Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - leaving for oz on june 3rd.

The Old Sydney Parkroyal hotel is a very popular hotel and is located in the Rocks area and is very close to all the tourist spots such as the Opera house and Circular Quay where you can access lots of good spots like Darling Harbour Aquarium and IMAX theatre. The hotel is not in the upmarket bracket but it is close to being so. Suggestions for the Hunter Valley are as follows: 1. Head for Port Stephens - Nelson Bay is a magical location with literally heaps to do. How about 4 wheel motor bike riding over the Stockton Beach Sand Dunes or Camel riding alond the beach or Tobboganning down a hillside like they do in bob sledding. How about doing a dolphine cruise or whale watching, horse riding, para sailing, jet boating, wine tasting, charter fishing, scuba diving, the list is almost endless this place is absolutely my pick of places in Australia I love it. As for accomodation check out this website www.portstephens.org.au it has all kinds of accomodation listed from hotels to Bed & Breakfast styles. It also lists activities to do etc. The Blue Mountains are great for sightseeing the most popular spot is a place called the Three Sisters at Katoomba and then if you follow the rim of the canyon around you can take a ride on the scenic railway which basically goes down the side of the cliff. There is also a cable car ride there as well which goes across the canyon. You might like to do a trip to the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains which are spectacular there is a hotel at the caves I think it is called Jenolan House or something like that. I have never stayed there but I have had lunch a few times there. You will have fun at Heron Island and Port Douglas make sure you do a trip on the Quick Silver to the reef. I live in Alice Springs and know this area very well. My choice of hotels here would be the Plaza Hotel, the Vista Hotel, Lassetters Casino. These hotels are on the upmarket side and probably the Casino would be the least expensive of the three but otherwise I think you would be dissappointed with any other hotel. There are alot of budget hotels but I would not stay in them, they cater more for the backpacker crowd. As for things to do here in Alice well it is really a place for seeing the sights more than doing activities. There is a Hot Air Ballooning trip you can do and camel riding and thats about it. The sightseeing activities to do would be to take a trip out the West Macdonnell Ranges which can be taken through AAT Kings. There are numerous days tours to places like Arltunga an old gold mining town which is a ghost town now. There is a bus trip around town called the Alice Explorer which is probably worthwhile doing to get your bearings. I will give you one piece of advice and that is do not walk up Todd Mall after dark as it is not safe and keep your distance from the obviously intoxicated poeple around town they can become violent very quickly. I don't think your 15 year old will appreciate Alice Springs as it wont have the excitement as your other destinations. Ayres Rock is okay but it is a long way from Alice Springs, infact it would be better to fly from Alice to the Rock. To drive will take a little over 5 hours and there is very little to see on the drive as it is all desert. There is not much to do at the Rock except climb it. You can stay at the Ayres Rock Resort which has a number of different levels of accomodation but expect it to be expensive as they have a captive audience so to speak. We usually stay at the Sails In The Desert hotel but it is upmarket in price. Hope this info helps, if you need any further info just drop me an e-mail and I will try to answer your questions as best I can. Have fun.