Skybury Coffee Plantation

Now this is a Cairns day tour for the coffee lovers! Here you can see how your beloved coffee is grown and nurtured into the beans that are crushed to make your daily cup of cha. You will be awake and buzzing after the coffee cupping tour where you will get to taste all the different varieties of coffee grown at Skybury Coffee Plantation. You will also be able to enjoy a nice relaxing lunch on the notable outdoor deck of the Skybury Plantation restaurant that overlooks the farmland and the valleys. The restaurant and showroom are built from the beautiful hardwoods and local timbers of the Atherton Tablelands region and is a tourist attraction in itself. 

Skybury, the Australian Coffee Centre restaurant and showroom has been built with examples of prime hardwood local timbers and just to see the building itself is certainly worth the drive alone. These timbers take hundreds of years to grow and mature.

Skybury is said to be the oldest and largest coffee plantation in Australia but it is also well known as a major supplier of Sweet Red Papaya or Paw Paw and Lady Finger Bananas, two of Tropical North Queensland’s favourite fruits — revel in the Coffee Indulgence Tour in the Coffee Centre and see just how coffee is roasted produced and join in on The Coffee Cupping Tour where you get to taste all different flavours and varieties of coffee. Enjoy tasting a lunch made from local produce in the elevated Skybury Plantation restaurant that overlooks the scenic sweeping countryside below. And to finish off don't miss the delectable frozen coffee ice-cream desserts and handmade chocolates that you can take home with you.

Opening Hours

Opened Monday to Friday from 9:00am to 4:00pm, except on Good Friday and during Christmas period from 24^th of December to 1st January inclusive.

Granite Gorge is a popular swimming hole for the locals to retreat to during the summer months to cool off in the fresh mountain rivers. It’s also a place where some of Australia’s cutest wildlife gathers to drink and refresh themselves as well and they have come to learn to accept little treats from the daily tourists that visit their outback oasis.

Hand feed the Mareeba Rock Wallaby, or take a swim in the rock pools, learn all about the powers of the magnetic Termite mounds that dominate the landscape. Your Cairns day tour then finishes off with a refreshing tropical fruit tasting at a roadside stall where you can stretch your legs and buy some fresh local produce before descending the Kuranda range on the famous Skyrail gondola.

From the Skyrail gondola you can see the vast Australian country side around you whilst gliding over the treetops just like the native birds do. The building of Skyrail in itself is as amazing as the construction of the Kuranda Scenic railway and both of these attractions compliment each other perfectly.

You can take some magnificent 360 degree photographs from the Skyrail and if you have a good camera and a clear day you can see all the way out to Green Island and some of the sandy coral cays that make up the Great Barrier Reef.

Gliding down the mountain side in the Skyrail cable car gondola is the perfect way to end your Cairns day tour of the Cairns Atherton Tablelands, Kuranda and Skybury Coffee Plantation.

Tropical Horizons Day Tours can take you on this scenic journey to see Kuranda firstly by coach or the Kuranda Scenic Rail, the Atherton Tablelands and some native Australian wildlife, Skybury Coffee plantation and a return trip down the mountain side on the Skyrail.

A trip on the Kuranda Scenic Rail which was officially opened in 1891 is a must do for all new visitors to Cairns so that you can learn about the history and understand the hardships that our tough pioneers went thru to build this historic railway that we can all still enjoy today as a tourist attraction. The trains overhead speakers and commentary will inform you about the 15 hand cut tunnels that these pioneering men dug out and the number of deaths and tropical diseases and hardships the men had to endure to finish their task of building the railway to carry passengers and freight from the Tablelands. 

If you like you can upgrade your Kuranda Scenic Railway seating to the Gold Class option and experience train travel in real style with refreshments and nibbles along the great rail journey!

 Kuranda A Village In The Rainforest

You will have around an hour to spend wandering the streets of the rainforest village of Kuranda, its markets and wildlife attractions before you head off again and drive on over the McAllister Ranges out to the  Mareeba farming regions. An area known as the food bowl of Cairns and Asia as so much of this produce is exported daily to these overseas markets.

Kuranda is home to the Djabujay Aboriginal people who are said to have lived here for over 10,000 years. The Europeans made their way here in the early 1800’s due to gold mining boom and the logging of the fertile timber forests that surrounded the region and the place was developed and further established over time into the tourist destination and community that it is today. In the 1960’s Kuranda was known as the place to be if you were looking for an alternative lifestyle where you could build your own home out of mud and straw, grow your own organic vegetables, and more or less do your own thing. Musicians, artists and other entertainers made their way here for this utopian lifestyle and to this date a lot of them still have not left as the landscape and climate and ambience are so ideal. The eclectic mix of the business people, the hippies and the Aboriginal people make Kuranda Village a fun and interesting place to explore.