My family stayed at the Rydges Esplanade last week. Although we enjoyed our holiday, there was a fair few hiccups. Upon arrival my parents went to their room which smelt awful, although we had requested NON smoking rooms that was what we were given. My parents where then moved to a different floor (we had 3 rooms total). After the 3rd night my sister got back to her room after a day out and her room was smokey too - a smoker had arrived next door and the smoke came through under the adjoining locked door. Having to get 3 children bath and into their pjs along with changing rooms with little or no assistance from the hotel staff they moved up a few floors... since it was a matter of repacking 2 things were left behind, once my sister realised this she contacted the front desk and was given the run around more than once and the missing items were not recovered to our knowledge. It was in a good location to Muddys Playground which our children all had a ball playing at. In relation to the rest of the town and the main shopping area, its a good 15min walk. We got plenty of excersise! They did have a shuttle service i think though we didnt use it at all. Its worth getting the Rydges membership, its free and you get some decent discounts. Overall ok, we wouldnt stay there again. Oh one last thing - dont book tours through the hotel, its alot cheaper to go to a tour office in town to book! :D hth!

I recently travelled to Cairns for a family holiday. It was nice to be able to stay on the Esplanade in an apartment since I was travelling with my family. Rydges Esplanade has an excellent pool area, my husband utilised the pool bar, while the kids played with the pool toys. The seafood buffet was also delicious. Overall it was a great stay and the staff were very friendly. I would recommend this hotel for anyone travelling to Cairns - especially families.

My family and I stayed at Rydges Esplanade in February and it was great! The Hotel has a great pool that my kids played in for hours and the hotel itself is only a little walk away from the kids playground on the waterfront. We had a super room facing the Ocean which was great to wake up to, and we found out on check out that they even have Apartments there aswell which we will diffinately book next time! The restaurant was great with a good selection of food and overall it was a throughly enjoyable stay. Diffinatley recommend going.

Nice hotel. Internet in room was expensive. Was further away from town centre than I thought. Maybe a 15 minute walk, which turned out to be meaningful since one in our party had a mobility issue. There is a shuttle, but it is very limited. Had fantastic service at tour desk to guide our choices of Cairns activities. All in all, quite satisfactory, but would have liked to have been closer. We had an ocean view which was lovely, despite the rain!

We stayed at Rydges for one night due to a cancelled CP flight.. Having stayed at two other Rydges hotels in Australia, we found this hotel also to be a good 4*, with big rooms, clean and a good location, next to the water front. Rydges have two other hotels closer to the city centre and we think we would prefer one of them to the Rydges Esplenada, location wise. The best part of the hotel was their dinner buffet. That was a meal to remember!