Never been before and I have 18 days. I was hoping that someone could analyze my planned itinerary and let me know if you have some better ideas.

Day 1 Land in Sydney -Rent car and drive south coast toward Jervis Bay area -looking for beachy accomodation.
Day 2 Drive to Canberra (2 nights)
Day 4 Fly to Melbourne - (3 nights)
Day 7 Drive the GOR Overnight Apollo Bay ??
Day 8 Drive Back to Mel and Fly to Cairns
Day 8 Port Douglas ( 5 nights)
Day 13 Fly to Sydney (6 nights)
Day 19 Fly home

We do not want to go to the Red Center, Darwin, Hobart or Perth.
I want to know if I will experience Aussie Beach life in PD or should I also plan a GBR island visit, Lizard, Hayman, Hamilton etc.

Once in Sydney I could go one day to Byron Bay North of the City and Blue Mts.

Thanks for your help and guidance.

Gate1973

G'day Gate1973
A couple of comments.

Where are you coming from? Will jetlag be an issue? Are you used to driving on the left side of the road? If it is, and you aren't, don't hire a car and drive to Jervis Bay on your first day here. I could well be on the road south - and I don't want to collide with your disoriented, what-side-of-the-road- am-I-driving- on - where-am-I- self?! Take a day to orient yourself. It's not for you, it's for me!

Otherwise the drive down the south coast is a good idea. I'm a big south coast fan -I'm there (or here) now.

Aussie beach life from Port Douglas? What do you consider Aussie beach life? The beaches don't have surf there - they're protected / blocked by the Great Barrier Reef. I'm not sure of PD as a place to spend 5 days, other than as a hub. You will need to take a trip out to the reef to see anything terrific. Some of the hinterland places are interesting. December may not be the best time to visit here.

You can't take a day trip to Byron Bay from Sydney. (or not really). You could fly to Ballina/Byron, hire a car to get to Byron, then drive back and fly back to Sydney. That presumes airline times even allow that. I haven't checked. It seems rather pointless.

It's about a 10 hour drive Sydney to Byron, and not for the faint hearted.

On your itinerary above, the best place to experience our beach culture is Sydney. Stay at Bondi or Manly or one of the other beaches for the beach thing.

I'm also not sure you can drive from Apollo Bay, back to Melbourne, and then fly to Cairns in one day - but then, I've never done that, either!

And remember - depending on when exactly you are planning to be here - December is school holiday time - book ahead.

Otherwise, welcome to OZ!

There are some great beaches and surfing on the GOR. Torquay is a big surf centre and then there are some excellent beaches from Toquay onwards. I would suggest Lorne would be a better destination for your overnight, but certainly drive down to AB (about 30 mins. from Lorne)as it is one of the most spectacular sections of the GOR. Lorne is also that bit closer to the airport, has plenty of accommodation and a very good beach. http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/

Lorme is about 2 hours from Melbourne (Tullamarine ) airport and about an hour from Avalon.

As Margo says, not a great idea at all to jumo into a car on arrival and you could be better off planning a few days in Sydney on arrival.

Check Melbourne to Cairns flights on www.webjet.com.au as Jetstar may have some leaving from the secondary airport being used down near Geelong and departure/travel times will determine drive/fly in one day, www.travelmate.com.au will help with drive times.
You might even be better off to go further than AB so you can connect up more easily with Princess Highway for return to Melbourne, Warnnambool for instance.

Beaches down in Victoria will have extra cold water for you but doubt if you'll have time for a swim with drive down and back.

For the Sand/Sun/Surf of beach life, Byron Bay is about as good as it gets and you may want to juggle your times for PD and Sydney to make your return from Cairns, initially to Brisbane and organise a car so as you can have a few days with options of say Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Byron Bay spread over three nights say and then fly Ballina to Sydney.

Best way to Canberra from southcoast area is arguably the drive up from Batemans Bay, a great escarpment drive in itself and also when leaving Sydney [preferably after a few days] drive into Royal National Park [some great lookouts too]and along the Lawrence Hargreaves Coastal Drive - even closer to the ocean than GOR but down the bottom of cliffs and quite spectacular.

Use Google Earth and you'll get a good idea, some people even having photo links.

Anyway, if wanting to stay a night down the south coast near Batemans Bay, hard to go wrong with www.murramarangresort.com.au

Not Port Douglas in December for beach life, apart from the fact that it has no surf, which defines an Australian beach, to Australians anyway, its too hot to stay on beach there for any length of time. Add to that the danger of coastal marine stingers at that time of year, not to mention the odd crocodile.

Go out to the reef from PD when conditions in December are usually terrific for snorkelling and diving, and swim in one of the inland spots such as nearby Mossman Gorge, where the water is much more refreshing than the warm water at beachside. Hotels,resorts, apartments, B&B's etc all have pools as well.

We drove to Jervis Bay upon arriving in Australia, but we had used FF points to fly first class and had slept 8 hours. If you do it, be sure to drive through the Royal National Park. It was lovely, although the ranger said to not be far from our car in case of fire (it was October).
Sally in Seattle aka SnRSeattle and SnR

SnR, what happened to your screen name?!

gate1973, if you do drive through RNP it is beautiful, as Sally says. As you descend into the park and cross the river there is a kiosk where you could stop and get your first meat pie of the trip and a latte Just past is where you buy the park pass, and there is a great gift shop, and just past that is a road off to the right. If you drive down that road to the last parking place, get out and walk past the road barrier you will find yourself on Lady Carrington Drive. It is a beautiful walk. On the right, it seems very lush, lots of palm trees, and the river. To the left, rising to the main park road above, are tons of eucalypts (sp?) of all sorts, really fantastic trees.

Back on the main road aways, you would find another turnoff for Wottamolla (and I am not sure I spelled that right either) beach. There are trails off both ends of this beach, part of the longer 2 day trek some people take. But, even short walks either way are quite pretty and start giving you a taste of Australia. There is a small sheltered area to swim.

Of course, I could spend all day in the park, although I haven't managed to do that either time I've been there.

Thank you for your input. I am now thinking that I will relax and stay one night at Watsons Bay Hotel and enjoy the view of Sydney and the beautiful Bondi Beach walk. I need a day to unwind from a 9 hour flight. Does this may sense? I will be returning to Sydney for 6 days at the end of my trip.