Queensland coast Brisbane to Cairns: road trip guide

Spend a week or two exploring the amazing Australian tropics on a Queensland coast road trip! This journey is the perfect way to see some of the country’s most famous sights including the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest, Fraser Island and Sunshine Coast.

Use our 7-day itinerary to plan your road trip from Brisbane to Cairns. It can be modified to suit the number of days you have available and includes all the best sightseeing and camping spots. Plus, we’ve thrown in a heap of extra information like travel times and distances, maps, the best time to visit and much more!

Best Queensland coast road trip: 9 places you can’t miss

Total Distance: 1,800 km | Recommended Days: from 7 - 14 days | Best Time to Visit: Between September and February | Route on Google Maps

1. Brisbane

Sort out campervan hire in Brisbane and park for free at the wildly popular Eat Street Northshore open-air market. This riverside precinct boasts over 180 stalls where you can indulge in international cuisine, live music, comedy and entertainment. Open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening, entry is $5 for adults and free for kids under 12.

The 5km Kangaroo Point riverside circuit and the much easier Brisbane Riverwalk are two of the best ways to see Brisbane’s most popular sights. Admire sheer red cliffs, mangrove boardwalks, botanic gardens and Story Bridge before enjoying lunch at the historic Howard Smith Wharves precinct.

Consider also taking a 1-hour drive to the Gold Coast (one of the best road trips from Brisbane)! Lap up the sun on famous beaches like Surfers Paradise or visit Australia’s biggest theme parks, including Seaworld and Movieworld.

Stay at the Brisbane Holiday Village, a family-owned park with spacious powered, unpowered and ensuite camping and caravan sites from about $50 per night. Kids will love the resort-style lagoon pool, mini-golf course, sports fields and daily lorikeet feeding!

2. Noosa

Drive Time: 2 hr | Distance: 148 km

Visit heavenly Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and take on the Coastal Walkway (10.8km / 4hr return) through Noosa National Park. Keep an eye out for koalas in the trees above and whales in the ocean below, as you follow the headland and admire sweeping ocean vistas.

Enjoy a short scenic drive to the National Heritage Glass House Mountains. Mt Tibrogargan has the most family-friendly walking trail, a 4km (1.5 hour) circuit loop around its base. The most popular walk, however, is the 2.8km (2-hour return) summit track to Mt Ngungun, from which you enjoy panoramic views over the coastal hinterland.

On a Wednesday or Sunday morning, visit the biggest and best artisan market in Australia, the Eumundi Markets. Afterwards, continue on to nearby Australia Zoo, where Steve Irwin’s family houses over 1,200 animals in one of the world’s best conservation facilities.

Camp at the Noosa River Holiday Park, one of the most idyllic camping spots on the Queensland coast. They’ve got powered and unpowered sites for all sorts of budgets and needs, starting from about $57 per night.

3. Hervey Bay

Drive Time: 2 hr | Distance: 159 km

Continue your road trip north to the whale-watching capital of Hervey Bay, where you are almost guaranteed to spot humpback whales between July and October. Relax on the 14km of golden beaches that stretch from Hervey Bay to Rainbow Beach (famous for its multi-coloured sands)!

Take a day tour out to World Heritage-listed Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world and the only place on Earth where rainforests grow on dunes. Make sure your tour hits all the highlights, including 75 Mile Beach, Maheno Shipwreck and the famous blue waters of Lake McKenzie.

Visit the Bundaberg Rum Distillery , about an hour north of Hervey Bay. Join the 1-hour guided tour and learn about how this iconic rum is made before returning to the Bundaberg Rum Tasting Bar, where you can sample their top-shelf rums.

Stay at the Hervey Bay Caravan Park, a relaxed and secure 7-acre park surrounded by a natural reserve and lake. They offer unpowered and powered sites starting from about $33 per night.

4. Rockhampton

Drive Time: 4 hr 20 min | Distance: 382 km

The next stop on your Queensland coast road trip is the contemporary riverside city of Rockhampton!

Cool off at Kershaw Gardens , a spacious parkland with a wonderful waterfall and two massive playgrounds for both kids and adults. Climb through the obstacle course whilst floating 9m in the air, rest in the swinging hammocks, ride the flying fox and play in the rapids of the Fitzroy River water-course.

Take a day trip to nearby Yeppoon , the gateway to the Southern Great Barrier Reef. Join a scuba diving or snorkelling trip out to the stunning Great Keppel Island or Pumpkin Island, ocean paradises with soft sands and an abundance of marine life.

Stay and play at Capricorn Caves, which offers a great campground with modern amenities starting from about $30 per night. Then take one of their cave tours, like the family-friendly Cathedral Cave Tour or the more audacious Adventure Tour.

5. Mackay

Drive Time: 4 hr | Distance: 336 km

Mackay is a city surrounded by secluded beaches, stunning hinterland and Australia’s longest stretch of subtropical rainforest. Day-trip to Eungella National Park (a 90-minute drive from Mackay), where playful platypus frolic at dawn and dusk in the forest streams.

