GogoGaryGaga

Hi All,

My fiancé and I are planning a month in Australia, leaving Newcastle UK on 26/12/16 and returning home 28/01/17 (including a couple of days of flights to and from OZ, I guess 2 days getting to OZ due to time difference and a day for getting home, once again time difference)
We want to see a lot of the country in such a short space of time that I would like other people opinions of which is the most efficient way to go and any advice you can give on do's and don'ts in Australia. We are typical tourists who want to see the major sights and any hidden gems that you would recommend. See the list below of places that we defiantly want to go to (which is a lot) I would like to see your opinions on how long you would recommend to stay in each place and which order to go to them. The only rule you have is that we want to be in Sydney for the new year and the rest is to be decided

Sydney, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane, Alice Springs/Uluru, Adelaide, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Frasier Island, Cairns (especially for the Great Barrier Reef) and DayDream Island

any help/tips you have would be great

eliztravels2

Are you serious? Would you try to see all the the US in one month? You have about 30 days in the country and have listed 12 different destinations. You will spend the better part of a day getting from one to another which leaves about 1 day to see each destination. I would call this the airport tour of Australia.

Take a look at rome2rio.com to get a sense of the distances and travel times and start to whittle down your list of destinations.

GogoGaryGaga

Thanks for the reply, il defiantly take what you say into consideration.


Yes I understand what I have put out there sounds like a huge task and not exactly feasible. ignoring the traveling to each place issues, how long do I need to spend in each place? im sure you can admit that some places wont need much time at all to "see the sights" I have an example itinerary below that I drafted up just to show you the dates etc. I understand it is a lot but its all possible... please make changes/scrap and start a new plan, anything you can suggest il take on board




26/12/16 - Flight from Newcastle - Perth (with connections in there)


28/12/16 - Arrive in Perth (most flights I have seen usually land early AM in perth 2 days after take off with time differences) (so that's almost all of the 28/12 in perth (probably an early night due to jet lag etc and all of 29/12)


30/12/16 - Perth - Sydney (early AM flight, takes approx. 5 hrs) (lets just say we would be ready to explore from around 3pm on 30/12) (we would have full days 31/12, 01/01, 02/01, 03/01)


04/01/17 - Sydney - Melbourne (early AM flight, takes approx. 1hr 30m) (again most of the day in Melbourne with full days 05/01, 06/01)


07/01/17 - Melbourne - Adelaide (early AM flight, takes approx. 1hr 10m) (all day in Adelaide and all of 08/01)


09/01/17 - Adelaide - Alice Springs/Uluru (early AM flight, takes approx. 2hrs) (not a great deal in alice springs but will take a day trip to Uluru, will have all of 10/01)


11/01/17 - Alice Springs - Darwin (early AM flight, takes approx. 2hrs) (all day in Darwin and all of 12/01)


13/01/17 - Darwin - Cairns (early AM flight, takes approx. 2hrs 30mins) will have full days on 14/01, 15/01, 16/01)


17/01/17 - Cairns - DayDream Island (via Hamilton) (takes an 1hr 20mins flight (say a max of 4 hours including boat over to DD island)) (full days of 18/01,19/01)


20/01/17 - DD island - Brisbane (including the traveling time to Brisbane would be 7 days to see Fraiser/Gold coast and Brisbane itself)


27/01 - fly home from Brisbane




we are both young and fit (ish) people and I know that's a hell of a lot of travelling but does that at all seem plausible/possible to do


would you say I needed more time in any of these places to "do the tourist stuff" or what would you change (perhaps the order of places etc)


we aren't really party people so we would expect to have some early nights in there



once again, thanks for taking the time to reply

Bokhara2

A couple of points:

1. Sydney is 3 hours ahead of Perth in summer, so add that to your arrival estimate.

2. It's not practical to do a day trip Alice Springs to Uluru. It's just under 1,000 kms round trip - 10+ hours driving.
You need to be there for sunrise / sunset ( preferably both ). If you are planning to do any of the walks, you will need to do them early in the morning as it will be too hot later.


3. I understand this is a year out and the beginning of your planning. I think you need to do some research into each place on your list to see what each has of interest to you, so you can decide how long you need to spend there.

