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Thala Beach Nature Reserve is a family-owned, 58-hectare nature reserve located 15 minutes south of Port Douglas. A scenic 60-minute drive along the iconic Captain Cook Highway from Cairns brings you to this tranquil retreat. The reserve features 83 eco-designed timber bungalows, elevated on stilts and thoughtfully concealed within the forest canopy. Seamlessly blending into the natural environment, our bungalows offer stunning ocean, mountain, or forest views. At Osprey's Restaurant, guests enjoy panoramic vistas to the Coral Sea. Dining among treetops alive with birdlife, visitors are treated to modern Australian cuisine accompanied by warm, attentive service. Paths weave through rainforest, leading to secluded beaches and coves while passing habitats teeming with endemic birds, wildlife, and flora. Guests can join complimentary guided nature tours led by onsite rangers, including stargazing at our observatory, Coconut Odyssey tour, wildlife walks, and birdwatching experiences.
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Thala Beach Nature Reserve boasts a serene natural setting that guests find harmoniously blends with the local wildlife, offering stunning ocean and rainforest views. The private bungalows, praised for their spaciousness and terraces, albeit with some dated decor, ensure a quiet, comfortable stay.
While the cleanliness and friendly staff receive commendations, some visitors mention infrequent cleaning and occasional service lapses. The relaxing amenities, including private beaches and pools, are popular, though some guests feel the value is diminished by additional costs for services like breakfast.
Location
Picturesque
Atmosphere
Serene
Rooms
Comfortable
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Friendly
Amenities
Relaxing
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Stunning place to stay for tourists as well as locals.. So much wildlife and kind staff. The room was beautiful, and the meals were delicious. Little phone reception but the wifi was in every room and worked well. Very comfortable beds, and the rooms are private and aircon worked well for the heat. Will be back and highly recommend to anyone - tourists and locals alike. 🌺🌴🍹
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Date of stay: January 2025
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Location
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Ask for a local discount when booking if you are from Cairns :)
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 Eleanor Jones, Marketing at Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Responded 19 Jan 2025
Thank you for your lovely review! As locals, we're thrilled you enjoyed your stay, the wildlife, and our delicious meals. It’s wonderful to hear the room and amenities met your expectations. We look forward to welcoming you back soon—thank you for recommending us!
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Peaceful lodge dramatically situated on a cliff above a pristine deserted beach outside Port Douglas, Queensland. Warm and friendly service. Individual bungalows, furnished in rustic style, and totally quiet at night. Lovely pool. Note that there are a lot of steps and steep slopes so if you have mobility issues, this is a not a good place for you. The bungalow had simple furnishings yet was very comfortable and had ample space, a porch, storage, a mini-fridge, a soaking tub, and a lovely shower. You can't walk to any food places so without a vehicle you must have breakfast and dinner at the lodge. They do offer a shuttle bus you can pay for to Port Douglas. The food offerings were creative and interesting, but varied in quality, and were quite expensive.
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Date of stay: September 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled solo
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 Eleanor Jones, Marketing at Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Responded 23 Oct 2024
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We're glad to hear you enjoyed the peaceful setting of Thala and appreciated the service, spacious bungalows and pool. We understand the natural layout of the property can be challenging for some which is why we always aim to offer assistance where needed. Being a secluded eco-resort, we understand the dining options may feel limited without a vehicle, but we hope our shuttle service to Port Douglas provides a convenient alternative. We are constantly working to ensure quality meets expectations and we appreciate your comments. We hope to welcome you back for another stay in the near future
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Thala Beach Nature Reserve is a beautiful forest and beach location with a secluded feel but still not too far from Port Douglas. They have excellent helpful and friendly staff. The one restaurant is Osprey with breakfast lunch and dinner. Breakfasts are particularly delicious. Colorful lorikeets and cockatoos entertained us from the trees by the restaurant. The resort offers fun and interesting nature walks and other activities. We really enjoyed our bird and butterfly walk with Dave, their knowledgeable nature guide. There is beautiful art of local scenery, history, and wildlife from notable local artists. Sometimes agile wallabies can be seen from the car park area. The 2 pools are beautiful and refreshing. Bookings to Great Barrier Reef and Rain Forests included pickups from the resort, so a car was not necessary. There are shuttles to Port Douglas if needed. The bed was very comfortable.
