Sydney & Cairns places to stay wanted

Fortyfoot

I am looking for places to stay in Sydney and Cairns for about a week each during November, B&B or Motel type. Also best way to buy flights in Australia. We will be in Perth for a month and want to have a look at a few other places. I have looked at the "wotif.com" site for prices and would like to know if there is another site for prices and a site which gives "customer satisfaction" reports on hotels in Australia
Fortyfoot

balt

I think wotif is a good site but http://www.hotelscomparison.com/ posted elsewhere on MSE is really good with some advice provided within some of the companies.
For flights in Oz you could try
http://tsa.webjet.com.au/webjettsa/home.aspx
Sorry don't know how to link!

Thriftylad

Great hotel in Sydney where I stayed this year for Mardi Gras was Sullivans. Its on Oxford St, within walking distance of the city centre one way and the bus to Bondi Beach the other. The website is https://www.sullivans.com.au. I also went to Cairns which is a fantastic tropical paradise and stayed in the Holiday Inn there which is on the front and quite central.

Dognose

https://www.virginblue.com.au &jetstar.com

Bennifred

Do you need anyone to carry your bags?! :cool:

nearlyrich

[QUOTE=Dognose]www.virginblue.com.au &jetstar.com[/QUOTE]

Agree with virginblue,you can sign up for email updates.

We stayed at the CAPITOL SQUARE HOTEL in Sydney which was clean, comfortable, central and reasonably priced. In Cairns we stayed at the Matson resort which appears to have changed it's name now to Rydges Esplanade Resort Cairns. These two both appear to be owned by the same company now but they weren't at the time. If you get the time to go to Port Douglas it is lovely.... Best holiday we ever had was Australia in 2003.:)

Amba_Gambla

To be honest - the backpackers hostels in Cairns and Sydney are of the sandard of a very good b&b/motel over here - I stayed in the Global Palace in Cairns - I was in a room with 3 beds, it was secure, safe and fantastic facilities right outside the bus station in the town centre - I didn't have a problem with noise either!

for hostels etc have a look at www.hostels.com or www.hostelz.com both useful
(one only lets ppl who've booked via them leave comments, the other lets anyone comment/review the hostels)

If you do look at these sites, don't book thru the site, book direct with the hostels instead - it works out cheaper!!

Fortyfoot

Thanks for the above posts they are all great. I thought that there was a post about wotif.com it seems to have gone. The prices on wotif seem to be for the following 14 days, is this correct or am I wrong?
Some of the hotels on this site were cheaper than the hostels. I have not contacted the hostals direct yet for their cheapest prices.
Fortyfoot

sad_gills_fan

I came back 5 weeks ago from a tour of Oz but I only went to Cairns for 1 night. We stayed in Port Douglas which is, IMO, much nicer, prettier and less 'tacky'.

We stayed at the Coral Apartments in Port Douglas and the managers were perfect from start to finish. They booked all of our trips (for no extra charge) .. arranged car hire, gave advice and were generally the best hosts we could have wished for.

In Sydney, we stayed at the Pacific International which is right near the train station. It's on George Street which is the main street from one end of Sydney to the other. It was about a half hour walk to Circular Quay along George Street or you could just stop a bus and jump on. I would suggest that you walk though as the food is great and plentiful so you'll need to walk it all off !!

Have a superb time. Make sure you go to Cairns Zoo as it's the only place in the area that will allow you to actually hold a koala. They take a really nice piccie of you holding the koala and pop it into a cardboard frame thing, all for AU$14 (about £5). Bargain.

Sorry, forgot to say that if you book a trip tot he Reef from Cairns, inevitably you will have to get up really early, get on the boat and travel up to Port Douglas to pick the other people up ... at the end, ther same but backwards making it a very long day. You may as well just stay in Port Douglas !!