drms

I am planning a trip to Australia in early October and am interested in spending some time at the GBR (maybe via Port Douglas) and Athertan Tablelands or other FNQ destinations. I will essentially have 14 days "on the ground" time in Australia and was also planning to spend a few days in Sydney (including a day trip to the Blue Mountains). I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed about how to best distribute my time. Any suggestions are appreciated.

afterall

Hi,

Two areas in 14 days is a very sane plan and allows for some downtime doing nothing very much!

Plenty to do in Sydney. The Blue Mts can be done as a day trip but if you want to do some walking rather than just focus on the Katoomba area it's good to plan an overnight.

So your first day in Sydney is just to get your bearings and have a bit of a wander. Then spend 3 more full days in the city and two days/one night in the Blue Mts. Fly to Cairns lateish in the day. You then have time to take a trip or two to the reef and visit the Tablelands. You could base yourself in either Cairns or PD for this. Personally I would then take an organised tour up to Cooktown via the Daintree. Something like this perhaps:

http://www.adventurenorthaustralia.c...#threedaytours

It sort of depends whether you are a city person or a nature/outdoors sort of person. And how you like to travel? And what sort of budget you have.

Hope this helps a bit.

drms

Thanks for your help.

I've been working on the itinerary and what I've come up with thus far is:

Oct 5: Arrive Sydney from Los Angeles
Oct 5-9: Sydney with a day trip to the Blue Mountains
Oct 9-12: Port Douglas. From here, I figured we could explore the GBR and possibly visit Daintree on a day trip?
Oct 12-15: Atherton Tablelands. I'm hoping to book a nature tour.

These are some questions I am struggling with:

1. We need to fly home on Oct 18. From Cairns, should we fly into Brisbane and see the Gold Coast or fly to Melbourne? We would essentially have only 2 full days to explore either Brisbane or Melbourne and I am not sure which would be more worth it.

2. Should I add more days to Sydney and take away some days away from Queensland?

drms

Also, I was wondering if anyone had an opinion about Mt Quincan Crater Retreat versus Allawah Retreat? Thanks.

Saltuarius

drms,
both retreats very nice but I've not stayed in either.
Try www.alanswildlifetours.com.au
to see if Alan can offer the wildlife experience you are after. He is well regarded on this board.

afterall

You didn't mention either Gold Coast or Melbourne in your original post.

This, you see, is where personal interests come into it. I would NEVER put the Gold Coast on my personal list of places to go. If you want to know why, ask some more.

Melbourne is a fine city that I love for the architecture and arts possibilities. Some folk go for the eating options and the fact that you can see penguins on a day trip.
But every time you move you lose a day, so if I were you I would stick with Plan A - Sydney and FNQ.

If you must go to another location make it Uluru.

drms

Thanks for your replies.

I intend to email Alan. He sounds great.

Afterall - the problem is that I have to get to Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane to get back to the States. I can't fly out of Cairn's so I was trying to figure out which of these cities to add in at the end. Do you think I should just go back to Sydney?

Thanks.