Car-Free Holiday: Our Cairns Family Bike Rental

After a long stretch with no cycling in Hawaii and Texas, we chose to incorporate more riding in our travel. We also thought JZ’s sister, LZ, would prefer practicing at the slower pace in Cairns, instead of jumping right in to biking on the Sydney streets. We did a quick search for Cairns family bike rental options, and decided to check out Cairns Scooter & Bicycle Hire. We had no idea how bike friendly it is in Cairns. The shop-owner, Alex, provided plenty of route options and a map, which proved handy when reality offset our original plan.

Our Cairns Family Bike Rental Mini-adventure

It was a short walk from our hotel on the Esplanade to the bike shop. We arrived a bit early, and Alex was still setting up the shop. He paused to hand us forms we needed to fill out, and continued lining up a variety of bikes, scooters, and motorcycles in front of the shop. When we finished, Alex began sizing us up for bike fit and sharing potential destinations / routes. (I am always impressed when a rental shop takes the time to get you a bike that fits.)

Alex grabbed a map, and drew a few routes over it, the standard tourist loop, the route to Crystal Cascades that includes a return along the river, and another route if we wanted to head north. When he pointed a picture of the Crystal Cascades swimming hole, LZ lit up, and she excitedly proclaimed that’s where we should ride. I think she wanted to see the fish that give you a pedicure by nibbling at your feet! Regardless, EZ and I are always down for a bike adventure so I excitedly attempted to build her enthusiasm into the required momentum for the journey. He also suggested stopping in Freshwater to check out the cane fields with the mountains in the background.

Armed with our map and trusty bikes, we rode back towards the hotel to gear up for our almost 40k roundtrip adventure to the Crystal Cascades. It was a slow and shaky ride to the Esplanade when reality hit. In addition to our inexperienced companion, we lacked supplies, and required a meal before leaving. Still holding out hope, we pedaled past our hotel to the Wharf One Cafe to fuel up with brunch, before making a final decision. We enjoyed brunch almost as much as watching CZ profess her love for babycinos in dance.

Refueled and almost ready for adventure, we began walking towards the bikes, when CZ spotted the playground. To be fair, it is a pretty epic playground, built around a huge fig tree. Caught up in her excitement we spent a little longer at the Fig Tree Playground than anticipated, and chose to shorten our ride.

After CZ made learned to make it up the ropes, we opted for a modified tourist route.

We biked along the waterfront, headed for the Cairns Botanic Gardens. The gardens made our shortlist for activities, but all the reviews mention it is a lengthy walk from downtown. The bikes offered the perfect solution, since we skipped the rental car. We followed Alex’s suggested route, and highly recommend you do the same. Overall, the streets felt safe for riding, but Google Maps suggested busier streets than Alex. The big bonus with Alex’s route is that we never had to share the road with cars.

The Botanic Gardens are quite large, and there plenty of paths marked for cyclists. We made a brief stop because the local inhabitants made us feel most unwelcome. A bit of rain, paired with standing water in the tropics means mosquitos. We had very good mosquito repellant in the hotel room, but it was of no use to us here. After a quick pedal through the gardens with a rather distressed teenager, we returned to the Esplanade. EZ wanted to check out more of the bike lanes and parks, and we had until 4:30pm to return the bikes.

Our return trip along the Esplanade included, stops a a few scenic lookouts, Muddy’s Playground, and the Beach Volleyball Olympic Trials. Thankfully it is no where near as crowded as Manly and other locations in Sydney during the weekends so we had no trouble sharing the paths with pedestrians. We don’t know when we will return to Cairns, but if we do there is definitely more riding in store, perhaps an intense 56 miles on faster bikes.

3 Tips for Your Cairns Family Bike Rental

•  We recommend renting bikes for the duration of our stay next time around. The airport is a short and inexpensive taxi or shuttle ride from the city, and it’s always nice to avoid the hunt for parking. Also, there are plenty of bike lanes. Even along the Esplanade, they separate out bike lanes to prevent collisions between cyclists and pedestrians.
• Decide whether you want to cruise around town or head out for an epic bike adventure to one of the area’s natural attractions. Several Cairns natives we encountered suggested the Crystal Cascades.
• Until we rode around and began our research for the post, we had no idea that Cairns is so bike friendly. You can read about the council’s 20 year plan and download bike maps on their website.

For full disclosure: Cairns Scooter & Bicycle Hire Sponsored this post. However, all opinions and reviews are our own.