Areala

OK, first a friend of mine's husband has a job in the Northern Territory near Darwin and I want to go visit her and she has apparently explored that area pretty good..anyway I don't want to just dead head straight to her house sooo

I am looking for suggestions:

Should I:
A...Fly, Tampa to Fiji, Fiji to Sydney, Sydney to Darwin

or

B..Fly, Tampa to Sydney, Sydney to Fiji, Fiji to Darwin

Then of course Darwin home

We only have about 2 weeks...leave Tampa August 30,2013 (Friday) need to be back to work by September 16th (Monday) so 2 weeks and 2 days..

Anyway, this will be my husbands schedule, he needs to be back...not me...I will stay on with my friend another 7 to 10 days.

Any suggestions to make this better ?

Also when looking for flights for this are there any preferred sites to look at or airlines where I can get the best deals. I realize no price is going to be very good but I want the best of what is available if I can.

Thanks

RalphR

It would help to know what you want to do in Australia and what your interests are. How much time in/around Sydney? How much are you interested in exploring the Northern Territory? The reason I ask is that 16 days is not a lot of time and you'll spend the better part of 4 days of that time just traveling back and forth. Between Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks near Darwin you could easily spend a week or more seeing the "Top End". My point is you may not end up with much time in Fiji at all if you want to see Sydney and the Top End and give them the time they deserve.

If you do go to Fiji, looks like option A is the one to do.

Areala

OK, fair question however, I do not know what I want to do, basically I want to see my friend, my husband has agreed however he will not spend as much time with her as I will so he does not care if we do not have much time in the Northern Territory, I will be staying on an extra 10 days after he goes back and she will show me around then.

So

He wants to do Fiji...a hit and a miss, we don't like swimming or snorkeling or any water sports. If we wanted a leisurly vaca we could stay home here in Florida and lounge around on one of our many many beaches or by my pool. I don't work so for me spending a great deal of money to go somewhere and lounge around is idiotic..remember I said for me. Other people may enjoy that sort of thing. Not us...

Example...when we go to Europe we go usually for 3 weeks or less and we usually arrive one place by mid afternoon, explore have dinner do a night thing maybe, go out the next day and give that city a day or 2 at most and move on...we got the flavor of what we wanted...now we can say been there done that. Actually we use the Rick Steve's Method however he did not do Australia or Fiji so we are on our own here

I think Stephen wants to allow 3 or 4 days Sydney at most then on to Fiji for 3 or 4 days then on to Darwin and finish up there and do some Northern Territory before he goes home.
I then will stay on with my friend and we will do stuff together.

My reason for posting partially is I don't even know if there is enough to do in Sydney to spend 3 or 4 days....See the Opera house...Sydney Harbor...OK..done...what else even..

And for Fiji I have no clue...

The one thing Australia does not have that europe has is the old old old buildings, architecture and history...

Honestly I am clueless as to what to see and do...

I am also told it takes half a day or better just to go from one place to another and someplaces even longer...

The idea of spending the better part of my vaca time in a car or some form of transportation to get from place to place is not appealing to me.

So this is why I posted. Someone reading this may say...hey she is right...this girl is clueless

so .....clue me in.

Thanks

tt7

If you "don't don't like swimming or snorkeling or any water sports." and you don't want to "lounge around", then why does your husband want to go to Fiji? Other than a transit through the airport once, I've never been to Fiji but was under the impression that it largely appealed to those that "like swimming, snorkeling, water sports and lounging around". Unless he has some compelling reason to go, I would cross it off the list.

I don't think I've ever heard anybody ask "if there is enough to do in Sydney to spend 3 or 4 days...". Most people find plenty to do in Sydney to keep them occupied - have a drink at the Opera Bar and watch the ants climbing the Bridge, climb the Bridge yourself, take the ferry to Manly, visit Taronga Zoo, go to the Blue Mountains, visit the Hunter Valley, play tourist in Darling Harbour, walk in the Gardens, go out to Bondi and take a cliff-top walk to Bronte or Coogee, eat in Chinatown, visit the museums and galleries....

If you're looking for something a bit more "European" then you should come to Melbourne - Sydney has the glitz and the glamour (the Opera House, the Bridge, the Harbour etc.) but Melbourne has everything else - it's the cultural / sporting / dining / food / coffee / shopping capital of Australia. Spend hours wandering the lanes and alleyways downtown and see how many quirky, hidden, world-class bars or restaurants you can find (usually hidden down a laneway, up a grungy flight of stairs or down in a hidden basement), find some of the best street art in the world, take a tram to St. Kilda, drive down the Great Ocean Road, go for a walk in the Botanic Gardens and visit the Shrine of Remembrance, go winery-hopping in the Yarra Valley, have a spa weekend up in Daylesford, visit the goldfleld towns of Bendigo and Ballarat, go to a footy game (that's Aussie Rules - think very fit, tall, lanky guys in tight shorts, not lumbering linebackers with so much padding they can hardly move....). Like Sydney, there isn't much to do here in Melbourne .....

Unlike Tampa (where there really is nothing to do - I know, I lived there for years... ) Sydney and Melbourne are two world-class cities and have plenty to do and see. Most people wouldn't have much trouble filling a couple of vacation weeks.

http://www.visitmelbourne.com

may give you some ideas.

Watch some of the videos on this page -

http://www.visitmelbourne.com/Region...ne/Videos.aspx
(for example, Play Melbourne, Melbourne's Hidden Secrets, Melbourne Lifestyle, and on page 2, Top Day Trips, Must See). There's some overlap in the videos but hopefully they'll give you some ideas.....

In addition to Sydney and Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra are all worth visiting if time permits - but it doesn't in your case. Most people want to visit the Great Barrier Reef but if you're not into water sports, snorkeling etc, cross that one off. The other obvious place to visit is Uluru but that requires a few days - though you could fly in and then take the Ghan from Alice to Darwin.
http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/
http://www.greatsouthernrail.com.au/site/the_ghan.jsp

There's lots to see and do, depending on what you like. I'd start by figuring out why Fiji's on the list ....

KayF

With your time constraints I would cross off Fiji. Have you looked at how long you are going to spend just getting from one place to another? For example Los Angeles to Sydney is about 14 hours, then you still have to get from Tampa, another 5 hours? Plus boarding an international flight it's recommended arriving 3 hours prior so add that in. Sydney to Darwin is about a 5 hour flight as well. So add that all up and take it off your 15 days (I know you are staying longer but still...). And the poster above is correct, Fiji is about the water and being outdoors so it may not be what you want.

Flying into Sydney, then back to Fiji, then back to Darwin sounds crazy. Also I doubt there will be any direct flights Fiji to Darwin, I had a quick look and there are some via Sydney, it's about 15 hours in total (Fiji to Sydney to Darwin). If you are looking at flights, Nadi is the airport.

You could spend the bulk of the time with your husband in Sydney and either Cairns/Port Douglas or Melbourne, then either go to Darwin on your own after your husband leaves, or have a few days there together, then you stay on.

To help you out, Melbourne is about 1.5 hours flight time from Sydney and Cairns is about 3 hrs flying time from Sydney. You could just do Sydney and Darwin and from Sydney, do some exploring by car, there are wineries, the Blue Mountains, you could travel up or down the coast. You are probably aware, but seeing you said you are clueless, we drive on the opposite side of the road to America.

Think about what you like to do and take all the travelling into account. If you do a search on this forum you will find lots of ideas for things to do in Sydney, Melbourne etc.

Kay