment and squeeze every drop of enjoyment out of living in Port Douglas. We can pretend we are travellers here in the tropics, which I suppose we are, in a way, and enjoy tropical living like the tourists do. I’m getting my tropical mojo back for our last few months in paradise.
This post was written before we left to travel the world in 2012, we didn’t once returned to our house in Port Douglas for almost eight years. We continued to travel and had no plans to return. Our house was a solid investment that paid off as house prices soared in Port Douglas in 2021-2022 and the real estate market was red hot. A lot of people made a lot of money thanks to migrants and holiday let buyers and a lot of local people found it really hard to find accommodation, it’s still limited.
A few FAQs on life in Port Douglas.
Is Port Douglas a good place to live?
Port Douglas is a great place to live if you have plenty of money, can tolerate tropical heat well, and you’re not looking for a lot of nightlife.
Port Douglas is beautiful, very relaxed, safe (but we do have crocodiles, cyclones, falling coconuts and jellyfish to watch out for). Port Douglas is not a good place to live if you like to travel, international flight connections from Cairns are very poor and flights are expensive.
Port is a good place to live with young kids, but for older kids options become limited and many families leave as their children get older. A lot of older people live in Port Douglas.
Is it easy to find work in Port Douglas?
Port Douglas has been desperately short of staff in recent years. If you can tend a bar, wait on tables, or work in a hotel it should be very easy to get a job.
If you are a chef, chef jobs are plentiful.
Hospitality is a major industry in Port Douglas with many jobs being filled by backpackers.
What you may struggle with is finding lodging, it’s not easy to find an affordable place to stay in Port Douglas.
Living in Port Douglas vs Cairns
Port Douglas is a lot safer than Cairns, crime rates in Cairns have been pretty bad.
Cairns is a city, Port is a small town, Cairns has city facilities like shopping centres and movie theatres. Port is quiet, Cairns is more lively, but still has a fairly sleepy FNQ vibe. Port Douglas has 4 Mile Beach, Cairns city is on an estuary but has the lovely lagoon pool.
You can visit the Great Barrier Reef from both Cairns and Port Douglas, both marinas offer snorkelling and scuba diving. Both places have plenty of natural beauty spots and freshwater swimming holes nearby.
We actually planned to live in Cairns when we emigrated to Australia, but employment brought us to Port Douglas, and we stayed.
After touring Australia for months as young backpackers we decided that Cairns was the best place to live in Australia, for us. We’re glad now that fate brought us to Port Douglas.
Pros and Cons of living in the tropics (Far North Queensland and International) are covered in a separate post if you click through. (opens in new tab)
A travelling life suits us well as does my new career as a travel blogger. Leaving was the best decision we ever made, a first step into a way of life we never dreamed possible. Eventually we had to go home after travelling, it was tough, but OK. Our plan was to leave again but then COVID struck, devastating the travel industry and forcing us to change everything again. After that readjustment period we began to really enjoy Port Douglas life, so much so that we bought a larger property and settled, probably permanently. We hope you enjoy Port Douglas, it’s a beautiful spot for a visit as holidaymakers. We have full guides to the Port Douglas and Cairns regions on our website. Our link for Port Douglas and Cairns information is here. Do us a favour, visit our Port Douglas Pinterest board and pin some stuff. Thanks.
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Hi there, thank you for the review it was so informative!I’m about to graduate from teaching and am considering going to port douglas and living in mossman/miallo area. Can you give me opinions on schools and quality schools you reccomend applying to? I am 24 yr old female so I’d like to live near the forest/beaches but also close enough to quality schools in the region. Thank you
If I start talking about schools I’ll get myself into trouble! We homeschooled, for reasons. A lot of kids go on the bus down to Cairns to the private schools. St Augustines and Miallo primary schools always had the better reputations. The only secondary school is Mossman.
Great blog. Thank you Alyson. I’m reading this at midnight with my toddler sleeping next to me on our first night out of 3 in Port Douglas.
Like you I struggle to stay put in the one place for too long. I’ve always thought there was something wrong with me and I’m not meant to go from place to place .. especially now I have a child.
