Which Daintree and Cape Tribulation tour should you pick?
Take the 4WDIt is the only one that gets past Cape Tribulation.
Take the 4WD if you want to get past Cape Tribulation, and the coach if you do not. That's the real difference and the price gap is only $5. The coach at $224 covers the Daintree River ferry, Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation. The 4WD at $229 goes on to the Bloomfield Track, which a coach cannot, and includes a guided cruise on the Daintree River watching for estuarine crocodiles. The third option is different in kind: an Aboriginal-guided day at $389, walking coastal country with a Kubirri Warra clan member.
Checked on 6 October 2026.
The Daintree is the oldest rainforest on earth and it meets the reef at Cape Tribulation. Several tours go there and they look almost identical on price, which is why the question gets asked so often. Here's what separates them.
The day tours, side by side
| Trip | What you get | Vehicle | Group | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Day Cape Tribulation Tour | — | A coach with a guide from Cairns, and the ferry across the Daintree River. All park fees are included. | Small group | $224 |
| 1 Day Cape Tribulation Tour | — | An air-conditioned 4WD mini bus with an accredited guide, picking you up from your Cairns accommodation and returning you there. The 4WD is needed for the Bloomfield Track beyond Cape Tribulation. | Max 21 | $229 |
| 1 Day Aboriginal Culture & Rainforests | — | An air-conditioned 4WD mini bus with an Aboriginal driver guide, with return transfers from Cairns. | Max 21 | $389 |
Read the vehicle column. Only the 4WD can take the Bloomfield Track beyond Cape Tribulation.
The difference that matters
- The coach, $224.A guide, the Daintree River ferry, and all park fees. It reaches Cape Tribulation and turns around. Perfectly good, and the cheapest.
- The 4WD, $229.Max 21, an accredited guide, and it carries on past Cape Tribulation onto the Bloomfield Track: unsealed, and where the road stops being a road. It also includes the crocodile cruise on the Daintree River, which the coach day doesn't.
- The Aboriginal-guided day, $389.Not a bigger version of the others — a different day entirely. A Kubirri Warra clan member walks you across beach, mudflats and mangroves, with lunch at the Mossman Gorge Cultural Centre.
- $5 separates the first two.If you were ever going to take the 4WD, take it.
Day trip or stay overnight?
A day covers it, and a night changes it. The 2 day Cape Tribulation trip at $399 includes a night at a rainforest lodge with all meals home cooked, which means you are in the forest at dawn and dusk — when it is most alive. Everything on the day trips is a daytime version of the same place. If wildlife is why you're going, the night is worth it.
2 Day Cape Tribulation Tourfrom $3992 days, 1 nightEco Lodge (Dorm Style)2 days — a night in the rainforest, all mealsView trip
2 Day Tablelands, Daintree & Cape Tribulationfrom $4452 days, you arrange your own night between themOwn Arrangement2 days — the Tablelands and the DaintreeView trip
3 Day Reef & Rainforest Highlights from $6003 days, you arrange your own nightsOwn Acommodation3 days — reef from a superyacht, then the DaintreeView tripMossman Gorge, and doing it yourself
- Mossman Gorge is on the wayand is included on the coach and the Aboriginal-guided days. You reach it by shuttle from the visitor centre.
- Self-driving is possible to Cape Tribulationthe road is sealed and the Daintree River ferry takes cars.
- Beyond Cape Trib it is not.The Bloomfield Track is unsealed, steep in places, and standard hire agreements exclude it.
- Do not swim in the Daintree River or any estuary.That is crocodile country and the signs mean it. The freshwater creeks inland are a different matter and are signed as such.
Daintree or the Tablelands, if you have one day
A separate and equally common question. Short version: the Daintree if it is your only day, the Tablelands if you have two — there is a full comparison on our Tablelands or Daintree page, and a three-day plan for Cairns on what is there to do in Cairns in three days.
Where this comes from. What each trip visits, the vehicle, group sizes, what is included and prices are that trip's own details as held on its page here, and prices update on their own. Road access beyond Cape Tribulation and crocodile warnings follow Queensland Parks and Wildlife's published advice.