Kuranda Scenic Railway

Many cruise passengers visiting Cairns on the northeast coast of Australia take shore excursions to the old Kuranda township. Kuranda is in a mountain rainforest about 17 miles from Cairns and has good arts, crafts, and Aboriginal artifacts shopping and family nature adventures.

Getting to Kuranda is half the fun. You can ride a bus, which goes straight across the flat coastal plain filled with sugar cane fields before climbing the mountains to Kuranda. Or, you can take a bus to the skyrail station and enjoy gliding high over the rainforest to Kuranda on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. Finally, you can ride the Kuranda Scenic Railway, which dates back to the 19th century. This historic railroad follows the scenic Barron River Gorge, and the train passes through numerous tunnels as it winds its way up the Great Dividing Range. While visiting Cairns on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager, we took a bus to the Rainforestation near Kuranda and rode the train back to the Freshwater Station.