In fact, I’ve been journaling about owning my own home in the next 12 months on the Sunshine Coast.
I moved there in June this year, leaving Melbourne just before the second wave hit. Don’t I feel lucky I got out .. in the nick of time.
But even in the SC I felt a sense of homelessness. Not knowing if it’s my home .. but deciding on there because it’s paradise.
Having now been in Cairns for over 3 weeks on a 1 month ‘semi holiday’ I’ve been wondering can I live up here and now in Port Douglas .. I ask the same question. Hence why I’ve stumbled across your post.
I’ve always done this .. everywhere I go loving it and asking could I live here.
Reading your post makes me think maybe being the nomad I am, I’m not meant to settle. I’m meant to be a world explorer and lead my son into that life too??
How do we ever know we are going there right thing??
Would love to meet you while I’m in PD … are you open to that?
For sure, shoot me an email. I’ll be cycling around town, early, shout if you spot me.
Great blog. My wife and I are moving to Redlynch Valley in Cairns in April 2021 but we also have a two-bedroom unit in Port which we have been holidaying to for a few years now. We’ll use that on weekends away from Redlynch.
Great, good luck with your move Steve. We’ve been in lockdown in Port Douglas since March. It’s been a big life shift for everyone.
Hi Great bit of info. I myself am from New Zealand but been OE for 25 years and been based in Asia for many of those. I lived down south in Australia for some years but never really felt it suited me and on my trips up north is where were I felt I could stay. Now much older and feeling a bit burnt out of the fast pace of Asian cities I am looking at buying a home in Port Douglas. There are many reasons for that as I love nature and all the thing you described. Secondly I just completed building a 17m catamaran to circumnavigate in. I have been thinking Port Douglas would be a great home base to do that as well. I like you would need to travel in time I am sure but the cat would let me do that.
I found your blog making me think so thanks.
Hi, I lived nearly 60 years in Townsville North Queensland. I’m a traveller too and it is difficult to travel from up there. Well you can fly from Cairns to Japan easily and quite cheaply which we have done, although I’ve never tried connecting onwards from Japan. For a while we could fly directly out of Townsville to Bali and New Zealand but those days are over now. We’ve recently moved to the Sunshine Coast of Queensland which is close enough to Brisbane to make travel easier. One of the things that we found annoying when flying north from Townsville to Asia or Europe was the necessity to fly south to Brisbane, wait around for a connecting flight and then fly straight back north again. We love Port Douglas. It is great for a holiday – but probably not to live!
Totally! We used to drive straight down to Brisbane for the airport, 24 hours door to door. Which was annoying, but…do-able. Such a shame there aren’t more flights out of Cairns. If it hooked up with KL or Bangkok it would only be good for local tourism but I guess airport fees cut out Air Asia. We’re back in Port this Christmas, we’re all sort of intrigued as to what that will feel like. Hoping to see more of Australia, I’ve never been to Darwin or Kakadu, maybe a big old road trip, and of course hop over to Bali, more of Indonesia, Borneo, various things we want to do that aren’t too hard from Port Douglas. But first….Everest 🙂 and maybe Tibet.
Yes Tibet would be amazing although I don’t know how I’d feel about China’s role. Are you talking Everest base camp?
Yep. You can hop over into Tibet for a couple of days from Kathmandu. Might give it a go. I’m still very cross about all that but it’s not going to change if we go or if we don’t.
Wooow what an amazing story. It’s 3:17am in Switzerland researching life an PD as I have a temporary job offer at a hotel and seriously…I have the travel bug as well. I’ve been in switzerland for 7 years and I need the warmth the beach and an English speaking country 😉 however after I’ve read your story I’m thunkin Australia could be a good option but perhaps PD would not be so good if I go alone and it’s only full with families. What do you think? I would only move there for half a year and then come back to Swizterland…
There are lots of migrant workers passing through Romina, loads of them. Lots of backpackers too. Did I say it was only full of families? I don’t remember saying that, I’ll check. My husband employed all manner of youngsters travelling and working the hotels.
