Cairns is the most social city in Australia for a very simple reason: almost everybody there arrived recently, and almost everybody is leaving soon. That turnover sounds like bad news for friendship, and it partly is. It is also why you can land on a Tuesday and be out with a group by the weekend.
I have spent time in Cairns and the pattern is always the same. Hostel, shared work, dive boat, reef trip, then a group forms and moves on together. Here is how to get into that, with every Cairns group from my ebook linked.
Why Cairns Is Different
This is not a city where you build a five-year social circle. It is a city where you build a really good six weeks. The friendships are intense and fast, and a handful of them last because people end up in Sydney or Melbourne together afterwards.
It also helps that Cairns is tiny. The same faces turn up at the same hostels, the same bars on the Esplanade, the same dive shop and the same farm work pickups. You will recognise people within a week.
The Groups From My Ebook
Cairns and Queensland
- Cairns Working and Backpacking Group the main Cairns group, and the place to find rooms, jobs, lift shares and people heading to the reef or the Tablelands
- Brisbane Working Holiday Girls worth joining if you are flying in via Brisbane or heading south afterwards
- BNE Run Club and Brisbane Social Run Club for when you move back down to the city
National Groups Worth Joining
- Australia Backpacker Guide the big backpacker Facebook group, where a lot of Cairns rooms and jobs get posted
- Cold Nips cold water dips and swims, which in Cairns means the lagoon and the beaches
- Croissant Run Club 30 locations worldwide and all over Australia
- Australia Social meet-ups and social events
- Run clubs around Australia if you want to keep running through the wet season
Where to Meet People in Cairns
The Hostel Is the Social Life
Pick a hostel with a kitchen and a courtyard, not just a bed. The kitchen is where groups form, and the people cooking together at 7pm are the people you end up going out with. Stay a week minimum. People who move hostels every two nights never get past small talk.
Get on a Boat
Dive courses and liveaboard trips are the fastest friendship machine in Far North Queensland. You spend three days with the same dozen people, you eat together, you sleep on the same boat, and you come back as a group. If you were ever going to learn to dive, do it here.
Work With People Your Age
Hostel work, hospo, tour boats, reef crew, farm work. All of it puts you in a shared staff room with people in exactly the same situation. The 88 days regional work crowd also tends to travel together afterwards, so the friendships carry on down the coast.
The Esplanade and the Lagoon
The Cairns Esplanade lagoon is free, central and busy every evening. It is the default meeting point for everyone in the city, and there is always a group heading somewhere afterwards.
A Realistic First Week
Day one: join the Cairns Working and Backpacking Group and post that you are looking for a room or a hostel recommendation. Day two: check into a hostel with a kitchen and cook in it. Day three: book a reef trip or a dive course. Day five: you will have a group. Day seven: someone will suggest a road trip to the waterfalls or Port Douglas, and you should say yes.
The Honest Bit
The wet season is quiet, hot and sticky, and a lot of people leave. If you arrive in January expecting a party you will be disappointed. The dry season, roughly May to October, is when Cairns is at its best and when the social scene is busiest.
My Australia friends guide has every state group, and my guide to choosing Cairns for a working holiday covers jobs, rent and what living here is actually like.
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