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Date of stay: September 2023
Value
Location
Service
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.
Response from Astrid Kooistra-Vink, Guest Services / Front Office at Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Responded 17 Nov 2023
It makes us so happy to read you got to fully enjoy and explore what we offer here at Thala Beach. We're lucky to have Dave and the birds never disappoint, they love the view from Ospreys too ;) We look forward to welcome you back!
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The biggest attraction of this hotel is it's location in the rain forest. You are up on a mountain side. The rooms are bungalow style so you are nestled in the jungle. The main lobby/restaurant is open with beautiful views of the mountains and water below. They do have a private beach which I believe is not true of other hotels in Port Douglas. We thought everyone on the staff was friendly and helpful. We did take the golf cart to the room at night and they always had someone readily available.
They had a beautiful pool that is shaped like waterfalls and ponds. Cute touch.
As others have said in the reviews. The rooms and the decor are dated and tired. They definitely need a refresh. The location can also be a negative. Unless you have rented a car, you rely on the private drivers or the shuttle buses that come to the hotel. It gets very expensive. This is even to go into Port Douglas to have dinner or shop - it is about 20 mins in the van.
Overall we enjoyed our stay and like everywhere in Australia, the people made the difference.
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Date of stay: March 2024
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Make sure the tours/adventures you schedule will come to pick you up at the hotel. The shuttles...
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 Astrid Kooistra-Vink, Guest Services / Front Office at Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Responded 22 Mar 2024
Thank you for your extensive review. As we are on a private headland it is indeed important to note a short commute is involved to get to Port Douglas. We hope the unique experience on our 145 acres property offer made it worthwhile. We truly appreciate your feedback. It was lovely having you and your son, and we were happy to see that the weather didn't stop you from exploring our beautiful region.
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The room itself was very nice and the beach access was beautiful with few people. This is partially due to being outside of Port Douglas by 15-20 minutes which is what we wanted. That being said, it’s natural that most guests will end up eating at the restaurant, which was not good. If you have a car, I’d do all your dining in Port Douglas. The views from the restaurant were stunning though.
I did fall on the stairs walking to my room with my bag. As a trail runner from Colorado, that was a bit embarrassing and I scraped myself up pretty good. If you’re clumsier than me, you may want to take extra care going to your room, especially at night.
We went up to Cape Tribulation for a few days and didn’t realize my husband’s Apple AirPod Pros were missing until we had wifi at the Cairns airport and started getting alerts that they were being used at the resort (both before we checked out and after). We contacted the hotel in an attempt to get them back, but got a fairly generic response that it had been too many days, a guest might have them and there was nothing they could do, despite getting alerts that they were still being used at the hotel. Our fault for not keeping them in a locked suitcase, but fairly disappointed nonetheless. Since my husband only uses them for flights and never connected to the wifi, it didn’t make sense that a guest would have them while we were still at the resort and then after. Now I get to spend USD $250 on a new pair.
If you’re looking for isolation near Port Douglas, this is a nice option; it just came at some physical and monetary costs we weren’t thrilled about.
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Date of stay: June 2023Trip 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.
We stayed here for our last 3 nights of a 5 week holiday in Australia and what a lovely surprise it was. The resort is built on a hill overlooking the sea and they have really made the most of the spectacular views from the restaurant. At breakfast you can sit and watch the birds in the trees from your table whilst enjoying excellent food.
There are pools to swim and relax in and a private beach with hammocks and loungers to relax in.
We had a jungle bungalow which was perfect and all of these are detached and raised from the forest floor.
The staff were all really friendly and they collect you with your luggage from the car park to take you to your chosen holiday home. 3 days was not enough and we wished we could have stayed longer but we shall have to return.
One thing to be aware of for the less able bodied is that there are a lot of steps to climb up to the main reception and eating/bar area as the location is a hill. But you can request a golf buggy to collect and return you to your room.
All in all a perfect and idyllic spot.
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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.
