Can someone living in Cairns tell me if its worth moving there..

Question

I am from the Gold Coast and my family has just moved the Cairns. I am unsure if I should follow them. Can someone give me some inside into Cairns from people who actually live there? I've been there on Holidays and it's a nice place but a bit quite. Although I don't go party every night anyway or go out heaps.

Where are the best places to live closish to town but in a decent and safe area. I hear south-side is not very good? Northern Beaches are better but they seem far away from everything?

Where are the major shops besides the city?

Gyms, Swimming Beaches (if any), Clubs and Pubs outside of the city centre

Do you have Cable Internet and Foxtel in Cairns? I need it for work.

Are the people fairly decent and friendly and able to make friends?

What else should I know about living in Cairns and making the move?

I know a lot of questions but any help from locals would be nice so I can decide what to do...

Answer 1

Hi there.

I'm in the Northern Beaches and love it!  Wouldn't live anywhere else.  It's only 15-20 mins by car to the city, I am sure if you are living on the Gold Coast it would take you just the same about of time to get anywhere.. such as malls, work etc.  If you don’t have a car the Sun Buses are great, and they go in and out the beaches, via the uni, into town every 30 mins.

Trinity Beach and Kewarra Beach are the best for locals. We have everything we need here, medical centre, IGA's, Butchers, real estate, DVD stores etc....  Up the road a bit more is Clifton Beach which has a shopping village incl Coles.

Smithfield Mall is at the Northern Beaches area - right by the turnoff to Kuranda.  1-2 year ago they upgraded the mall so it's nearly tripple the size of what it was (if you went a while ago)

http://www.smithfieldcentre.com.au  Other malls, the city, it's Cairns Central http://www.cairnscentral.com.au and Stocklands Mall at Earlville right on the other side of town.  There is also the Westcourt mall, but that is getting a major overhaul at the mo and won't be ready for some time yet.

Gyms, I'm not much one for gyms, but there is one at Trinity Beach, Campus (near james cook uni) and heaps in the city!

Beaches.??  are you kidding!  There's about 53 beaches from cairns to Port Douglas and most of them are deserted!   Trinity and Kewarra Beach and Palm Cove are the most popular for swimming.  During the stinger season there is net enclosures which you can swim in, so there is swimming all year around.

See http://qldbeaches.com - link on the left hand side lists the main Cairns beaches, including the great Cairns Esplanade !   http://www.cairnsesplanade.com  (this is where there's been a great debate on women bathing topless lately) mainly tourist of course LOL.

Austar is available here, not sure about foxtel, never been into cable TV.  Broadband internet, all the high speed stuff yet, we may be Far North Qld, but we still have everything !

I think Cairns people are decent and friendly - I've been here for 5 years and never had any bad experiences....

Anything else...  Well of course Cairns is not as big as Melbourne, Brissy or Sydney, more of a laid back lifestyle here, but I love it, and hey if you don't enjoy your move, you can always move elsewhere, that’s the great thing about Australia, never short of places for new experiences.

Good luck …