minsin

I am planning our first trip to Australia (and will haunt this board!). We will be arriving there on Dec 20 and leaving on Jan 2. Initially, I had planned to end in Sydney, but the sky-high price of hotels around 31/12 is making me change plans. We'll now start in Sydney, leave on 24th for Cairns and then to MEL on 29/12. Are the New Year Celebrations in Sydney not to be missed? I am a sceptic - lived in NYC suburb for 6 years and never ventured to Times Sq/Central Park on 31/12!

Found out there are no direct flights between Cairns and Melbourne. Almost whole of 24th will go in travel. Will have 3 full days there - will that be enough for the GOR and Phillip island? Thanks for your replies.

Susan7

I love the Sydney NYE fireworks and go almost every year but I have a great fondness for fireworks and we can walk to the end of our street to see them so we don't have to battle crowds.

If you are crowd averse, don't plan to view them from the city, but there's lots of less crowded places to go. The City of Sydney website has the various locations around the harbour.

Susan7

Here's the website. The fireworks stretch as far as Cockatoo Island this year, maybe you could camp on the island that's a cheap accommodation option:

http://cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nye/

Bokhara2

Hi Minsin,
Jetstar (Qantas budget subsidiary) and Virgin Blue both have morning flights Melbourne to Cairns. You probably won't get any great deals pricewise at this high peak period but, as you say, could well be cheaper than a hotel room overlooking the fireworks on Sydney Harbour.

Be aware if you fly Jetstar, there is NO flexibility with check-in times. If you are 30 seconds late checking in, irrespective of the length of the queue, you will forefeit both the flight and your ticket.

Given my choice, I'd take NYE watching the fireworks over Sydney Harbour from any of the vantage points over anywhere else in the world. Our most memorable was from the Opera House where we attended a concert which had intermission at the 9pm fireworks and concluded just prior to the midnight show. Expensive and worth every cent.

minsin

Guess we'll have to come back to Sydney for NYE another time. One of our children is joing us later in the trip, and is very keen to go to GBR and Melbourne. So, we will now start in Sydney. So tempted to come back for the NYE though, specially after looking at that website link above.