Australia - Brisbane Help! Advice needed

1connect

thanks for all the feedbacks folks, some brill tips etc, and keep the tips comming, I was wondering which airline or broker does the cheapest flights mostly - iknow they wil vary from time to time but is there one that is consitantly good value?

thnaks
1 connect

wagman107

We flew to Brisbane last August only because I have to have my holiday during the school holidays.The flight costs are reduced slightly the second half of August.The cheapest flights are usually to be had from the middle of April to the middle of June. Various airlines have special offers when they are trying to sell unsold seats at all times of the year, but you've got to be quick and you can never be certain when they will be advertised. We've flown Emirates twice from Birmingham via Dubai and Singapore and been happy with the convenience of flying from our local airport. I doubt you'll get flights for the price you're looking for in August.
We drove 350 miles north from Brisbane to the town of 1770 (Discovery Coast) where you can access the southern end of the Barrier reef (Lady Musgrave Island) by Catamaran. We stayed at "The Mango Tree" motel at Agnes Water 3 miles from 1770 for 2 nights very cheaply in August. We returned to Brisbane over 5 days stopping at various areas on the way. The roads were good, and the main highway North -South, the "Bruce Highway" after you leave the Brisbane area is excellent for driving, fast and relatively quiet.
Steve Irwin's (crocodile hunter) zoo is north of Brisbane in the "Glasshouse Mountains" area and that's worth a visit.
One thing I was very impressed with is that although August is the middle of the OZ winter the temperature in the daytime never fell below 21degrees. We had one day of showers in 3 weeks holiday.
Although the weather was great in the daytime, the nights are a little chilly in August, even in Queensland.
There are lots of free facilities by the beaches and also by the side of the Brisbane river. There is a gorgeous lagoon for swimming, by the river, in the city, with a sand beach.
Where my son lives, in Redcliffe, 10 miles north of Brisbane, they also have a swimming lagoon (free of charge) on the sea front, by the sea and free electric barbecues for all the families to use.
I'm sure you will fall in love with Australia but you might have difficulties in 2007 in sticking to your planned budget.
Incidentally try and visit Sydney and take a ferry around the harbour, you will enjoy the scenery.

Amba_Gambla

www.trailfinders.co.uk

I've always found them to be cheapest. You'll have to give them a call to get a quote tho....

markcramer

Hi 1connect

One website we've found consistently good for flights is Ozflights (https://www.ozflights.co.uk). They often have cheap deals ex-London or Manchester to most of Australia's major cities March-June, though we've not tried later in the year or leaving from other UK airports, but would definitely suggest calling them. Trailfinders has previously been mentioned, others we usually price-compare with are Austravel (https://www.austravel.net), Travelbag (https://www.travelbag.co.uk) and Travelmood (https://www.travelmood.co.uk). It might also be worth checking out the Singapore, Malaysian and Royal Brunei airlines directly, as we've found them consistently among the cheapest airlines to Aus.

The best accommodation options of hostels/campervan/camping have been mentioned, but another accommodation option you could consider is roadside motels - they're reasonably cheap, though they don't often have kitchen facilities. There are many such, try googling "Golden Chain" for indicative prices and locations. Could be useful if you're driving a distance and there are no hostels around?

If you're looking for flights within Australia, two budget flight companies are Virgin Blue (https://www.virginblue.com.au - yes, it is Richard Branson's) and JetStar (https://www.jetstar.com.au). Given that there are four of you, I'm not sure whether it would be cheaper to fly or drive a car/campervan, though time will also have an impact on that decision. Also whether you're interested in the journey or just the destination.

As to what to do ... as Brissie expats, we know the area fairly well
Brisbane City is interesting as it's fairly small and most of the buildings are glass (we got some fabulous and unusual wedding photos in front of mirrored columns and buildings of different coloured glass). You could go for a ride along the Brisbane River on their City Cats (catamarans), which is quite cheap, and perhaps end up at the Southbank Parklands where there is a manmade sandy beach and picnic/barbecue area. There are also markets (craft, veg etc - not secondhand) there on the weekends. Speaking of shopping, the ladies in your party might enjoy some of Brisbane's covered shopping centres - there are four or five about the size of Manchester's Trafford Centre with cinemas, coffee shops etc ... but I guess that's not moneysaving

The Gold and Sunshine Coasts are only about an hour's drive from Brisbane, gorgeous sandy beaches. Inland from there, Maleny and Montville in the Sunshine Coast hinterland are quaint, and the Lamington National Park/Binna Burra area of the Gold Coast hinterland is very pretty. Further inland from Brisbane is Toowoomba and the Darling Downs - Toowoomba is a nice garden town and the area is green (this isn't England, there isn't the rainfall to produce the green landscapes that you see over here, so you appreciate it when you can get it over there!), but it's several hours drive - worth considering if you're sticking to the Brisbane area, but skip it if you're travelling further afield.

The Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef are expensive, but you'd really miss out if you missed them. If you are driving up the coast to them, there is whale-watching in Hervey Bay (again, expensive), Bundaberg is sugar-cane country where Australia's famous rum is distilled, Gympie is an old mining town (old in Australia is only 100-200 years) ... but the drive is pretty boring and monotonous. Once you've passed a town, there is little to see in terms of landscape or even other cars until the next one.

If you head south, Sydney is big, popular and worth looking around. Canberra is a planned city, but we found it cultureless, lifeless and just plain boring. Others may like it - each to their own. Just north of the Victorian border is the Hunter Valley, one of Australia's best known vineyard regions. If you've got a car, you can go wine tasting at many of the vineyards, but you'd better make sure you've got plenty of food in the car, as the police do keep an eye out for drink-drivers in that region.

Some people really like Melbourne, but we're not city people by preference, so it's not hugely to our taste. Another "must see" if you've time, is to take a drive along the Great Ocean Road between Melbourne and Adelaide. There are lots of sandstone structures offshore, the Grampian mountain range, and it's just a really pretty area. You'll probably find some pictures of most of the areas I've mentioned if you google them.

Hope some of that's helpful, do pm me if you want more info, and, BTW, you AREN'T going to see much of Aus in three months, nevermind three weeks, but have a great time.

Cheers

Mark