Caravella Backpackers

I had a great stay at Caravela Backpackers. It’s a really good place. Very clean, well-maintained, and the service is excellent. The owner and the staff are extremely kind and welcoming. The rooms are spacious, have air-conditioning, and the beds are comfortable. The atmosphere at night is calm and quiet so that you can rest well. It’s in a great location on the main street, close to the shops but still quiet at night. Overall, it’s a wonderful place and I’d definitely stay here again.

A friend and I stayed in the female 6 bed dorm room. We loved it! Lovely common spaces, and bonus points for the pool. The location is fab, you feel surrounded by nature which made it super peaceful. Everyone we met who worked and stayed at the hostel was so kind, chatty and approachable. Rooms, bathrooms and kitchens are all cleaned thoroughly every day. Caravella is the perfect base to come home to after busy days exploring Cairns and wider.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Great stay at Carvellas Backpackers! Carvellas Backpackers is a really nice and quiet place, perfect for anyone looking for a comfortable stay. I was with my friend and we stayed in a private room/ toilet. The staff are friendly and always willing to help, which makes a huge difference. What I loved most is that it suits everyone — families, solo travellers, all ages — and you can feel at home whether you're staying short-term or long-term. A relaxed atmosphere, clean spaces, and a sense of community. Highly recommend.

Very clean simple rooms, pool looked nice, great indoor/ outdoor kitchen well equipped. The staff were all exceptionally nice, had a great family feel. Towel included, no hidden fees for luggage storage or anything else, which is rare these days. Short walk into town, cafes nearby, right on the boardwalk. 10/10 would recommend.

Solo traveller in a private double room. The room is obviously basic but still confortable and actually pretty big, definitely ok for the price. It's overall a very good deal. For a hostel, it's rather quiet so no problems to sleep. Lots of kitchen supplies. Sufficient bathrooms/showers, which I found clean. Nice outdoor seating withing the hostel, and a small pool. Very friendly staff.

This place worked out so well for us. The location is great and within the pick-up area of our scuba diving centre. Our room was private, for three people, and very quiet. We actually came back again for the last part of the trip.

I did not stay very long (early January 2026) but loved this place. Very comfortable, awesome kind staff (thank you Zénon for your help), friendly relaxed people all around. Wish I could have stayed longer!

Couldn’t recommend this hostel enough, they were nothing but accommodating. The rooms were lovely and clean, lockers to store personal items and room cleaned daily. Pool was also very nice and lovely communal areas. Great location as walking distance to everything. The staff were all so welcoming and friendly, there was overall just a great atmosphere to the place.

We stayed at Caravella the 3 days we had in Cairns. The promised airport pickup so upon landing, I called them. (The airport had a switchboard for some local business, so I didn't have to look for their phone number.) The front desk said no problem so we waited with other guests at the shuttle pickup area. It took a long time (~45 min) before anyone showed up and the van was too small to fit everyone. So we had to wait for another trip. It appears there was only one van, which would have been ok if they didn't ever expect many guests. The place itself was ok. We had a suite with small living area and private bathroom. While it has an Esplanade address, it was not in the busy part of the town. One had to walk a tiny bit to the restaurants but guess much quieter this way. Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was when we were looking at the brochures for things to do, she was trying to sell us Passions of Paradise reef tour to us (to be fair, it got good reviews). When I said I just wanted a rainforest tour, she was telling me that it included a tropical island. Well, I looked and they were taking guests to Michaelmas Cay, no rainforest!

Perfect little hostel away from the craziness with good amenities! The FREE WiFi is pathetic at best but hey, I'm only here to shower and sleep. SERVICE Excellent, excellent staff! Very courteous and willing to help you book all your activities or point you in the right direction. QUALITY My sister and I stayed in a private twin double. We shared a living area and bathroom with two other rooms. Not bad! Except this one Chinese (wo)man kept staring at me whenever I had my bedroom door open or when I left the bathroom... MEGA CREEPER STATUS!!!! VALUE You get what you pay for, so it was exactly what we were expecting. Definitely would come back with a better data plan so I don't have to rely on the weak WiFi

Really enjoyed my stay here, clean, air conditioned and a lovely pool to take a dip in. The location is great, lovely walk to the city centre along the bay and the reception staff are absolutely darling. My only draw-back was that the wifi was only available in the living area which made for some quite anti-social people, stuck to their computers.

Airport pick up was great!! Clean , friendly, and nice big kitchen!

Not a bad place to stay- I mean it is a hostel so I wasn't expecting the four seasons. Good for the price. The only issue I have is that you have to walk downstairs to use the toilet or shower. Other than that- good location, friendly and helpful staff.

This hotel is very good located in Cairns.The room and toilet facilities maybe are not the best in the world.... but guys,,,, This is a hostel!! What did you expect! The swimming pool is wondeful after a day diving or walking in the rainforest! I'll recommend it for you!!

The location can't be beat, you are across the street from the Esplanade which is about as good as it gets! The people at the front desk are incredibly friendly and VERY helpful, they assisted me in several tour bookings and really went the extra mile in making sure I was taken care of, which I appreciated immensely. The deals for $7 dinner that they provide are just a godsend for broke backpackers such as ourselves... it wasn't the healthiest food but it was a filling, delicious meal. For $7! That is SO CHEAP for Australia! The common area was very nice and well used, and the pool looked clean (though I didn't use it). This place was just about as good as a hotel, really. Unfortunately I wasn't a big fan of the rooms. We had two different rooms (both private ensuite, which is totally worth it considering how inexpensive it is), and both had roaches. It's very hard to control roaches in such a tropical urban environment I'm sure, especially for a hostel... but still, they were there. There was a dried booger on the wall of one of our rooms, right above/behind the bed... housekeeping probably should have tidied that up. Additionally (and frankly worse, in my opinion), the lighting in the rooms is terrible to the point of being MADDENING. It gave me intense headaches and nausea to be in the room for any extended length of time. Both rooms were like this. Luckily we didn't lounge about very much since we were out in the city, but if I had one suggestion to make Caravellas great it would be to replace the lights! They flicker and glow like a zombie infested hospital in a scary video game. Probably not a big deal for most people but if you're inclined to migraines, watch out. Honestly though, barring that (and I know that I am particularly sensitive to this issue anyway) the accommodations were great, the rooms are very spacious for a hostel and the bedding was clean and comfortable. The people were warm and helpful. I do recommend it.

We had a Twin Room and our Water Tap made weird noises, which was pretty loud and it randomly starts sometimes. In the First night e.g. at 0:30 am. We called the Receoption and said they will fix it, but nothing happened. The next day we told them again still nobody was called and we asked for a little Refund and they told us that we can talk to the Manager the next Day. The next day we were checking out and the Manager wasnt there, so the Reception lied to us and we didnt get anything and the water tap is still not fixed.