Between Blue & Green

The waiver felt less like paperwork and more like a death sentence.

I signed it anyway.

A few minutes later, I was easing myself into CrocArena at Wildlife Habitat Port Douglas, a GoPro wrapped in plastic in one hand and a snorkelling mask strapped to my face. Somewhere in the water were two saltwater crocodiles. I had been assured there was a clear barrier between us, but I could barely see it. The snorkelling mask, which required me to take off my glasses, made things worse. With my terrible eyesight, whatever boundary existed between us seemed to disappear almost completely.

The crocodiles were considerably harder to miss. One of them came fully into view underwater. No longer just a head breaking the surface, it was suddenly all tail, muscle and scales. When it moved, the plates along its body seemed to lock together like puzzle pieces. I kept reminding myself that a transparent wall stood between us. It did not make me less scared.

The crocodile encounter came towards the end of a trip in which I had spent an unusual amount of time worrying about what was underneath me.

I was in Port Douglas after Booking.com named the town in Tropical North Queensland one of its Trending Destinations for 2026. Offshore lies the Great Barrier Reef; inland is the Daintree Rainforest. And over the next few days, both would shape the way I experienced the region.

Beyond The Last Buoy

The previous afternoon, our white yacht, almost too pristine for adventure, had left Port Douglas for the Low Isles. It rose and dropped with the swell, seawater spraying across the deck. Those of us who had chosen to sit outside were soon wet enough for the decision to seem irreversible.

The Low Isles comprise Low Island and Woody Island. They are also known as Wungkun and are culturally significant to the Kuku Yalanji and Yirrganydji peoples—two Indigenous communities of Far North Queensland with deep ancestral ties to the region.

Milan Kassa, our snorkelling instructor, looked to be in his late twenties and had moved to Port Douglas from Seattle only a few months ago. As someone who had travelled from India to reach this corner of Australia, I wondered why a person would leave one famously beautiful place to build a life in another. Perhaps scenery is not something people value as much as travellers do.

For the moment, though, Kassa had been entrusted with getting us into the Great Barrier Reef and, in my case, making sure I came back out.

Once in the water, I discovered that snorkelling could be both beautiful and unsettling. At first, I was mostly listening to my own breathing. Then the reef came into focus, coral spreading beneath me while fish appeared, vanished and reappeared elsewhere.

We had been told not to swim beyond the final floating marker, but I kept going until I reached it. When I turned around, Low Island looked very far away. It probably wasn’t. But suddenly the coral below became considerably less interesting, and I started swimming back.

“There are more than 150 species of coral around the Low Isles, and people have been studying this reef for almost a century,” Kassa told us once we were ashore. The first detailed scientific study of a coral reef was conducted here in 1928-29.

Then he stopped beside an enclosure.

“This is where Steve Irwin was brought after the stingray attack,” Kassa told us.

Irwin, the Australian conservationist and television personality known worldwide as the Crocodile Hunter, had been filming at nearby Batt Reef in 2006 when a stingray barb pierced his chest. His crew brought him to the Low Isles, but he could not be saved.

I was glad Kassa had saved that story until after our snorkel. I was also grateful that no stingray had appeared anywhere near me.

What The Forest Knows

The day before our reef trip, we visited Mossman Gorge, which lies within the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest in the traditional Country of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people.

Our guides, Emily Kulka and Vanya Palmer-Geia, both Kuku Yalanji women, led us through a traditional smoking ceremony before we entered the forest.

“The smoke cleanses you before you enter Country,” Kulka explained, adding that the ceremony also pays respect to ancestors and helps keep bad spirits away.

Tree bark burned as smoke drifted around us. Only then did we walk in.

At first, I saw trees, roots, water and an overwhelming amount of green. Then Kulka and Palmer-Geia began pointing out what I would otherwise have walked past.

“The rainforest gave our people everything they needed,” Palmer-Geia told us, indicating plants used for food and medicine.

The forest began to feel less like wilderness and more like an archive. Created by Kuku Yalanji elder Roy Gibson in 1986, the Ngadiku Dreamtime Walk marks its 40th anniversary in 2026; half a million visitors have taken it since.

I wondered how much of a forest this old I could possibly understand in one afternoon. Kulka and Palmer-Geia had opened up a few layers, but most would remain beyond me.

When I asked Todd Lacey, Booking.com’s Regional Manager for Oceania and Korea, whether Indigenous tourism would grow in Australia, his answer was measured.

“It’s also not about tokenising that kind of experience,” Lacey said. Dedicated Indigenous experiences were important, he added, but they had to be the right ones and “done in a respectful way.”

Mossman Gorge helped draw that distinction. Kuku Yalanji culture was not something added to the rainforest for visitors; it made clear that the rainforest was not just a natural landscape, but also a lived cultural one.

But Port Douglas now faces a larger question. Being named one of Booking.com’s Trending Destinations for 2026 brings more attention to a region whose appeal depends heavily on the landscapes and cultures, and tourism also has a responsibility to protect.

For Lacey, what sets Port Douglas apart is that sustainability is not being left to any one hotel, tour operator or attraction.

“It’s about all the different players of the industry coming together and having a singular, unified vision,” he said.

There are already signs of that approach. The Port Douglas and Daintree region is certified as an ECO Destination. The Pullman Port Douglas Sea Temple Resort and Spa, where I stayed, is Sustainable Tourism Certified, with refill stations, bamboo key cards and incentives for guests who skip daily room servicing. Reef operators such as Sailaway combine access to the Great Barrier Reef with marine interpretation, while at Mossman Gorge, Kuku Yalanji knowledge sits at the centre.

The real test may come as more people discover the region. Lacey does not believe tourism success should be measured simply by rising visitor numbers.

“It’s not just about driving as many people as you possibly can,” he said. “It’s also about thinking about who is the right customer for this destination.”

Part of that is encouraging travel during shoulder seasons to spread visitors evenly throughout the year, while accommodation providers can use better off-season pricing to attract people when demand is lower. The aim is to attract visitors who are likely to value the place, stay longer and contribute to the local economy.

For a destination now described as “trending,” that distinction matters. The reef, rainforest, wildlife and Kuku Yalanji Country are not incidental to Port Douglas’s appeal. They are the reason people are coming in the first place.

The Information

Getting there: Fly to Cairns. Port Douglas is about 60–90 minutes away by road.

Visa: Indian passport holders need an Australian visa before travel. Check current requirements with the Australian Department of Home Affairs.

Best time: May to October is the drier season; June to September is particularly popular.

Also visit: Four Mile Beach, Macrossan Street, Yalanji Arts & Gifts, Ngarru Gallery, and Nautilus Restaurant.