3 Months in Australia
 

I will be based on Australia for 3 months starting in February. I know there is a ton to do and would like to narrow down some ideas. I will be based in Melbourne and am interested in weekend trips. In April I could do more extended travel.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Aren't you lucky! Three of my favorite stops were Cairns and the reef, Tasmania, and Phillips Island (not really a weekend trip, however).

the Great Ocean Road

Daylesford and surrounds is a nice trip from Melbourne. Daylesford has a (therapeutic) spa and there are also some attractions in nearby areas such as a lavender farm (I forget the name). But we had a good couple of days in the area. Other interesting towns in Victoria which are relics of the gold rush are Bendigo and Ballarat. We enjoyed these thoroughly.

Lavandula

You could do weekends to Tasmania, Adelaide, Canberra or Sydney. (Plus regional areas in Victoria) everywhere else is too far to fly for a weekend. If you went to these other capital cities, a weekend isn't long enough to venture out of the city areas unless you do it regularly and change your destinations each time, especially Sydney. I agree with Lavandula about the interesting towns in Victoria. Every state has unique and wonderful places to visit. You need a lifetime.

You could get to Wilson's Promontory...you'd love it! Mt Buffalo/Bright. Morningtom Peninsula. Yarra Valley.......the list goes on and on lol

You will love it Melbourne is so alive! You could stay in town and not run out of things to do. Try crossing the great divide a lovely drive.

The golden mile guided walk in Melbourne is worth doing.

Puffing Billy in the Dandenong ranges is a steam train trip. The special dinner trains are great.

Swimming with the dolphins and seals in the Bay

Phillip Island - not just the penguins.

Queenscliff and Point Nepean are good day trips to each end of the bay. Just about anywhere on the bay is nice for a day trip. There is a train ride from Queenscliff. The forts at each are interesting.

Daylesford is lovely with over 300 different natural mineral water locations. Each has a sublely different flavour. Lovely walks and lakes there as well.

The You Yangs (ranges) is a good day trip for walks and scenery.

Hanging Rock and Mount Macedon likewise.

Echuca on the Murray and the paddle steamer history is fantastic. There are fireworks at Easter. Again Anywhere on the Murray is worth a look. Echuca is the closest to Melbourne.

The Gippsland Lakes (my backyard)are the largest in Australia. You can hire a boat for a weekend to live aboard (Bulls Cruisers - book early). There are other boat trips you could do if you don't want to live aboard. The dolphins and bird life are numerous. The wetlands are RAMSAR listed.

The mountains, river and coast are all close for fishing, surfing etc.

There are plenty of Wine and Food Trails in Victoria

You are certainly not short of things to do.

Any thoughts about the best way to organize a trip to Cairns and the Reef?

Go to a travel agent when you get here or go on line. There are usually specials.

I haven't been to either though.

Anyone have any thoughts on best airlines to fly from the U.S. to Melbourne. My choices are United, Quantas and Air New Zealand

I am just about to fly United to the US next year. It has the cheapest fares for direct (non-stop) flights to the US (SYD - LAX) at the moment, vying with Delta. However, by my previous experiences and the prevailing wisdom on United, the service is pretty ordinary (or should that be 'ornery'?) - in short, rude FAs. And - this is a big one - no screens in the back of the seat - just TV screens for the cabin mounted on the ceiling. I only realised this after I had booked and refund only comes with a penalty, but that would have made me pick another airline had I realised in time (travelling with a kid).

I've never flown Air New Zealand but people say it's good. And Qantas is reasonably good - I've flown them to Europe several times and the service, comfort and meals were all acceptably good quality. However they're a bit on the nose at the moment - there has been industrial action which the head of the airline found to be too pesky to cope with, so he grounded the entire fleet to bring them to heel. A lot of people around the world were inconvenienced by this, and the government didn't see it coming so were very irked by this (Qantas being the national carrier). Now Qantas has a lot of special fares and advertising campaigns to try to woo customers back. You might just score a good deal out of this. I doubt Alan Joyce would try grounding the fleet again, so I wouldn't worry about that happening twice!

Lavandula

I flew with Qantas the other day and I have to give them a 5 star rating - but then I always have had great service with them and they remain my preferred Airline - anywhere, anytime for everything, particularly for safety.
I flew with Air NZ from Los Angeles once and never again will I fly with them - the whole of the section I was in had absolutely no power, therefore we had no lights and could not read, no power so that we had no sound from headsets, no call button working and all we got from the attendants was " well there is nothing we can do about that". There was no apology and no explanations either. That is just not good enough. In comparison I had a headset or screen which did not work on Qantas once and was given a choice of a free bottle of perfume from the Duty Free list even though I was happy to sleep as it was a night flight.
Air NZ knew that the electricity was not working before the flight and still did nothing about the problem.
As for Qantas's problems at present, a lot of people around the World were inconvenienced by the bloody Unions in their attempt to get more than they have already which is 25% better than all other airlines in Australia pay.

Ive flown all three to/from the US. United are pretty much always cheaper than QANTAS. I didnt see much difference in the service/meals than QANTAS. The main difference is though. There's no 'personal' TV screen for you on the back of the seat in front of you in United, where QANTAS there is.
Oh, and not to mention, with QANTAS there's a direct service to Melbourne, where United you have to fly via Sydney.

Air New Zealand will fly via NZ, usually Auckland, so that would add on time to your flight. With Qantas you should be able to get a direct flight into Melbourne or Sydney. It's about 14 hours from LA to Melbourne.

Compare prices, departure times and arrival times and check on
http://www.airlinequality.com/
to see what other travellers say. Then pick the one that suits you best.

For your Cairns trip, you could check online for airfares, Webjet will give you a comparison of the domestic airlines but personally, I would book direct with the airline. They often have specials. You can book daily tours to the reef etc once you arrive in Cairns, if it's bad weather then you can delay your reef trip and do something else. I think the best reef trips leave from Port Douglas, about an hour's drive north of Cairns. You could stay in PD if you wanted, it's a bit more upmarket with prices to match, but does have a beautiful beach.

Kay