sarah carry

Hi My fried and myself decieded to go to Australia about three months ago we are flying out 22nd of jan must confess we havent done a lot of research on the place as it was such a sudden choice, we stay in singapore for 1 night and arrive into Sidney on the 25/01 as anybody go any advice on where to to go form there<BR>would be very grateful if u could help out as getting a bit panicked at this stage

Paul S

Hi Sarah,<BR><BR>There are lots of people on this forum who would like to help but you might like to give us a few more details like:<BR><BR>1. How long are you here for?<BR><BR>2. What sort of things are you interested in ie nature walks, clubing,<BR>water sports etc<BR><BR>3. What sort of traveller are you ie Backpacker, moderate motels, upmarket motels etc?<BR><BR>4. What do you want to get out of your holiday ie cultural experience, fun/adventure stuff, exploring cities etc?<BR><BR>5. Do you want tour info or self drive info?<BR><BR>If you could give us this sort of info then we will be able to give you some ideas.<BR><BR>Cheers<BR><BR>Paul S

sarah

Hi Paul thanks for your response, We are heading out for 3 months on holiday visa'a were are both girls aged 20 we want to see as much of the place as we can we are interested in most things we love clubbing and cant want to see the sights we would be Backpackers we'll both be bringing about 4,500 dollors can u advise if this will be sufficent as we cannot work on our visas <BR>the main question i have to ask is what would be the best route to take the can't be missed sights within out buget<BR>thanks again<BR>Sarah

Paul S

Hi Sarah,<BR><BR>Okay, you are arriving the day before one of our national holidays which is Australia Day and Sydney will usually have a lot of things happening on that day for you to check out. Below is a website that lists what is happening and where:<BR><BR>http://www.australiaday.com.au/big_events.html<BR><BR>I suggest that you spend around a week in Sydney checking out the sights and doing the obvious stuff like the Harbour Bridge climb and do the surrounding places like the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney.<BR><BR>Then head south for Melbourne and do the sights there for a week before heading to Adelaide via the great ocean road. You might like to do a side trip to Kangaroo Island from Adelaide.<BR><BR>Now you have the choice to either continue across to Perth in Western Australia or going up to the Northern Territory and seeing Ayres Rock, Alice Springs and on to Darwin or flying up to the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise to check things out there like the theme parks and beaches.<BR><BR>The next stepfrom either of the locations above would be to continue on to Cairns and Port Douglas, you can do your Great Barrier Reef trips from there.<BR><BR>You might want to check out the Youth Hostel website below for accommodation etc in the various locations:<BR><BR>http://www.yha.com.au/index.cfm<BR><BR>I am gathering that you are coming from the USA and that you mean you have US$4500.00 each for the 3 months, that should be sufficient to backpack around the country. Basically that equates to around A$7800.00 you will still need to watch your spending but otherwise you should be okay.<BR><BR>I am sure that the other popsters on this forum will give you plenty of ideas as to what to see in each location around the country.<BR><BR>Cheers<BR><BR>Paul S

Paul S

Hi Sarah,<BR><BR>I meant to say posters not popsters.

sarah

Hi Paul tks a mill for that advice we are not from the us we are actually, from Ireland and hope to be joing u in the celebrations<BR>chow for now <BR>caroline

xxxxx

Please note that Sidney should be Sydney.

Nick

I did the backpacker thing + work back in 89 for about 9 mths (originally from Perth but did not know eastern states). <BR>I would suggest for time you have, something like 2 weeks Sydney, 2 weeks Queensland with focus on Barrier Reef, 1 week Melbourne, 1 week Tasmania, 1 week South Australia, 1 week West Australia, 1-2 weeks Kakadu/Darwin/Ayers Rock - leaving 2-3 weeks for extending anywhere and travel.<BR>I met a lot of Irish girls backpacking (lots of nurses) and of all the people I met they were often the people that preferred Melbourne to Sydney - whereas most including myself prefer Sydney.<BR>You can stay at official youth hostels or the backpacker hotels. Summing up my experiences and bearing in mind that some places would have changed, but also lots of hostels stay the same year in, year out - adding to charm or total grottiness, depending on view.<BR>Perth's youth hostels were more in Northbridge, a central area with quite a lot of pubs and restaurants, but not overly pretty. The hostels in 89 were the worst of the cities - disgusting. Thankfully I could stay with friends. For Perth - stay in Fremantle, far more charm, or go to Cottesloe for a beach hotel like OBH (had a grotty rep but oppoiste the beach and a great area). Go to south west (Albany for scenery, Margaret River for big tourism build up over last 20 years - wine growing especially) and Rottnest. Tasmania is great for countryside - Port Arthur and Strahan for Gordon River. Launceston's YHA had the worst rep in Australia (in the YHA book itself) - awful family ran it and people left after 24 hours (they had a son helping to run it, so may still be there), Strahan was run by a weirdo who used to like to walk in unannounced to guys and girls rooms early in the morning.<BR>Melbourne in 90 opened up a new hostel with lots of twin rooms located in North Melbourne - I suspect pretty good. Melbourne has lots of clubs/pub music. Some people prefer it to Sydney because of more European feel - which I think is overstated anyway.<BR>Sydney - YHA I stayed in was at Glebe, which I am not that fond of. Given your position, I would head for as backpackers in somewhere like Bondi, maybe Manly or another beach place. Kings Cross I would generally avoid as it can be pretty grotty and hostels can have problems with drunks/druggies trying to break in so they lock the fure doors - hence deaths a few years ago from a fire of one of the hostels.<BR>Adelaide - lots of Brits quite like it (but usually not a really strong reaction) and my cousin who has now returned there loves it and reckons it is easily hte best value place for restaurants etc in Oz. Brisbane is the once city that I have never heard any backpacker say anything positive about. Lots are there 2 nights and move on. I do not think much of it either.<BR>Cairns is not so popular with traditional hotel tourists as it is not the prettiest town and a little rough - But I quite liked it - tons of backpackers make it a really sociable place. But hostels were incredibly hit and miss - official YHA was pretty good.<BR>Magnetic Island off Townsville is beautiful and Townsville hostel is super convenient - on top of bus stop.<BR>You can get bus passes on any of a number of bus companies. Deluxe had the best rep, but I got sick of them when the same video was shown on 4 separate legs over 10 days (so boring). The fact is long distance bus journeys are arduous and you will be sick of fried food from all the roadside cafes after a short while (I had no choice as plane strike for 6 months).<BR>The only thing with backpacking is often how few Australians you may meet - some hostels literally had noone except me as Australian - lots of Australians will only travel within Australia if they know someone they can stay with (although Tasmania was big exception).<BR>Have fun.