Australia

[SuperBen]

Hi Guys,

I am looking to visit Australia for 3 weeks in late December 2012 to January 2013, I will be visiting friends in Brisbane but i would like to explore Austrailia aswell, I am hoping for some help from you if you have been to Austrailia before.

There are a few places that I aready would like to visit;

Bondi Beach
Great Barrier Reef
Opera House

Please can you suggest some more places you would reccomend!

Will three weeks be long enough? Also I have budgeted £4000 for the whole trip, inc flights 2 weeks worth of hotels, food etc. Just me travelling alone

Many Thanks

Ben

[mantis84]

I'd recommend Fraser Island over and above all the things you've listed. It's a sand island just off the coast about 100 miles south of Brisbane. You rent out a 4x4 for a few days, some camping gear and BBQ stuff and explore.

Plenty of places in the local area will sort you out with 4x4 and camping equipment hire etc. Was my favourite part of my whole trip of Oz a few years back. For a bit of inspiration, google Fraser Island and Lake McKenzie (on the island) - water there is so clean you can drink it and the sand is so fine you can use it to clean silver (apparently).

[Alfa numeric]

Bondi's ok- a bit touristy but a nice beach if you want to be lazy. If you've got a bit more energy the Bondi to Bronte walk is lovely but don't forget your sunblock and a bottle of water.

If you're in Sydney (which is a long way from Brisbane and the opposide end of the East Coast to the GBR) then the bridge climb on the Harbour Bridge is worth doing. I did the inner walk and set off at dusk, so by the time we got to the top it was dark. I can't recommend it highly enough.

[andrew311]

Not much help and don't want to put a downer on your trip but I knocked going to Aus on the head next year in favour of somewhere else souly due to the exchange rate. At least if you can stay swith friends that will help with the costs.

Can't see it getting better any time soon and at around the $1.5 to the £ mark it's bloody expensive.

[slimtater]

Don't overlook WA - some nice places such as Coral Bay, Monkey Mia, Kalbarri all north of Perth and Mandurah and Margaret River (wine!!) to the South.

[Kneetrembler]

SuperBen said:

Hi Guys,

I am looking to visit Australia for 3 weeks in late December 2012 to January 2013, I will be visiting friends in Brisbane but i would like to explore Austrailia aswell, I am hoping for some help from you if you have been to Austrailia before.

There are a few places that I aready would like to visit;

Bondi Beach
Great Barrier Reef
Opera House

Please can you suggest some more places you would reccomend!

Will three weeks be long enough? Also I have budgeted £4000 for the whole trip, inc flights 2 weeks worth of hotels, food etc. Just me travelling alone

Many Thanks

Ben

If there was one thing that I had to miss it would be Bondi Beach, it's a bit like Blackpool, Manley is much better just across from Sydney by ferry.

[sjg]

We did Cairns to Sydney in about 4 weeks this Jan/Feb just gone as part of a RTW trip.

It's a long way between places, everything is expensive and if you're on a budget (albeit not a shoestring one) you may have to make some hard choices about where to go and what to see.

If you can fly out just after Christmas you can get cheaper flights - ideally late on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, as everyone wants to be home for Christmas prices shoot up just before and drop straight after. Either way, flights just to/from Oz can eat up to a grand of your budget straight off.

There's enough to keep you busy in Sydney for a few days at least - take the ferries (they're cheap and you get great views of the bridge, opera house, etc at a fraction of the cost of the boat tours!), see Manly beach, the Bridge Climb is amazing but pricey.

The coast from Sydney up to Brisbane is lovely although even that is 600 miles. If you don't mind splitting your time between driving and seeing/doing stuff though, not a bad way to spend a week. Expect to pay a couple of hundred for a week's car hire, $1.40-$1.50 a litre for fuel. If you stay in hostels (most aren't bad at all) it will be quite a bit cheaper than hotels, most have private rooms as well as dorms. Bear in mind that the time you'll be travelling is peak holiday season and anywhere within several hours drive of Sydney or Brisbane will busy with Australians on their summer hols. You may find it harder to just turn up and stay a night somewhere, popular places will enforce minimum stays. There are plenty of backpacker-oriented bus operators and full-blown tours if you want an easier option - lets you focus on the fun stuff without worrying about how much ground you have to cover that day.

From Brisbane, it's pretty easy to organise trips out to Fraser Island, Bundaberg, etc. If you do make it up that far, Mon Repos Turtle Rookery (near Bundaberg) was amazing and one of the highlights of our trip - night-time guided tours of the miles of beach where turtles come to lay their eggs. We got lucky and saw a nest hatching and a mother building a nest and laying - amazing stuff.

