Dee Rogers

I'm spending April in Australia with my 11 year old daughter. Looking for a good place to stay in Port Douglas for 10 days - near the beach, child-friendly etc. There's Hibiscus, Rydges Reef, Nomads? Any suggestions? We want to be near the beach, breakfast & bar on site, not too far to town.<BR><BR>We're spending 7 days in Sydney at Sullivan's which sounds nice & small, 5 days in Melbourne at Batman's Hill - not sure about this one but it's on a cheap deal. Then 6 days on a youth hostel tall ship sailing spree at Airlee Beach/Whitsundays. I hope it's going to be mainly rivers, beach and stuff - Melbourne's in there for the Great Ocean Drive and Sovereign Hill.<BR><BR>Any suggestions/comments welcome on Port Douglas and the trip.

Kay

Hi Dee,<BR>Your trip looks great. Hibiscus in Port Douglas is pretty central, Rydges is a bit far out of town in my opinion and I don't recall Nomads. Others that are central and looked nice are The Whitehouse and Driftwood on Macrossan (not sure of that name). At any of these, you are 5 mins walk to the marina where the reef trips run from, the beach, and shops etc.<BR>The Great Ocean Road in Victoria is a lovely drive, there are lots of tours that go there and you get to look at the scenery instead of other traffic. It's a windy road and only 2-lane so you have to watch where you're going.<BR>Sovereign Hill is interesting, try and see the sound and light show which we loved. It's called Blood on the Southern Cross and is on in the evenings (obviously). You can stay at SH or in Ballarat itself. It will be pretty cold at night at SH, so wrap up.<BR>In Melbourne, there are free City Circle trams you can hop and off (they are brown specially marked ones), go up the Rialto Tower for spectacular views during the day and at night. Queen Victoria Market is a must, for shopping, people-watching or just to see the buskers.<BR>Hope you have a great trip.<BR>Kay

Kat

The place we stayed at was the Sunseeker Apartments ( [email protected]) which are less than one block away from 4 mile beach. The apartments are clean and well taken care of. The owners are from Melbourne and just purchased the apartments about 3 years ago. Its a small, quiet complex (8 units) but a great location. Unfortunately there isn't a bar/restaurant on site but the restaurants are only about 3 blocks away.<BR>My husband and I stayed in a Penthouse suite at a VERY reasonable rate.

Mina

Hi Dee:<BR><BR>I stayed at the Hibiscus in Nov. 2001, and really liked it. It was a 1 bedroom for $130 AUD. It's close to everything..the beach, the main street, and the marina, but it's not "on" any of those. But the main town is tiny...almost everything seems pretty central.<BR><BR>As for kid friendly, I don't know about that...but I saw lots of kids hanging out in the pool! I really liked it because it was a good value for the money, the reception staff always made good and honest recommendations (one of the gals said I was probably too young and active to enjoy Kuranda), and it was simply better than I expected.

Dee

Thanks Kay, Kat and Mina. I think I'll go for Hibiscus Gardens, it sounds central to everything & generally what we want. And I'm really glad we've included the GOD and Sovereign Hill. Thanks again.<BR><BR>Dee