I did Australia in June and July 2009. Prior to that I hadn’t been that bothered with the whole travelling thing and I didn’t really see the point (I only went to Aus to meet up with my GF), but the trip to Aus really kicked it off as a passion of mine and in the 3 years since then I’ve tried to travel to as many different places as I possibly can (I tend to go on 3-4 trips a year now) and in the process gather as much information about things as I can, which I now enjoy sharing with others in threads like this. Once you do this I suspect you’ll be the same. You won’t be able to stop planning the next trip!
The plan was simple – 6 weeks, see as much of Australia as I could, for the best value. I wasn’t on a super tight budget but neither was I able to blow cash everywhere I went. I elected for hostels wherever possible but with an eye on local hotel prices. My transport was exclusively rental cars/vans. I didn’t bother with buses.
I arrived into Melbourne and initially spent a week here. Got a great deal on a hotel making it cheaper than staying in a hostel. Melbourne itself is a fantastic city and one of my favourites. It’s chilled out, has a compact CBD and a fantastic tram system. We did Melbourne Zoo, rented a car for the day and took in Phillip Island, and just generally chilled out. Some great Skyscrapers you can go to the top of as well. Also did the Neighbours set, lol
Next stop was Adelaide, via the Great Ocean Road. Opted to do this in a ‘Wicked Camper’. This was a laugh but they genuinely are as crap as they looked. Weather was pretty cruddy as well so it wasn’t the best start. Great Ocean Road is stunning – IMHO as good as Highway 1 in California (Though I had a better car for that). It’s just miles and miles of fantastic coastline road and stunning scenery. We went as far as Warnambool and then headed up into the Grampian Mountains, which were nice if a little foggy. From here it was onto Adelaide, each night camping in the van.
Adelaide. Lovely. VERY compact central area, stayed in a nice hostel here as well. Lucky enough to have a local guide here in the form of someone my GF met on her trip so we got driven around the sights.
Picked up a rental car in Adelaide – a 260bhp Ford Falcon XR6 which we drive to Sydney. HUGE drive from Adelaide to Sydney. First two days were just solid driving from Adelaide to a town called Bathurst, with an overnight stop at a place in the middle of nowhere called Hay. There was almost nothing to see on this particular route. But Bathurst is nice – little town with a famous race track called Mount Panorama, which I was able to drive the car around. Several times.
Between Bathurst and Sydney lies the Blue Mountains, which are un-missable. I spent two days here with an overnight stay at the town right a the top. Sadly though as awesome as they are the fog wouldn’t lift so I missed much of it. It was so bad that at one point the only thing I can find to see in the middle of this stoning scenic environment was Transformers 2 at the Cinema.
Next day Sydney. Spent the weekend here after dropping off the car. Stayed in a decent hostel on the main street near the central station. Did all the touristy stuff, walked the bridge, went to the opera house. Lovely city. No trip to Australia is complete without Sydney.
Picked up another hire car - another Falcon XR6 actually but the revised 265bhp model - and headed up to Palm Beach, which was completely beautiful and where Home and Away is filmed.
Then it was up one of Australia's few Motorways to Newcastle. Newcastle itself is crap and there is nothing of any interest there but the Motorway was stunning. It snaked through mile upon mile of unspoilt forest and wetland. Incredible views.
From Newcastle it was up to Byron Bay, which was completely beautiful as well. It's such a chilled out place, it really is as good as everyone says and you absolutely must go there. Make sure you walk up to the lighthouse as well for beautiful views. Also visited Coffs Harbour, which was nice too. Did Hostels in both these places without issue.
Then it was Surfers Paradise. Fantastic place - huge, long beaches with enormous skyscrapers right up to the beachfront. This time the hostels seemed quite expensive so got a room on the 34rd floor of the Marriot for $10 a night more than the hostel. Very nice!
From here we went on to Brisbane and dropped off the car. Planned to spend the weekend here and stayed at another Hostel. Think it was Chill Backpackers? Anyway after about.. half a day we realised that Brisbane really doesn't take that long and we'd run out of stuff to do so on the Sunday I hired a Toyota Camry - dire, horrible, gutless thing - and drove to Australia Zoo which was expensive but worth the hype.
New day, new hire car - Toyota Aurion this time, the most power so far at 276bhp - which we drove up to Hervey Bay for Fraser Island. Decided that tours were a bit sucky and there was nothing like doing it for yourself, so I rented a Toyota Landcruiser, drove it to the ferry, and went across and spent the day driving around Fraser. Fantastic place. Like nothing I'd ever seen before. Its the worlds largest natural sand island and has fantastic sights - including huge freshwater lakes which were just beautiful.
From Hervey Bay we headed up to Cairns with overnight stops at Rockhampton, Mackay and Townsville. I think we had a hostel in Townsville and Rockhampton and a hotel above a pub in Mackay. Interesting places but long drives between them with not a huge amount to see once you'd got used to the scenery.
Then it was Cairns - nice place, not like other big cities in Australia. No skyscrapers, lots of palm trees etc. Took the scenic railway up to Kuranda, drove out to the Atherton Tablelands and headed up to Port Douglas as well. Really nice up here.
I absolutely loved the entire trip. Although we stayed in hostels as I was with my girlfriend we always had double rooms. Cost wise I spent about £3k including flights on the entire trip, but bear in mind that I went halves on all the accommodation/hire car/fuel costs with the GF, it was $2 to £1 which it isn't anymore, and it was in 2009 when a flight to Melbourne cost me just 500 quid. The same trip again would be more like £5000 which is what has stopped me going back since. I desperately want to go again and absolutely will one day.
I will dig out some photos and update. I've probably missed a load of stuff as well, it was 2.5 years ago and I did a lot in 6 weeks!
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