Melbourne/Syndney/Canberra - your recommendations/advice please please please?

audioblackout

Hi everyone!

We're off to Australia working in February and we need some help/advice from fellow money savers. To make it an adventure, we'll be travelling via car from Sydney to Canberra and then on to Melbourne via the coast, working 3 nights in each city. What we need are recommendations for:

1) Good/best value 4/5 STAR hotels in Sydney/Canberra/Melbourne (We're aware of https://www.wotif.com in conjuction with TripAdvisor - but does anyone have any other ideas/pointers for finding a deal in each city - perhaps personal recommendations?)

2) Cheap/best value Car Hire (We'd want to drop the car off on arrival in each city, so the company would have to be national)

Any advice or anything would be so appreciated guys. Thanks in advance!

Mark + Chrissi

audioblackout

Oooo we forgot to ask if anyone has any recommendations for things to do on our trip from Canberra to Melbourne? We're planning to take the scenic route via the coast, perhaps even stay somewhere over night on the way?????

Generali

On the way from Sydney to Canberra (if you do it at the weekend) you could do worse than pull off at Sutton Forest services on the Hume Highway and have the antipasto at the winery there. It's actually at the exit, over the bridge, not the place a few kms down the road.

Generali

From Canberra I'd be tempted (despite the extra driving involved) to take the Federal Highway to Jervis Bay. Jervis Bay was meant to be the port for the ACT before they realised it was a dumb idea and just used Sydney instead. The place is absolutely beautiful and you can watch whales there although Feb might be a little early. You'll be pretty unlucky not to see dolphins at least:



From there, if you take the Princes Hignway which is basically a coastal road it's about a 12 hour drive, give or take.

I've never been but Eden looks like a good place to stop. This is the swimming pool there (seriously):



I don't know Melbourne but Im' sure someone will be along with some advice.

Generali

Oh and I found a nice bar/restaurant the other day. iima on Goulburn Street. Yum!

Bananabelly

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2195515

The above has some recommendations for hotels in Melbourne which are fairly central. I hope you are looking at hotels along the way too, as it is a very long way around the coast from Canberra to Melbourne. My parents are currently caravanning around Australia, and they loved Mallacoota which is on the Northern Victorian coast. Another nice (but quite touristy) place on the coast is Lakes Entrance. If you are going around the coast that way, you have to drop in and see the penguins at Phillip Island too. On the other side of Melbourne (towards Adelaide) is the Great Ocean Road with jaw-dropping views, so try and make it there as well (you could see quite a bit of it in a long day trip from Melbourne).

lozkate

We found the best deal for car hire was through rentnewcars

ferf1223

we stayed in a beautiful 2-bedroom apartment at the Star City casino hotel in Sydney...it's 5-star and well located with great transport links..we booked on their website and at the time, the 2-bedroom apartment was either the same price or a very little bit more than the standard hotel room and had a full kitchen, washing machine and tumble dryer, 2 bathrooms (both with showers - only one had a bath). There were only 2 of us, but based on the price we couldn't see why not to stay in a 2-bedroom apartment if it was the same money as a 1-bedroom and not much more than a standard hotel room.

There's a supermarket around the corner and with the full kitchen, it was very handy. It's located right on Darling Harbour.

Of course, we love casinos so it was perfect for us - but I would think it would be a good place for anyone.

Edited to add - my husband just pointed out that when we went, the exchange rate was waaaaaay more in our favour than it is now...so it may seem a lot more pricey now.

dzug1

How are you going to get around Canberra without a car? Not that easy. You might want to consider keeping it while you are there. Sydney/Melbourne are far less of a problem.

One way hire (between major cities anyway) doesn't seem too great a problem in Australia

I recall the Jindabyne - Buchan route as being an interesting way from Canberra to Melbourne

Try Holiday Autos, Auto Europe and Carhire 3000

audioblackout

Incredible responses!!!! Thank you!!!!

Right, we will keep the car in Canberra for sure. We'll check out the Star City Casino and we did actually go on the Great Costal Drive last time, it was superb!

I think Jervis Bay is a definite too - and perhaps the wine tasting. Yum!

Thanks everyone!

colinw

I would definitely recommend the Travelodge Wynyard in Sydney. We have used it a lot over the years. it has a great location about 10 mins walking from Circular Quay. Don't be put off by the travelodge name. Travelodges over there are much better than the equivalent in the UK. We got this hotel for about £50 last August.

On the car front we used Hertz last year as they did not charge a one way drop off fee for going from Adelaide to Darwin.