I am incredibly excited to be planning a trip to Australia and after reading most of the entries would love to get some suggestions from those of you in the know!....these are my questions...<BR>1. When is the best time of year to travel?<BR>2. I have 4 weeks, what should be the highlites?<BR>3. I have seen pictures of the coast off the Nularbour Plain... does any tour go there? Or is this just sooooo remote no one does?<BR>4. Should I go to Perth? I realize I have only 4 weeks, so I should only stick to the East side of the great continent?<BR>Any and all advise would be great...Tours, walks...etc...<BR>THANKS!<BR>Ilse

Because australia is large the are better times to be in different areas of it so you cannot say that what is good for one area is good for another. However the worst time to be here would be the Xmas School holidays which go from about December 5th - January 29th. The other holidays are staggered so that not all States have it at the same time. <BR>The very best time then would be March - December taking out the middle of winter for the southern States. <BR>Highlights - Sydney and areas close, Queensland's GBR area and also the Whitsunday areas, and/or the Southern Border range area. <BR>There probably are tours off the Nullabour Plain but there would take a long time and it is very remote and costly to get there.<BR>Perth is a very nice city but unless you are going to be there for the wild-flower season there is not much to do - what you can see there you can get on the eastern sea-board anyway and again it is a very costly trip and 4 weeks is far too short to add that to your trip. <BR>If you are interested in the Outback then while you are in Cairns/Port Douglas area arrange to take a side tour of about 4 or 5 days to Lawn Hill National Park which is north of Mount Isa, not only will you see the Outback but you will also see this incredible National Park and you might too get to see the remains of the dinosaur stampede, be able to canoe billabongs and see wild-life that you wouldn't see other than if you went to the Northern Territory. It is not easy to get to but you can do so by going down to Townsville and renting a car there and driving yourself out to Mt Isa and head north - do a search for the National Park. I am sure that if you go there you certainly would be getting a good cross section of what is available in Australia between that, Sydney and the GBR. <BR>Leave the other places for another trip.

I just did a search of Lawn Hill and nothing 'really' good came up in one site - so here is a site for you:<BR>http://tanami.virtualave.net/lawnhill.html<BR>but I would suggest that you do a search yourself and by clicking them all on you will get a good over-view. If you want outback - then this is IT. I have also changed my mind, it would be better to fly into Mt isa and rent a car there ( assuming that you can) but you can find that out from the sites I have suggested anyway, then drive from there. This area has not been opened up for very long and Lawn Hill was the last National Park give that distinction. It is also not too well known in Australia either but I had the fortune to rent a house from one of the head rangers there and learnt a lot about it. I think staying at Adel Gorge would be fantastic because you would get an insight into the way of life around there that you wouldn't get otherwise.

Hi, Ilse!<BR><BR>One of the reasons I love perusing this site is that, even though I live here, I can find out something new almost every week. Having been impressed with some earlier advice I read from Aunty, I read her advice to you with great interest. I am ashamed to say that I had never even heard of Lawn Hill National Park until today, but I checked the website she gave you, and it looks interesting enough to be on the short list for my next holiday destination. Just one thing I thought deserved mentioning, though, if you were as fascinated as I was.... the warning that "roads are impassable in wet weather". Now, they don't get wet weather very often out there, but my experience in the west is that when it DOES rain, it doesn't take much rain at all to put the roads out of commission, sometimes for days. You can get stranded very easily. So if you do go ahead with this suggestion, don't leave it until the end of your holiday and then find you have marooned yourself just when your plane is about to leave! Apart from that, well, Aunty's advice is so good that there is hardly anything I can think of to add. Weather-wise, the golden rule is that mid-summer and mid-winter are best avoided, and in in-between seasons (March-May for autumn and September-October for spring) are usually delightful.<BR>Have a great time!

Hi Aunty and Alan---<BR>Thanks to you both for the advise... Alan I assume by "I live here" you mean Sydney? If so, you must have some great suggestions for where to go that are not mentioned in the Travel Books... I have always found that when you find the "road less travelled" you find out more abount the places and the people! Any suggestions? <BR>Thx!~<BR>Ilse

I forgot to add---<BR>If I decide to go to Perth... is it worth taking the "Indian Pacific"? I know it takes a couple of days but I have read it is one of the best train rides? Please advise...<BR>Thx...<BR>Ilse

Indian Pacific NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO<BR>well, not unless you want to get totally bored out of your mind. The scenery across the Nullabour is nothing less than boring at best and homicidal promoting at worst. It is also very expensive AND there is not much there at the end of the trip for compensation. <BR>Add middle of winter for any northern destination. The wet for North Queensland is January & February.<BR>If you do a search of Alan's name you will get a lot of valuable information about Sydney and surrounds. His last informative missive was about the walk from xxx to Manly going past some beautiful areas and seeing Aboriginal paintings.

