Opinions, pls. AU itin - Take 2
 

We have ~6 weeks in Australia. We will be arriving in Sydney after time in Hong Kong in the beginning of Feb. We will also be departing from Sydney in mid-March. First time to AU I am trying to plan so that we avoid the hottest areas. I've been reading guide books, TRs and studying maps and articles on AU and have some general ideas that I'd love some feedback on where we are going and lengths of time which are approximates at this time. We love museums and galleries, good food and wine. We want to hike and enjoy the natural beauty. We don't want to spend time on beaches but do enjoy seeing the beauty. We love driving and while we are from the US, we have driven on the other side and are fine with it. (Biggest problem is using the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal!) The only reservations besides ff tickets is an apt for 7 days at the end in Sydney. Thanks for your advice!

Go directly from Sydney Airport to Blue Mts for 3 days.

Drive up the coast to Brisbane and visit Brisbane - total time 8 days

Fly to Tasmania - 12-14 days

Fly to Melbourne and explore area 8 days

Fly to Adelaide explore area 4 days ferry to Kangaroo Island 3 days

Fly to Sydney 7 days and return home March 18.

Thoughts?

If humidity worries you, then I'd suggest you go south first and leave Brisbane until the end of your stay in Australia.

Maybe I should reorder and go from Sydeny to Melbourne to Tasmania to Adelaide, KI and then Brisbane before ending in Sydney, thinking of adding a couple days in Canberra.

The issue with your reorder, is that Februay is the most extreme hot weather month in most parts of Oz. It could be over 40 C in Melbourne, Adelaide or Tassie, or not.

In south east Queensland it will be more humid, but maybe not as hot.
It's a crap shoot really. Could you be flexible enough to decide a few weeks out ?
At least that way you will have an idea of what's likely via forecasts.

What happened to W.A?

satroic -- yes, I realize the weather is a crapshoot (isnt it always?). Because of air fares I would want to book a bit further out. From what I've read you can grab some sales then. On TA posters are telling me that its the humidity that is worse.

eliztravels - while it sounded very nice, it was really time consuming and expensive to get there and then back to anywhere else. For 2 of us it added quite a lot of moneey onto the trip, so I figured I'd play around with some other options.

Hubby and I have been to Australia twice in February (we are from California). This past February we visited Tasmania. We spent 12 days and could have spent longer. Wonderful hikes, wineries, vistas, museums and galleries.

We also visited Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. It was hot and humid. However, the GBR is so worth it. I have been to the GBR four times and love it. The rain forest, beautiful beaches, snorkeling, and fabulous restaurants make it a favorite place. Don't discount Queensland just because of the heat and humidity. Think of Florida in the summer.

yestravel,I think your reorder works a little better logistically as well.

The impact of the humidity depends a lot on where you live currently and how tolerant of humidity you are.

My husband and I are used to humidity. We went the same time of year as friends from Seattle and some from England,and both described in terms of it being stifling,hot, sticky.

For us, it just never felt that bad. We were simply more tolerant of it.

Where are you going around Brisbane? Because if you are going up to Lamington,that takes the heat and humidty question and makes it less of a factor.

Barb - thanks for sharing your experience. I htink we may skip GBR, but still in the figuring out phase.

Toucan, thanks! I haven't extensively looked at car rentals or air fares, just checked to make sure we could get from here to there. I resigned myself to having hot & humid weather if we decided to go to AU in Feb. We're from DC, so hot & humid, we know very well. While it's certainly not my ideal weather to travel in, we have many times to various places esp in SE Asia. We like to leave DC in Jan/Feb to escape the worst of the weather here. I'll take hot & humid any day over freezing and snow/ice.

I think you will probably be fine then. Like you said, it isn't necessarily a goal to be hot and humid, it just doesn't bother me :-)

We didn't drive to Brisbane from Sydney, but we drove quite a bit around Brisbane and west. If you haven't looked at Lamington, please do. Lots of hiking there.

We drove over the Great Dividing Range, and there is some beautiful scenery.

Around Sydney, since you say you like hiking, have you looked at the coastal path? I love Royal National Park and there is easy peasy access to the path there. It's been awhile, but I think there are even supported hikes along the path. We only walked up and down it in either direction when we were there. Probably not enough to even officially call them hikes :-)

Toucan -- thanks again! I havent dug too much into each area. Just looked at maps & read enough to know there were things that we might enjoy. And hey, a hike is putting one foot in front of the other repeatedly as far as I'm concerned!

Hi neighbor (as you can tell, I also live in DC). We were in Australia for 3 weeks this past October. I originally did not have the GBR on my itinerary because we spend so much time in the Caribbean. When I posted my first draft itinerary, several fodorites urged me to reconsider. SO Glad I did and stayed in the Daintree area so we had both the reef and the rainforest and then also went to the Tablelands. So I also urge you to reconsider, if you're OK with the weather. As for Tasmania, we absolute loved it, had 10'days there and could have spent more time.

Happy to meet for coffee and share pictures from the trip if you are interested, maybe it will help you decide what to include (we were also in Sydney and Darwin area but I doubt you want to go to the Northern Territories).

Hi neighbor -- would love to hear more & see your photos. Correct to hot to fo to the Northern territories.
Any way to reach you apart from Fodors? I'm on TA as dl where you can send a PM.

I do love FNQ as well, so if you go up there, I'm happy to obnoxiously share the places I loved and guides I used :-)

One of the things I also really enjoyed in Sydney was the Spit Bridge to Manly walk, that I learned about here. At the time the visitors center had this wonderful map of walks around the city. I wonder if it can be found online. I will look :-)

I've been trying to post a few links to walks, but having trouble getting the "submit " button to work.

If I can get it going before I hurl my iPhone over the balcony into the water in frustration - I will. Otherwise, just google "Sydney walks". The list is very extensive, caters to all interests,fitness levels & available times.

Sorry, can't make it work. Not going to laboriously type out half a dozen links because the Fodors' system can't accept normal links.

Have posted a query on the Help Forum. If any one has any ideas for overcoming this glitch, is be grateful.

In the meantime going to quietly put the iPhone down & go for a walk in this glorious Autumn sunshine.

Another route you could consider is flying directly to Tassie after arrival in Sydney. From there fly to Adelaide (don't miss the central market), do KI, then drive to Melbourne via GOR. Fly Melbourne- Brisbane, then drive Brisbane - Sydney with Blue Mountains only slightly out of the way.

Depending on your time spent in each place above, perhaps you could squeeze in a visit to a southern GBR location like Lady Elliot island, it's not that far from Brisbane.

Sydney walks

http://www.sydney.com/things-to-do/n...nd-parks/walks

I worked! and bkhara's iphone is safe.

Ugh. It worked

And, Bokhara