ms_go

We are considering a trip to some or all the above areas for next year. Due to our school year, we can travel anytime between the first of June and third week of August. I've reviewed some weather sites and a number of back posts here. From what I'm reading, weather doesn't seem to vary too much during this period (we're from Chicago; used to cool and more concerned about rain) but wind might be an issue on the GBR? I also have seen references to some areas being more crowded in July and August, so I'm getting the impression that perhaps earlier in June might be better? If you were planning a 2-3 week trip in this time period, what would you pick? Or does it really matter?

I'm considering using some FF miles, so if we decide to go in June, I need to get on this sooner than later.

Thanks for your help.

SnRSeattle

Hi, we went to all of those places in July 2004. Sydney was cool but lovely sunlight, Blue Mountains were cold at night and nice in the day (although it snowed there during the time we were in Australia, but luckily not when we were there.) Uluru was fantastic--it had rained some weeks previously so the desert was green and flowering. Darwin was hot. I kept saying "if it's this hot now, how do the people stand it in the summer??!!" Cairns was perfect (although Pat said we were lucky we didn't get bad weather.) The trade winds blow then and so we opted to take the larger boat to the GBR to the pontoon (Quick Silver) and I was glad we did because even that large boat was quite roll-y with the swells. The only day it rained on shore, we were on the Frankland Islands snorkeling with sunshine. Hope this helps.
Sally in Seattle, also used to cool

longhorn55

I've been to all of the places you've mentioned several times. If you have three weeks for your trip, you can easily do all these places. If you only have 2 weeks, I would drop Uluru, but that's a personal preference. School holidays differ for each state, but most of them occur in July. You could check online to see when school holidays are for each state, but I think you will be safest in early June or August. We were in Australia last August and found spring-like weather in Sydney, a little wind (but not too much) in Port Douglas (which I think is preferable to Cairns), and perfect days in Darwin--hot, but nothing worse than you can get in Chicago in summer.

ms_go

Thanks, Sally and longhorn55. We're still reading and researching. I think first we need to figure out how far we can stretch our available time toward three weeks, which is more than we usually are able to spend on one trip. Then we'll determine which areas we can include (and, yes, we are looking at Port Douglas). If at that point we can still get ff tickets for June, great; if not, we'll probably look at end of July/early August.

cf5657

I went in June on FF miles but different airlines have different rules. So for example if you use Delta or their partners they fly out on Korean Air and they had the entire month of June blacked out. I have no idea why. The weather was very nice in June. I was amused that it was around 60 degrees in Sydney and people were walking around in Fur Coats. It was chilly at night but hardly fur coat weather.

craiginowensound

Just returned from a trip in July to Cairns/Port Douglas, Darwin, and Red Center. In response to some of your questions, expect temperatures (highs) of 75-80 degrees F in Cairns/Port
Douglas, with cooler temps out at the reef and inland at Kuranda. Kuranda was substantially cooler than Cairns, and we had to purchase sweatshirts to cope with morning temps. Rent a stinger suit simply to provide extra warmth at the reef (should not be needed at that time of year for stingers).
Darwin had highs of 80-85 degrees F in mid July. Temps at Kakadu, Litchfield, Katherine will be roughly the same. Darwin itself does not feature a lot of interesting attractions, therefore you should tour the area national parks to justify a trip there.
Don't miss the Red Center if you can help it. In my opinion, Uluru and Kata Tjuta National Parks are superb, and Kings Canyon is also very worthwhile. We (48 year old couple) took a Sahara Adventures camping safari, very reasonably priced considering the alternatives, but not for those who wish to be pampered or who wish to avoid some challenging hiking. We enjoyed meeting people on this tour, which was much more intimate than an regular coach tour such as we took in Kakadu. Expect temperatures of up to 60-65 degrees F and lows of 35-40 degrees F (which we survived nicely in a well appointed tent). Don't do the day tours available from Alice Springs, instead stay for one night at Yulara in some form of accommodation.
Our most difficult time finding accommodation came in Darwin -- book early that time of year.

Hope this responds to some of your concerns.

ms_go

Thanks, cf5657 and craiginowensound. Very helpful information. It looks like it will be late June, early July due to some potential high school conflicts later in our summer. I have the tickets on hold with United, and we will have 18 days/nights not including travel days. Many more questions to come as we firm up our itinerary.

poyopoyo91

Cairns is great in July. I just went there July 16-21. We had about half cloudy days and half sunny days. The highest it was 25C bout 80F. Sydney was low 60's but pleasent. Uluru isn't necessary and Cairns and Sydney have lots of cool thing to do. We stayed in Cairns 5 days and we had too much time there. We spent 5 days in Sydney and didn't have enough time.

fuzzylogic

Hi - re previous post about 5 days being too long in Cairns and not enough in Sydney. If you are not going to venture beyond Cairns/Post Douglas except to go to the reef then that would be right. If you fancy a day up in the Daintree then it's getting closer to call.

It depends what you are interested in.

As for "Uluru isn't necessary" - one has to ask, necessary for what?

The landscape in the Centre is as different as different can be from that of coastal FNQ. As is that of the Top End.

If you have the time I would visit either Darwin or Uluru (not for those places themselves - but for what there is roundabout).

jcasale

We spent at least 6 days in the Cairns/Port Douglas area in June and it felt pretty perfect. We went out on the reef overnight and the wind was a bit strong, so that could be an issue. But you can swim right off the beach in Port Douglas, which I guess you can't always in their summer due to the stingers. Sydney was lovely, very comfortable temps and sunny (although they had a deluge the day we went south of there to Huskisson). We spent three days in Sydney and that was plenty for me, but we're not big city people. I wish we had planned more time to the parks south of the city. For me, I would choose Darwin over Uluru, but that's just a personal preference. We actually chose New Zealand over both of those and didn't regret it at all. We also used ff miles (on America) for our whole trip. What a wonderful way to use miles!