East coast australia itinerary - feedback please!
 

Hello there,

I am VERY excited to visit Australia for the first time for a month(!!!) with my partner. We are travelling in from Canada and would love to see everything Australia has to offer.

A little about us: My partner and I are 29 and and 30. We are travel well and often. We love to snorkel and hike (I say, we are intermediate) We would love to try out scuba diving and surfing while we are there. Also, we are dying to check out some wicked rainforests you guys have. We love try new foods, wine and beer. Not much into partying but love drinking, meeting and getting to know new people. Also, kangaroos, platypus and koalas pls

The itinerary we have come up with:

Sep 2: Sydney - Land @8:15am

Sep 3: Melbourne - Land @7:40am

Sep 4: Melbourne

Sep 5: Great Ocean road

Sep 6: Great Ocean road

Sep 7: Cairns - Land @11:40am

Sep 8: Cairns - Great Barrier Reef tour

Sep 9: Daintree/Cape Tribulation/Port Douglas

Sep 10: Kuranda

Sep 11: Atherton Tablelands

Sep 12: Townsville

Sep 13: Magnetic Island

Sep 14: Magnetic Island

Sep 15: Airlie Beach

Sep 16: Rainbow Beach

Sep 17: Whitsundays Island

Sep 18: Whitsundays Island

Sep 19: Bundaberg

Sep 20: Fraser Island

Sep 21: Fraser Island

Sep 22: Sunshine coast

Sep 23: Sunshine coast

Sep 24: Brisbane

Sep 25: Brisbane

Sep 26: Gold Coast

Sep 27: Byron's Bay

Sep 28: Byron's Bay

Sep 29: Sydney

Sep 30: Sydney

Oct 1: Blue Mountains

Oct 2: Flight@10:10am

The flight to and from Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns are all booked. We are not going to book a campervan for Cairns -> Sydney. Not sure if we should do car in Cairns, then camper van to leave Cairns, return campervan in Sydney and rent a car for Blue Mountains OR just campervan it all the way.

Thought? Comments? Concerns? Standing ovations? Send 'em my way!

Thanks for reading and commenting!

How are getting on the GOR ? Car or ???
Have you looked at the distances driving from Cairns to Sydney ? I suggest you look them up and the decide if you can fit all that driving in - in the time you have .

I didn't entirely travel east coast of Australia, but i have been to blue mountain and it was awesome landscape. Lots of unique shaped mountains were all around. I think those were not mountains but huge rocks I remember. But it's cool as heck

Thought? Comments? Concerns? Standing ovations? Send 'em my way!
I'm concerned you have planned far too much. Do you realise how big Australia is? Melbourne is at equivalent of half way down Florida and Cairns is actually up in Canada. To drive this distance it's about more than 3,000 km.
Most of your trip is in Queensland about 22 days if I counted right so that's really too much emphasis on the one area. Queensland is lovely but there is more to Australia that this one state.
I'm not sure you can do the GOR in 2 days -we did it years ago and took about 4 days.
Split your time for equally among Victoria, NSW and Queensland. You could drive from Cairns down the coast to Brisbane but this will take time. The Bruce Road is good but it's a really long way.

Are you really flying into Sydney then the next day flying to Melbourne? That seems really strange. Why not fly direct to Melbourne? Also it's not that cheap to hire a campervan and the less expensive ones are really cramped. Check out prices but you might find it cheaper to hire a car and stay in motels or cabins in caravan parks.

That is a heck of a lot of driving, have you looked at how far it is on a map? Some days you will do nothing but drive, no time to stop and see anything. You could drive one section but from Cairns to Sydney is a LONG way.

There is a good wildlife sanctuary with Australian animals at Healesville, outside of Melbourne. They have times on the website for koala feeding, etc.

Kay

Are you really flying into Sydney then the next day flying to Melbourne? That seems really strange. Why not fly direct to Melbourne? Also it's not that cheap to hire a campervan and the less expensive ones are really cramped. Check out prices but you might find it cheaper to hire a car and stay in motels or cabins in caravan parks.

That is a heck of a lot of driving, have you looked at how far it is on a map? Some days you will do nothing but drive, no time to stop and see anything. You could drive one section but from Cairns to Sydney is a LONG way.

There is a good wildlife sanctuary with Australian animals at Healesville, outside of Melbourne. They have times on the website for koala feeding, etc.

Kay

Echoing Kay & the others. It makes no sense at all to have a day in Sydney & the. Go through all the hoopla of getting to the airport to fly to Melbourne the next day.
Either fly direct into Melbourne & if you can't do that, book a flight same day, 3 hours or so after your Sydney ETA.

The Great Ocean Road deserves 2 nights - 3 days.

Your drive from Cairns - Sydney would be ok if you added another week into the mix. As it is, you would spend more time behind the wheel the. Out & about seeing the things you came to Australia for in the first place.

You'll need to hone your priorities - there just isn't enough time to see all the places in your list in the available time.

I would spend a few days exploring around Cairns, the Atherton tablelands,, Daintree etc, then fly to Brisbane. Rent a car there & do a mix of coastal & inland on the way back to Sydney.