Wife and I are planning 5 days in NZ and the rest in Australia and are ready to fly to different destinations within Australia. Want to see as much as possible.

It's good that you "want to see as much as possible". What is it you want any of us to do? Plan your trip for you? With all due respect, it would be a lot better if you did your own homework, planned your trip (based on what interests you) and then asked for input on what you have planned.

[Whether or not you choose to click on the link in the above post is up to you, but I wouldn't .....]

In Australia,....Begin in Sydney (2-3 days)...then drive Gold Coast and stop in Brisbane (10 hour drive I believe it is) for couple days,...over night train to Great Barrier Reef (3 days).

Then flight out to Adelaide (2-3 days),...Then finish in Melbourne minimum 3 days.

This is my first trip out to Australia and would appreciate any helpful suggestions.

I'd start by outlining what you plan to do on a day-by-day basis. That will help to clarify whether the proposed itinerary is realistic or not. What you include and exclude is a personal choice - some would not include Adelaide or Brisbane and some would include Uluru or Tasmania.

Sydney - plenty to see and do. Explore Circular Quay and the Rocks. Climb the Bridge. Take a ferry to Taronga Zoo. Take a ferry to Manly (I would do that rather than a "harbour cruise". The ferry to Manly gives you a great trip across the harbour. When you get off the ferry, walk up the Corso to the beach, have breakfast/coffee/beer/lunch, depending on the time of day and then catch the ferry back). Walk up to the Opera House and have a drink at the Opera Bar - great view of the Bridge etc. Go out to Bondi and do the cliff walk to Coogee. Explore downtown / Chinatown / Darling Harbour. Take a day trip out to the Blue Mountains.

Why do you want to drive to the Gold Coast? What do you want / expect to see on the way? Much easier to just fly to Coolangatta. Why the Gold Coast? Some great beaches but FNQ (Far North Queensland) has beaches too. The main Gold Coast city of Surfers Paradise is an overbuilt concrete jungle of high-rise apartment blocks - a bit glitzy but not terribly attractive. Inland, Lamington National Park is worth a visit, the two main places to stay being Binna Burra and O'Reilly's.

Brisbane is a nice town but not necessarily a must-see. If you want to take the train up to Cairns, that's certainly a relaxing way to do it - but it does only run three days/week and takes 31 hours. That will effectively use up two days (it leaves at 9am, arriving at 3.45 pm, or at 1.25 pm, arriving at 7.15 pm, depending on the day of the week. Plotting out the day-by-day itinerary will help establish whether it makes sense).

Don't stay in Cairns (unless partying backpackers, pubs, clubs and McDonalds are your thing). Stay in Palm Cove (25 minutes up the coast) or Port Douglas (about an hour). Most people go to Kuranda (take the train up and the cable car back). For going out to the reef, the weather can be a bit fickle so you need to be a bit flexible as to which day you go, depending on the forecast - take local advice and re-arrange your days accordingly. Other places to go would be Mossman Gorge, the Atherton Tablelands and, if you're not staying there, Port Douglas. With a day by the pool/on the beach, you can easily fill 5 days if you want to.

Adelaide is a nice town but unless you want to go to some of the winery areas or to Kangaroo Island, I would add the time to somewhere else. Main winery areas are McClaren Vale (southeast), the Adelaide Hills (east), the Barossa (northeast) or the Clare Valley (further northeast). Adelaide itself, nice though it is, probably won't occupy you for more than a day.

Melbourne is one of the world's great cities (ok, I'm biased). Sydney has the glitz and the glamour but Melbourne has everything else - it's the coffee / dining / shopping / sporting / culture capital of Australia. The city centre is a maze of lanes and alleyways and many of the best shops, restaurants, bars are 'hidden' - up a grungy looking flight of stairs, down in a basement, up on a rooftop, down a lane way. Don't be put off - exploring is half the fun. You can easily spend 2 or 3 days exploring Melbourne, a couple of days down the Great Ocean Road and a day or two in country Victoria in, say, Ballarat and Daylesford (the spa capital of Victoria). That's a week taken care of.....

As I say, I would start by fleshing out the day-to-day itinerary (where are we, what are we going to do, where are we going) and see how it fits (or doesn't). All of a sudden, 16 days in Oz turns out to be not that much time. Once you have a daily outline, you can then refine it as needed, depending on your interests.

If all you have for New Zealand is five days, I would skip it and spend all your time in Australia. It's just not enough time for NZ.

Lee Ann

chipnilty - I think that you are seriously underestimating the amount of things that there are to do and see in each of these places, and you will get very frustrated [and tired] moving around so much.

I have to say that we haven't yet made it to Oz or NZ, but we set off on sunday, and our plans are to spend 5 nights in each of Port douglas, Brisbane and Sydney, with 17 nights in NZ. Even so, I think that we are going to be hard-pressed to see all that there is in each of those places.

I agree that you should look at what you want to do in each place before you finalise your itinerary. for example, what are you wanting to see in NZ? 5 nights is just about long enough to see some of the NI, or a very small part of the SI, but certainly not both. in fact I would suggest forgetting about NZ if that's all the time you want to spend there, and concentrating on Australia this trip - you will free up 5 nights, save the cost of the flight there and back, and save yourselves the hassle of 2 flights of more than 3 hours each.

you could save your money for flying within Australia - the distances are deceptive, for example, it's a 2 hour flight from Brisbane to Cairns.

