It is hard to imagine a more relaxing setting. The villas are comfy and as roomy as a roomy thing can be. They are open plan in the extreme, but are, at least when we stayed, insect free. The grounds are beautifully maintained. Water features are well, a feature. There are creeks and bridges and birds. There are fountains everywhere including in the villas. These did not have the bladder-prompting effect that I had initially feared, and sleep was unperturbed.

Each villa has it's own plunge pool, although it will cost $50 per day to have it heated Not everyone might want this, but it was mid-winter.

The kitchen is fully equipped with all that one could want in a kitchen. Well there isn't French maid in a little uniform, but mostly everything else is there.

It is a short walk to a tasty restaurant (the Beach Shack), and to 4 Mile beach. Anything else, and you'll need a car. Port Douglas itself is about 3.5km away. Cairns is about 60km.

We had a very relaxing 5 nights at Niramaya. It's NOT cheap. But in comparison to other places to stay, worth the money.

A couple of notes;

Bed; This was comfy. But it was a futon with a hard wooden base at an ankle-shattering height. And some folk might find it a bit tricky getting out of bed

Cooking utensils; A non-stick fry pan would be good. These are cheap, and would save (a lot of) time

Car; Absolutely essential. There is not a lot to do in Port Douglas unless you are a golfer (I play golf but my wife doesn't which means it wasn't an option) and you will need to travel to see the sights.

Then again, you may not want to go out...

We are 2 adults and 1 8-yr old, and stayed in these villas for 9 nights during the June/July 2012 school holidays. Ilena and her husband are the property managers, and they are delightful to deal with. She booked us into a beautiful 3 bedroomn villa, #25, complete with plunge pool and jacuzzi. Unfortunately the weater was too cold to use the outdoor jazuzzi or the pool during the time we were there. Cairns doesn't seem to use heaters for anything outdoors, so my suggestion is not to go until it warms up there, such as during September/October.

The villa was beautiful, but unusual. The bathrooms are also beautiful, with sunken jet tub overlooking the outside gardens, and huge showers. The achitecture combines the outside with the inside, which was the part we didn't like. My daughter's room was quite far away from our room, and leaving her door cracked open at night meant that anything from the jungle backing onto our villa could crawl into her room at night, or worse, anyone can litterly wander into the garden area and into any of the rooms if they are not locked, because the villas are open aired. Open aired also mean bugs, so on a few occasions I had to wash an army of ants out of our bathroom and spray a nest of spiders out of the shower down the drain! My husband could also not sleep pretty much our entire stay because of the noisy birds in the jungle behind our villa. It really is an experience staying here :-)

There were problems with the villa as well, and this could be due to them shutting down and newly reopening. The microwave didn't work, there was only one frying pan which wasn't non stick and very difficult to cook eggs with. The fancy stove top was difficult to use, the dvd player didn't work until the video guy across the street was called in to fix it for us, and on the last night when we had to turn the heater on in my daughter's bedroom (because it was so cold) we couldn't get it to work and when it started to blow cold air we could not turn it off. Thank god for the 3rd bedroom, otherwise she wouldn't have had a place to sleep our last night!

Whilst a 100% working villa could have a rating of 4-5 stars, I'm rating this property 3 stars for the following reasons:
*there are no facilities, concierge, restaurant, or really anything else to make you want to hang out at this resort expect for the nice villa. They were suppose to open a restaurant on July 1, but we didn't hear anything during our stay and decided to dine out.
*there is only 1 cafe across the street from the villas that you can walk to. It is EXPENSIVE. A simple breakfast for the 3 of us cost over $60, which wasn't worth it. Better to buy groceries and cook your own breakfast.
*these villas are not on the beach and the only view is the jungle from your back yard
*you will need a car to get around- Port Douglas town is about a 10 minute drive away.
*the villas are only cleaned one every 4 nights, and the clean was terrible. They must have only spent 30 minutes, or less, cleaning the villa as the floors were still dirty and spider webs were left in the kitchen after the clean.

Niramaya is not a hotel, it is a resort consisting of privately owned villas of various sizes which are let out and managed by resident managers. The villas are so private and luxurious; you hardly want to leave them. There is a double garage if you have a car, otherwise frequent shuttle buses into town. All the staff were very helpful and friendly expecially Ilena and Tim who manage the resort. We chose to do one big food shop as were were there for a week, went out for lunch or dinner 4 or 5 times, and Ilena booked an all day guided tour to the Daintree rainforests, Cape Tribulation, Cooper Creek and Mossman Gorge. Well worthwhile. There are many tours available including the nearby Great Barrier Reef. We saw a few other resorts in the area but none as good as this. Ideal for anyone who doesn't want the expense of buying every meal, plus the convenience of getting your own meals and refreshments when you want them in the Miele kitchen. Excellent accomodation, private plunge pool and beautifully kept gardens offering a great outlook from the villas. There is also another pool, gym, sauna and full sized tennis court (raquets available) for guests use close to the reception area. Great value for a true holiday.