123 Williams Esplanade, Palm Cove

P: 07 4059 9200

W: www.peppers.com.au/beach-club-spa

Cost: Peppers Beach Club & Spa is in the heart of Palm Cove, with only a paved road separating the hotel’s frontage and the beach. The five-star resort has a range of accommodation options including spa rooms, suites, lagoon penthouses, and rooms in the Serenity Wing with exclusive access to the rainforest surrounded pool. Based on two adults, the rates range from $239 to $381 a night.

The Serenity Wing is at the rear of the beach club beyond earshot of the squeals of splashing children.

It’s high-end, self-contained holidaymaking for those pursuing peace and quiet. The unit has the amenities of home including a laundry and kitchen plus hotel staples such as a mini-bar stocked on request.

The private balcony boasts an outdoor entertaining area including a barbecue and table – a few steps from the formal pool surrounded by tropical plants and reserved for adults.

The seaside hamlet has a convenience store for tourists keen to cook, while the esplanade is home to a string of restaurants serving cheap eats and fine fare.

Lime and Pepper is the club’s restaurant where night-time diners should opt for an outside table under the melaleuca trees and with views of the ocean - a spot to woo and unwind.

Talented head chef Thomas Ege - who came to Palm Cove via Europe, the Cayman Islands and Sassafras Creek at the foot of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales – has a flair for experimentation and eye for quality local ingredients.

He combines coconut prawns with Atherton Tablelands’ sweet potato-pineapple mash and five spice rum drizzle or grilled Gulf of Carpentaria tiger prawns with a Daintree Estate chocolate froth, a micro herb flower salad and coffee lime dressing. One of his signature desserts boggles the mind. It is a dark Daintree Estate chocolate cannelloni filled with white chocolate mousse and porcini mushrooms served with spicy mango salsa and coconut sauce. It shouldn’t work. It does.

Ticking off a list of “r’s’’ is recommended: run on the beach as the sun comes up; rest beside one of two pools - serenity or lagoon; ring up a tab at the swim-up bar in the latter; read a book on the private balcony, and reinvigorate a tired body at a day spa.

More strenuous activities are available such as tennis at the beach club or a sea kayaking for a half day. It’s a short drive to the Skyrail cableway that connects Cairns and Kuranda with stops at Red Peak and Barron Falls where passengers can hop off and take a walk through the rainforest.

Kuranda is picturesque but a bit of a tourist trap, with a number of stores packed with Australiana trinkets designed with international travellers in mind. One of the exceptions is Doongal Aboriginal Art that sells works by indigenous artists including some from the Atherton Tablelands.

The seaside village, Palm Cove, is a retreat rather than a party town.

Staying at Peppers Beach Club & Spa conjures up romantic childhood memories of school holidays spent in a caravan beside the beach where hours could be wasted exploring the dunes and wading in the shallows.

Of course, the beach club is far more elegant and well appointed.