I would suggest that with 3 weeks you look at seeing 3-4 places in Australia, with perhaps one drive - say along the Great southern Road - which we are not going to but from all I've read, it's on my list for next time.

IME the more advance planning you can do before you start to make bookings, the better your trip will be.

You need to do much more homework. Dig deeper, you seem to have absorbed only superficial info so far. Your plan is way too sketchy. For example, while Google says it takes ten hours to drive from Sydney to Brisbane, doing it like that makes no sense for somebody like you who spent a heck of a lot of money to fly to Australia and SEE SOMETHING!
I used to do that drive for work when I lived in Sydney, and - with stops to refresh etc. - I counted on 14 hours, and it was no fun.

So get a few DVDs, read some guidebooks, learn what's there in and around Sydney alone (it could keep you happy for ten days if you did all there is in Sydney and day trips like Canberra, Jenolan Caves-Katoomba-Three Sisters, Hunter Valley, etc. etc.).

Factor in the need to stop and look where the looking is good, map out some nicer routes than the obvious freeways, like driving Sydney - Armidale (stop and visit) - Cathedral Rocks National Park (stop and hike) -Coffs Harbour then north on A1, or Sydney - Glen Innes - Grafton - Casino (B91) - Lismore - Byron Bay and north on the A1.

Stay the night in Grafton or Lismore, stay not in an anonymous chain motel but in one of the grand old pubs that have modernized rooms behind or above the family-style pub and food service.

And so it goes - much more to discover and incorporate into your planning, it will be worth the effort and I think you'll want to save NZ for another time!

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm thinking now of making a 3 week trip only to Australia and saving NZ for another time.

In Australia I would like to visit Melbourne, Sydney, and fly up to Cairns and see the Great Barrier Reef. Obviously this is the beginning of my research on this vacation. I am studying it quite a bit and would appreciate some helpful suggestions on what to see in the above mentioned locations.

Or perhaps visit NZ and save OZ for another time

At Melnq8 - I think i'll stay with OZ

Mel - cut that out!!!

Did you search these boards for earlier posts on what you're looking for? There is a lot to read. One very helpful and detailed post listing things you should know about Melbourne is at

http://www.fodors.com/community/aust...e-296086-2.cfm

And only two weeks ago this was posted:

tt7 on Oct 25, 13 at 7:13pm 


More bars .....

http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbour...8232;
Be sure to walk through the Block Arcade (between Collins and Little Collins) and then the Royal Arcade (between Little Collins and Bourke).

http://www.theblockarcade.com.au
htt...232;
You know, this really is a great city.....

Then search under Sydney and you'll also find much that has been posted before.

chipnilty: very general question - it would be helpful to know more about you and your interests.

I wouldn't rule out NZ as long as you limit yourself to what you see in Australia. NZ is not that far from Australia and therefore, a Sydney-Cairns-Alice Springs trip wouldn't be much different in terms of travel logistics than a Sydney-Cairns-Christchurch trip, for example.

So one reasonable itinerary would be 8-10 days on the South Island of NZ, 3-5 days in/around Sydney and then 8-10 days in North Queensland. If you're looking to do some distance driving in Australia - Townsville-Cairns-Cape Tribulation (possibly adding Mackay and Cooktown on either end) would be good trip with plenty to do and see along the way.

I'm setting off on my first foot in NZ in a few weeks time and i've been tearing my hair off trying to squeeze the two islands in 18 days so i will say, you should just drop NZ from your itinerary. From what i've read so far, most of what is available in NZ is well out of its town. Unless you are thinking of simply flying to queenstown for five days, it just won't justify the cost and the duration.

As for australia, the west coast (beyond Perth) is justifiable on a trip on its own. You can do a short 5 days in Perth and do short trip to freemantle etc, or a long 14 days driving up to various small little towns along the west coast, covering the pinnacles, monkey mia etc and route back. i've done both on different occasions with different company and both are equally memorable.

Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns is doable in three weeks. But u might want to reserve at least a week in melb (sorry i'm biased too!) 'coz there is just so much to see. Apart from the Royal Arcade, you can time ur trip to spend your sunday morning at the Victoria market. Get overwhelmed by the colours, the culture, grab a coffee and settle yourself in front of the buskers. Or whisk down the stalls and grab some fruits in that season. DFO (at sourthern cross) is a must-visit if you are into some shopping. Catch a footy match in the dome in the evening. Afternoon tea at the botanical garden after visiting shrine of remembrance. Grab a gelato icecream and walk along st kilda beach. Dine at docklands and just relax in the night breeze coming into the harbour. A night walk down from Federation Square to Crowne Casino. Lygon street life is a must. If you are interested in thai food, try Ying Thai along Lygon street, then pop next door for wonderful durian(if u eat)/rocher icecream at freddo. For the first time, you might want to skip Starbucks and Coffeebean and try Kokoblack or any of the coffee place along the street. It comes alive at night.

Out of melbourne, there is the usual Ballarat, Great Ocean Road (2 days road trip if possible!), phillips island, mornington (another day or 2 days trip).

oh, and if u are interested, catch a musical/theatre at the queen theatre.

Thanks RalphR and Jamie54 on the advice. I really appreciate the suggestions and it has helped.

At Melnq8,...not sure if your response was silly and sarcastic....if it is please stay off this post !

Lighten up ChipNittly. General questions get general answers.

At Melnq8....My "general" question did receive some great help So please "cheer up"...and please stay off this post - I don't need your help.