Salt air, still water: A week of five-star indulgence in Cairns

Detailed summary

Step off the plane in Cairns and the air hits warm and wet, carrying frangipani and salt. Ten minutes later you’re on the Esplanade at Crystalbrook Riley, five-star and facing the…

Step off the plane in Cairns and the air hits warm and wet, carrying frangipani and salt. Ten minutes later you’re on the Esplanade at Crystalbrook Riley, five-star and facing the Coral Sea, with seven nights ahead and no real reason to rush them. The reef and the rainforest are a short walk from the lobby for whenever you’re ready.

The lagoon sits at the resort’s centre, a sand beach down one side, cabanas the other, a lap lane for those inclined. Because the water is guests-only, it never gets crowded. The poolside menu is Calypso Club’s, carried down to your cabana: Moreton Bay bugs with burnt lime, a Calypso’s Treasure of Havana Club, coconut and kaffir lime. The afternoon is small choices, shaded cabana or open sand, deep end or the shallow edge where the beach slides in.

Sooner or later, the reef and the rainforest get their day. Your package includes one tour, your pick of four, with the rest bookable on top. The reef day sails on Evolution, a 35-metre superyacht, to two of the outer reefs, Norman, Saxon or Hastings depending on conditions, for five hours in the water and a barbecue lunch of fish, steak and prawns. At Saxon, white-tip reef sharks rest on the sand below the snorkellers and turtles rise for air. Prefer land? A four-wheel drive follows the Bloomfield Track into the Daintree, with a crocodile cruise on the river and a swim at Emmagen Creek.

Dinner at Riley is a question of how high you want to go. At the base of the tower, Calypso Club pours rum over ice shaved to order; on Sundays a DJ plays from 1pm and the oysters drop to $3 until sold out. One floor up, Paper Crane runs to duck khao soi and crying tiger beef with green papaya noodles. At the top, Rocco looks over Cairns and the Coral Sea from 42 metres, where the share plates turn Middle Eastern and a Smokey Lalla arrives under a cloche of smoke as the sun drops behind the ranges.

On the days you’re anchored, Eleme Day Spa is on site and a 24-hour gym for anyone with energy to burn.

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Opening of the article, excerpted from The Sydney Morning Herald. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.