Australia Day Weekend - Friday traffic, weekend hotels
 

You guys have helped us decide that after Sydney we will head to Canberra on 21 January to see the Space Communications sites, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, and Namadgi National Park.

We fly home out of SYD Sunday morning, 25 January, so we will miss Australia Day celebrations, but will want to travel on Friday and/or Saturday.

Will there be lots of traffic on Friday afternoon/evening--people into/out of the cities for the holiday weekend? Will tourist destinations like Katoomba and the Blue Mountains be packed, or will there be more people in Canberra and Sydney?

Hotels seem to be available with no minimun stay, but rates in Sydney are higher than the previous week.

If we decide to drive rather than use the train or bus (any comments on Murrays, Greyhound?), we would prefer not to spend our time in traffic jams.

Traffic leaving the city is always heavier on long weekends, as you would expect. Typically, the heaviest is towards the North & South on Friday afternoons & evenings.

If you leave on Friday, go by noon and you should be fine. Alternatively, go Saturday morning and you will have a good run in any direction.

Sydney has big celebrations on the Harbour on Australia day and the Festival of Sydney runs throughout January. You'll miss the busiest day and, in any case, we don't have the hoardes of crowds that you may have experienced at, say, Disneyland.

Hi Kay2,

Honestly don't know if the Blue Mts will be busy, or whether people will be heading towards Canberra or Sydney. I guess people will be on the move; but where they will be heading is anyone's guess.

Re Greyhound/Murrays. Done Canberra-Sydney with both (never driven it). Both arrive at Central Stn in Sydney. Suspect both leave from the main bus stn in Canberra. Each of these locations is easy to get to and from. Have travelled with Murrays more recently and was very pleased with the service. Left on time; arrived on time; and only cost c. $26 one way (booked as a "special" in advance). But it wasn't on a long weekend!

Cheers.

Thanks for the help.

I wasn't sure if Australia Day was more a "head to beach/lake/mountains" mid-summer respite or "head to the city for the fireworks nad events" type of long weekend. My first thought was leave town for the long weekend, but then I saw that hotel prices went up in Sydney and rooms were available in Blue Mtns.

If we were to decide now to buy tickets to take the bus, at some times both Greyhound and Murrays have some seats at $15.

Of course, the bus would be stuck in the same traffic as a car, but we wouldn't be driving.

It's a bit of both, Kay2. There's lots of activity on & around the harbour, including a ferry race and fireworks on Australia Day. My guess is that there would be somewhat less traffic in & out of the city than on ordinary Long Weekends because the school holidays are just finished/finishing.

On any long weekend Friday evening traffic is relatively heavy heading north from Canberra towards Sydney and east to the coast - and in the reverse direction on the Monday. But the operative word is "relatively", it won't be a big problem.

There'll also be people going in the other direction for a long weekend in Canberra, but how much effect that will have on accommodation bookings and prices I couldn't say, sorry.