Families will love Bluewater Lagoon , a three-tiered pool facility overlooking the Pioneer River in the Mackay city centre. It’s free entry and features a 19.5m water slide from the top lagoon to the middle lagoon.

Soar 25m above the forest floor at the flying fox experience in Finch Hatton Gorge , a ruggedly beautiful landscape of waterfalls and boulders. Or try your hand at wakeboarding at the nearby GoWake Cable Park.

Stay at the BIG4 Mackay Blacks Beach Holiday Park, which offers beachfront camping overlooking the Whitsundays. Grab an ocean view, park view or drive through camping site from only $33 per night.

1. Airlie Beach

Drive Time: 2 hr | Distance: 151 km

Road trip to Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Take a day-tour to some of the 74 tropical Islands and discover all that they have to offer, including the famous Whitehaven Beach, Hill Inlet Lookout and the colourful coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Then take to the air and see the reef from a new perspective. Fly over the reef in a helicopter or seaplane and have your camera ready to take a photo of the iconic Heart Reef. Thrill-seekers can even skydive over the reef before free-falling back to Airlie Beach.

Camp at the Seabreeze Tourist Park, a lush tropical oasis with a lagoon-style pool and unpowered and powered campsites from about $40 per night.

7. Townsville

Drive Time: 3 hr 20 min | Distance: 272 km

One of the sunniest cities on the Queensland coast is Townsville, a vibrant and bustling tropical hub nestled below Castle Hill. Take the short ferry ride out to Magnetic Island and hire a mini-moke topless car to drive around its 23 golden beaches and rainforests.

Back in town, visit Reef HQ Aquarium and experience the Great Barrier Reef up close and personal without ever getting wet! This is the world’s largest living coral reef aquarium and a central location for many important marine studies.

Not far away is the highly-rated Museum of Tropical Queensland. Wander the galleries and unravel the story of Queensland’s rainforests and reefs before jumping aboard a life-size replica of the HMS Pandora, the ship sent to settle the mutiny on the Bounty.

Camp at the BIG4 Rowes Bay Beachfront Holiday Park, a beautiful seaside spot with views of Magnetic Island. Grab an unpowered or powered site from about $40 per night.

1. Ingham

Drive Time: 1 hr 25 min | Distance: 112 km

Spend a night in Ingham, Queensland’s Little Italy, and enjoy an evening of fine wine, pasta, coffee and prosciutto. By day, venture to the nearby Wallaman Falls inside Girringun National Park - Australia’s highest permanent single drop waterfall at 260m. Nearby is Jourama Falls , where you can swim in the rock pool below the cascading rapids.

Relax at the Tyto Wetlands Centre , a local botanic garden with over 110 hectares of rehabilitated wetland and 240 species of bird. Stroll along the wetland boardwalk, relax under a shady tree or take a guided tour and learn about the place that 27% of all Australian bird species call home.

Stay at the Ingham Tourist Park and camp on a shady site from only $28 per night. The park's facilities include a shaded saltwater pool and an awesome camp kitchen.

9. Cairns

Drive Time: 3 hr | Distance: 236 km

The final stop on your Queensland coast road trip is the steamy and spectacular city of Cairns, one of Australia’s most adventurous tourist destinations!

Catch the high-speed ferry to Fitzroy Island and revel in one of the most unspoiled landscapes on the Great Barrier Reef. Take one of the walking tracks around the island, exploring the pristine rainforest and open woodland before resting on the golden beaches and swimming amongst coral reefs.

Join a snorkel or dive tour out to Michaelmas Cay , a sheltered coral reef with clear and calm waters that are swarming with marine life like green sea turtles and hundreds of tropical fish. Alternatively, Green Island is a beautiful cay covered in ancient rainforest and surrounded by one of the best coral gardens on the Great Barrier Reef.

Devote a full day to exploring the Daintree Rainforest, one of the oldest rainforests in the world. Start by riding the Skyrail Cableway deep into the jungle, gliding just metres above the canopy before descending to the forest floor. Take a photo of Barron Falls before riding the historic Kuranda Scenic Railway back to Cairns in a fully refurbished vintage carriage.

Stay at the highly-rated Cool Waters Holiday Park, which offers picturesque powered and unpowered campsites starting from about $40 per night.

Should you want to continue your Queensland coast road trip further north to places like Cape Tribulation and Cooktown , you need to check out this North Queensland road trip!

Alternatively, loop back to Brisbane via an inland route as outlined in this Queensland road trip itinerary or follow the coast back the way you came!

Organise your Queensland coast road trip with Camplify

Now that you’ve got your Queensland coast road trip itinerary sorted, it’s time to organise your wheels (and accommodation)!

Camplify is a platform that allows travellers to quickly search through privately-owned rentals and find the perfect van for their road trip.

Simply enter your pickup location and adjust the optional filters (e.g budget, berth, vehicle type, etc.). Within seconds, you will find the perfect motorhome, caravan or campervan for your Queensland coast road trip!

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