Itinerary for August-Sept 08
 

Hello everyone,

I am traveling with one of my best girlfriends to Australia for 16 days in late August-early September. I'm very excited, but have a few questions. We are flying out of SFO on August 20 and flying with Quantas and the Aussie Air Pass. We will be hitting 4 cities, which are Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns, and then Brisbane. We were thinking of staying in each city for 4 days. Is that a good plan, or should we spend more time in one or more of the cities and cut our time in any of the other two? Also, in Cairns, does anybody have any suggestions of a good company that does snorkeling tours on the GBR? My friend and I two single gals, 25 and 29 respectively and we love to go out. Any suggestions on some good nightlife in the cities? Thanks!

Can't help with the nightlife! good tour to the GBR? Have done several but not recently, so best to wait for up to date info.

Can't help thinking, though, that all you are planning to see (apart from the Reef) is cities.

Syd and Mlb wonderful places to wander around, and eat, and shop - great Art galleries and stuff too. Brisbane as well to a lesser extent.

But cities aren't all there is to Australia. So if you can find the time you might remember your visit just that bit more if you got out of the cities.

Even a day trip would do.

Any reason why 4 cities? Not that anything is wrong with it, but I'd at least skip staying in Brisbane since you're still visiting 3 cities. If you haven't already locked in your flight destinations for your air pass, use the time to go somewhere else - Fraser Island, Whitsundays. Or cut out the time spent in Brisbane and maybe subtract 1 night off your Melbourne or Sydney stay and fly down to Tasmania - with 5 nights, you can at least get a feel for part of Tassie. Another thought might be to cut out Brisbane and use the 4 nights to travel between Melbourne and Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road.

If you are staying in a hostel, you'll hear all about the nightlife options, though much of what they recommend is geared towards places where other travellers hang out. Your best bet is to chat up the locals (that don't work at the hostel/hotel) and find out where the good clubs are.

I agree, skip Brisbane.
Spend an extra day or two in Sydney and an extra day or even two in Cairns/Port Douglas area. You can do a day trip to the Hunter Valley (wine area) from Sydney, or one to the Blue Mts, or one to the south coast.
Great Ocean Rd from Melbourne is nice idea (i have not done it but hear it's stunning) but you would have to drive to get full benefit and I doubt you want to do that. Also, it's not really lively stuff for your ages. Much more nightlife in Sydney and Melbourne and up top end.

If you did the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne, you don't necessarily have to drive your own car. There are a number of small tour operators that offer trips of varying length. I did a 3 1/2 day tour with Wayward Bus that ended in Adelaide, but you could even take a one day tour and at least see the Twelve Apostles and some of the coast (it will be a long day, so I definitely am in favor of the multi-day trip).