We recently returned from great trip to Queensland. Weather was excellent in October.

QANTAS airlines was excellent.
VIRGIN Blue, the domestic flights were good, on time etc, but charge for EVERYTHING---$2.50 for H2O !!

Mooloolaba: 1.5 hours north of Brisbane on Sunshine Coast. This was such a nice surprise. Very friendly town. I really feel that the Sunshine Coast is a little under-rated on this forum. We were so suprised how much we loved this area ! The beaches seem to be some of the best in the world. The Osprey where we stayed was first-class. The beach area has lots of BBQs, nice beach path, kid's area and congenial surf life saving club. Even the bathrooms were beautiful. In the US, it seems like a beach area like this would be all full of graffitti, and not even a safe area to be in at night, etc. Seemed to be a destination of Australian tourists rather than international. All in all, a lovely place. We will return there.

Australia Zoo: very clean, pleasant. Good reptile and bird displays. The non-native species seemed a distraction. Good croc show. A little over the top.

Palm Cove: pretty town and beach. Good Greek restaurant. We did not like our hotel: Alassio. I think the town seemed strange to us as it did not seem like a real town--seemed to exist just for tourism.

Skyrail: everybody should get to do this!! We could have ridden them all day! It is a tourist area, but very efficiently run. Highly recommended.

GBR: we went on a Coral Princess cruise. It is a small (40 passenger) 4 - 5 day cruise for snorkeling and diving the reefs. It was expensive, but seems like one of the best ways to go to Lizard Island and the Ribbon Reefs. We spent hours and hours in the water, plenty of reef time. The reef is fabulous, but a few too many sharks! We met people from all over the world on this cruise and made many Australian friends.

Port Douglas: we love this town, second trip there! Great for shopping, nite life, beach and trips up to Daintree and Cape Trib. The Club Tropical Resort (2nd stay) is a little worn, but an excellent location to stay. It was very hard to leave this time. Such a fun place !

Hints--we have received so many great hints that have helped us with our travels over the last 15 years or so. Hope these might help someone also:

Credit card--get a card that doesn't charge you the foreign transaction fee of a couple percent--Capital One and Discover do not charge that fee.

ATMs-plentiful, but we were shocked to get an "Insufficient Fund" notification one day. We had to spend time on the phone seeing if our account had been cleaned out or something. It was just an International Dateline issue--our bank, Wells Fargo, only let us take out a limited amount in a 24 hour period. So speak with your bank before you go to have them raise the limit.

Infringement Notice: this was a traffic ticket that we received from our car rental company a couple weeks after we got home. I guess there were cameras (didn't even see 'em ) and we got nailed for about 8 miles over the speed limit.

Prices--Australia was much more expensive-seeming than our last visit. The US dollar has tanked and the Australian dollar hasn't ! And good for them!! The consensus amoung Australians we spoke with was that Australia weathered the world-wide recession fairly well. So, it was dollar for dollar this trip.

Phones--our best hint before we went was to get off the plane and go straight to Vodaphone in the airport. We bought the cheapest package and sim card to call home with. Reception and service was very good.

Amenities--all the places we stayed had shampoo, soap, etc, but the kitchen supplies varied from a little to none. 2 places had washer and dryer in the rooms so bring some little packs of detergent. This was very handy.

Try some Australian candy--I grew up on it and most Americans don't try much of it, and you won't have anything like it here. Anything Cadbury's (much different than in the US), Jaffas, Golden Roughs and try a Paddle Pop! Don't forget meat pies, sausage rolls, spagetti sandwiches. lemon squash and passion fruit ! I could go on....

Joan

Vodaphone does not have as good coverage as the Telstra ones, especially in country areas.

Hi Joan, nice to hear back from you and that you enjoyed your trip.

I'd encourage visitors to get a cheap mobile (cell) phone as you did if theirs doesn't work here. It can be very useful for all sorts of local calls as well as "ET Call Home" uses. With just about everyone having a mobile/cell, public phones are nowhere as plentiful as was once the case. And, it's essential if people are trying to contact you while you're out and about sightseeing.

It's true that Telstra's range is superior to Vodaphone's, especially in areas outside the capitals.

Agree about the Sunshine Coast - it is a little gem, isn't it?
And only about 90 mins drive from Brisbane airport. There's also a very good shuttle service (privately owned) that will deliver you to your door along the Sunshine Coast.