[Beardy10]

When you're in Brisbane...don't go to Surfers Paradise aka The Gold Coast which is just to the south....it's a bit of a khazi IMHO. Surfer's itself is a nice beach that they have built tower blocks right along which throw shadows on the beach.

The GBR is an absolute must.....I'd do it from the Whitsunday's and also go and see Whitehaven beach which will take your breath away. To really appreciate the GBR and Whitehaven you need to see them from the air...which means getting a helicopter ride either to or from it....it's the best money you'll spend on your trip. Seeing the GBR is a day trip which means going out on boat and the spending a few hours out there....you can get a helicopter instead of the boat ride to or from the reef.

[Little Toast]

If your going to do the barrier reef don't use the quicksilver tour go to the islands further out!

[Condi]

SuperBen said:

Hi Guys,

I am looking to visit Australia for 3 weeks in late December 2012 to January 2013, I will be visiting friends in Brisbane but i would like to explore Austrailia aswell, I am hoping for some help from you if you have been to Austrailia before.

There are a few places that I aready would like to visit;

Bondi Beach
Great Barrier Reef
Opera House

Please can you suggest some more places you would reccomend!

Will three weeks be long enough? Also I have budgeted £4000 for the whole trip, inc flights 2 weeks worth of hotels, food etc. Just me travelling alone

Many Thanks

Ben

Despite what everyone on here is saying, I quite liked Bondi. It was later on in the season though, so just locals using the beach when it was warm, and the rest of the time there were a handful of people running, playing football etc on it. At the height of summer its a lot different with masses of people (heaps, if you will) going down. When its quiet its very beautiful.

Sydney in general is cool, the Harbour Bridge is more impressive than the opera house though, and make sure you do a harbour tour ideally with a stop at the heads to get out and take some photos.

Melbourne is another place you might like - and if you're a petrol head then the drive between there and Sydney is nice. Take the route through the Australian Alps, you'll see some fantastic scenery and drive what for me was the best road Australia had to offer. From Melbourne the Great Ocean Road is defiantly worth driving as well - do it yourself, not on a bus. There are places down the end of the road towards Adelaide which are far more beautiful and less touristy than the big sights. Think km long yellow sand beaches where you are the only person, and some fantastic scenery.



You'll get all sorts of different advice on what to see, the reality of it is is that there are Australians who spend their whole lives travelling around their own country. In 3 weeks you're going to see a very very small part of a very very big country. My advice would be to do the easy things, the difficult things are going to take too much time to get to for how long your there.

It'll be helluva expensive as well - $1.5 to the pound is the best you'll get. Expect to pay about $1.50 a litre for petrol, about 30 bucks a night in a hostel or about 100 in a hotel. A crate of beer - 24 cans - will set you back 50 bucks or so, if you go out on the town then drinks are about 8 dollars for a rum and coke or schooner (2/3rds of a pint). Flights will cost about 700 pounds if you get a good deal. You could do it as long as your sensible and arnt looking to do 'everything'. A days diving for example might cost 200 bucks upwards, depending on if you have your own gear and how far out you want to go. Your PADI Open Water (if you've not dived before) will be 5-600, but some companies will take you down without.

[Engineer1]

Do what you want when you get over there, so Bondi etc, I'd also say head out to the blue mountains, there are certain parks where you are almost certain to see wild kangaroos, I'd suggest a trip to Ayres rock even if it is a fly in fly out as Australia is a seriously long way to have travelled not to see some as many of the must sees as you can.

[dienamic]

We did a whistle-stop tour of Oz in 3 weeks a few years ago, probably crammed too much in if anything and were absolutely knackered at the end of it. Briefly our route was

Fly into Melbourne, couple of days there seeing the sights
Hired a car and spent 3 days driving along the great ocean road to adelaide
Flew North from Adelaide to Coober Pedy, had a day there
Bus from there to Alice Springs
3 day organised camping trip from and back to there, taking in Ayres rock, the Olgas and Kings Canyon.
Flight from Alice to Cairns, a couple of days there seeing the rainforest etc.
Bus down the coast to Townsville
Boat to Magnetic Island for a few days
Bus to Airlie Beach
3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands, whitehaven beach etc
Hired a car and drove from Airlie beach to Sydney in I think 3 days, stopping at Byron Bay and Hervey Bay (whale watching trip out)
Few days seeing the sights in Sydney, Monorail around the city, jetboat from darling harbour, opera house and stuff
Flew from Sydney to Melbourne
Bus to Phillip Island for a couple of day, penguin parade and stuff.
Bus back to melbourne for another couple of days then flight home to sleep (with overnight stopover in Singapore)
With a bit of forward planning it can be done!

