Bloomie

hi.
my leave request is in for Dec 2012 - I've asked for 7 weeks off (so im anxiously waiting for the decision). I'd like to travel with my partner and our 8 year old boy for 5 weeks - ending up with 2 weeks in Sydney Jan 2013 to co-incide with festival (staying with friends in Avalon)

so what to do with our 5 weeks? the only 'must' thing to do on our list is to snorkell/ dive at the GBReef.

anyone have any pearls of wisdom about routes, best way to get around, must see / things to do?

we havent had a holiday for 3 years so this will be our first break away for ages - want to make it a good-un!!

qwovadis

http://www.travelforkids.com/Funtodo.../australia.htm

Flexibility the key for me when I go.Uluru fantastic
very spiritual place.Gold Coast.GBR for best snorkel
diving. virtualtourist.com excellent local postings.
Good contacts through www.hospitalityclub.org for me.

Happy Planning!

AlanJG

Bloomie,
Welcome to Fodor's.

Tell us a bit more about your interests and those of your son then we can give you some meaningful replies.

surprisealot

I'll have to agree with AlanJG, due to the diversity that is on offer it would be great to know a little more of your family's interests so we can help with relevant tips and hints.

I have a Nine year old boy who loves holidays (as must of us do) so we have travelled both beach and bush plus Uluru.

we have had city breaks which included the usual suspects ie: Taronga, darling Harbour - whilst in Sydney, Melbourne we took in shows (walking with dinosaurs) and visited the museum toured the Melbourne markets and eat ourselves silly (loved it), Brisbane we took a river cat, toured southbank etc, goldcoast visited outback spectacular and most of the theme parks.

So our son has varied interests and is happy with new experiences, a mixture of interactive museums, new transport - ie trams, rivercats, camels (Uluru) etc, outdoor spaces to run and indoors for recoverying hahaha (lying on the lounge reading books, playing DS and watching television in the evenings).

and thats just the eastcoast - plenty more to describe!

hope this helps,
Surprisealot

pat_woolford

Bloomie, as you're already at Avalon you're in a top summer spot anyway. Having lived there for around 40 years, and now Cairns I'm familiar with both. Anyway, I won't rabbit on about the local natural attractions around Avalon, doubtlessly your friends will be happy to show you around the area.

I don't think I'd go to Red Centre in January, its very hot. Hot around Cairns too, and humid, but usually excellent reef weather, unless a cyclone appears. These just don't happen in northern Australia, for the last few days many beaches on Gold and Sunshine coasts have been closed due to heavy seas and savage undertows caused by first cyclone of season on east coast, way south of Cairns where the seas are calm, water like glass.

As Alan says, let us know your interests and remember its summer, school holidays, lots of locals holidaying, etc.

Bloomie

Hi again - and thank you to Alan, surprisealot, qwovadis and Pat for your speedy replies. I've just checked out Uluru - Ayers rock - looks amazing..

Your question about our interests is a good one..

in no particular order we enjoy

- swimming
- museums
- music/art
- beach
- finding out about local history/ culture
- theme parks
- eating

My son (who will be 8 in Sept) is up for most things apart from eating mashed potato!

I'm less mobile than my partner and son - can walk for a few hours before the achilles starts to pulsate.

We were wondering about getting a camper van and driving down the pacific coast to Sydney - detour Ayers Rock...we only have 4 weeks before settling in Avalon Sydney for the Jan arts festival. Are we being too ambitious?.would it be better to take the train/ fly??. just looked at this website- http://walkaboutplanner.australia.com/index.html, there's alot of ground to cover. I've just ordered Lonely Planet!