Cost to visit Cairns from Sydney in October

Here is some research for the costs to visit Cairns, from Sydney, in October 2025 to save you a bit of time planning your holiday. October is a fairly expensive month to visit. There are school holidays in October across most states in Australia so many families visit Cairns in the month of October. Let me know in the comments below if this is helpful.

October is a lovely time of year to visit Cairns. It at the end of the dry season so there is very little rainful and top temperatures are around 29 degrees Celcius.

I was searching for 5 star accommodation but I have shown some examples of cheaper accommodation. As a summary, for a 8 night holiday in Cairns, total cost for 1 person would be $3353. For 2 people this cost will be $1840.94 per person. The cheapest week I could find in October was Tuesday 14th October 2025 to Wednesday 22nd October 2025

This is based on:

Airfare: Qantas $453.87 return per person – you may be able to get the airfare cheaper with Jetstar or Virgin
Taxi Cairns Airport to Cairns City: ~$28 each way
Accommodation: $309 per night at the Hilton Hotel
Food: $50 per day per person

• Cost to get from your hotel to Sydney airport not included! A train from Parramatta to Sydney Airport costs around $22.26 per person.
• Additional tourist activities not included in prices!

Hotel prices are high in October. I’ve seen the Hilton Hotel at around $230 per night in low season. I compared other 5 star hotels in Carins for the same week and prices were – Shangri-La $334 per night, Pullman Reef Hotel $374 per night. I did a random search for decent 4 star hotels and a budget hotel and found – cheapest 4 star hotel $134 per night and Bohemia Resort Cairns $66 per night. I did a search the price for the Doubletree by Hilton which is 4 star but the price was $325 per night, more expensive than the 5 star Hilton.

Food is quite expensive in Cairns (*Australia in general). With loads of high end restaurants you could easily spend over $100 per person for a fancy dinner. There are also plenty of cheap eats available to get a meal around $10. If you get breakfast included with your hotel, then $50 per day is a decent amount for lunch and dinner. Have a cheapish lunch, then splurge a bit more fod dinner.

Here are return airfare prices for the other airlines flying between Sydney and Cairns direct: Jetstar $327 – Virgin $346 – Flying Sydney to Cairns on Tuesday 14th October 2025, returning Wednesday 22nd October 2025.

There is a shuttle Cairns airport shuttle bus that will drop you off at your hotel in Cairns city area for $25 per Adult and $12.50 for Children 1 way. If you are traveling alone then you’ll save a few dollars instead of a taxi fare but if there are 2 or more of you, then Taxi or Uber is the way to go.

Prices will flacuate as you get closer to October so Do Your Own Research for latest prices.

There are cruise ships that visit Cairns, but I’ve yet to find any companies that you can you can book leaving from Cairns, other than the boat trips to visit the Barrier Reef and many of the islands within 1 hours boat trip from Cairns city centre.

Coming tomorrow is the Cost to visit Singapore from Sydney in November.