8 Week Australia Trip

kennyboy66_2

Having done the 12 month backpackers trip a long time ago and the 4 week family trip more recently, I would say that if you are going for 8 weeks, I would try and book all your flights before you go. Virgin Blue & Jetstar are the equivalent of Easyjet & Ryanair and you can book some very cheap flights if booking early enough.

I wouldn't miss the Great Barrier Reef, and if you have enough time, a "learn to dive" course with a couple of days on a boat is fantastic value.

I would also say that you don't have to see everything. You could spend 8 weeks in Queensland alone if you were going to the following;

Whitsundays
Brisbane
Gold Coast
Magentic Island
Barrier Reef
Fraser Island
Cape Tribulation
Daintree
Cape York.

I loved Tasmania but some of the best bits (Cradle Mountain) are for serious walkers.

Check if all places are accessible when you are going. I don't think its the best time to visit say Kakadu in NT in March because of the rainy season and flooding.

gavinrace

Wow - I've just logged back on after a couple of days and you guys have left me lots of excellent information to look through.

I'm not sure where to start - haha!

Seriously, thanks to you all. I'll post back when I've had a read and tried to process it.

Drea

This thread has so made me want to go do this too! Better start saving my pennies :eek:

rachelandgromit

I am off to Oz in April for 6 weeks and our internal flights are as follows: Bris - Perth, Perth - Syd, Syd - Taz - Taz - Mel, Mel-Chrischurch, Auk - Fiji, Fiji - Bris. These we have booked with Jetstar, Virgin Blue, even with the charges for luggage and booking fees they are £650. We had free flights into Brisbane from UK with Airmiles. I've found doing it this way is cheaper, open a Nationwide account as you don't pay to draw cash out aborad, don't pay for debit card transactions, e.g. to convert £ into $ and even booking flights on website that is in $ the bank doesn't charge you (the flight company does though, similar to ryanair)

Almo

Hi gavinrace,

I live in Melbourne, and today was 38, tomorrow is forecast to be 39. By contrast, thursday should be only 23. Melbourne/Adelaide is probably the best place to start for most people, but if it doesn't tie in with your plans in the end, I wouldn't worry too much about leaving it until later - last year we had 9 consecutive days of 35 degree plus days, Adelaide had closer to 14 days, in March. You can't really plan for Melbourne weather - it could be doing anything at that time of year. Last year NYE was 42, this year it was hovering about 20. When a cool change comes through, temps can drop by up to 15 degrees in a day (I've seen it, and that's what will happen tomorrow).

Without wishing to step on any toes, I wouldn't stay in St Kilda. It's lost its edge and is more a druggie, touristy, overpriced cafe kind of area now. Definitely worth a visit, but I wouldn't go all out to stay there myself. YMMV of course. If that's where the cheapest hostel is, great go for it, but I wouldn't sacrifice much to stay there.

There's lots to do in and around Melbourne, but that's true of anywhere in Oz. Perhaps when you've got a firmer idea of the timescale I can be of help with the planning?

sx2steph

just to add my thought to this...if you want a hostels which are in general a wee bit nicer, try the YHA. there are some amazing ones all over but the best by far is in the Blue Mountains, it is absolutely amazing, more like a lodge and very cheap. blue mountains are well worth a visit, even if your not an outdoorsy person, the scenerey and views are spectacular.
The yha in adelaide is also brilliant and the rooms are massive. you can get private rooms in most hostels for not much extra and its defin worth it if you can afford.

We got the greyhound for the east coast and its about $400 dollars (i think, was a year ago - scary!) absolutely worth it, can stop as many times as you want as long as you always go in one direction. we only flew internally a few times but we did cairns to darwin and think its a waste of money, defin if going again would drive it. dont take anything as a guarantee weatherwise, we were in Cairns for two weeks and the day we left was the first day it stopped raining and being drizzly :cool: but defin visit and head up to port douglas for a few days.

We stopped in teh middle at Cooper Peddy, you can stay in caves underground, really worth doing for the experience but there is NOTHING there, so only one night.

Also dont worry if you dont want to use backpacks, we were there for a year and used holdalls- if you ignore the funny smirks about being a "real backpacker" you'll be fine! :rotfl:

soo jealous, its almost two years to the day since i left to go, if you need any more help, let me know.

sx2steph

p.s. get a nationwide debit card, invaluable as there are no charges and can be used everywhere!

p.s.s avoid goon if u can, you'll understand!

gavinrace

We both have Nationwide accounts (and use them regularly abroad) so we're covered there.

Jyonda: Is The Treehouse hostel at Mission Beach?

Loumoo: What was the name of the place you stayed at on Kangaroo Island? Was it reasonable? We're also erring toward spending a bit more time in New Zealand based on the recommendations from you fine people.

Kennyboy66: Are there any recommended places for 'learning to dive' or are there lots of good businesses doing it along the east coast?

Thank you to you all again for taking the time to reply and help us plan this trip. We're both incredibly excited and hope we can make the most of our time there.

gavinrace

Will the YHA membership help to get cheaper flights out to Australia or just internal flights, or neither?

sx2steph

think (really cant remember) you can get a discount for flights but totally not sure, can defin use it for discounts on bus and trains and loads of other places.