Great experience with being allowed to check in early and staff were so accommodating - wonderful rooms and such a pleasant atmosphere

Nothing

The perfect stay for families with children! This hotel goes above and beyond to ensure all family members can enjoy their stay. The buffet breakfast was great with lots of variety, as were the dinner options in the evening. The movie nights for kids as well as free daily kid’s activities were also an added bonus. Located centrally in the city, the lagoon, Hemingway’s and the reef jetty for island tours were all within walking distance. Yaya’s is also a great Greek restaurant around the corner. Highly recommend hiring a car for at least a day to check out Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures, the Skyrail, Port Douglas and Palm Cove which are all between 30mins - 1 hour away. We also loved our tour of Fitzroy Island. The best part of the Novotel was the pool area - a standout for the whole family! Highly recommend.

The location is perfect walking distance to most of the attraction and restaurants . Cairns Aquarium is only at the back of the hotel, and Esplanade is just a few minutes' walk , where you can book some reef cruises. The area is peaceful and quiet. The pool is great as well as the people. They are all helpful and courteous. Special mention to Mr. Japanese reception who went all the way to our room to help me with the casting.

The chromcast connection. I called many times but can not cast my favourite show, and after so many tries, it's still not working. Out of the 7 nights We were there it only works on the 1st 2 days☹️not happy. Coffee and tea are not being refilled often, and when we ask for a refill, they give us hard one's looks old.

It's a good resort overall. The food here is good as are the cocktails. Can't fault the kitchen.

The only thing we didn't like is that it gets treated like a public pool on weekends during school holidays as it is open to local yokels. It gets ridiculously busy on weekends with non staying guests claiming all the sun loungers and you are left with nothing as an actual guest. We got into a scrap with some rando old couple who were apparently sharing loungers with another family after the latter family left and the former spawned in some time after we took said loungers. Nightmare they were so angry. The hotel staff agreed that you cant bagsy these things for other people but these folks were having none of that. Sheeesh. We stayed here for two weeks

The pool, the grounds and the location. Great for kids. I would recommend.

Buffet breakfast was always the same. Better if they changed it up a bit. More information on arrival about the hotel facilities and a map including what is around. I felt I was rushed through. A bit more friendly interaction from staff overall. More coffee/tea/ sugar/hot choc sachets available in room to account for number of ppl staying and days staying. Rooms were a bit dated but great for families with young kids. .

Pool and restaurant/bar, food and drinks were great, plus the kids activities scheduled throughout the day are a bonus for mixing things up for families. Location is pretty good too, 5-10 minutes to the esplanade and so many food/bar options, 15+ to the marina and all the water sport activities.

Private party booked in the open bar area was an over sight of the hotel considering the noise late into the night. We complained twice and it was pretty obvious they'd had plenty of complaints. Allowing a private party is one thing, allowing a DJ in that open space where the noise just goes straight up just wasn't a smart move considering the family friendly vibe of the hotel.

My little family loved our stay-cation. The pool is perfect for kids who aren't confident in the water yet. There is sand and lots of toys. The buffet breakfast and the restaurant are fabulous. So many vegan options for dinner - thank you! Perfect location. Easy to walk everywhere in the city.

My husband and 3 year old shared the main bed which was very comfortable. I slept on the pull out sofa with my 1 year old, which was not comfortable at all. I was actually sore in the morning. It took a very long time to be served at the pool bar at happy hour.

I cannot speak more highly of the staff and our recent experience at Novotel. From housekeeping to reception to bar staff, I would have to say it is the best customer service experience I have had at a hotel. Our son was unfortunately unwell during our first couple of days - housekeeping and reception staff were phenomenal, assisting us random hours of the night and going above and beyond to help us be more comfortable. I also injured myself and the staff were straight on to helping and checking in to make sure I was OK. The location is brilliant, a block back from the esplanade and restaurants, food at the bar and restaurant was lovely and such a great poolside vibe if you just want to sit and relax while the kids play on the sand. Very clean and rooms serviced daily. Highly recommend and would absolutely stay again.

Unfortunately the doors to the hallway aren't very well soundproofed so you can hear everything when people come and go through the halls. Some guests are unfortunately quite rude and were very loud on their balcony and playing music at 3am when the hotel is full of families with young kids. I did hear novotel staff addressing it with them on one of the nights. Beds were a bit uncomfortable for us (on the firmer side) but we did get used to them.

The pool was great for the kids. There were lots of things happening at the hotel for school holiday. Location and free street parking was convenient for us to walk to various restaurants and The Night Market for dinner. We asked for Housekeeping to clean our room mid stay which they did a nice job tidying up for us and getting rid of the sand on the floor while we were out.

It was busy as it was their long weekend. The staff did what they could do to help but they were very busy and didn't have a lot of flexibility. Also communication breakdown between reception and restaurant because it appears they are run by separate "companies"? There was an error and the restaurant told us to talk to reception then come back to tell them what reception said... they couldn't talk to each other directly? It was weird.

Beds were very comfortable. Buffet breakfast was excellent, cocktails were amazing.

I was standing at the bar and I got kicked very hard in the back of the leg with a football as it was children playing football right near the bar with glass. It really hurt my leg. I then let staff know and they were too busy to Care and said that they were sorry but I would’ve liked a free drink or a free something to compensate. No one really checked in later with me as it was no incident report form done.