So skipping the northern fruit bowl and the towns along the way (Ingham, Mission Beach, Innisfail, Tully)…You eventually hit Cairns.
Best way to get to Cairns is to fly. Domestically, from Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, possibly others. Cairns also has an international airport with most flights arriving from SE Asia or Japan.
Cairns was designed for tourism. The place absolutely reeks of it. I swear there’s more Japanese speaking retail sales people than there are English speaking. Duty free shops on every corner. Souveneir shops in between. I don’t like it, but then, I’ve never really been a tourist there. I’d drive up for a visit when I was living in Townsville from time to time, but none of that mass market tourism thing ever appealed to me.
The foreshore in Cairns consists of mudflats and more mudflats. They’ve tried to pretty up the Esplanade (waterfront) by building a waterpark. That’s fun, but it still doesn’t take away you can see and smell the mudflats right next to it. Sorry, but the waterfront in Cairns is ugly. And smelly.
Hotel wise, I prefer not to stay in the centre of town, but rather up in the northern beaches. It’s quieter, more relaxed and less touristy. It’s only a 10-15 minute drive along the highway into the city from there anyway.
Things to do in Cairns? Shop. Go out on day trips to the islands or the reef. Head up to Kuranda and go on the Skyrail (which is actually fun, but expensive). Shop some more.
Or 90 minutes drive up the road you hit Port Douglas. It’s sort of a mainland version of the Whitsundays. Tourist central. Lots of beach resorts. Golf resorts. Like most of North Queensland, the tourism is based around the Great Barrier Reef, so day trips out to the reef or the nearby islands are common. It’s nice, but maybe a little pretentious. At any rate, the drive from Cairns to Port Douglas is pretty spectacular.
Further north still you hit the Daintree head on. Lots of rainforest. There’s a few eco-lodges up there. It’s totally amazing. It’s all national park, so it’s largely undeveloped and untouched. Really hits home how awesome and how bizzare nature can be though 
Once you head much further north of Mossman Gorge you’re really heading into the bush. It’s an awesome place to go camping, but infrastructure is minimal, towns can be 500km apart, and you should make sure you have a satellite phone and a 4WD 
I once went all the way up Cape York Peninsula with some mates. It’s extreme and it was fun. But not something I want to do again. You’re too far from civilisation. It sounds childish, but I like my creature comforts.
And that makes my trip up the Queensland coast complete! I might eventually get around to posting something about my outback adventures.
