Kristine

Hello, my fiance and I are planning our Nov. honeymoon to Australia. We only have 2 weeks and a limited budget, so I'm not sure where we should concentrate on seeing. Our choices are packages including either: Sydney/Hamilton Island/Melbourne, Sydney/Melbourne/Cairns, or just Sydney/Cairns. Any suggestions would be helpful as we know nobody who has been to Australia before. Thanks!!

TTT

TTT

ozzer

Every day you travel in Australia you lose 1/2 to one full day (packing, transfer to airport, early airport check in, flight, transfer to new hotel). The less travel the better especially for a honeymoon. But if you are a water person and enjoy walking on the beach and snorkeling/diving a Great Barrier Reef island MUST be included on your itentiary (Hamilton). Although Cairns is situated off the Great Barrier Reef you need to take 1-2 hour boat rides just to see the inner parts of the reef. There are no beaches in Cairns but there are many just north of Cairns from Kewarra Beach (5 miles) to Port Douglass (40 miles). Problem is in November it's "stinger" season - deadly box jellyfish- and the beaches are closed to swimming except for little protected areas with nets. You don't have the jellyfish problem on the GBR islands. If you're a city type and want city/culture Sydney and Melbourne would be great places to visit. November is like late spring so the weather will be great and right before the wet season. Australia is pretty cheap right now so your money should go a long way for basics (food, hotels, gifts). Also if you do enough research and spend time on the computer you can put together a more customized vacation for the same price or less than going with a "tour package". For instance-book Australian domestic flights on the Qantas website to get their internet only rates. Check out Oz travel sites on the web for good hotel pricing www.wotif.com, www.globaltravel.net, travelonline.net,www.hotelfinderaustralia.com/nsw/sydney.shtml, www.queenslandislands.com/. These are some of the sites I used for my 3 1/2 week stay in Australia in April this year. There are a lot more sites just ask and I'm sure the people here will direct you to their favorite sites. It's well worth the time and effort-you'll also get a better feel for Australia especially since you don't know too much right now.

Rel

Hi Kristine:<BR><BR>I think it depends on what you like to do on your vacation/honeymoon. Do you like big cities and city activities or do you like resort style vacations? If you like resort, spend time in far north Qld but you could consider going to Port Douglas and not spending much time in Cairns. It is only an hour's drive. However November is the start of the "west" season in that area. If you check this link http://members.ozemail.com.au/~tropical/weather.html you will see that June - October is best in the north, and the worst in the south of Australia. November should be beautiful in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart (Tasmania in general) and Perth.

Rel

Oops - that should be "wet" season, not west!