A tropical escape in a luxury resort doesn’t need to be an eight-hour flight away, as Travel Weekly found during a recent Far North Queensland weekend away at Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort Port Douglas.
It’s often the little things that count during a resort stay. The small touches that may go unnoticed by some, but to travel people, they are the elements that are the difference between a room stay and a fondly-recalled holiday.
A poolside waiter checking in to see that you have everything you need; an extra beach towel in the bedroom; chef coming over to say hi and check that your meal is just right; and those little trips outside your resort: Tech-free forays drifting down a river past centuries-old trees or listening intently as the Indigenous guide lets you in on a little secret about how life was once lived in the rainforest.
They are the things that matter when you just want to switch off. But first you have to get there.
The only way to fly
Flying to Cairns via Port Douglas typically take about 2 hours 15 minutes and when you are taking the kids, that time-saving can make all the difference. Plus, it effectively offers you extra time on any short getaway, meaning less time spent in international airport lounges and on land transfers.
Talking of which, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort’s relationship with SR Coaches means the shuttle service is waiting there for you when your Virgin flights lands in Cairns.
And while Far North Queensland, beyond Cairns, is still recovering from last wet season’s devastating floods, with sections of the road washed away and one-way sections still in place, it’s still an easy, 50-minute trip in airconditioned comfort.
Once you arrive at the resort, check-in is easy. The vast, cool foyer is accessed from a porte-cochere driveaway and despite its age, the resort feels fresh and cared for. Rooms are accessed via various walkways, over freshwater ponds – one featuring and barramundi – past manicured tropical gardens. Your bags will be in your room, once you find it, in this vast resort.
Overall, the resort encompasses 147ha of lush tropical gardens, 2ha of sparkling lagoons and an 18-hole golf course across the road, plus the 5-star amenities. Plus there has also been a focus on sustainability in recent years with significantly less impact to the environment when it comes to water use, waste and energy.
Because of its size, you can wander the corridors and paths and dive into any one of the eight pools without feeling overcrowded. In fact, despite the healthy number of patrons you see at the vast buffet breakfast, we didn’t see the same person twice during our stay.
The eight pools are obviously a major attraction. You can choose, deep or shallow, sit on the sand, hire a cabana, or read a book in a deck chair and watch the kids.
The cabana also comes in handy if guests want to enjoy Sheraton Sunset Sessions on the resort’s Main Beach with a DJ spinning discs as you indulge in a platter of treats from Lagoon House, which recently picked up a Bronze award for Best Hotel/Resort Restaurant at the 2024 National Hostplus Restaurant and Catering Awards for Excellence. This poolside diner offers an inventive pan-Asian menu, using loal ingredients such as Daintree barramundi, mud crab and produce sourced from the resort’s gardens.
In total, there are seven restaurants and bars at the resort and apart from Lagoon House Restaurant, a must-booking is fine-diner, Harrisons by Spencer Patrick. Named after Patrick’s now 16-year-old son, the restaurant has garnered a well-deserved culinary reputation, and I’d return just for the crusty charcoal bread.
Patrick also celebrates a decade of Taste Port Douglas in 2025 which attracts big name chefs from down south, including Louis Tikaram, Colin Fassnidge, Massimo Mele and Mark Best to the shores of Four Mile Beach. Here guests enjoy a day on the grounds at Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort and attend an often sold-out program of live cooking demonstrations, panel discussions, pop-up food and beverage stalls and chef masterclasses.
There is also a cafe in the foyer for light meals and a nearby pool table where the kids can try their skills while drying out from the pool.
To and from town
Port Douglas, Australia’s first eco-certified destination, is a laidback tropical town and gateway to two UNESCO World Heritage-listed natural wonders – the Great Barrier Reef and the expansive 180-million-year-old Daintree Rainforest.