Response from Eleanor Jones, Marketing at Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Responded 30 Dec 2024
Thank you for your wonderful review! We're delighted to hear you enjoyed the stunning views, relaxing amenities, and your jungle bungalow experience. It’s fantastic to know our team made your stay special. We look forward to welcoming you back—next time, hopefully for a longer visit! 🌿✨
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Located about 15min south of Port Douglas and 47min form Cairns airport this is an amazing place to stay. Although it has 80 plus bungalows spread around the headland they are well spaced and connected by sealed paths. We had a Coral Sea Bungalow with a stunning view over Oak Beach and surrounding forest and mountains. The room was well appointed with comfy king bed, ceiling fans and effective air conditioning. A fairly large balcony with its own ceiling fan was great at night, sitting with wine in hand watching the light from the setting sun. The pools, restaurant and bar are all very good although a surprising feature is that you really need to use their golf cart service to get around as the paths are quite steep in places. This was never a problem as they always picked up quickly and took us anywhere on the reserve. Super friendly staff.
The massage service was one of the best we have ever experienced and while not cheap it was 90 minutes of pure bliss. Likewise the nature reserve has plenty of walks and access to both Oak Beach and Pebbly Beach. A top resort to stay at in north Queensland.
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Date of stay: March 2022
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:The ocean view rooms are spectacular
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.
Privileged location, beautiful views, nice beach, delicious food. Menu is somewhat limited, didn’t change in the 4 days we were here, a little pricey, but very well executed. There was no laundry service (new provider apparently), which is a major issue when you are on a month long trip around Australia and NZ. Also had issue with towel availability (new provider). Rooms are cleaned every other day. Staff is super nice, always smiling and hoping to please. Hotel is far away from town, 20-25 minute car ride, and shuttle availability is an issue, so not having a car limits mobility options, as Uber and taxis are not available. Major issue: no wifi in rooms, basically no TV service, excellent wifi and internet in main building. Having wifi is important when it rains unseasonably for 36 hours non stop and you don,t have a car.
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Consider having a car
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.
Excellent position a few miles south of Port Douglas. We had lodge 48 which was a 10-minute walk from the restaurant. Well equipped, comfortable bed, spacious lodge, although one slatted window had the insect grill flapping which would allow insects in if left open. We understand that there is an ongoing refurbishment programme. Very quiet apart from the birds. Great to see birds feeding when having breakfast at the restaurant. We also saw a flying fox feeding one evening right outside the restaurant veranda. The site is hilly so we made use of the buggy transport from the car park and in the evenings. The food in the restaurant is good but there is a restricted menu with fixed choices at breakfast. For example, to have a bowl of cereal before eggs would have cost extra. Evening meals were fine but you will need to eat in Port Douglas if staying for more than a few nights. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. We went on one of the free nature walks led by Brett and would highly recommend this. He pointed out much wildlife that we would not have seen. A very enjoyable 5 night stay.
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Date of stay: May 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.
Response from Eleanor Jones, Marketing at Thala Beach Nature Reserve
Responded 4 Aug 2024
Thank you for your in depth review of your stay with us. We are delighted you enjoyed your time and utilised the activities available.
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I was pleasantly surprised after only looking online to make a booking the night before and it said they were booked out. But I went on the wait list that night and the next morning I had an email confirming our booking. Great customer service. The location of the restaurant is amazing looking out over the treetops to the water. We started with cocktails at the bar which were delicious and reasonable price. Our waitress explained that due to staff shortages was why the website was displaying that they were booked out. Our meals were good but the service could be better. We had to ask all the time for different things like could they clear away empty glasses, had to catch the waitress eye to call her over to place orders. A bit inattentive and busy talking to other staff. What was amazing was considering the location is off the beaten track, an old school friend that I haven’t seen in 45yrs who did the same kind of booking I did was there for lunch as well. Meant to happen and now I will have great memories of our lunch. I would recommend going here for lunch as it is a beautiful location to see during the day.
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Date of stay: May 2022Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:You can get the shuttle from the car park up to the restaurant just call the reception
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 more places to choose from in the Oak Beach area.
PRICE RANGE
AU$415 - AU$509 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
thala beach hotel port douglas, thala beach resort, thala beach lodge
FORMERLY KNOWN AS
Thala Beach Lodge
LOCATION
AustraliaQueenslandPort DouglasOak Beach
NUMBER OF ROOMS
83
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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