Renovated in 2025, the Little Drifter Cairns is a great choice for accommodation in Cairns. With Cairns Station just 1km away and Cairns Airport only 7km away, transportation is very convenient. With Esplanade, Skydive Cairns and Cairns Museum all within a short distance, there is no shortage of things to do in the area. In their spare time, guests can explore the hotel's surroundings. Guests tell us the location of this hotel is fantastic.
"Can I put 6 stars? :)
This place is definitely one of the best hostels ever. Where do I start from?
Reception: everyone is always super kind and helpful, including offering help with luggage and everything else. The hostel looks very new and modern, so beautiful!
Room: it's great! Big enough, with hangers, curtains on each bed (amazing!), plugs and light for every bed and also some extra plugs around the room. Bed was very comfortable and I felt great there!
Bathroom: always clean, soap in every sink and in every shower, big and nice!
Kitchen: incredibly well equipped and open 24 hours. There are 2 doors separating it from the rooms so it's never noisy even if people are there in the night. They provide big boxes that fit in the (many) fridges so that it's all tidy and clean. Goodbye the hundreds of Woolworths bags and messy fridges with no space for other people's food! Even the cups, the dishes were perfectly clean, like everything else. I was seriously impressed, they did the cleaning multiple times a day. Free salt, oil, tea and coffee always available.
Common areas: really beautiful, full of books, games, with a huge TV and many tables and beanbags.
Events: they actually organize social events and the staff helps the ”new” people to socialize. That's so important! Many long termers don't really mind about meeting new people but if the staff does his part then it gets a lot easier. And here, they do. On my first night they had a free cheese and wine event and we got a lot of tasty food and wine.
Location: perfect, just above Woolworths and a few minutes walking from everything. The Little Drifter feels more like an hotel than a hostel and I really don't know how people can rate it low.
As great as it is I would still like to suggest some possible improvement. Maybe at the Reception you can print a map with a few info about the hostel on the back. I didn't understand where the boxes for the kitchen were, I didn't find the labels. Also it took me 3 days to find out that I had another toilet a lot closer to my room, so for 3 days I was crossing a very long hallway in the middle of the night when I had to go.
I also didn't like the fact that I had to open the doors through the app and I discovered later that there is a code to open it as well (I try to leave my phone in my room as much as possible).
This hostel is a little more expensive than other places but it's totally worth it! If I'll be back in Cairns I won't hesitate to come here. Thanks!"