That was a nice read Joan - thanks for that report and tips. I couldn't agree more about Australian lollies (candy) - I used to love Golden Roughs as a kid and Banana Paddlepops. Aaah sadly I have had to overcome a shocking sweet habit in order to lose my weight this year. I fear I should never go back as I know I will get 'hooked' again.

Good tips. The tip about the credit cards is a good one. However, I have been in North Queensland for almost 2 years and have yet to find somewhere that takes my Discover Card. I think Capital One is the way to go for no exchange fee.

Thank you for all your helpful hints. We are heading to Australia in February and I am just starting my research. I know that February is not the best month to go but we got a deal that was to good to pass by.

Another Australian treat:
Tim Tam cookies, though they're more like candy than cookies. We tried the regular, dark and caramel varieties and all three were good. We had to buy 2 kinds each time we shopped as hubby likes the dark ones and I like the milk chocolate and caramel ones better.

Also, our new Charles Schwab credit card does not charge foreign transaction fees, and their DEBIT card can be used in ATMs without fees (actually they reimburse you the fee).

Yes, Tim Tams are great. We liked the dark ones too. We just tried a US version by Pepperidge Farm and they were not too bad--had a little of a super sweet taste at the end that the real ones don't.

Palm Cove Esplanade is for tourism but then is the whole of Port Doulgas. Very contrived and insular. It is fine if you like but misleading when you say you do not like one place because it is touristy but then like another place that is more touristy. Just touristy that suits you better perhaps.

Spagetti sandwiches? Really? I haven't run across those yet, and I'm not sure I want to!

Just as well, Melnq, haven't seen such an abomination in years, even in the deep north. But its horses for courses, I happen to particularly loathe Tim Tams, have eaten about 3 of the sickly sweet muck in my life, I don't get the popularity of them at all, Woolworths in Cairns has the dubious distinction of being the top Tim Tam seller in nation, due to a high hit of international tourists shopping there.

Spot on Kriol, it always amuses me to read criticisms of Kuranda being "touristy" and yet these people don't bother walking ten minutes out of the village, where there's beautiful rainforest walks. And yet, somehow, Port Douglas escapes the "touristy" label, sorry, that just makes me laugh.

Love Tim Tams, Squiggle Tops are great too.

Give me Arnotts Mint Slices any day.

I've managed to get my Mom hooked on those Neil, although I've yet to try one.

I just made myself sick by eating some Jaffas I found in my desk at work. I blame you Joan for reminding me how much I like them and 'forcing me' to hunt them down.

Spagetti sandwiches were my favourite from the tuck shop when I was in primary school (along with chocolate crusts). I don't know that I could try them now.

Great report BTW Joan.

For the uninitiated, spaghetti sangers were made using canned spaghetti in tomato sauce. The canners had never heard the term 'al dente', that's for sure.

By reputation Jaffas, a spherical candy with a chocolate core inside a firm orange-flavoured shell, would be rolled down the wooden cinema stairs at Saturday matinees. The kids who did that must have been pretty bourgeois - we working-class kids certainly wouldn't waste them like that.

Jaffas! Are they still around? Have to find some - wonderful lollies!

Spaghetti sandwiches, particularly interesting after a few hours being jiggled about in a saddlebag. Well prior to plastic wrap, the greaseproof paper did a remarkable job of keeping the mush contained. Ditto baked bean sandwiches. It is truly amazing what kids will eat isn't it? Or perhaps more accurately, what a journey our taste buds have taken in the last 50 years.

My god, those immigrants of ours have a lot to answer for don't they? Without all these wogs, wops, chinks & whatever slang names everyone else is called, we'd still be eating these delicacies!

<For the uninitiated, spaghetti sangers were made using canned spaghetti in tomato sauce. The canners had never heard the term 'al dente', that's for sure.>

That sounds absolutely horrid. Right up there with cold canned beans on toast, which I actually ordered once because I was curious. Big mistake.

To quote Bill Bryson, "Had La Perouse been just a little bit faster, he could have claimed Australia for France and saved the country 200 years of English cooking".

You Aussies have certainly come a long way.

The other day I saw a box of Jaffas on the desk of a co-volunteer at the RSPCA. These weren't the candies, but looked like some sort of cake-like thing. Jaffas are alive and well in my local grocery store.

Sorry Joan, we seem to have highjacked your trip report.