EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Massive development in recent years has seen the once pretty fishing village of PORT DOUGLAS , an hour north of Cairns, turned into an upmarket tourist attraction, with a main street full of boutiques, shopping malls and holidaying hordes. However, the town does have a huge beach , along with plenty of distractions to keep you busy for a day or two, and it's getting to be as good a place as Cairns to pick up a regional tour or dive trip to the reef - though prices are steeper.

All services are on five-hundred-metre-long Macrossan Street, which runs between Four Mile Beach and Anzac Park. As in Cairns, a prolific number of businesses offer tourist information - the Port Douglas Tourist Information Centre at no. 23 (daily 8.30am-5.30pm; tel 07/4099 5599) can sort out everything from Aboriginal-guided tours of Mossman Gorge to sailing trips and buses to the Daintree.

Places to eat abound along Macrossan Street: the Central Hotel has live bands on Wednesday and at weekends, while the Court House Hotel has boozers and dogs sprawled across the ample verandah, and lunch specials and a barbecue menu in the garden. Between the two, Iron Bar has rough-cut timber furniture and a mid-range "surf & turf" menu, while Mango Jam Café across the road is open from noon to 2am for wood-fired pizza, and the nearby Star of Siam has first-rate, moderately-priced Thai fare. At Catalina , around the corner on Wharf Street (Tues-Sun 6.30pm-late; tel 07/4099 5287), it's worth paying the high prices for delicacies such as coral trout grilled in banana leaves; the restaurant is in a beautiful setting with a verandah shaded by two ancient mango trees.

Between the end of Macrossan Street and the sea, Anzac Park is the scene of a Sunday-morning produce market , good for fruit, vegetables and souvenirs. Near the park's jetty you'll find the whitewashed timber church of St Mary's by the Sea , built after the 1911 cyclone carried off the previous structure. Behind, at Ben Cropp's Shipwreck Museum (daily 9am-5pm; $5.50), bronze cannon, teapots and the results of twenty years salvaging are piled around a continuously playing video of Ben's exploits.

Out to sea, local dive sites include the Low Isles , Chinaman , Tongue and Opal reefs , all decent enough, though in much the same condition as popular reefs off Cairns. Quicksilver, based at Marina Mirage attached to the Mirage Resort (tel 07/4099 5500, www.quicksilver-cruises.com ), also runs a sailing boat to the Low Isles ($105), while its high-speed catamaran will whisk you to the Agincourt Reef for the day ($150). For around the same price, Poseidon Cruises, 34 Macrossan St (tel 07/4099 4772, www.poseidon-cruises.com.au ), and Silverblue (tel 07/4099 4544, www.silverblue.com.au ), take smaller boats for day-trips to less touristed sections; and serious divers should contact Undersea Explorer (tel 07/4099 5911, www.undersea.com.au ), who make exploratory trips up the ribbons and into the Coral Sea - contact them for current prices and destinations.