Yep, just checked, I didn’t mention families once, LOL! I’m sure you’ll fit in fine.
It sounds heavenly to me. I like Hawaii, where we live now, but I would seriously consider living in Port Douglas. Hawaii is actually too commercialized for us. If you are young and want to see the world, sure, but we are old and having seen the world, are not impressed. We hate winter, cities, traffic, and do not have kIds to worry about. We like going to the beach and reading. Or lounging by the pool. Art well yes I do miss that a bit, but not enough to relocate. Our home in Hawaii is worth quite a bit, so we could buy a home outright in Port Douglas. Our main concern is what is the medical care like. And how we would go about becoming permanent residents. I guess we should really visit first, see what we think about the culture. How we would fit in,etc. We are for the most part typical northern California people where we lived most of our lives. We left because we could not stand the politics. The crowded conditions. Crime.
It’s tricky to get an Australian residency visa, I qualified for many reasons. I believe for retired people having a lump sum of cash is about the only requirement. Medical care is OK, but not free. For older people I think again, it comes down to cash. Something I’ve discoverred about myself through travelling so extensively is that I have zero interest in beaches and I love people and cultures, they are what I need, along with 4 clearly defined seasons and plenty of things to do, hot being my least favourite weather. I love being outdoors and being physically active, cooler climates are much more enjoyable for this. It’s a pretty spot, yes, but not for us.
Hi, I’m originally from Melbourne, but moved to London and now in Edinburgh. I have lived in the UK for the past 5 years. Lots of history- but very damp, grey and miserable weather. Often my two young children and I are cooped up in the house for days on end… Lots of indoor activities to keep us busy!! I miss nature, it’s beautiful here in Scotland but there just isn’t the weather to enjoy all the beautiful scenery, I am considering moving back to Australia with my Scottish hubby and two kiddies. Rather than returning to dreary Melbourne, maybe try the tropics??? Would you recommend?? You mention that your boys do all sorts of outdoor activities- just wondering if you worry about crocodiles or snakes?? Where is it safe to swim and play Without this fear? I hear that they are in many lakes and also golf courses. I’m an anxious parent, would I be forever worrying??
There could be a croc anywhere, in any lake certainly. I used to worry on the beach too, but chances are slim. Check out these posts https://worldtravelfamily.com/stinger-season-port-douglas/ https://worldtravelfamily.com/salt-water-crocodiles-port-douglas/ https://worldtravelfamily.com/fresh-water-swimming-spots-around-cairns-and-port-douglas/
Yes, crocs love golf courses but nobody has died.
Snakes never worried me, we rarely saw them, although my husband saw some huge pythons on the road late at night, they lie on the tarmac because it’s warm. We once had a small python get into the frame of our sliding door, but I actually like snakes, so no big deal for me. Biting spiders, no, big spiders, yes. We actually live in Romania a lot of the year now, up in the snow, we prefer a cold climate to hot and we spend more time outdoors ( we ski). We were forever hiding from the off-the-scale UV levels up there. In the UK you may get UV levels of 7 on a hot summer day, up there 18 isn’t uncommon. We would go out walking or exercising (my husband and I run) at dawn or just after dusk, not AT dusk because of the mosquitoes. So likewise, I felt cooped up in the air-con a lot. There are plenty of playgrounds and most have shade sales and some tree shade, so those were good in the mornings and afternoons. In the wet season it can rain for days and days non stop, but tropical downpours are spectacular. I loved the music of the frogs as the drops started to fall. Be aware that we can get cyclones. It depends on you. I didn’t enjoy the climate after the novelty of the first year or two wore off, I missed having 4 seasons and being able to walk or run whenever I pleased. Constant sun block was a pain. On the shoulders of the wet season it’s stunning, paradise, hot enough to swim, not too hot, clear seas, endless green, no stingers. In the wet the pool is as warm as soup and the sea is a risk. The local swimming holes stay ice cold ( Mossman Gorge for instance, no crocs). I can’t really advise you either way because it’s personal choice, some love it, some don’t. We left almost 4 years ago and have no plans to return, but it was certainly a great experience, but once experienced, we felt it was time to move on and try something else. A lot do, there was a constant turn over of families up there. There isn’t a whole lot to do, unless you love fishing and boating, maybe kite surfing, SUP, wind surfing. Facilities for kids are limited, there are no museums or similar, it’s kinda isolated. Townsville is 6 hours away, that’s the nearest museum and aquarium, a few other things for kids. Cairns has cinemas, a small art gallery, small shopping malls, the fabulous, safe, Lagoon etc. Trips to the reef are fantastic, but expensive, we always say about $500 for a family but I expect prices have gone up now. I think if you have the opportunity to try living in the tropics, you should grab it, we were glad we did, but long term it wasn’t for us. You may love it. If you want to chat more, shoot me an email. Good luck!
