Mission Beach? hit or miss?

Just wondering about Mission Beach... is it worth the stop or should I spend time elsewhere? I'm going from Sydney to Cairns and hitting Byron Bay, Brisbane, rainbow beach, fraser island, Whitsundays, magnetic Island, Cairns, and Cape Trib for sure... any other recommendations? I only have 25 days!

I liked Mission Beach - while it's not as lively as some of the other stops it's a nice place to relax for a few days and there are some good bush walks around there.

I did pretty much the same stops as you in a similar amount of time (but I didn't manage Cape Trib unfortunately.) Another option is Great Keppel Island which is lovely.

Thanks Bex! Where did you stay in mission beach? I was looking at the Sanctuary since its in the rainforest and seems like a one of a kind experience. But it definitely wouldn't seem to have much of a nightlife or backpacker feel!

Any recommendations from your travels? Hostels? activites? etc? I'm off in two weeks and so excited!!

Hello there

We stayed in Mission Beach back in December and loved it.. the beach really is beautiful with palm trees all along the white sand. The only bad thing for us was that we had to swim in the stinger net as it was jellyfish season but I think that's over now.

If it helps at all we stayed at Mission Beach backpackers which was a great hostel run by a lovely family. It's about 1 minute from the beach, good facilities, tv, kitchen and swimming pool. Mission beach doesn't really have much nightlife though but if you want to chill out for a few days we would def. recommend it.

Sophie & Dale

I hear it's nice. tons of people go there to skydive over the great barrier reef

but that's a tight schedule make sure you factor in the long travel times and early schedules for some of the excursions and tours

it takes like 15-17 hours to get from fraser to airlie and nine hours from sydney to byron