SR Coaches runs a shuttle service to and from any destination within Port Douglas, just a 5-minute drive away, with guests able to purchase one-way or return transfers with multi-day passes also available. Shuttles also arrive at the resort around every 7-10 minutes.
While the heart of Port Douglas, Macrossan St, is worth a look, lined as it is with cafés, bars and an array of boutique shopping, on this brief trip it is well worth booking a local excursion, say to Mossman Gorge or the Daintree Rainforest.
River that inspired Hollywood
Transportation is usually included in the costs and for our Backcountry Bliss for Riverdrift Tour we drive around half an hour north out of town, past fields of sugar cane, looming storm clouds and jungle green hills.
A quick left off the highway takes you to a converted shipping container and the beginning of the river walk where you are kitted up with a river sled, and wetsuit if required, plus a pair of protective booties. Today the river is shallow, filled with centuries old granite sediment washed down from the mountains during the floods, waist deep on some areas, up to your ankles in others. And you are completely enveloped by rainforest, warned of two particularly nasty plants but also appreciate the evolution that has taken place to get them there. After one visit, many of the features apparently inspired James Cameron before he created Pandora, in Avatar.
It’s a unique journey that allows guests to traverse the river’s former course on foot, before dipping into the shallows and sliding down the cool river on your sled, belly first or eyes to the canopy of rainforest way above your head.
Five minutes afloat on this Mossman River tributary will wash away six months of stress – and we get two hours’ worth!
Millennia passes by in a moment
As much as we enjoyed the large, comfortable room and delicious food in the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, this is Kuku Yalanji country the home of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal people who have lived, eaten, married and shared stories here for millennia.
Their country extends from near Cooktown to Port Douglas and the natural features of the landscape have spiritual significance for these people, plus it offered a rich array of plants and animals that provided a reliable food source for them as guide Trevayne Pearce, from Mossman Gorge Cultural Centre, explains on our Ngadiku Dreamtime Walk Tour.
He is an easy going, jovial guy with a dry sense of humour and, after a short bus trip takes us to the top of the hill, he guides us through well-worn paths, while explaining the Indigenous use of tree leaves and bark, ochres, animals, including banging the trunk of a hollow tree to “text” his mate. One particular 16-year-old was thoroughly engrossed in Trevayne’s stories and kept close, asked many more questions than we’d heard in a long time. We finished the tour with damper, Davidson plum jam and bush tea.
Reef diving
Port Douglas is the closest land point to the Great Barrier Reef via Crystalbrook Superyacht Marina. Guests can embark on a journey to discover the magic of our beautiful coral reef with some boat rides taking just 45 minutes to their destination.
The Daintree Rainforest
Covering 1200sq km between the Mossman Gorge and Bloomfield River, the Daintree is one of the most complex ecosystems on earth. An estimated 180 million years old, the Daintree Rainforest is tens of millions of years older than the Amazon and contains living examples of unique ancient plants as well as thousands of species of birds, animals and reptiles.
Back at the resort
After a couple of less than stressful tours, it’s also great to crash back at the impeccable 294 resort rooms which offers 55 villas, all with views of tropical gardens or lagoon pools and 53 rooms feature balconies with swim-up entry. The must-haves are also there too, Sheraton Signature mattresses and feather and down pillows, 55-inch LCD television with Chromecast capabilities (not that we used it), spacious marble bathrooms and Gilchrist & Soames amenities, bathrobes and slippers, and high-speed Wi-Fi.
It also offers 18 flexible indoor and outdoor meeting and event spaces, the largest catering for up to 1,000 conference delegates with plenty of rooms and villas to accommodate them too.
There is also a Virtual Concierge, accessible via mobile and a touch screen kiosk located in the Resort Business Centre.
Other aspects we also need to explore on our next trip include Daintree Bar with rum tasting flights and cocktails that hero the locally distilled FNQ Rum made from local sugarcane and the Charming Chapel where many a couple tie the knot in bare feet.
Or we could just go for another swim. No passport required.
