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The Cairns Colonial Club Resort is a self-rated four-star low-rise Resort property situated on 11 acres of award-winning tropical gardens. It features 5 different room categories and 345 rooms in total. Dive into one of the 3 lagoon-style pools, enjoy a cocktail or a variety of dining options at "Thirsty Flamingo Poolside Bar & Dining." Squeeze some sand beneath your toes on the man-made beach. Please note - our "CLUB" Swim-up Bar operates seasonally until further notice. Other facilities include a fully equipped Conference Centre with a beautiful Garden Gazebo, perfect for any wedding or celebration. With a Guest Lounge, Tour Booking Office, and high-speed WI-FI, Cairns Colonial Club has the facilities to be your home away from home whilst you are in Cairns. All major tour operators pick up and drop off at the Resort, making it easier to explore the wonderful attractions that Cairns and Tropical North Queensland has to offer. It is easy to see why the Cairns Colonial Club is known worldwide as the premier leisure resort in the region.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Family Resort
Residential Neighbourhood
Languages Spoken
English, Chinese, Czech, Filipino and 4 more
Location
18-26 Cannon St Manunda, Cairns, Queensland 4870 Australia
Cairns Colonial Club Resort
3.5 reviews
Getting there
Somewhat walkable
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At Cairns Colonial Club Resort, reviews depict a property that captivates with its multiple pools and lush gardens, while offering an atmosphere that swings between enchanting and dated. While some travelers consider the resort to be a good value, others feel improvements are necessary, likening it to a motel. The rooms are generally praised for their cleanliness, though opinions on comfort and noise levels vary.
The staff's friendliness stands out, despite occasional service hiccups. While the location is seen as quiet and suitable for those with cars, it's not without its critics.
Location
Inconvenient
Atmosphere
Mixed
Rooms
Basic
Value
Mixed
Cleanliness
Meticulous
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Satisfactory
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Our 4 star rating is for the positives of this hotel. If we could have given 3 1/2, we would have.
Firstly, the positives: -Price: we got a good price through Expedia for 5 nights. -Location: this is in a good location. Not far from anywhere, even better if you have your own transport, which we did (hire car) If you don't have a hire car, or prefer to be within walking distance of city centres, this probably isn't the right location for you. Although its only a few minute drive in the car to the actual city. -Clean rooms, which was made up each day. -Very nice grounds, gardens and pools (3 to choose from - a large a medium and a smaller pool) -Friendly staff and good service at the reception desk and restaurants. We requested a change of room (due to being placed directly opposite the playground) and they were happy to accommodate this change for us. -If you have a later flight and have checked out already, or if you have arrived too early for check in, they offer a free guest lounge where you can store luggage, sit and relax, use the facilities, etc. There is a microwave in this room. -Family friendly if you are travelling with kids (we weren't this time, we were just travelling by ourselves) -2 restaurants to choose from in the grounds. A poolside café and a pizza/pasta restaurant.
Negatives: -Car parking. If you have your own transport or hire car, be aware that there limited parking spaces. There are 3 carparks, however this is a large property, so at times was difficult to find a space, depending on which part of the resort you are staying in. Especially when they are holding private functions here, taking up guest parking. -Rooms are clean, but very basic. Very small fridge. No sink other than the bathroom sink. A microwave would have been good. Also a suitcase stand/shelf would be useful. -Property can be quite noisy. The noise, depending on what room you get may be an issue. A lot of rooms are situated around playgrounds, restaurants and main pool area where guests like to hang out, being rowdy. There is also a designated smokers area which tends to waft smoke far and wide. Ping pong and foosball table located in this same area too, with people using it at all hours being noisy. -Room doors do not seal great, and window facing out onto walkway both don't keep out or in any noise. -Most nights we were here, they seemed to holding private functions with large groups of people. This resulted in large numbers of extra people within the property, extra noise and less parking spaces available. -Cashless vending machines. These are designed for you to tap your room key, and charges are added to your room. We probably would have used these machines if they had accepted cash. Personally, we don't support cashless, we support choice.
Overall, for us it was the right price at the time and the location suited us. We don't need fancy rooms, but as we said, a microwave and a bit bigger fridge would have been good for us personally.
On our next trip to Cairns, we would probably research quieter places to stay. We would still recommend this as a good place to stay if the negatives we mentioned don't bother you, and if you get a good deal. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes.
