If you had 2 weeks where would you go???
 

I'm very confused about planning trip. I thank people that have answered me in previous questions> My husband has never been to Australia. I have about 8 years ago and saw Sydney, Bribane , Gold Coast and Port Douglas. We have 2 weeks, although it is short I would like to divide in 3 places. Sydney, GBR and since I have never been to Tasmania (either Hobart or Cradle Mountain). If you could plan our trip what would it be? We are not hikers but enjoy mountains and beaches ( snorkeling ). I definitely would go back to Blue Mountains & Kuranda. We are leaving Feb 16-March 4th. Any suggestions are greatly appreciatd. How do I reply to messages sent to me??

For replying margie, you just click on "Reply to this message" top left of thread page and it opens up the box in which you put your reply and then you click on "post my reply" bottom right of box.

Your timing is not too great for Cairns region as far as GBR goes, be hot and humid and chances of storms etc.
There's other locations like the Whitsundays - http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au...ndays_home.cfm or doing a Lady Elliot Island/Fraser Island combo - http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/ - have a look unde bookings and package pricing.

Two weeks and limiting yourself to three locations is a good idea and if flying into and out of Sydney, I'd be thinking of arranging a connecting flight for arrival or arranging your departure to co-incide with a return flight to there just to save on doubling up on trips from the airport to the city.

Thus doing something like Sydney > GBR location > Launceston > Sydney for departure or Sydney/GBR > Tassie > Sydney > departure.

There are a number of lodges in Cradle Mountain area and some lovely alternative accommodations in nearby towns as well, http://www.cradlemountainlodge.com.au/

Thank you. I've never heard of Whitsundays, which island would you recommend? Is Tasmania OK that time of year. I just wanted to go someplace I havn't been. I'm not doing booking till we arrive in Australia. I would rather spend money locally since we are in your country. Can you recommend a reliable travel agency in Sidney. We will be in the Darlinghurst area. Thanks in advance

Tasmania will be great. The wildflowers will be out in the mountains, the threat of heat will be over and there will be few tourists. With regards to the heat I am not joking. Hobart gets hotter than Cairns nearly every year and is certainly hotter than the cool Atherton Tablelands.

Don't want to scare you away form the Atherton Tablelands,Kuranda is almost there, but it will be wet. I would suggest the Sydney area and Tasmania. Better still, spend most of your time down south. See you in the north on your next trip!

You can certainly get weather in the south of Australia including Tasmania hotter for days/week or so than what it may be in NQ but the weather is much more changeable in that you could get to 40C one day and have as low as 20C the next whereas Cairns is uniformly warm/hot to 30+ for months on end with high humidity, typical tropical weather.

Hotter weather in its spells or heatwaves as we often refer to them in Oz extends well into March.

As for agents in Sydney, I'm not familiar with any in Darlinghurst area [maybe not the best area for businesses anyway]and usually book direct online myself but I'd get yoyrself down to the CBD and the two main street running down towards the harbour, George and Pitt Streets will have a few, there being a mall in part of Pitt Street and around that area I'd look.

If you do decide on heading north to the Whitsundays, check the the airlines web sites or ask in travel agents as quite often there's some good airfare/accommodation packages available and www.bestflights.com.au is a good online agency that lists all sort of deals.

Good idea to wait on arriving in Sydney to see what the weather is like and if you have not heard of the Whitsundays, more than likely you have also not heard of http://www.lordhoweisland.info/ and a great alternative anytime and if weather up north looks a bit yukky, it's somewhere you would not regret visiting.

Southern Australia including Tasmania also gets far more in the way of bush fires or wild firesd as they are called in the US, so do check local news and see what's going on around mthe country.

One good place to use as a treavel agency could be the www.yha.com.au offices which are agents as well as a hostel organisation or http://www.harveyworld.com.au/ and http://www3.flightcentre.com.au/ are a couple of big chain agencies.

Salturius I don't know where you get your information about Hobart's weather from but it certainly is NOT accurate. Hobart has about 3 days in one year with temperatures over 30 whereupon Cairns has about 3 days per year below 30. Here is the town of Atherton's temps for the next few days
Weather for Atherton QLD - Add to iGoogle
21°C
Current: Mostly Cloudy
Wind: SW at 5 km/h
Humidity: 93%Wed

27°C | 23°CThu

28°C | 23°CFri

28°C | 23°CSat

26°C | 23°C

Here is the temps for Hobart for the next few days
Weather for Hobart TAS - Add to iGoogle
14°C
Current: Mostly Cloudy
Wind: N at 10 km/h
Humidity: 59%Wed

16°C | 7°CThu

14°C | 7°CFri

15°C | 7°CSat

19°C | 9°C
Everyone will note that the above has been cut and pasted from the weather sites and also of note is the humidity Hobart 59% and Atherton 93% and it is the humidity which makes a temperature bearable or intollerable and there is a great difference between those percentages of humidity i.e. steamy jungle or mild desert weather.
As I live just outside Hobart I can tell everyone that NOWHERE in Tasmania at any time of the year would it be hotter than Cairns either in temps or with the humidity factor. Mostly the temperatures in Tasmania are very pleasant and mild. We actually got snow on the mountain on New Years Day ( which is the middle of summer for us).
I just also want to say that I lived most of my life in Queensland and I do know what the temps and conditions are like there and that includes Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands