Hello - we are planning on driving from Sydney to Brisbane between Dec 23rd and 25th. We have a flight from Brisbane to Cairns on the 25th, so we need to make it there by about noon on the 25th.

We're planning to take the full 2.5 days to do the 13 hour drive so that we have plenty of time to stop and see scenary. Any suggestions on places for us to stop? Sights we should see? Are there any great beaches along the way? Wineries? Historical sights?

Thanks!

We made quite a few suggestions for this route recently & I've topped "Road trip from Sydney to Noosa" for you.

I like small, picturesque towns and my choices for stops would be Crescent Head, Nambucca Heads or Woolgoolga for 1st night and Burleigh Heads (or Kingscliff) for the 24th, all of which are right on the coast. This latter area is called the "Tweed Coast" and is about 90mins to Brisbane airport if you get a good run. You will need to factor in the fact that Christmas Eve & Day are very busy both on the roads and at the airport, so allow extra time for that.

If you don't want the hassle of the Christmas Day drive, you might consider staying in Brisbane. There are lots of accommodation options and if you've not been there before, it's a lovely city with some excellent restaurants along the river.

The obvious place for wineries is the Hunter Valley, but there are others to the North, which might be closer to your route http://www.totaltravel.com.au/travel...tory/breweries

Christmas Eve is on a Friday this year which means that "man and his dog" will be on the road heading to either the Gold Coast or beach spots along the way from Sydney. You will NOT get a good run from the Tweed at that time of year for starters as anyone who has lived on the Gold Coast and tries to get home for Christmas well knows. Christmas in Australia is bigger than most other countries because nearly everyone has extra time off, the children are on school holidays, every Policeman and his radar gun are out and it is always very, very busy so your 13 hour drive may well turn out to be much, much longer and I would not like to suggest anything given those conditions. I would be flying to Brisbane or the Gold Coast from Sydney and renting a car and doing SE Queensland making sure that you have accommodation booked well in advance.

we gave ourselves 4 days to do this drive and it still felt too short!all we did was drive and drive.... I would do what the above poster suggested..FLY, then get a car and head down to Byron Bay... wonderful place.

"We're planning to take the full 2.5 days to do the 13 hour drive so that we have plenty of time to stop and see scenary."

How does one get an emoticon showing the heading falling off with laughter? I have rushed through this area in a week and even once took a month which was too short to see all I wanted. Must admit to being stupid enough to drive straight through once but I was already in Brisbane with a car and needed to get to Sydney where I would need a vehicle.

Fly directly to Cairns and use that time to see the hinterland.