Hi. My husband & I are flying to Australia (specifically Brisbane) for 4 weeks at the end of August. Avoiding Sydney due to the Olympics. We have family to stay with in Brisbane but want to concentrate our time in Queensland. Any suggestions on what not to miss (or to miss). Have bought the Lonely Planet's Guide to Queensland but would appreciate first-hand feedback.

When I was in Brisbane, I took the boat down the river to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I also went to the botanical gardens in the city. If you have a lot of time, you might want to go up the coast and take a day trip out to the Barrier Reef.

Don't miss the Great Barrier Reef. Byron Bay (south of Brisbane) is a nice place to surf. Try to avoid the backpackers' scene, so don't stick to your lonely planet too much. Brisbane itself is a nice place for cycling, there are cycling tracks all along the river.

Hi. Thanks for the feedback. We are definitely going to see the Great Barrier Reef. Which parts would you recommend? Are there any specific tours that you would advise on? What else/where else should we go in Queensland?

For the Great Barrier Reef, I would recommend staying at Port Douglas, 1 hour north of Cairns. Its a great little town with an excellent beach and all the facilities you need. It has a good marina with plenty of operators offering trips to the Reef. Try www.poseidon-cruises.com.au or www.habadive.com.au. <BR>Port Douglas is also close to the Cape Tribulation/Daintree area to the north and Atherton Tableland to the south-west. There are loads of tour operators to these areas or you could rent your own car. See www.pddt.com.au and www.great-barrier-reef.com.au for more info. <BR>

Tish: <BR>My wife and I just returned from a vacation in Aus. We did a tour from Brisbane to Cairns. There are too many places to see and never enough time. <BR> <BR>A couple of suggestions...If you are going to the Whitsundays, try Fantasea out of Shute Harbour for a day trip to the Reef. They pick up from some of the Islands as well. Their operation is well run with a great staff. Don't go on a really windy day though!! They will offer a refund if the weather looks bad. <BR> <BR>Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was mentioned in a previous response...It's an incredible place. We went to one other Koala place and the zoo in Sydney, Lone Pine is by far the best.

On our recent trip to Queensland we took the Coral Princess cruise (3 days) from Cairns to Townsville to snorkle and dive on the GBR. It was wonderful. They have a web site with details. Then we stayed for 3 nights at Silky Oaks Lodge in the Daintree rainforest and spent one day with David Armbrust on a Natural History Tour. It was an amazing day. David takes you to his own private piece of rainforest where he plays Pied Piper to padimellons (tiny kangaroos) and birds. They followed us throughout our walk and ate from David's hand. Then we went to the top of Mt. Lewis for an unbelievable lunch prepared by David at the convergence of two mountain streams. Delicious lunch. After that we enjoyed afternoon tea on the banks of a river for a completely different view of wildlife and land. I highly recommend this day. David has a web site at www.anhs.com.au (I think). If that's not correct, send me an email and I'll look it up.

My wife and I travelled to Sydney, Cairns and The Great Barrier Reef a year ago. Some of my pictures and an idea of some of the things that you can see there can be found at my website. <BR> <BR>-Dave- <BR>www.CrazyAboutTravel.com

Hi, Thanks for the great response. We are starting to get somewhat organized. Thinking of doing a 2-3 night cruise into the GBR but don't know if we want to go all the way up to Cairns to do it. Any suggestions? Also thinking of doing a 2-3 night 4WD tour into the outback. Any suggestions? Have lots of family and will be staying in Brisbane, Toowoomba and on a farm/ranch (?) in the outback but want to do some activities on our own. Definitely doing the Lone Pine Koala thing. What about things to buy? I heard Blundstone boots are pretty cheap in Oz - they want $160.00 Canadian dollars here!

GO NORTH! GO NORTH! Brisbane is nice but boring! My wife and I rented a car and went to Cape Tribulation...THE HIGHLIGHT OF OUR ADVENTURE! I went on a night bushwalk with a biologist,and diving on the reef. CAINS and PORT DOUGLAS are called "Chocolate Boxes" by the locals for a very good reason...THEY ARE TOURISTY AS HELL!!! <BR> <BR>Another adventure from Brisbane is to drive to Nimbin and Byron Bay...Very Exciting! You don't want to miss Nimbin!

My husband and I just spent two weeks in Queensland. We stayed in Brisbane for 2 nights (Heritage Hotel - super!) and drove to Beerwah to the Australia Zoo (Home of Croc Hunter. Yes, yes, I know, Aussies don't like him but there's no getting away from the fact that he runs the best, cleanest and most humane zoo we have ever visited!) We also took a peek at the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast - we were not inspired, especially by the endless skyscraper apartment buildings at Surfers Paradise - we would recommend you skip this part. We flew to Cairns and stayed at Palm Cove (Sebel Reef House). We were very disappointed in Cairns, and would not recommend spending time there. Did the touristy stuff - Port Douglas, Daintree, Karanda, Great Barrier Reef, etc. We spent 5 days on Bedarra Island (just off Dunk). Magical! Whatever you decide to do you are in for a super time. Aussies are wonderful hosts! We can't wait to go back for another visit. <BR> <BR>One addition thing worth mentioning: our entire trip was planned online using TravelOnline Pty Ltd. Our agent, Julie Wilson, was absolutely fantastic. She recommended only hotels of which she had first-hand knowledge, and that expertise certainly paid off. I can recommend TravelOnline to anyone planning a trip Down Under.

Airlie Beach is horrendously touristy, but a pretty good base for touring out round the Whitsundays. You can do so many different trips, and most of them are fairly reasonable. A lot do dives from the boat as well - fantastic .... <BR>