Can someone comment on my planned trip to Aus in October 2004.
Sydney 4 nights
Canberra 1 night
Adelaide 1 night- Kangaroo Is day trip
Melbourne 2 night
Daintree- 2 night
Hayman - 4 night
Sydney - 1 night Home

I think you're going to spend an inordinate amount of time in airports.

Flying to Adelaide just to do a day trip to KI seems a bit extreme. KI is great - but....you'd be hard pressed to do that in a day - unless you took late night flights out again!

You might want to tell us about your interests, and we can better assess. What factors went into this itinerary?

Remember - Australia is roughly the same size as mainland USA. You're travelling fair distances.

I'd be skipping Adelaide and Melbourne. As Margo said KI is nice ..... but not for the cost of the time it will take for you to get there and the cost of getting there. There are many other areas which will give you the same as KI without going out of your way so much to do it.

Thanks for the feedback. We definately want to spend time in Sydney and Melbourne and then up at some resorts in Daintree and Hayman. We wanted to get a sense of Aussie nature, touchy feely with Koalas and Kangaroos and heard KI was nice. That would be the main reason for heading to Adelaide. I also feel a need to see Canberra as it is the capital. I am planning day trips out of Sydney to the Blue Mts, and then was planning on driving to Jervis Bay and then onto Canberra. Also was going to drive from Mel to Port Campbell for a look at the Ocean Road. I would appreciate knowing what are some of the things that I should absolutely see when I am there and I have left them off my plans?
Thanks

Also has anyone used the Qantas Boomerang Pass and is it worth the the money, I was planning on flying all over, Canberra to Ade, Adel to Mel, Mel to cairns,Cairns to hayman, hayman back to Syd.
Thanks

Hi, gate73!

Several earlier posts have commented on the value (or lack thereof) of the Boomerang Pass -- the general consensus would seem to be that you would have to do a lot of travelling to recover the costs; some people, hoever, felt that it was worth paying extra for the convenience of not having to worry about purchasing flights once they arrived.

These are very volatile times, as far as air travel is concerned, in Australia; VirginBlue, our traditional discount airline, is facing stiff competition from a just-about-to-be-launched new no-frills airline run by Qantas, and they are not about to let their market share be taken over without a fight! So, already the prices have come tumbling (as low as $AUD39 for Sydney-Melbourne and Sydney-Brisbane). There will be more cut-throat campaigns to come, as the birth of the newcomer becomes imminent. I would guess that you could save a lot of money by waiting until you arrived and then seeing what's available.

Alan, Thanks for the information.

I know a lot of people have enjoyed Kangaroo Island, but for my money it didn't warrant the time and cost - especially the jaw-dropping Sealink ferry fare of $266 return (I think) for a car and two pax, to get to an island virtually within spitting distance of the mainland. Admittedly, as a native of Oz I've seen all the local wildlife I ever want to, and on close examination have concluded that once you've seen one surly sea-lion you've seen them all. Time permitting, Adelaide and its wine regions are worth a visit - but time is your enemy and that's a lot of travel for one night's stay. I have to support cousin margo_oz on this one.

Starting to to get a sense that KI would be a big expense and big time commitment. I have also been looking at Byron Bay and other North Coast sites. They seem driveable from Sydney. also some people on this site say you can get a great sense of Great Ocean Drive by driving from Mel out to Port Campbell and back in one day.
Any ideas

Where can I get the same KI experience closer to a big city?

You can see penguins on Philip Island near Melbourne or sometimes at St Kilda Beach, Healsville sanctuary near Melbourne for other animals. There are quite a few animals to see in the border ranges between Queensland and New South Wales ( near Byron Bay ) if you go on a nocturnal trip yourself - or with someone for that matter. While you are up in the Cairns region take a trip with one of the naturalists i.e. David Ambrust (sp???) for a close encounter with animals and nature. Breakfast with the birds at Port Douglas. There are plenty of animals running around the National Park near Airlie Beach where you will get a boat to Hayman Island. Anyway there are some ideas for you.
Bryon Bay is driveable then onto Brisbane where you would make a connection flight to GBR.

Here's an alternative to going to KI. Drive from Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road as far as Port Fairy (pretty little old fishing port, lots of accommodation choices, really nice). From there drive inland to Mount Eccles National Park. It's an extinct volcano and only about an hour from Port Fairy, and you should see koalas there. From there, start heading east through Hamilton and Dunkeld and then take the road north through the Grampians National Park. Apart from great scenery and walks, you should see lots of kangeroos and emus. Halls Gap is the little town there, lots of accommodation and eating places.
From Halls Gap, take the highway to Ballarat which at one time in the gold rush days was one of the wealthiest towns in the world. Lots to see, great architecture, Sovereign Hill folk museum plus other museums and art galleries. You could do all of this in three or four days.

Sorry to trouble you guys again, but the airlines just called and I had to re-arrange my NA to AUS flights. I will be arriving first in Mel. Then flying home from Syd at the end.I have 18 nights in Australia and would like to see cities and GBR and end with a week of sun and fun at beachy resort. My initial plan is:
MEL 2 nights
GOR - 1 night Fly from Mel to Can
Canberra 1-night Drive from Can to Syd
Sydney-4 nights
Byron Bay -1 night Drive from Syd to Bris
Brisbane - 1 night
Cairns-Daintree -2 nights Fly from Bris to Cairns
Hayman - 5 nights Hayman to Syd
Sydney - 1 night
HOME
Any thoughts or ideas on improving the intinerary would be most appreciative. also has anybody flown business class on Qantas recently? How does it compare to first class, comfort, seats etc,
Thanks

Hi, Gate 73!

That's an interesting itinerary, and, although I am sure everyone who reads it will have some idea on how to improve it, basically it's quite sound. The one bit I didn't like the sound of was "Drive from Sydney to Brisbane". That's not much of a drive anymore. You can do this trip quickly nowadays, but you don't see much of Australia doing it -- there's an awful lot of newly-cut freeway, and the name "Pacific Highway" is a bit of a misnomer, because you don't see much of the water. I think if I were going to drive, I would head along the Great Ocean Road and then up to the Barossa Valley, and from there back to Canberra and Sydney, maybe spending a night in one or two of the non-tourist country towns you will pass through; that would add a few nights to that part of your trip, but you could catch up by flying from Sydney to Brisbane and skipping Byron Bay altogether -- it's pretty, but has a large drug sub-culture which tends to spoil the idyllic surroundings, and with five nights at Hayman you will hardly need another dose of idyllic surroundings!


Anyway, I'm sure that you will now have another dozen posts improving on my improvements, and so on until your whole itinerary has the life squeezed out of it, so maybe the best thing for me to say is, proceed with confidence and have a wonderful time!