There is no restaurant on site, but the camp kitchen quietly becomes the social heart of the park each evening. We loved firing up the BBQs as the cicadas started humming, plating up prawns from the local seafood co-op and pulling chairs into a loose circle while the palms rustled overhead. Bring a chopping board, a sharp knife and a bottle of something cold and you have the makings of a classic Far North Queensland night.

For coffee and a proper breakfast we wandered over to Shanti Cafe in Mission Beach village, where the smashed avo with house dukkah and a flat white set us up for the day. It is a relaxed open-air space, the sort of place where you arrive for one coffee and somehow stay for two.

When we wanted a sit-down dinner we drove the five minutes up to Caffe Rustica, a much loved Italian tucked into a rainforest pocket on Reid Road. The wood-fired pizzas and homemade gnocchi are the picks, and the candlelit garden setting under the trees feels worlds away from the highway. It books out fast in dry season, so phone ahead.

Up at Bingil Bay, Bingil Bay Cafe is our favourite long lunch. Order the fish tacos, grab a window seat looking down through the rainforest to the water, and settle in. For a casual night with woodfired pizza and craft beer, The Garage Bar & Brewhouse on Porter Promenade is a Mission Beach institution and runs live music most weekends in peak season.

The park itself is a beach park in the truest sense. From the gate it is a short barefoot wander down a sandy track to the open stretch of Wongaling Beach, and we loved doing the 3km beach walk into Mission Beach village in the morning, then taxiing back for a swim in the pool. The water is warm year round, but stinger nets only operate in season so check the signage before you dive in.

Just across from the park, the Mission Beach Dunk Island Water Taxi shuttles you over to Dunk Island in about ten minutes. We packed a picnic, walked the Mount Kootaloo track through the rainforest and finished the day with a snorkel off the spit. It is the kind of day trip that makes you reset your idea of what an island looks like.

Mission Beach is one of the best places in Australia to spot a wild cassowary, and the Licuala Walk at Tam O'Shanter just twelve minutes down the road is our pick. The fan palm canopy filters the light into something dappled and prehistoric, and the loop is gentle enough to do in thongs.

You are also closer to the Great Barrier Reef from here than you are from Cairns. Day boats leave from the Clump Point jetty, and we found the outer reef sites less crowded than the Cairns equivalents. For something slower, the Sunday Mission Beach Markets on the foreshore are a lovely browse, with local mangoes, tropical jams and live music under the pines.

We loved that this is a genuinely adults-only, child-free park, so the pool stays peaceful and evenings around the camp kitchen have a lovely, unhurried grown-up feel.