By Rowan Ellis · Updated · Affiliate links, explained in my disclosure
Tusa Reef Tours & Spirit of Cairns
Spirit of Cairns Dinner Cruise
4.5 (432) · from $100
A dinner cruise in Cairns means an evening on Trinity Inlet with a buffet, and I found two ways to do it. The Spirit of Cairns Dinner Cruise is a 2.5-hour catamaran trip at $100. The City Sights Tour with Evening Dinner Cruise is a 9-hour day at $180 that ends on the same boat. Both also appear in my full list of boat tours in Cairns. Prices are in US dollars, checked in October 2026, and the booking links are affiliate links, as I explain on my about page.
My pick for most visitors is the Spirit of Cairns Dinner Cruise: it is cheaper, it has 4.5 from 432 reviews, and its schedule is short. I’d choose the City Sights tour only if you want a guided afternoon on land too, and note it has just 9 reviews, rated 4.9.
Night tourTusa Reef Tours & Spirit of Cairns
My pick: My dinner pick: $100, 2.5 hours on a sailing catamaran in Trinity Inlet, welcome drink and seafood buffet, 4.5 from 432 reviews.
Night tourTropic Wings Cairns Tours & Charters
My pick: A full day: $180, 9 hours with hotel pick-up, cathedral, museum and gardens, then dinner on the water, only 9 reviews.
Whether a Cairns dinner cruise is a sunset dinner cruise depends on the month. The Spirit of Cairns boat departs at 6:15 pm, and Cairns sunset times (for the 15th of each month, from sunrise-sunset.org, local time with no daylight saving) run from 5:52 pm in June to 6:58 pm in January. In winter the sun is down before the boat leaves. In summer you sail into the sunset.
| Month | Sunset | Against the 6:15 pm departure |
|---|---|---|
| January | 6:58 pm | 43 minutes after |
| February | 6:51 pm | 36 minutes after |
| March | 6:33 pm | 18 minutes after |
| April | 6:09 pm | 6 minutes before |
| May | 5:54 pm | 21 minutes before |
| June | 5:52 pm | 23 minutes before |
| July | 6:00 pm | 15 minutes before |
| August | 6:08 pm | 7 minutes before |
| September | 6:13 pm | 2 minutes before |
| October | 6:17 pm | 2 minutes after |
| November | 6:29 pm | 14 minutes after |
| December | 6:46 pm | 31 minutes after |
If you want the sunset itself, my sunset cruise page lists three cruises timed for it. The dinner cruise is about the evening, not the sunset.
The best dinner cruise in Cairns on my list is the Spirit of Cairns. It runs on a sailing catamaran, with an air-conditioned dining room and interior and exterior decks. The price includes a glass of sparkling wine, beer or a soft drink on arrival, then a hot and cold buffet with fresh seafood and local produce. Additional drinks and cocktails are sold from the licensed bar, and live music plays from Sunday to Thursday.
Boarding starts at 5:45 pm at A Finger, Cairns Marlin Marina, and the boat leaves at 6:15 pm. The route is Trinity Inlet and the Cairns waterfront precinct. It is rated 4.5 from 432 reviews. A reviewer praised the food, value and the staff, and another said drinks were expensive and the night was long, with a long walk back. The listing is not suitable for wheelchair users or people with mobility impairments.
The City Sights tour is a different product. A small-group coach tour collects you from one of 15 hotels, including Mantra Esplanade, Hilton Cairns, the Shangri-La and Pullman Cairns International. It then visits St Monica’s Cathedral and the Cairns Museum, and the Botanic Gardens with Devonshire tea in Edge Hill. The route goes on to views of Cairns and the Coral Sea, a rainforest vantage point and Palm Cove, where you can walk the jetty or sit on the beach.
In the evening you join the Spirit of Cairns for canapes and the 3-course buffet. The price is $180, including hotel pick-up, an afternoon tea, lunch and the return transfer from the cruise to your hotel. The listing excludes drop-off transport. Cancellation needs two days, not one. It has 4.9 from 9 reviews, so I’d treat it as a good idea with little evidence. Palm Cove Jetty is about 23 km in a straight line from the marina, which gives you an idea of the afternoon’s reach.
| Trip | Operator | Price | Duration | Boat | Rating | Cancellation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit of Cairns Dinner Cruise | Tusa Reef Tours and Spirit of Cairns | $100 | 2.5 hours | Sailing catamaran | 4.5 (432) | Free, 24 hours |
| City Sights Tour with Evening Dinner Cruise | Tropic Wings Cairns Tours | $180 | 9 hours | Same Spirit of Cairns cruise | 4.9 (9) | Free, 2 days |
I did not find a private dinner cruise among the Cairns trips I compared, and neither listing offers a private charter in the text I have. Both are shared sailings. If you want a private evening, the nearest options in my list are the hire boats on my boat rental page, which you drive yourself and which do not include a meal.