My husband and I have lived in Port Douglas for three years. After living in a large metropolitan area we wanted peace and quiet. Our home is nestled up to the Daintree forest. In the morning you can hear the birds come to life, rather than the sounds of cars racing down the road. Our neighbours are near, but far enough away that we do not have to hear their conversations. What I also found is that, although there are only two seasons, nature is always changing. What I like most are the locals. I have had great conversations which, sometimes, are about absolutely nothing. Although the summers can be hot and humid, the rest of the year is simply amazing.
Glad you’re enjoying it @Samantha . Waving from Thailand 🙂
What’s wrong with PDSS? Did you have to pay as you aren’t a resident?
We’re Australian residents, 3 of us are full passport holders. No, we wouldn’t have to pay. We tried it and chose not to use it. Many reasons.
I love your blog! what a cool family! Your kids will grow up and change the world one day. 🙂
We are currently in the southern part of Queensland, and thinking of moving to Port Douglas after some travelling. We have no ties there either, it is just such a beautiful place. Are there any good alternative schools in PD? I am also a bit afraid of venomous snakes, is it easy to get bitten over there?
Enjoy your travelling!
Hi Christine, In our almost seven years of living in Port Douglas I saw one python and a couple of tree snakes, never a venomous one. I don’t know of anyone who’s ever been bitten, other than a few tourists in hotels at night, they tred on them in the gardens, but it’s rare. Very few spiders too, far fewer that the UK, probably because all the houses are new builds. The school situation isn’t good, there is 1 junior school in Port, PDSS. That’s the one that drove us to homeschool. There is a Catholic School in Mossman, that’s where most parents go when they’ve had enough of PDSS, they take non catholics. There is a small village type school in Miallo and at Wonga. Other than that, your kids will be spending 2 hours a day on the bus to the private school in Cairns. We highly recommend homeschooling ! If you mean Steiner, there is one in Kuranda. I don’t know of a Montessori one. Good luck! Alyson.
I feel your pain on this one. So many travellers are busting to get to New Zealand and I just can’t wait to get out!!! There’s way too much of the world waiting to explore to stay in one place all your life. 🙂
What can I say Bethaney. Agreed!
I have spent a lot of time in the area around Port Douglas in the past. It is a fabulous area, but as you said summer is a bit challenging (heat and humidity), but winter is fantastic!
I suggest you make the most of the place you are in while you are there – you never know when things will change. Have you looked at going slightly further afield to outback Queensland – think Normanton, Mt Isa, Winton etc? You will get quite a different experience which should be more affordable.
Yes Anne, we’ve been all over Australia, we had great fun backpacking around the country 11 years ago, deciding that we’d like to live in Cairns, we’ve explored a fair bit with the children, too. It’s beautiful here and I’m thankful for having had this experience, but it’s not home, I have no ties, that makes moving on an easy option. Thanks for taking the time to comment, we’ve even been to Mt Isa! We’re just desperate to move on now, travel is in my blood, I can’t sit still. I struggle without all the fabulous museums and history of London, or some sort of cultural interest as in Asia, I just need to explore, see new places, it’s very hard to find new or interesting places to take the kids after the first few years. It comes down to freedom, I think, we’re tied to job and mortgage and it’s terribly expensive to fly out of here. We’re happy though, we have fun, off to homeschool group today for yet more swimming!