18 Days in Queensland/East Coast
 

Hello All!

My Fiance and I (31, 36)are looking for an adventureous, fun, yet relaxing (at times) holiday over Christmas and NYE. We are leaving from Sydney Friday 19th and returning Jan 5 or 6th. We want to make the most of our trip and would like to stay at a nice resort 5-6 days, drive up the coast seeing some sights in between, eventually ending up somewhere around the Cape York Pennisula. 1. To gain perspective, how far of a drive is it from Brisbane to Cooktown? 2. We have heard there are some great islands with spectacular beaches to spend some R&R, any suggestions? 3. We'd like to have ideally 2-3 home bases between Brisbane and the extreme North. We do have a car but think it may be best to fly into Brisbane and rent a car from there, drive to a suggested point North, and fly back to Sydney from there? Sorry this email is somewhat scattered, we just decided to do this trip and only have a couple weeks to plan. Any help from fellow travelers would be greatly appreciated!! About us: We have no kids are not looking for a family vaction. We like to see beatiful scenery and remoteness, however also like to mix it up with bars and nice resturants. Again, any help would be so great. We have lived in Sydney for a year and have not traveled North yet so the sky is the limit with what to see and do! Thanks!

Melissa and Matt

Brisbane to Cooktown ~2000km.
You would need a 4wd to go any further north but wrong time of year for that anyway.
www.travelmate.com.au is good for more exact distances.

You could have a problem getting accommodation in some places, especially around Sunshine Coast.
You ought to also consider Gold Coast and Byron Bay south of Brisbane and flying Sydney to Ballina or GC are options you could consider.

When you firm up, I'd google the main locations such as GC, SSC, Lady Elliot Island, Fraser Island, Great Keppel Island, Whitsunday Islands, Hook Island, Hamilton Island, Magnetic Island, Fitzroy Island [hopefully open] Green Island and Cairns, any of them followed by resort in the google subject and you'll get a squillion options.

It is already warm, predicted to be a belter of a summer and will probably only heat up some more with a few storms alomh the way to increase humidity and so if that is to your liking have a great trip.

We drove once from Cairns to brisbane, stopping in Townsville and Rockhampton, I did not plan well as we only drove as the airfares were expensive for 4 of us. I would not do it againunless checking with as expert such as Bushrange to say where the best places to stop were, we no doubt missed out on good places and Townsville and Rockhampron no doubt were not the places to stop.
From Brisbane though driving north to Noosa and around the Sunshine Coast is great!
You can drive south along the Gold Coast, also great but busier. Coolangatta was the furthest south we drove.
We also drove from cairns to Port Douglas and say the beaches and attractions and that was good.
My personal opinion is going by car is great but I would say so Sunshine and Gold by car and also from Cairns, but between Brisbane and Cairns they I would fly.

I would add though that if you can get great tips for the Brisbane to Cairns sector would be good.

Watch out with care for 'drop off charges' from rental companies. I don't know if it still applies but if I remember rightly we had to pay for pickng-up the car in Cairns and leaving it in Brisbane and it was not a small amount.
Rental policies though may be different now.

Hi Mfernett!

How about this for an idea -- how about taking the train?

You can leave Brisbane on a Sunday at 8:55A, arrive into Townsville at 8:20A on Monday, and continue onto Cairns, arriving at 4PM. OR - same thing, only leaving on a Tuesday and arriving on a Thursday.

It's very comfy, with a nice compartment, complete with fluffy robe and slippers (if you take the Queenslander Class service, which I'd recommend) and the food's wonderful too.

Bushranger, I was at Lady Elliott Island last year, and the only way I'd recommend it to clients is if they were really into diving -- the place reminds me of a rundown, beat up, backpackers property with some of the worst food I've ever seen - not what Melissa described when she said a "nice" resort! :)

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

Melissa,

First off, it does seem to me that Melodie having "clients" may be something of an agent of sorts who might even see adventure in fluffy robes and slippers.

Secondly, LEI is but one island of the Great Barrier Reef, be it the southernmost one and there are some great LEI and Fraser Island packages and cost of staying there or on other islands is fare beyond what most backpayers want to look at.

Melodie may have gone there thinking of going to a mainland ostentatious resort with swim up pools of the four/five star variety she has referred to with other posts and you can get something similar on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays and personally those who ever allowed such a monstosity of a development on a tropical island deserves to be shamed.

Lady Elliot Island - http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/ is more of your Eco type resort and far from being a run down backpackers but Melodie may be based further north looking to encourage visitors further north quickly and I'd suspect like any sort of salesperson looking for maximum commissions is prepared to say many things.

I on the other hand do not work and offer advice here for the adventure of it.

The accommodation on LEI by its very distance from the mainland is of built base tented style with good quality bedding and you will note from the site there are various levels.
As with all resorts and especially of the smaller types, meals will be subject to Chef/cook/island personnel and turnovers are likely to be high and for that same reason and distance from food centres, meals will be more of the KISS approach.

I'd not see there being much point in staying somewhere like that more than 2-3 days and thus a package including Fraser Island that offers good value is the approach I'd take if deciding to head there.

For JamesA and yourself, even Rockhampton and Townsville can offer good experiences.

Rockhampton being jumping off point for Great Keppel Island, and the Botanical Gardens at Rocky being lovely and with free Crocs and other wildlife there.

Townsville has the GBR Marine HQ and there is also Magnetic Island there for a great island experience, both islands having a range of accomodation: hostels up to apartments/resort and you'll always find the beaches/water on islands so much more pristine than mainland.

Hi Melissa,

I'm assuming that at age 31 and 36 you probably are not looking for backpacker accommodation.

I would support Melodie and her advice. She has been a contributor on this site for a long time now and I have always found her advice to be helpful, constructive and given with the very best of intentions.

I don't know for sure, but I do believe she is based on the US and so therefore, that is her client base.

I have never seen her try to 'drum up business' on this site. We should think ourselves lucky, that as a travel agent, she has a lot of practical experience.

She is just one of the many, many contributors who gives good advice, freely and gladly and I would seriously consider any advice she offers.

Ahem, Bushranger: Your comments regarding Melodie are completely out of order, displaying an embarassing ignorance of the valuable contributions she has made over a considerable time to many members of this forum. She has never solicited business through it.

Author: Bokhara2
Date: 12/15/2008, 11:44 pm
Ahem, Bushranger: Your comments regarding Melodie are completely out of order, displaying an embarassing ignorance of the valuable contributions she has made over a considerable time to many members of this forum. She has never solicited business through it.

Apart from describing an eco resort as a rundown backpackers which I can assure people it is far from, Melodie had just recently posted on a few threads pushing particular locations etc., making reference to her "clients"

As far as I'm concerned I have no embarassment whatsoever saying what I feel and if Bokhara you or anyone else feel embarassed, so be it.

Well BR there certainly is no embarassment here nor with Bokhara or anybody else I'd say.

The point you seem to be so painfully missing is that your derogatory comments are not welcome nor wanted.

Some other comments you have made have been completely out of order, rude, crude and I notice, in one case removed by the Editors.

Stop sniffin' that paint buddy and start smelling the roses! And learn to keep a civil tongue in your head.