trip to melbourne and sydney
 

I will be travelling to Melbourne and Sydney this November with my family of 5. We will be renting a car and will drive from melbourne to Sydney. I plan to do it in 12 days starting from melbourne and ends at Melbourne too.

Can anyone adv me which route I should use? There is the coastal drive, heritage drive...

Also can anyone recommend me where I can make a stopover for one night from Melbourne to Sydney. Is Albury advisable?

Also, I noticed that parking is VERY expensive in these two cities. I will be staying at the Big4 Holiday Park. Shall I park my car at the park and take the public transport to go around Melbourne?

All comments are welcome.

A little information about you and your family would be helpful: have you been to Australia before?; how old are the kids? (or are you the kid?); what are your interests, likes and dislikes?; etc...

HI RalphR....my family consists of my husband, myself, my son (age 19), my daughter (age 15) and my sister. We are from Penang, Malaysia. We have been to Australia but Brisbane and Perth only.
We love the sceneries ...places of interests and some shopping. NOt so much about beaches. We dont mind some adventures....

Hope to hear from you. Tks

The most interesting route between Melbourne & Sydney is the coastal or Highway 1. The road does not hug the coast, but there are many places to explore on the way e.g.Phillip Island, Wilsons Prom. Metung, Eden and Merimbula, Bega, Nowra etc. The Hume Highway (in land route) is very boring and except for a detour via Canberra, which you can also do on the coastal route, there is really not much to see. Albury is a good stopover, but if you want to break the journey about half way Gundagai also has some reasonable Motels.
Parking in the city is very expensive and as both cities have excellent public transport I would advise you to use the trains and buses.
www.visitvictoria.com

Public transport around Melbourne city is very easy. There are trains, trams and light rail which makes it easy.

Wagga Wagga, Albury and the touristy Gundagai - a small country town - would all be suitable.

As Downunder said.. the route along the hume Highway is pretty boring.

HI....Can anyone tell me whether it is worth trying out this cafe, Hog's breath? My friend tried it in Gold Coast and they say it is good. Their specialty is prok ribs. Since I am not going to Gold Coast, I was wondering whether there is any outlet in Sydney town or Melbourne. I can only find one in Dandenong on the Prince HIghway. WIll I be passing thru if I use the Highway 1? TQ

Hogs Breath are a chain. I have never eaten there myself but they seem to do OK. Here is a link to their site. Just click on the map to see if any of them are suitable for you. For Melbourne there are none in the city. I don't know how close the one in Dandenong is to the M1 (if that is the way you end up approaching/leaving Melbourne doing the coastal route) but the one in Chadstone is only a minute or two off the M1. Take the exit at Warrigal Road to Chadstone. It is on Warrigal
Road, set back a bit from the road - a large free standing store in the middle of a car park!

If you travel via the Hume or down through the Alpine routes then the ones in Victoria will not be anywhere near you. However the one in Chadstone is also close to the Chadstone Shopping Centre which is very large and some people choose to visit as part of their holiday anyway.

I'll leave it to a Sydneysider to comment on whether any of those are more suitable. It is obviously more popular up there as there are quite a number of stores.

Haven't eaten at Hog's Breath either, but the reviews on eatability seem to be fairly ordinary. There is a list of locations on this link. http://www.eatability.com.au/au/sydn...fe-parramatta/

I have family dotted along the east coast of Australia up to Port Macquarie in New South Wales - and I have to agree with DownUnder - there isn't much to see on the inland route, even though it is quicker.

If you're new to the area between the cities, this site might be of some assistance -
http://www.sydneymelbournetouring.com.au/

Steak is Hog's Breath's specialty. There are two I know of in Canberra for a start (London Circuit, Civic, and Woden town centre) so they shouldn't be hard to find. But you can do better. They have a somewhat downmarket ambience.

Ten: Regarding the route, agree with the others about the Hume Hwy not being that exciting. By all means do the coastal route. Haven't been, but Wilson's Promontory has a great reputation for wildlife and natural beauty. However, I wouldn't rule out an inland route on the return. The Southern Highlands (off of the Hume Hwy near Sydney) are well worth exploring - nice old towns, waterfalls and impressive lookouts. Then there's Canberra - plenty to see and do there. From Canberra, you could head south through the Snowy Mts and I'm sure there are places worth visiting between there and Melbourne, like the Yarra Valley (sorry, not much of an expert on Victoria).

If you drive east from Melbourne through Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance, then take a left at Cann River you'll be on the Monaro Highway, which will take you direct to Canberra through towns like Delegate, Bombala and Cooma, the latter about 1.5 hrs (120 km) south of Canberra. This is characteristic Australian inland scenery and well worth the trip. You could include the South Coast by heading east from Canberra to Batemans Bay then north to Sydney.

This is not planned to send you "bush" - I think all the roads are sealed, although it's been a few years since I went there - but to give an opportunity to see parts of Oz most tourists don't. And that unfortunately includes our great national capital, sadly.

Hi everbody....tks for the adv. I really appreciate all your help. Can't wait for my trip in November.

TEN10 where is the holiday park you are staying located - which suburb ? That will enable a little more precise advice about getting to and from etc .

Have a look at www.thatsmelbourne.com.au which is a useful site

HI JohnFitz....the holiday park we are staying is at braybook, Big4 Melbourne Ashley Garden. Hope to hear from u.

Can anyone adv whether it is advisable to use a tour company if we want to go to Blue Mountain? I hv chk out a company called oztrek. They charge 55.00 per pax . Or should we do it on our own since we hv a car?

http://www.visitbluemountains.com.au/

I vote for taking your own car, and seeing things in your own time. Start at this site, and research a bit what you want to do. You may want to go back to the Three Sisters at sunset, for example, or Katoomba Falls by moonlight. Tours take away the fun of doing your own research, I think, but you can use their brochures to get an idea of what there is to do. Don't miss Govett's Leap.

Can anyone adv whether it is advisable to use a tour company if we want to go to Blue Mountain? I hv chk out a company called oztrek. They charge 55.00 per pax . Or should we do it on our own since we hv a car?

See Carrabella's advice above.

Braybrook is on or near train lines and bus routes to the city and not too far out of town .