Gilligan's Backpackers Hotel & Resort

Gilligan's Backpackers Hotel & Resort Review

If you're in Cairns for an active vacation and don't need spa-level silence, this upscale budget property is ideal. Offering clean, modern hostel-type four-, six-, eight-, and 10-bed dorms, deluxe four- and six-bed "suites" and private hotel-style twin rooms, all with en-suite facilities, Gilligan's is cheerfully cheap but doesn't feel like a compromise. Deluxe suites and twin rooms have fridges, TVs, lounges, even balconies; twin rooms have DVD players, too. Terrific public facilities include a TV lounge, Internet café, beauty salon, gym, tour desk, licensed gaming room, pool tables, waterfall-fed lagoon pool and on-site nightclub Pure (nightly, 10 pm until late). Gilligans is hugely popular with younger travelers but everyone's welcome—though some might find it a little intense, what with the gigantic beer hall and deck, jelly-wrestling and cross-dressing nights, "dive-in" movies and sportscasts on Cairns's largest outdoor screen, and loud entertainment (including big-name bands and DJs), Tuesday through Sunday till late.