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Date of stay: September 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Pulling up to the front of the hotel looked impressive but that’s where it ended. We were given a map and told to drive around the block where there “may be car parks available”. So we marched our luggage back to the car. When we found the rear entrance we were greeted with a severely potholed drive to a dingy section of rooms. Just opening the car door the noise hit us from some sort of drunken women’s conference that was apparently happening at the pool right next to the room. The room itself smelled like either damp or mould, the ceiling fan wobbled around so violently we thought it might come down on one of the 2 double beds (we booked a king room), and the room really wasn’t decorated at all. We put all our baggage back in the car and went back to reception. We asked for a room upgrade which we said we would pay for and were told the room we had was already an upgrade. FROM WHAT? A DOG KENNEL??? On the positive side reception agreed to upgrade us without charge and put us in a much nicer room. However this was poolside and guess what……that women’s conference also took up that entire pool leaving the entire rest of the hotel guest population the only pool left which was rightfully full of kids as they had nowhere else to go and a bunch of unhappy looking tourists looking for sunbeds that didn’t have someone’s towel already on it. I will say the pool bar/cafe was very efficient and staff were great there. To be honest calling this a Resort is bordering on false advertising. It’s more like a massive oversized Motel that’s seen much better days.
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Date of stay: May 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Find somewhere else.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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A lovely quiet superior room with two Queen beds, an up graded bathroom suite and access to a private garden off the room, we were pleasantly surprised with our accommodation. The bed was very firm and a blanket was supplied for warmth. Aircon and an overhead fan enabled us to control the room temp. The showers was great, plenty of room and hot water. The toilet seat was cheap plastic which creaked and groaned whenever it was sat upon. The water in the shower and toilet was very noisy when being used … in our suite and in adjacent and overhead suites. The cleaning was minimal which was due to Covid and keeping reactions between staff and guests to a minimum. I expected that the bed would be made daily but this was not the case. It was made twice in seven days! Towels, toiletries and the rubbish were cleaned daily. No face cloths were supplied, so we used our own which unfortunately was removed and lost by the cleaning staff. Despite this being reported, very little effort was made to locate our property and return it to us. Such inconsistency make me wary about returning to this property.
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Date of stay: July 2022
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Room Tip:Central superior rooms are quiet
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Hotel Management, Sales at Cairns Colonial Club Resort
Responded 11 Sept 2022
Dear Elizabeth, I appreciate your feedback relating to your recent stay here at our resort. I was delighted to hear that you enjoyed one of our beautifully restored Superior rooms. Over the past 30 years, the Cairns Colonial Club has built a global reputation as a safe, family-friendly, leisure resort that offers excellent value and warm, friendly service. Please be assured that we have taken your comments on board and will continue to adapt our business model and strive to provide the absolute best possible experience for our guests. Thank you again for your valuable input.
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I've just enjoyed 21 nights at the Cairns Colonial while on holiday from the UK. The room was spacious, serviced every day with clean towels, toiletries, and bedding if requested and was kept immaculately clean by the friendly service staff. The aircon and ceiling fans were efficient and quiet but there was some noise from adjacent rooms. The WiFi was not working and being repaired when we arrived and eventually our room had a weak but usable signal. The tropical gardens around the site were beautiful and well maintained. There is a bar/cafe adjacent to to largest of four swimming pools and a restaurant on site. Both serve good food and are not expensive. My only criticism is the lack of adequate sunshades around the pool area. I plan to return next year.
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Date of stay: March 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This place is fantastic for families. We recently stayed here for 11 nights with our teenage children. With 3 pools it was easy to find one with less people! Both restaurants were open and the food they offered was good. The breakfast menu could have offered more variety however the coffee was amazing! The daily cocktail special was an added bonus! We were initially put in a room on the top floor for the first half of our stay but then was informed we needed to change rooms due to a school group arriving. Was this annoying? Yes! Did it ruin our stay? No! The second room we were put in was on the bottom level, it was the same lay out, one king size bed and two single. The only downfall was the ants who came in from the garden. No big deal and easy to deal with! We rented a car and it was an easy 5-7 minute drive to the Esplanade and supermarket etc The only flaw which I would add is the fact that walls are paper thin so it can get a bit noisy however this was not a deterrent for us. All the staff were lovely and helpful and I would highly recommend this resort to families.
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Date of stay: October 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
It is what it is, tired and dated. The rooms are ok, clean and tidy. They are serviced daily to a good standard. The Pool Side Bar and Bistro is ok but a bit of same old, same old. The Pizza restaurant is arguably the pick with meals quite nice. Be careful where you book a room as the ones nearest the Pool Side Bar and Bistro are very noisy with young children in and around the play area. Also as it’s the main entrance, you have people coming and going at all hours. Without a vehicle, it can become quite costly to travel in and out of town if and when the need arises. I suggest it’s directed mainly for your young family groups who can hang around the pool with their kids and chill out at a reasonable cost. Not really for me and won’t be back.
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Date of stay: August 2023Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Hotel Management, Sales at Cairns Colonial Club Resort
Responded 13 Sept 2023
Dear John, Thanks for taking the time to review your experience at the Cairns Colonial Club. I’m sorry the resort did not meet your expectations on this occasion. We do have many families staying with us especially leading up to the holidays which can result in a lot of activity around the main pool. We have two other large lagoon-style pools for those looking for more peaceful surrounds. We thank you again for your review and wish you all the very best for the future.
