I'm a single female travelling to AU for about 21 days in mid March - April 2007. I plan to visit Sydney, GBR, Melbourne. will travel solo to Melboune and GBR - is it safer and more economical to take a tour APT or AAT kings or to go get an apt and go on my own. any advice on the must sees (rather keen on visiting lizard island)

tx for the advice!

Australian is an easy country for independent travel. From a travel and accommodation viewpoint I'd say the only potentially unsafe activities are hitch-hiking and staying in dodgy backpacker hostels with inadequate fire protection. That's in addition to the usual warnings you'll get anywhere, like staying out of dark alleys, and possibly less obvious ones like entering mangrove swamps in North Queensland.

Many hostels, I hear, are fine, but depending on your age and tastes you might want to avoid those that cater to large numbers of semi-permanently drunk and/or stoned backpackers. Without wishing to give offence to our British and Irish cousins, they tend to feature prominently when such warnings are issued, and they're found in particularly large numbers around Bondi Beach in particular. Fortunately for residents of other coastal areas, Bondi is the only Australian beach they've heard of.

The advantage of a tour is that you'll have company, but you might want to make sure that at least some of your travelling companions are mostly in your age group.

If you use the search facility on this board (above) you'll find lots of past threads on attractions in all the areas. IMO a guide book is a good investment too.

I wouldn't book an APT tour either, they're very structured and often don't offer the best experiences for GBR, at least. You can take a day trip to Lizard Island from Cairns with Daintree Air, do book well in advance as numbers are limited. Any other day reef trip from Whitsundays or Cairns/Port Douglas (the latter two are closer to the GBR proper) can be easily arranged locally, your accommodation provider, with local knowledge would be the best guide. Or check this forum for many recommendations.

I agree with Neil. Be sensible about what you do and just don't hitch-hike.

Not quite, Neil - have you been to Byron Bay township lately? Lucky to find anyone who's not a local over the age of 25.

Hello NoviceT - As Neil has already said, Oz is a safe country to travel around. It is also as easy as easy can be.

There is a brilliant network of hostels; transport too is easy. So why on earth go with APT or AAT unless you are over 70?

If you want an organised trip there are other options. But to be honest, anyone with a few brain cells and good health can do their own thing.

It really isn't hard. Thousands and thousands of people do the stops on your agenda every day of the week.

If you can handle a small adventure why not take the bus to Canberra - check out the National Art Gallery and War Museum - stay overnight. Take bus or train to MLB. Do whatever you want to do there, and fly to Cairns. Once there you will be overwhelmed by in you face trip offers.

All I can say, yet again, is it ain't necessary to book a trip - unless, that is, the idea of doing your own thing frightens you.

Having said all that, your ref to Lizard Island makes me think that (a) I've got the wrong of the stick, as if you can afford Lizard you won't be remotely interested in my comments or (b) you don't know where Lizard Island is and how much it costs to get there..

I did a solo trip in australia in april, it was great, vI am 50 so it was different for me. I traveled to Sydney, Cairns, port douglas,perth, maraget River and back to Syndey. I did tours when and where I felt like it, daintree, Gbr reef other times I just went on buses to the beach, or rented a car a pushed off. i had a great time. I met alot of terrific people and and a tremendous adventure do it aagain tomorrow!