Four Mile Beach is Port Douglas's front yard: a long, gently curving sweep of pale sand with the forested headland of Flagstaff Hill at the north end and the Coral Sea running east. The beach is wide, the sand is white, and on clear mornings the water is startlingly blue. By Cairns standards it is quiet; by anywhere-else standards it is a very good beach.
Swimming is possible year-round, but from November to May marine stingers (box jellyfish and irukandji) are present in the water, and the only safe swimming areas are within the stinger-net enclosures. Conditions outside the nets can be life-threatening. From May to October the stingers largely absent and you can swim freely; the water is also calmer and clearer during the dry season. The beach is patrolled by lifeguards during the main season.