Just got back from Australia two days ago. Amazing trip. Loved it very much but had too little time on my hands. Just 3 weeks. <BR><BR>Anyways, Sydney is what I fell in love with. More than the Sydney Opera house, I enjoyed Darling Harbour. So many good places to eat with great views and things to do. Weekends are best but you will find that even during weekdays it is pretty packed.<BR><BR>Italian restaurant I recommend here is Baia and an Indian one is Zaffaran. They are both amazing. <BR><BR>As for night spots, Establishment is pretty good one over the weekend. It is located on George St. You will find Sydney is pretty tiny compared to US distances. It took me several days to get used to the size difference on the maps. What I thought was miles ended up to be 10 min walks. <BR><BR>I also went to Cairns and Port Douglas. Do not go at this time of the year. I didn't not see the white sand blue waters.....it was apparently too windy(they don;t tell you this in brochures). <BR><BR>Also, Melbourne was nice. Again, kind of small, but very nice.<BR><BR>Use the Wotif.com site to book your hotels...great prices and good service. I thought that they were ripoffs until I checked them out and turned out that they are pretty big. I used them quite a bit actually and got great deals. For example, Radisson Hotel and Suites in Sydney(great hotel and great staff and great location) we got for AU$99 per night. We got upgraded too. Amazing deals. If you are going to Sydney, this is the hotel to stay in as well. The staff are friendly beyond belief. <BR><BR>Any other questions, you may email me.<BR>Enjoy,<BR>Anand

Are you for real Anand? They didn't tell you that not all of the 365 days of the year are perfect on the GBR? <BR>I can't believe that you expect them to in the brochures. Anyway please let me know if you are from somewhere in the USA that has perfect weather all year as I will get on down to the immigration office tomorrow

Anand, your post made me laugh because it made me realize how differently people see things. To each their own. However, I respectfully disagree with some of your opinions. I really didn't like Darling Harbour at all! I believe Sydney has so much more to offer than an area that was contrived purposely for tourists.<BR><BR>Sydney tiny compared to US distances? It's one of the most spread out cities in the world! Maybe the distances were smaller because they use kms on the maps? (I'm just teasing you. )<BR><BR>Another funny difference of opinion...I felt I didn't get to see enough of Melbourne because it was too BIG!<BR><BR>However, hope lots of people go and enjoy Australia, and come back with all kinds of different opinions!<BR><BR>

We did both West and East Australia in four weeks. Mind you it took a lot of planning and we were on the go but I wouldn't have had it any other way...<BR><BR>Perth is a great city--nice beaches and the areas south and north of the city area wonderful too. If you are there in the spring, summer or fall a trip to Albany (I hope that is the right name) is susposed to be great. In winter,(when we went) it would be too wet and cool. Freemantle of course is great. We drove up north (warmer up north) to Exmouth with stops at the Pinnacles, Gearldton(surfer place), Kalbarri (awesome hiking and views), Monkey Mia, and Coral Bay. Now this drive is not a short one. We did it in a week but we drove a lot...on highways that are virtually empty. We saw more Kangaroos and Emus than people on that road. The reason why it was such a great experience is because we really got a sense of the vast out back. Many of the "towns" were nothing more than a road houses. In spite of the isolation, there are pockets of tourist areas and we were rewarded with the nicest hostels, and honestly the nicest beaches I have ever seen anywhere in the world. Miles of vast out back meet the Indian Ocean with miles of unspoiled<BR>white sand beaches and turquoise water. Snorkelling was awesome...better than GBR...I couild go on forever about WA because it was my favorite but I will also mention that from Perth we flew to Cairns...the plane stopped in Ayers rock to pick up passengers so we saw the monololiths from the air (good enough for me) In Cairns/Port Douglas we did the reef and rainforest thing which was wonderful. We then flew to Sydney and took in that wonderful city. Usually on long haul flights you get 2 free stoppovers. Instead of stopping in Hawaii, we used our stopovers all on the Australian continent. That is why we were able to see a good chunk of the country. I would forget about the train...why waste precious days? Also, by travelling in spring or fall you will avoid the cold and heat. If you are there in the Australian winter...stick north...like we did. Australian summer you would want to look into the south and look into areas like tasmania and Melbourne. Good luck!