SavTrav

I'm planning a trip to Australia in December 2013. I have already decided I'm going to go to Sydney and Tasmania.....but I'm not sure where my last location should be to round out the trip.

With Sydney, we get the city. With Tasmania, we get the coast (planning on touring the east coast of the state). So I need a third location that is not the city or a beach/coastline. I plan to stay there possibly 2-3 nights.

I do want to stay relatively close to Sydney or Melbourne to cut down on travel time back to The States.

I have thought about the Blue Mountains, but needed imput from you guys out there.

We love wildlife, hiking, and active sports. We don't really go in for wine tours or too frilly spas.

I welcome your thoughts!

Susan7

Tasmania is not really going to deliver swimming and beach even in December and January, if that's what you mean by coast. The water is too cold to swim in, you will barely see anyone in the water without a wetsuit even at the height of summer.

The real attraction of Tasmania is the wilderness: Cradle Mountain, Lake St Clair, Strahan. These are on the west coast. They have great bush walks at Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair and at Strahan you can go up river to visit the temperate rainforest.

Melnq8

Ditto what Susan says.

TAS is all about the wilderness.

Maybe the Great Ocean Road would better satisfy your need for the coast. Easy drive from Melbourne.

I'd suggest WA, as we've some of the best beaches and coastline in Australia IMO, but it's too far away for only 2-3 days.

peterSale

Agree with Susan although we have been swimming in Tas. The northeast coast would be the best place for swimming. The east cost beaches whilst great are not worth travelling especially to unless you have neverbeen to a beach. The Bay of Fires in the north east and the Friendly beaches near Freycinet are arguably the best.

Tasmania is very diverse and will cover most environment types for you. Read my trip reports for further details on Tas. We've spent a total of 11 weeks there.

If you draw a line roughly from Hobart to Launceston and stay west of it you will get the best of Tasmania with a side trip to the Tasman Peninsula.

The Blue mountains are spectacular and have plenty of walks.There are some grea ones that are off the beaten track that are truly fantastic.

The other places where Australia is unique compared with the States would be the outback, the easiest being Alice Springs for flights.

Or North Queensland for tropical forest and coral.

The coastline of the Great Ocean Road around Port Campbell is world class specatcular then coming back to Melbourne via the western district extict volcanoes is a wonderful round trip.

I would stick with Sydney and the Blue Mountains then as much time as you can in Tas.

frank21

it seems you got a nice vacation....thanks for the info

WineAroundOz

Yes Tasmania is for bush walking not the coast. Suggest you get a campervan in Hobart and head west via cradle mountain to Strahan and back.
If you want coast and you are definitely going to be in Sydney, then maybe head north from Sydney. Maybe you want to go as far up as Byron Bay, but there are plenty of beach side towns along the way.
Whatever you choose, book it SOON. December is the summer school holidays. They start around mid December, so places will be a little easier to get in to in the first 2 weeks, but after the 14th December, you are going to get booked out everything.
If you are looking for transport in Tasmania take a look at http://www.ecamperanhire.com for a list of Tasmanian hire companies. If going north of Sydney there are hop on hop off tours you can do or the same campervan hire site mentioned before will list hire companies in Sydney - or even Gold Coast if you want to fly there and drive south to Sydney.