Australia Eight - Cairns Accommodation

Our Cairns Accommodation - The Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast

This amazing bed and breakfast is located just outside Cairns in the district of Edgehill. It is adjacent to the Botanic Gardens which is a lovely place to go for a walk around- so many cool plants, and a boardwalk through the rainforest.

It's also the location of The Tanks Arts Centre, old WWII concrete fuel tanks which are now used as venues for gigs, art exhibitions and other events- such a great idea! They had a free exhibition of ukeleles when we were there, as part of the Cairns Ukelele Festival. They had all been decorated in different ways, with some still playable, and some really crazy ones such as one with a crocodile coming out of it!

The B&B itself was a lovely little place- just two bedrooms downstairs in the owners' (Steve and Robyn) house. We were the only people there for the first few days so had the communal areas (kitchen, lounge, outside terrace) to ourselves as well.

The kitchen had tea and coffee making facilities, stocked with local blends as well as homemade cakes and biscuits (made by Robyn). There was a bookcase in the lounge area stocked with games, puzzles and books, as well as folders of leaflets suggesting places to visit and tours to go on. We perused them on several evenings and booked a couple of the tours that we found there- definitely a useful facility to have! There was even a hot-tub jacuzzi outside which we made use of! 🙂 I didn't get any pictures but it was a lovely way to unwind in the evening just chilling with a nice glass of wine.

The bedroom was large and airy with lots of windows with mosquito nets, plus aircon and a fan - pretty much standard in Australia, as you'd expect with their climate! The bed was huge and super comfy, and Robyn changed the sheets every couple of days as well as issuing fresh towels. She even gave us little chocolate frogs when we first arrived!

We had a really nice bathroom as well- great shower and they had made the effort to provide all the little extras like shower gel, shampoo, moisturiser, hair dryer which make such a difference to the feel of a place. It showed they cared about giving their guests a comfortable stay where they don't have to worry about anything.

I have however saved the best bit about this B&B until last- which was most definitely the breakfast! I'm annoyed at myself that I didn't take more photos of the scrumptious food that they served us, but on quite a few mornings we were eating at 6am and I am not awake enough at that time to think of these things! I will just say that there was always a lot of food, and it was all really tasty 🙂

Other variations included bread, ham, cheese and boiled eggs (continental style breakfast), smoked salmon, avocado and cream cheese on toast, and a cooked breakfast on the last day of scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomato and potato rosti. And always lots of fruit! Smoothies and juice were provided too, so we were definitely well fed, and healthily for the most part. I much prefer having something fresh to start the day rather than a greasy fry-up.

We had a lovely time at the Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast- I would highly recommend it as a place to stay away from the cheap and cheerful backpacker hostels in the centre of town. We had a much nicer experience, and the buses to town were frequent and easy to negotiate (although not cheap, but nor was anything in Oz!). Our hosts were really friendly and lovely. They offered airport pick-up for both of us, free of charge, and dropped us off at the train station when we left too. They were also really accommodating about providing breakfast whenever we needed it, even if that was ridiculously early so we could go on daytrips! Definitely 10/10!

Beki x