Gilligan‘s Backpackers Hotel & Resort

The staff provides excellent and friendly service. Convenient location near tourist spots, pier, and train station. Good value and clean, spacious rooms. Close to amenities and exploration.

Giligans the place to be in Cairns if you want to meet people and enjoy your time!

Omg staying at this hostel was equally parts traumatic and entertaining. The best way to describe it is imagine if a problematic 60 year old man opened a hostel with a nightclub underneath, and all the social activities were designed with other problematic 60 year old men in mind. They don't seem to do any sort of gender balancing in the mixed dorm, one girl checked into my room in the middle of the night, because she was put in a mixed dorms with only men over 50. The social activities are old fashioned but not in a good way, I'm talking wet t shirt contests, pole dancing competitions, jelly wrestling. But honestly this hostel gave most of the girls staying here the ick so we ended up having movie nights on the girls floor, going to the market and Esplanade together and to the free gym. I actually had a good time, ironically. The facilities at this hostel are really good to be fair, the dorms were clean, they all had air conditioning and balconies (unfortunately you are not able to control the temperature of the air conditioning or turn it off when it is cold outside), they had large well equipped kitchens, a pool and a free gym. Even the nightclub was a good venue, but the social activities are like something out of the Wolf Of Wall Street. If they are going to be a sleazy venue they could at least hire Magic Mike dancers. But honestly they just need to get a new entertainment manager and this place would be fine. Location is alright, about a twenty minute walk to the Esplanade.