Who's been travelling?

AmDaMan

AmDaMan

AmDaMan

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,023
Location
Wellington, NZ
I'm off to Australia (then who knows) Next month - very excited obviously. Just wondering if any of you seasoned travellers have any tips they could share. Feel free to discuss anything really, what to see, costs of eating, washing clothes etc. etc.

I've bought a 70litre backpack initially (Berghaus, heard horror stories of cheap backpacks) and may clip another little one to it, but don't want to travel too heavy. There's no real travel plan as such, but some ideas are;

> Arrive in Sydney
> Stay a couple of weeks
> Head North
> Oz experience tour down the east coast
> Work in Syd / Melb
> See other places (Asia maybe)

Will be taking about £4,000 initially which will hopefully see me through 2-3 months or so before I start work. Would have been more but decided to keep my car.

So what are your experiences?
 
my nephews been there for the best part of a year now ,stayed here http://www.bouncehotel.com.au/ for a while and hes been doing abit of building site labouring and footy coaching ,sorry lack of info ,my sisters going over to see them in the next few weeks ,one thing for sure ,its the best thing he has ever done
 
for me australia was far much like the UK and i wanted to see things that were different and therefor much prefered asia

thailand in particular ( i spent along time there ) but anywhere in asia

the culture, the people, the food etc
 
I went traveling around 5 years ago now so a few things might have changed, the exchange rate certainly has so I couldn't say how far £4k will get you or the costs of things over there now.

We started off in Asia for around 6weeks before heading to Oz.
Arrived in Perth where we worked for a bit to save up for a car. Drove north as far as Broom, drove across the top of WA and NT into Queensland then headed south through Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne etc and then over to Taz. Took us around 9 months to drive that route while picking up work as we went along. Finished up the trip in the states but our initial plans were also to include NZ but we sadly didn't have the time.

Its pretty easy to pick up work over in Oz, if your willing you will find a job quick. I cant remember waiting more then a couple of days when looking for a job.
I would recommend spending 3months working on farms, this gives you a years extension on your visa. Loads of backpackers do this so you will meet a ton of people.
 
Get out of Sydney quick as possible!
Seriously though, it is a cool city etc, but you only need a few days there. Get out of the big cities (they are not that different in the end) and on to the real experiences way out in the middle of no where. Meet some people, put yourself about (in more ways than one ;)), don't say no to anything and don't worry about eating properly :D
You'll have a ******* fantastic time.
 
Oh and as you're doing the 'east coast' trip make sure you do the 3-4 day surf trip which is where you end up sleeping on the beaches etc in the middle of no where and beaches for miles with no one in sight.
 
Clipsey said:
Get out of Sydney quick as possible!
Seriously though, it is a cool city etc, but you only need a few days there. Get out of the big cities (they are not that different in the end) and on to the real experiences way out in the middle of no where. Meet some people, put yourself about (in more ways than one ;)), don't say no to anything and don't worry about eating properly :D
You'll have a ******* fantastic time.
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can only echo this see Sydney and Melbourne 3-4 days needed for each then if you want to earn some decent cash but still in fairly lively town get your bum up to Darwin some serious serious cash t be made up there. as a side bonus you also have a decent gateway to Asia from there ;)
 
Thanks for the info chaps.

I've heard it's fairly easy to pick up work, especially in the bigger cities where there appears to be a shortage of skilled workers. A friend has recently just completed some fruit picking to extend his visa. He said it was a great place to meet people but the working conditions and accommodation were horrible! I don't think it would be too difficult to get sponsored work in the cities, but the only drawback to that is that you are tied down to one location and job.

The jobs in the cities seem very well paid as well, but I guess that reflects the cost of living around those areas. Is Darwin a better place to work than say Melb/Syd?

The surf trip looks great! Also looking forward to going to Fraser Island, Byron bay etc. I'd like to go inland to see things too but looks like a pain!
 
AmDaMan said:
Thanks for the info chaps.

I've heard it's fairly easy to pick up work, especially in the bigger cities where there appears to be a shortage of skilled workers. A friend has recently just completed some fruit picking to extend his visa. He said it was a great place to meet people but the working conditions and accommodation were horrible! I don't think it would be too difficult to get sponsored work in the cities, but the only drawback to that is that you are tied down to one location and job.

The jobs in the cities seem very well paid as well, but I guess that reflects the cost of living around those areas. Is Darwin a better place to work than say Melb/Syd?

The surf trip looks great! Also looking forward to going to Fraser Island, Byron bay etc. I'd like to go inland to see things too but looks like a pain!
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Loads of work around bud. Im on a sponsorship with my second company, its not that rigid where you are tied down.
Unless you are set on it avoid fruit picking, its awful. There a plenty of dodgy ABN numbers floating around in the backpacker circles that can be used to claim an extension to the WH Visa.
Darwin will bore you, there isnt much to do but drink. That combined with the heat will send you cuckoo.

Salaries in the big cities are very high in general but as youve guessed, this reflects the cost of living. The only thing here that is cheaper than in England is petrol and with the exchange rate it isnt that far behind. Its still cheaper than bottled water though.
Bring plenty of cash, I did the whole travelling around thing. What seems like a lot of money now isnt so much when you no longer have an income! Beer is 6 quid a pint these days in the city. $20 for a six pack of decent beer (375ml bottles) in an offy.
 
I was in Australia for a year from August 09 to August 10.

You will have an amazing time! Sydney is definately a great place to start, I wish I travelled more as i mostly stayed in NSW. hostels are great places to meet other travellers who will mostly be more than happy to share with you some great places to go. the best plan is to not have too much of a plan at all! just go with the flow its an amazing place.
 
I can't comment on what it's like now, I went in 1992 for one year.
Seven months later I was back in blighty.
Back then (I sound old lol) you had to have a minimum of £2000 in your bank account to obtain a temporary working visa, problem was, nobody would give you employment if you only had a temporary working visa.
The only exception was fruit picking, oh happy days, picking grapes in the scorching sun, fighting off the flies with grape juice trickling down your arm, or picking tomatoes in a place called Bundaberg, using your hands and a bucket.
Trying to recall what they call it, oh yeah slave labour.
Im sure things are better now work wise, just do your homework beforehand.
 
AmDaMan said:
Thanks for the info chaps.

I've heard it's fairly easy to pick up work, especially in the bigger cities where there appears to be a shortage of skilled workers. A friend has recently just completed some fruit picking to extend his visa. He said it was a great place to meet people but the working conditions and accommodation were horrible! I don't think it would be too difficult to get sponsored work in the cities, but the only drawback to that is that you are tied down to one location and job.

The jobs in the cities seem very well paid as well, but I guess that reflects the cost of living around those areas. Is Darwin a better place to work than say Melb/Syd?

The surf trip looks great! Also looking forward to going to Fraser Island, Byron bay etc. I'd like to go inland to see things too but looks like a pain!
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I doubt you'd be going for skilled work, in a city isn't it bar work etc? Skilled work you would need a degree or experience in Geology, IT etc. (ie doing what you do here).

Either way if you do have one of those skills that are needed then you can probably find a job pretty quickly, but I doubt you can just chuck it in after a month like an unskilled bar worker/fruit picker.

(Got a few friends over there as Geologists on WHV, they work full time proper jobs but due to the on, off nature of their work they get loads of time off to go travelling around Oz).

franco_22 said:
so are you travelling or going to a british land in a larger scale?
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And travelling to you is...? And don't say SE Asia as that isn't travelling either, that's generally following the tourist trail, with the other 100 thousand english speaking "travellers".:p
 
Haha, not really, that was in reply to franco, who I was expecting to reply with that.

Either way there are way to many travel "snobs" that think travelling is doing the european centric hostels in SEA and class a few months really getting under the skin of another english speaking country as below that.
 
Sydney is very expensive at the moment due to exchange rate. I was there a month ago.

A pint of beer was $10-15 !
 
Vandle said:
Darwin will bore you, there isnt much to do but drink. That combined with the heat will send you cuckoo..
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There is tons to do in Darwin you just need to give it a chance , awesome weather , good wages endless girls and easy to find somwhere to live. What more do you want ? Lots of tourist stuff to do also , Crocs , Litchfield , Kakadu could go on

Amp34 said:
And travelling to you is...? And don't say SE Asia as that isn't travelling either, that's generally following the tourist trail, with the other 100 thousand english speaking "travellers".:p
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Some places of SE Asia are far from that , Philippines and Indoensia spring to mind. I can assure you they were no other westerners in Flores and Yogyakarta I tell ya :eek:
 
divaboy said:
Philippines and Indoensia spring to mind. I can assure you they were no other westerners in Flores and Yogyakarta I tell ya :eek:
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Depends where you are in the Philippines. Boracay is basically the same as Koh phi phi, in that they both have tons of europeans and americans. Although In Cebu city I barely saw another tourist at all. Just a few that hung around the seedy bars at night time.

Other than Boracay it seemed to be mainly Korean/Chinese/Taiwanese tourists. So while there are relatively few westerners, there are still a LOT of tourists.
 
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