For a quieter shared evening, I’d pick a weeknight on the Spirit of Cairns, because live music plays from Sunday to Thursday and I can’t see how full each sailing is. A group booking or special request is a question for the operator, not something I can confirm from the listing.
Dinner cruises share the water with the daytime river cruises, and the two are quite different. The dinner trips include a buffet and take 2.5 hours or more. The river cruises are 45 to 90 minutes and include a drink and a snack at most. My river cruise page lists four of them from $21, and the cheaper ones are the sensible choice if what you want is wildlife and mangroves, not a meal.
The 432 reviews of the Spirit of Cairns lean positive, and the snippets on the booking page show why. One reviewer wrote that it was excellent value for money and that the food was lovely and there was lots of it. A returning guest said it was their second time on the Spirit, that the staff were excellent and that the variety of food was great. The one critical snippet says the meal and the sax player were very good, but drinks were too expensive and the night was long.
I’d read that as a good-value buffet with bar prices, so a dinner cruise in Cairns is best treated as a fixed-price dinner with a welcome drink and a separate drinks budget. The City Sights reviews are two short lines, praising a knowledgeable guide and saying that a lot is packed into a half-day tour, which is not much to go on.
At $100, the Spirit of Cairns works out at $40 an hour, and that buys a drink, a buffet and live music on five nights a week. The City Sights tour costs $180 for 9 hours, about $20 an hour, and it includes lunch, afternoon tea and transfers on top of the same dinner cruise. If you would have taken a city tour anyway, the combined ticket is the cheaper way to get a dinner cruise in Cairns. If you wouldn’t, pay the $100 and keep your day free.
Check the departure time first. The Spirit of Cairns leaves promptly at 6:15 pm, and boarding closes at that time, so I’d arrive by 5:45 pm. Cancel up to 24 hours before for a full refund, or two days on the City Sights trip. Think about the walk back: the marina is about 0.19 km from The Pier shopping centre and 0.34 km from the Esplanade Lagoon in a straight line, and one reviewer mentioned a long walk back, so plan your transport home.
You stay on deck on a dinner cruise, so marine stingers are not a worry on board, but if you plan any swim around it, the Queensland Government has a page on dangerous marine life that dates the stinger season as November to May.
Whichever dinner cruise in Cairns you choose, keep the cancellation window in mind and check the day’s departure time. For every Cairns boat trip I compared, go back to boat tours in Cairns, or to my home page for other cities.
In my list the Spirit of Cairns Dinner Cruise costs $100 for 2.5 hours, with a welcome drink and a hot and cold buffet with fresh seafood. The City Sights Tour with Evening Dinner Cruise costs $180 for 9 hours, with hotel pick-up, an afternoon tour and a 3-course buffet. Prices are in US dollars, checked in October 2026.
The Spirit of Cairns listing says boarding starts at 5:45 pm at A Finger, Cairns Marlin Marina, and you must be on board by 6:15 pm, when the boat departs promptly. The cruise lasts 2.5 hours. The City Sights tour starts with a hotel pick-up in the afternoon and joins the same cruise in the evening.
A glass of sparkling wine, beer or a soft drink is included when you arrive on the Spirit of Cairns cruise. Additional beverages and cocktails are available to buy from the fully licensed bar. One reviewer described the drinks as too expensive, so I'd decide in advance how much you plan to spend on board.
The listing says live music is played from Sunday to Thursday, which means Friday and Saturday sailings do not include it according to the platform text. If music matters to you, choose a weekday. One reviewer praised the saxophonist, and another noted it was a long evening, so I'd plan the rest of the night around that.
I did not find a private dinner cruise among the Cairns trips I compared. Both dinner options are shared, and the Spirit of Cairns is a sailing catamaran with an air-conditioned dining room. For a private evening on the water, my boat rental page lists self-drive boats, though neither includes a meal.
My full review of each one, in the order I rank them: