Planning Australia from Scratch

kriss_boy

My girlfriend and I are looking to plan 4 weeks in Australia over xmas and new year.

Realistically how much travelling can we do in those 4 weeks. Should we perhaps just pick half a dozen sites and plan them or can we just zoom about from place to place as we please.

Its the scale of things I cant grasp, I can see from maps that Sydney to Melbourne is like Glasgow to Edinburgh multiplied by 10!!!!! So hardly a days drive!!

MKS

Sorry I don't know how to do the link so have copied a my post from Jan 2008 in answer to another posters question. Hope it may be of interest to you. On that trip we had three weeks and did the following
Sydney
Melbourne (only one night to have dinner with old school friend)
Melbourne to Adelaide - Great Ocean Road
Adelaide - to see nephew and surrounding area (Vineyards are very good here if you like wine!)
Alice Springs with day trip (VERY long day!) to Ayers Rock (We could have three days at AS and day trip for much less then one night at AR!) Tour thro Emu tours - good company and great BBQ at sunset at AR. They also keep you supplied throughout the tour with water, fruit and snacks - other operators charged extra for these items.
Cairns
Back to Sydney for last night.

Hi
We found the cheapest one way car rental price was from DriveNow.com.au. We paid Aus$198 (approx £90) for a weeks hire for a Corolla automatic last November, picking it up at Melbourne and dropping it off at Adelaide after driving the Great Ocean Road. They gave us a free upgrade when we picked it up. I booked it a few months before we went for approx £20 more and when I re-checked later saw it had come down in price, so just cancelled and re-booked! They have a no cancellation fee policy. If you have one, take your own SatNav as they were expensive if you wanted to hire one. They are great when you just want to drive and explore.

For internal flights, register with Virginblue, Jetstar and Quantas. They all have regular sales. We paid Aus$29 each for flights fron Sydney to Melbourne.

Hotel-wise, we used Travelodge (much better standard than here), Best Western, Majestic, Radisson and Novotel. Do a hotelscomparison.com or hotelscombined.com search for the best price. Book the accommodation, if it's a good price - I always try to use hotels which operate a 'no cancellation fee' policy than can cancel and re-book if I can get it cheaper. Think about self catering. We stayed at The Lakes Resort (http://www.thelakescairns.com.au) just outside of Cairns - it was superb. Last year we stayed at the Rockford Novotel Resort ( http://www.novotel-pcr.com.au/) in Palm Cove (between Cairns and Port Douglas)- again superb accommodation. This has the added advantage of having a washing machine etc. When booking hotels etc try and go through Quidco for extra savings.

In Sydney, we went to the Blue Mountains by train and Explorer ticket - allows you to hop on, hop off at different places. ( http://www.cityrail.info/fares/link_tickets.jsp) That was much cheaper than the excursion price and allowed us to see what we wanted to rather than be whisked round on a coach and not seeing so much.

A restaurant that we visited at Kings Wharf was James Squire. The food was fantastic and not expensive by city standards, portions were good as well. (http://www.jamessquirebrewhouse.net/) See the menu page. It's a brewers and they have an enormous range of beers.

Ditto in Cairns. We drove to Cape Tribulation/Daintree ourselves and had so much more time than on an organized tour. We also went to Kuranda by ourselves. If you want to go up by the train, it only goes up a couple of times in the morning. If you go on this, ask for window seats for the best views. The Skyrail operates all day. Most of the shops in Kuranda close early afternoon. In our opinion, a must-do is The Rainforest Habitat just outside of Port Douglas. (http://www.rainforesthabitat.com.au/about/prices.htm) We got the 4 park pass which we felt was good value. The Butterfly Sanctuary is actually in Kuranda and the Rainforestation is near there as well. The all parks pass includes everything at the Rainforestation, even the Duck Tour. Morning is the best time to go as all the coaches descend in the afternoon and it gets mobbed, We also visited a coffee plantation - Coffee Works,(http://www.arabicas.com.au/) I think it was about Aus$9 but that included a tour, loads of coffe and tea tasting as well as chocolates (milk, plain and white). I am not fussed with chocolate but the Lemon Myrtle and Lime and Black Pepper were fantastic. We drove into the Highlands and the Tableland and saw totally different sides of North Queensland. We came across the 'Out of the whey' cafe ( http://www.cairnsdining.com/review_52.html) ( http://www.mungallicreekdairy.com.au/) It really was as the review reads - totally different to Cairns and very cool - when we was there it was 17c as opposed to Cairns 28c.

We did the Green Island trip to the Barrier Reef and were a bit disappointed. It was very commercialised and the coral was not the same varied colours that we had seen the previous year when we took a trip that took us to two different locations on the reef. IMHO one of the best BR locations is Lady Elliot Island which is at the other end of the BR. It is situated between Brisbane and Rockhampton. We splashed out and had a day trip by air when we stayed nearby in Bundaberg. It cost Aus$160 each and it was worth every penny. Flying in to the Island was a view I will never forget. It is an eco conservation island and not commercialised at all. (http://www.ladyelliotislandresort.net/) It's a small island that you can walk around, paddle in the sea amongst the coral, snorkling etc. Lunch is usually included. The coral that we saw here were brilliant colours - just as I had always thought it would be. Excellent day out.

I found that the Australian forums on Tripadvisor were a good place for info.
HTH. I am sure you'll have a fantastic time.

richardw

Not sure where you are in the UK, but there are now flight options where you don't have to go via Heathrow.

https://www.emirates.com/uk go from many Uk regional airports via Dubai
https://www.singaporeair.com go from Manchester via Singapore
https://www.etihadairways.com go from Manchester via Abu Dhabi
https://www.qatarairways.com go from Manchester via Doha

Don't recommend driving, distances are vast.
For internal flights in Australia
https://www.virgin-blue.com.au
https://www.qantas.com.au
https://www.tigerairways.com.au
https://www.jetstar.com.au

BigSaver_2

For someone who has a UK passport and fills in the application for eVisitor (http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/evisitor/), which is approved is that all that needs to be done entry requirement?

'People arriving in Australia who are required to possess a yellow fever vaccination certificate ' Is this required for people travelling from the UK?

Link: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/Publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-communic-factsheets-yellow.htm

Safiya_2

Hi Kriss

I'm Australian and was thinking of your trip and what we would do in your situation. With four weeks I would attempt driving Melbourne - Canberra - Sydney - Brisbane which would allow you almost a week in each place and a couple of days each side to get there. The Sydney-Brisbane coastal leg in particular allows lots of quick side visits to some beautiful parts of the east coast - Byron Bay etc. The roads are pretty good but don't go thinking M1 by any means - there are some stretches that are 110km but most are 100km and not all are dual carriageway. There are also long long stretches of dry brown expanses as some areas still in drought. I think also with limited time there is more sightseeing to be done in and around the capital cities.

If you wanted to see more then flying from say Perth-Darwin-Cairns-Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne would allow you more time in these places although you would want to choose your accomodation carefully to ensure you got access to sightseeing tours, complementary pick-ups, public transport etc if you weren't going to hire a car in each place. Alternatively there are good bus services that might allow you to do your travelling overnight. Trains also run between some of these places and are an experience in themselves (not cheap) and not short - the Indian Pacific between Perth/Sydney is an iconic trip but will take you three days. Might be an idea for say Brisbane/Sydney (enjoy the stop midway to change train/guage thanks to being separate states...) or Brisbane/Cairns.

Depends what kind of holiday you are after and what you want to do.

Have to commend you on being aware of just how great the distances are - also have to watch the Australian manner of grossly understating everything....Australians will quite happily tell you something is 'just up the road' when in fact it is a good day's drive!

Will add the RACQ(Royal Auto Club) link here for ideas on travelling etc and will give you exact distances.

http://www.racq.com.au/travel/trip_planner

Saff

BritRael

Thanks for the info everybody!

I am intending to go to Oz for a month next March with my OH.

kennyboy66_2

BigSaver wrote: »

For someone who has a UK passport and fills in the application for eVisitor (http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/evisitor/), which is approved is that all that needs to be done entry requirement?

'People arriving in Australia who are required to possess a yellow fever vaccination certificate ' Is this required for people travelling from the UK?

Link: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/Publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-communic-factsheets-yellow.htm

No.

It would only be required if you had travelled through a yellow fever area.

kennyboy66_2

Hi Kriss,

Places I would not want to miss would include;

Fraser Island
Great Barrier Reef
Whale watching from Hervey Bay (think you are wrong time of year).
Kakadu
Uluru
Bungle Bungles (WA)
Katherine Gorge
Tasmania
Sydney.

However, you only have 4 weeks so you will have to narrow it down. I'd take (and book) ahead all the internal flights and look to hire a car for only part of the way.
It depends on how much you like driving - The Great Ocean road is brilliant, but for only 4 weeks, I would not want to be doing much more driving than that.

Much as I love Melbourne (and prefer it to Sydney) the best part of Australia certainly ain't its cities.

BigSaver_2

kennyboy66 wrote: »

No.

It would only be required if you had travelled through a yellow fever area.

No? What else then?

spottydog

BigSaver wrote: »

No? What else then?

as a UK passport holder traveling from the UK, just a valid passport, & electronic visa is required. You also get a landing card on the plane which you have to complete before reaching the immigration desk

BigSaver_2

spottydog wrote: »

as a UK passport holder traveling from the UK, just a valid passport, & electronic visa is required. You also get a landing card on the plane which you have to complete before reaching the immigration desk

eVisitor, which is free through the Australian government website. ok?