Pullman Palm Cove Sea Temple Resort & Spa

The upsides - lovely pool/s, pleasant and helpful staff (and management did their best), 2-bedroom apartment was roomy and comfortable. Love the location - far enough out of the centre of Palm Cove to be more peaceful, but an easy walk at the same time.

The downsides - 1. Don't expect the room to look like the one in the picture. They are all decorated very differently, and ours was extremely outdated. 2. Some balconies are open, but ours was enclosed - it would have been nice to know this so I could choose a different room. 3. In the space of one week, 2 VERY noisy (albeit small) weddings were held in the restaurant's outdoor terrace, which was just underneath our window. What a nightmare!!! So inappropriate for a hotel to treat guests this way. So don't expect a peaceful stay if you end up in one of the approximately 50 rooms that would be affected. Someone has made a commercial decision to sacrifice the comfort of hotel guests for a few extra bucks. 4. Restaurant not always open - including when they hold weddings (which in our experience is frequent). 5. Shocking wi-fi - don't expect to be able to get any work done. 6. Food - expensive and very average. Needs a lot of improvement. 7. The spa-pool has a big sign saying 'adults only'; however, it looked like a creche at all times. Sometimes 15 small children in a tiny spa (imagine the water quality yuk). Staff do nothing to police it. 8. The last time we stayed here was 17 years ago. At that time, it seemed quite luxurious. However, no updates have been made to the property, so it feels quite outdated.

Came for a staycation and had a great time. Nothing was too much trouble for reception and restaurant staff, Meals were all great!

The studio rooms are spacious enough with a large king bed. My room had a lovely pool view and sun lounging area away from the main which I loved. Enormous spa which I would never use and you would need another 3 people to make it worth filing. Room clean and comfortable. Room service is available.

pool and gardens

My father and I spent 7 nights at the Pullmans in Palm Cove as I wanted to treat him to a 5 star experience while we visited Cairns. The 2 bedroom apartment was perfect for us and very nice. The staff at reception were also very friendly and mostly pretty good (note: please don't tell people the underground carpark is 2.9 metres when it is actually 2.09 metres!) However, our experience was let down by one simple thing - the lack of reliable internet access. Due to the location, mobile phone service is poor (not the hotel's fault!) so the ability to access the internet via the in-room wifi is a necessity. Unfortunately, the Pullmans at Palm Cove were unable to do this. We asked for it to be looked at every single day for the 7 days of our stay and were repeatedly told that they would send maintenance to look at it. This they did at least once, because the router was replaced. However, this had no effect. Regardless of the device connecting (including their televisions) the internet access would work for a few seconds and then disappear for minutes at a time. As the wifi connection itself did not falter, my opinion as an IT professional for over 25 years is that there is either a problem with the hotel's networking infrastructure or a lack of bandwidth for the number of guests staying there. The problem was worse on Friday and Saturday when there appeared to be more guests, so I think the bandwidth is most likely. I have had better internet access in 2 star hotels in 3rd world countries. In 2025, internet access is a basic service that every hotel should be able to provide. The fact that Pullmans at Palm Cove was unable to do this at any time in our 7 night stay means that I will never stay there again, and I will be asking my travel agent to never book me at a Pullmans hotel again.

Disappointing stay and not a 5 star standard. I booked 4 rooms for an extended family vacation. Each room was obviously privately owned and the standards of each room were highly variable. Worn, uncomfortable furniture, dirty BBQ, lights out in bedroom, well worn towels and no working wifi were some of the issues we experienced. The rooms above reception were noisy and cleaning was cursory. On the plus side, the staff were attentive and the location was excellent. As an Accor member who has stayed in Pullmans around the world, this resort was not up to scratch and not good value for money.

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