[Condi]

dienamic said:

We did a whistle-stop tour of Oz in 3 weeks a few years ago, probably crammed too much in if anything and were absolutely knackered at the end of it. Briefly our route was

You wont do all that for 4k. Not at todays exchange rates. When it was 3:1 Oz was very cheap, at 1.5:1 its very expensive!

[hungry_hog]

If you're staying in Brisbane, check out Noosa Heads which is nearby - fantastic beaches which knock spots off Bondi and a lovely town (if a bit expensive).

Whitsundays is unmissable - we did a 3 day boat trip with 25 randoms - island hopping and ad hoc snorkelling whilst trying to pull the Czech birds on the boat

Edited by hungry_hog on Monday 3rd October 00:32

Edited by hungry_hog on Monday 3rd October 00:36

[hornetrider]

Bondi is pretty st to be fair - unless you like seeing blokes working out at the SLSC.
Byron and Noosa are nice
Fraser via Hervey Bay
Whitsundays boat trip (via Airlie Beach) - we also Skydived here - awesome
Dive out of Cairns
Port Douglas
Daintree rainforest

To name but a few. Bear in mind its a massive distance between Sydney and Cairns. Takes forever.

[Chilli]

dienamic said:

We did a whistle-stop tour of Oz in 3 weeks a few years ago, probably crammed too much in if anything and were absolutely knackered at the end of it. Briefly our route was

Fly into Melbourne, couple of days there seeing the sights
Hired a car and spent 3 days driving along the great ocean road to adelaide
Flew North from Adelaide to Coober Pedy, had a day there
Bus from there to Alice Springs
3 day organised camping trip from and back to there, taking in Ayres rock, the Olgas and Kings Canyon.
Flight from Alice to Cairns, a couple of days there seeing the rainforest etc.
Bus down the coast to Townsville
Boat to Magnetic Island for a few days
Bus to Airlie Beach
3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands, whitehaven beach etc
Hired a car and drove from Airlie beach to Sydney in I think 3 days, stopping at Byron Bay and Hervey Bay (whale watching trip out)
Few days seeing the sights in Sydney, Monorail around the city, jetboat from darling harbour, opera house and stuff
Flew from Sydney to Melbourne
Bus to Phillip Island for a couple of day, penguin parade and stuff.
Bus back to melbourne for another couple of days then flight home to sleep (with overnight stopover in Singapore)
With a bit of forward planning it can be done!

I've done pretty much this.

Cairns is lovely
Deffo go to Whitsunday Islands
Townsville for the biggest Steak breakfast you'll ever see
Fraser Island. Stay overnight if you can, great place, but make sure you drain the 'old chap before settling down. I didn't and was too scared to go for a slash on my own in case of snakes etc!
Oh, and the Daintree rainforest, do this too.

[vetrof]

Are your dates confirmed?

If you go a month earlier......
http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/tseNext.php

Edited by vetrof on Monday 3rd October 07:22

[Condieboy]

I'm going to be in Australia next March/April and will be visiting relatives in Perth and Melbourne mostly.

One thing I want to add in is a visit to the GBR and Fraser island if possible. I'd be looking to fly to Brisbane from Perth, before moving on to Fraser Island, and aftewards flying to Melbourne for the Formula 1!

As I'll be travelling alone I've seen that a number of tours depart from Brisbane which look attractive. Has anybody had any experience of these? Or any suggestions/advice?!

Sorry to jump in on your thread SuperBen!

[996c2]

Condieboy said:

As I'll be travelling alone I've seen that a number of tours depart from Brisbane which look attractive. Has anybody had any experience of these? Or any suggestions/advice?!

I can recommend Contiki Tours if you're travelling alone, under 35, wants to see as much as possible and party with the opposite sex.

[SuperBen]

996c2 said:

Condieboy said:

As I'll be travelling alone I've seen that a number of tours depart from Brisbane which look attractive. Has anybody had any experience of these? Or any suggestions/advice?!

I can recommend Contiki Tours if you're travelling alone, under 35, wants to see as much as possible and party with the opposite sex.

Thankyou very much guys for your responses, I didn't think about visiting Cairns but it actually seems that it is a must, 996c2 I hadn't thought about a trip which you have suggested, as you say it does look very attractive, i will do some research!

Again Thankyou!