At the moment, your plan looks a bit like a Great Race Around Australia, without any sense of why you've chosen each destination.

4. You will be here for the wet/cyclone /stinger season in FNQ (GBR) and the wet in the Top End ( Darwin). Doesn't mean you can't go, but you need to be aware of the limitations & conditions.

Have a look at the destination tags here on Fodors; the VisitAustralia website and each destination's website, to help with your planning.

Rome2rio is a good app for transport, distances & travel times, as is Google maps.

GogoGaryGaga

Thanks for the advice, you make very valid points and its something il have to think about

Thanks again

eliztravels2

GoGo: Perhaps I was a bit harsh on my first response, but your intended style of travel is so different from my own it is difficult to know what to say. So here is a second attempt to be helpful:

For a start, take a look at what various tour companies have to offer for Australia. You may not want to travel with a group but by looking at the descriptions of itineraries of various lengths you can get a general idea of what to see and do and what each destination has to offer. Then you can narrow in on what appeals most to you and begin to put together your own plan and work out the details.

Take a look at average climate conditions in at your destinations at the time you expect to visit. Weather can be extreme in Australia and as Bokhara suggests you need to be prepared.

Use the multi city feature on a flight search engine and get a sense of what getting around will cost you. That may have a big bearing on how many destinations you visit.

Come back here when you have your trip roughed out, tell us what your interest are and ask about the specifics. Lots of knowledgable contributors here.

Good luck with your planning.

marg

It's certainly a mad rush around Australia but you're young and fit and enthusiastic, so that counts in your favour.
The part that worries me most is the Alice Springs/Uluru bit - it's basically a full day's drive from Alice to Yulura so you certainly don't have enough time to do anything. If you must go to Uluru, can you fly direct from Adelaide to Yulura, and then direct to Darwin?
Be aware that if you do go to Uluru, it will be hot, and the flies will drive you mad. We love that area but no way would we go there in January.
If you are planning to stay in a hotel in Sydney over NYE, start making your booking very early.

elleau

Hi there,

me together with my family travelled Sydney in 4 days. We did all the usual stuff like cruise on Sydney Harbour, Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour, Bondi to Coogee walk.

We even managed to get a tour of Hawkesbury NSW - if you also want a tour like ours, you can visit this site > http://www.hellohawkesbury.com.au/we...hawkesbury-nsw, for an overview of the place .

Hope this helps! Cheers.

annhig

Hi gogo - I'm a brit who went to Oz a couple of years ago, so perhaps I can bring a bit of a British perspective to this.

1. I see you come from Newcastle - have you ever been anywhere REALLY hot?40C ++? because if you haven't, you are in for a shock.

2. I don't understand why you are going to Perth just to leave it 2 days later. You will barely have acclimatised and recovered from jet lag and after the flight there, you won't want to get back on another plane, trust me. I would suggest going straight to Sydney [plenty to do so it won't matter if you have a couple of extra days in that area] or stopping over en route in Hong Kong or Singapore, or even Dubai.

3. We were at the GBR in November [if you go, Port Douglas is a really nice place to stay, with lots of choices of day trips, and it's an hour or so from Cairns either in a car or by hotel transfer shuttle] and even then it was hot. my DH got very burned feet just by one afternoon's sitting on the beach with insufficient suncream. But still doable so long as you are prepared. You could fly to Cairns from Sydney - the flight over the Queensland coast between Brisbane and Cairns is spectacular. 5 nights here would give you time to see most of the local attractions and the GBR.

4. We didn't get to alice Springs or Uluru but listen to the locals - it's not the right time of year. But as I understand it, it is very much the right time of year for Tasmania where it will be cooler. From my reading, a week there would be about right.

5. Then you could fly back to Adelaide, do the drive to Melbourne, fly home. or whatever - I see that you have other ideas based in Brisbane, but be aware, that will all be very hot too.

I know that this misses out a lot that you had wanted to see, but you are young, and there is no way that you can see everything in one trip - you will be going again, hopefully at a time when seeing those other places would be more comfortable.

Bokhara2

Another option that might be of interest is Kangaroo Island. Google it & see what you think.

I'm not getting a sense of what is drawing you to the various places, or really Australia itself, other than ticking places off on a list. I'm no doubt missing something.