Help! Hubby and I will be in Austalia the last two weeks of October. There's so much to see and do, we've had to narrow down our "must see" choices to the east coast. We're thinking about spending 3 days in Cairns (Port Douglas, Great Barrier Reef, Daintree, Kuranda - or are these last two the same?), then driving down the coast, enjoying the scenery (Townsville, Rockhampton, Brisbane) and stopping in Sydney for some sightseeing (3 or 4 days - Blue Mountains in addition to the whole Harbor area.) We'd also like to drive down to Melbourne and spend a few days there, Captain's Cook Cottage, Fitzroy Gardens, etc., maybe to Phillips Island to see the penguins, maybe drive the Great Ocean Road. While we love the idea of driving down the coast, I wonder if we'll have enought time to see everything we want to see along the way - we don't want to spend ALL our time in the car. Perhaps we should explore Cairns to Townsville, then fly to either Brisbane or Sydney for the "continuation" of our drive down the coast? Any suggestions? I've really enjoyed reading all the posts!

DejaDeb, wow it sounds like you are trying to fit too much into a 2 week holiday. Pat Woolford lives in the Cairns region, so I am sure you will get excellent advice from this person.
As for trying to seeing the rest of your proposed destinations, I would definitely fly.
October in Qld, should be very pleasant, and swimmable.
Just to give you an idea of mileage in Qld....Cairns to Townsville (346 kms), Townsville to Mackay (396 kms), Mackay to Rockhampton (334 kms), Rockhampton to Brisbane (641 kms).
If I was to drive south of Cairns, I think I would only go as far as Prosperpine, a distance of 640 kms, or an easy 2 day drive. (which is near Airlie Beach-jumping off place for the Whitesunday Islands, from Airlie Beach take some of the island or reef cruises)then after your Airlie Beach stay, catch a plane from there down to Sydney (forget Brisbane), then have your 3 days in Sydney, then fly to Melbourne and rent a car & do the Great OCean Road. Possum can give you excellent advice on Victoria, I am sure she will reply to your posting, and likewise Pat.

Hi DejaDeb - tropo's right, you're trying to do far too much in 2 weeks. In late October the weather should be perfect in the North and that's where I'd give the trip the most time. In the Cairns/Port Douglas area alone you have a huge Wet Tropic Rainforest area as well as easy access to GBR. The Atherton Tablelands (now named Cairns Highlands by some marketing guru) is worth at least a couple of days, a trip out to Undara Lava Tubes with overnight there will give you an "outback" experience as well as seeing the longest lava tube system on earth. The "coastal" road isn't right on the coast in fact there's only a few glimpses of ocean for most of it and there's some very long and monotonous patches (ie Mackay to Rockhampton is stupefyingly boring). South of Cairns, I'd be stopping at Mission Beach, Hinchinbrook Island off Cardwell, then on to Airlie Beach which is gateway to Whitsundays. I'd only worry about Townsville (largest city in NQ) if I had the time - a trip out of there to Magnetic Island is nice. After that I agree with tropo and ditch the car - you should be able to fly Proserpine-Brisbane easily, then Brisbane-Sydney. There are also flights from Hamilton Island in Whitsundays. It would be nice to have the car further south of Airlie as Fraser Island and Sunshine and Gold Coast (good surfing beaches) and hinterlands are lovely, but it won't leave you any time for Sydney, not to mention Melbourne. Hope this helps a bit!

Sorry, before someone jumps on me - you can't drive a normal car on Fraser Island - its all sand - 4WD only or a tour.

Thanks Pat. Our plan now is fly to Cairns as soon as we get to Australia (via Sydney) and spend four or five days there. We'd want to see the GBR, go to the rainforest via the "world's longest gondola", go up to Port Arthur, maybe drive down to Townsville (via the "Green Drive"? Is that right?) Also, just read about Charters Towers and wonder if that's worth a side trip. I'll definitely have to get some more info on the lava tubes - cool! Afterward, our thought is to fly to Melbourne for maybe four days to explore the city and the Grampians, then drive up to Sydney and cruise the harbor before heading into the Blue Mountains. So four/five days in Cairns/4 days in Melbourne/1 day to drive to Sydney/3 days in Sydney (one of those days in the Blue Mountains.) Does that sound like a fun, doable vacation? Thanks!

Hi Deja Deb, Port Arthur is actually in Tasmania at the other end of the country, I do know you mean Port Douglas - just brought that up in case you start searching for Port Arthur. If you decide to drive to Undara - check it out on www.undara.com.au (its about 4 hours from Cairns but you'd need to give it longer as you'll be pasing through Atherton Tablelands which has much to see) you could continue on the inland route to Charters Towers - it's very much a back road although its sealed and then a hell of a long way back across country to Townsville. You'd also miss the "Great Green Way" and the lovely spots of Mission Beach and Hinchinbrook Island (which is about half-way between Cairns and Townsville) - Great Green Way starts just south of Cairns and is on main road to Townsville. This is "wet tropics" area and extends up to Daintree, Townsville is in what is known as "dry tropics" so the vegetation is not nearly as lush as the wet tropics rainforests. Townsville has quite a large airport and you could fly direct to Sydney from there. From Townsville south, with exception of Airlie Beach, you have long drives with very little scenery until about Fraser Island (I know there are exceptions but they're way off the highway) and for the time you've allocated you'd be too rushed to enjoy it. Hope this helps

Thanks for the info! I think now we will want to spend one week in Cairns, maybe two days in Sydney, and the rest in Melbourne. Since we're arriving in Sydney Friday morning, would we be better off exploring the Harbor area that day, Blue Mountains the next, then fly to Cairns on Sunday? Or should we fly straight to Cairns (we're going through Sydney anyway.) I'm thinking there might be a crowd over the weekend? Also, I don't know what there is to do in "greater Sydney" besides the harbor area but I'll read this forum thoroughly to find out!