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My family and I have recently stayed here to explore the rest of Cairns. Check in was quick and easy and our room was ready an hour earlier than expected. We stayed in a Superior Room (No. 459) which consisted of x2 Queen beds.
The room was situated toward the rear of the resort with a smaller/quiter pool and a carpark to the rear. The room itself was spotless with enough towels / cleaning products for the family.
The resort itself is covered in rich foliage and several swimming pools along with an Italian restaurant and flamingos a bar/restaurant which offers a wide variety of food.
Due to my children having coliac diease the staff at both restaurant went above and beyond to cater to their needs, and both offer gluten-free meals. All in all we had a hassle free stay and the staff were extremely helpful and approachable.
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Date of stay: August 2024Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Ubers or Taxis are the best option - on average, a trip to Cairns via Uber will cost around...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The staff at reception are excellent but without a concierge service this is a “normal” do it for your self accommodation stop. I’m gluten free &, although the establishment caters some GF dishes, the food variety is lacking. The restaurant staff tried to ensure Gluten free options were available and were mainly successful.
Like most places in Cairns, prices are high, so I can’t fault them on that. While the room, we stayed in, was spacious and offered a pleasing ambience, it doesn’t have catering provisions and the bar fridge, doesn’t let you store very much, so you’re forced to use the restaurant(s).
If you want somewhere quiet, this is great, though away out of Town& doesn’t have a Resort Bus. .
Overall this isn’t 4+ stars but is a nice place to stay.
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Date of stay: October 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Facts first. Rooms were spacious, ours were the family studio, so we had a fully equipped small kitchen. Beds were a queen, a single and a rollaway. It’s strange because I saw the same type of room next door had a queen and 2 singles instead of a combination with rollaway. The rollaway bed was very uncomfortable, it made squeaky noises with every little movement. Alarming amount of tiny ants everywhere in the room. Don’t leave unattended food on the table. Ants were also on towels, bed, under our suitcases. Tried to call operator/housekeeping/reception for some bug spray and none answered.
Personal opinion: I felt like as a 4 star hotel, they could’ve maintain the ground better. Pathways were difficult to push suitcases on and it really didn’t help that we had to carry it to second floor. There should be a ramp, or access way…we travelled with an elderly and it was some uncomfortable situation for everyone involved. Not to mention it was raining quite heavily at the time of our arrival.
Also….it seems like everywhere in the hotel was smoking area. One night someone smoked somewhere outside but made our whole room stank.
Usually hotels check out time are 11-12 noon, but this hotel is 10am. We were being called out of our room 3 times by a very grumpy looking housekeeping staff. We weren’t told about this during check in so we weren’t ready and still packing. We stayed there for 5 nights, and you couldn’t wait just an hour of late check out? Really. So much for hospitality.
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Date of stay: December 2022Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Hotel Management, Sales at Cairns Colonial Club Resort
Responded 18 Jan 2023
Dear Carol, Thank you for taking the time to share your comments. Your constructive feedback is duly noted and will be shared with our higher management team for review.
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We found this resort to be a bit dated, it would have been fantastic in its heyday in the 80s though. Our room which was on the second floor was one of the 'better' or the upgraded rooms as we were informed by the staff member booking us in. As there are no lifts, I had to lug the heavy bags up the stairs as my husband was unable to help having had surgery 5 weeks earlier. We were not offered any assistance with the bags even after I explained this to the staff at the check in desk who seemed very uninterested. The Thirsty Flamingo poolside bar/dining restaurant and pizza cafe on site were the main attractions for us along with the 'quiet' pool area which was near our room. This resort is more geared up for families so that the kids can spend their time in the large pool while their parents can sit back and enjoy their drinks and still be able to keep an eye on their kids. I don't recommend this resort for couples but do recommend it for large groups travelling together or families. We had a hire car which was needed due to the resort not being close to Cairns main town centre. There are Uber drivers and taxi's readily available though. The plus for me was the daily room cleaning with nice fluffy white towels and tidy room when we returned from a days outing. Unfortunately, the bed wasn't comfortable.
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Date of stay: November 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:If you are a couple looking for a romantic getaway, this may not be the place for you.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are 3 pools on the grounds. One next to the restaurant you can but you might find it to be busy with families. There is another one in the west side which is perfect for swimming
Chelmsford, United Kingdom33 contributions48 helpful votes
"Ubers or Taxis are the best option - on average, a trip to Cairns via Uber will cost around $15/20.
Taxi to/from Airport around $25
Plenty of Gluten free option available"
There are more places to choose from in the Cairns area.
PRICE RANGE
AU$96 - AU$140 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
cairns colonial club hotel cairns, cairns colonial hotel, cairns colonial resort
FORMERLY KNOWN AS
Ibis Styles Cairns Colonial Club
LOCATION
AustraliaQueenslandCairns RegionCairns
NUMBER OF ROOMS
315
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect total costs of the stay, including all taxes and fees known to our partners. Please see our partners for more details.
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