I am studying abroad this spring in Melbourne, AU and would love to do some traveling before my program starts in early Feb. I will have long weekends to explore AU during the school year, but I want to see the surrounding islands if I can. So far I am fantacizing about Thailand, Bali or Fiji. What areas are driest in Thailand at this time of year--Ive heard its really wet in Bali as well. Is Fiji too expensive? I am on a budget and 21 years old, any suggestions on cheap tickets or good destinations? Thanks so much!

Both Thailand and Bali (as well as other parts of Indonesia) are relatively inexpensive. Fiji is more expensive. Only you can tell whether it's too expensive.

Take a look at www.weatherbase.com for weather info. Note that Thailand is infleunced by two different monsoons, so usually at least one area of Thailand is drier. Also, even in monsoon season, many places are still fine to visit, depending on what you want to do.

I've ben to Bali and Lombok during the rainy season and it didn't keep me from doing the things I wanted to do. So do your research, but don't let a little rain scare you away!

how many weeks do you actually have? how far away are you willing to fly (in hours on the flight to get there one-way)? Bangkok is not THAT close to AU. It depends on what you consider "nearby". What about New Zealand? Otherwise, I would do Indonesia.

Once you arrive in Australia nowhereO/S is very close. NZ is about 3 hours from Melbourne and we get cheap deals offered from Australia from time to time although one of the discount carriers(Freedom) is scaling back some of its flights. We are going to Thailand in Feb and the longest part of our flight is from Melbourne to Darwin. Fiji is one of the cheaper places to go to from Australia with package deals offered. Tiger Air is trying to get established in Australia and is offering some incredible deals within Australia and also in Asia.
Can you get a ticket to Aust that allows a stop over? This might give you a starting point for your planning.

Ain't much point in getting to Oz and then wanting to visit those areas. Well - there are discount flights Oz-Fiji much cheaper than once upon a time but still not cheap.

What you should be thinking about is where you can stop off to/from your journey from home - ie at zero additional cost.

Where's home?

Thailand, Bali, Fiji - all can be as cheap or as expensive as you want to make them.

Thailand probably most user friendly for a rookie traveller.

It isn't too hard really. You have a link to Weatherbase which is a seriously useful site. Next I would look at a map and do a google - or just think what airlines would be likely to fly via where you want to go. Or get a travel agent to help you plan the best flight routing.

And I would start checking out the Thorn Tree which is a far better resource for budget travellers than Fodors (much more the "husband and I"/"car and driver"/"$200 a night is reasonable&quot sort of forum.

$200 a night - are they serious?

Best of luck.

You'll love Melbourne I'm sure.