My husband and I are going to spend 3 weeks in Australia, Sept. 24 - Oct. 15. I would appreciate advice about our tentative itinerary:

Sept. 24, early am - Sept. 28: Sydney

Sept. 29, around noon - Oct. 4: Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, and environs

Oct. 5, around noon - Oct. 6, am - Ayers Rock

Oct. 6, around noon - Oct. 7, mid afternoon: Alice Springs

Oct. 7, evening - Oct. 9: Adelaide and Kangaroo Island

Oct. 10, around noon - Oct. 15 am: Tasmania

Does this sound reasonable, or are we trying to do too much? Do the amounts of time in each palce seem about right, or are some way too short or too long?

We are planning to fly between all of these places. What's the best way to book these flights (which probably won't all be on the same airline)?

What is the best place to go snorkeling in the Cairns area (broadly defined)? Should we stay some of the time in Port Douglas?

I decided to add a day in Alice Springs because the flight from Ayers Rock to Adelaide has a long stopover in Alice Springs (and if we've gone all the way to the Center, why not see more of it).

I am thinking of renting a car on Kangaroo Island and spending two days and one night there and doing our town tour (rather than taking an organized one). Any advice about that?

Any specific recommendations (sights, hotels, restaurants) for any of these places would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

If I were to prune I'd probably miss Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. Not that Adelaide isn't a very nice city, but you have a pretty busy schedule, Australia is a big place, and you can visit wineries in Tasmania.

We did our own thing on KI and were somewhat underwhelmed, but people who've gone the tour route have been more enthusiastic. Don't think you have to go there to see native animals, though.

You can pull up useful info on all these destinations from past threads by using the search facility on this forum. Of course a good guidebook is also a worthwhile investment.

The three domestic airlines - Qantas, Virgin Blue and Jetstar - have regular seat sales. Get on the mailing lists of all three and once you have your itinerary nailed down, strike swiftly when you see a good price advertised for the period in question. Be aware that Jetstar enforces its 30-minute check-in rule rigidly, so don't be late.

In north Queensland I'd base myself in one place - Cairns, Palm Cove and Port Douglas all have their advocates, argued in previous threads.

The best way to see Tasmania is by car. There have been a couple of good trip reports by Melnq8 and Percy recently. After reading them you might feel like adding a couple of days to Tasmania.

Thanks very much, Neil_Oz. We are not particularly interested in wineries.

Originally we'd considered going to Melbourne (for two nights, and were particularly interested in seeing the penguins on Phillip Is. -- Are they worth the effort?), but then decided to substitute Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. Should we go back to the idea of going to Melbourne instead of Adelaide/K.I. or use all of the extra time to spend more time in Tasmania and/or the Cairns/P.D./etc. area?

Does one day each at Ayers Rock and Alice Springs sound about right? If we won't go to Adelaide, we could fly directly from Ayers Rock to Melbourne.

Does anyone have any experience with the "liveaboard" overnight snorkeling trips? I'm only a snorkeler, not a scuba diver.

Thanks,

Judilie

I will let Neil _Oz give you all the details.

I will just add that one full day in Alice Springs with a good guide will afford you to see the major sites.

And one full day at Ayers Rock is just fine.
You can tour all about Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta ( The Olgas).

I stayed at the Desert Springs Resort in Alice Springs.

Yes, I would go to Melbourne ,it is a very lovely City to see , nicer archictectural buildings than in Sydney( sorry Sydney !!).

I went to Phillips Island for the Penguin Parade and it was fun to watch them come out of the water.

I was in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania for the whole month of March(2006).( Just returned)

I did a trip report on Melborune and Alice Springs and Ayers Rock.

Neil can help you with any question you have.

I just added my little bit

Percy

Thanks a bunch, Neil, for those airline suggestions and the tip about subscribing to their mailing lists. Invaluable info for our October trip.

I'm on the mailing list now for all three airlines. Be sure you understand the baggage weight limits before booking.

Virgin Blue reports up front the use of Dynamic Currency Conversion for credit card charges, not a consumer-friendly practice. Then from the Qantas site: "The currency you are charged is the local currency of the country that you make the booking from. For example, when you make a booking departing from Sydney, Australia you will be charged in Australian dollars." So if I assume that if I make a rez from the US, using my credit card, I'll be charged in USD. Seems as if Qantas will determine how many USD, which is DCC.

If you're not familiar with DCC, go to the Europe board and type "dynamic currency conversion" (without the quotes) into the search box at the top of the page.

Percy, I was hoping that the real experts would arrive soon (seriously). And I hate to say it, but you're still encouraging the Tasmanians to secede from Australia. (Come to think of it, that would be a relief for taxpayers in the rest of the country.)

judilie, I would just take into account that you tend to lose the better part of a day every time you take a plane somewhere. Remember that you're planning to traverse an area comparable to the entire eastern half of the United States. If you're OK with that, by all means include Melbourne - you have to go through on your way to Tasmania. Melbourne has some very good restaurants, art galleries etc. and is certainly worth a visit if you have time. You already have four major destinations in four different climatic zones (the tropical North, the Red Centre, Sydney and cool-temperate Tasmania) and I doubt that you'd regret tacking a couple of days on to either Cairns or Tasmania. Still, adding another destination is do-able if you don't mind the travel.

I haven't seen those penguins and I don't have any great interest in doing so, so I can't help you there, sorry. But if it were up to me I'd probably put them on the menu (southern fried penguin? penguin a l'orange?) to really give visitors something to remember, but I guess that's illegal, and they're probably as tough as old boots anyway.

Hopefully someone else will be able to answer your GBR questions.

LOL, Neil! The penguin lovers are going to be posting en masse here!

Betsy, the funny thing is that people buy eggs without giving a thought to the conditions of the battery hens, but they'll get all gooey over a seabird. Are chickens less sensitive than penguins? We used to keep chickens and I know they're no Einsteins, but how smart is a penguin? If I get reincarnated as an animal I'm hoping I'll be a cute and cuddly one, because they're the only ones that get any sympathy.

Definitely not a pig. I know a young bloke who worked in an abbatoir, and left the job because of the pigs. To quote: "The cows and sheep, mate, they were too stupid to work out what was going to happen to them. But you could tell the pigs knew. After a while I couldn't look the pigs in the eye, so I had to bugger off." He still can't eat pork.

Sheep, though, are bred to be dumb. A friend who grew up on a grazing property in western New South Wales explained how it works. "The minute you spot a smart sheep, it becomes tomorrow's barbecue. Otherwise you'll find it leading a peasant's revolt against the sheepdogs, the dogs' authority will be shot to pieces and without the dogs the whole show will grind to a halt. So that sheep never gets to pass on its genes, and that's why sheep never get any smarter. Darwin in reverse, mate."

And on that cheerful note, time for dinner. Mrs C. has made a spinach and feta pie, but tomorrow it's my turn. Roast leg of lamb Boulangere it is!

Thanks for the laugh Neil. I can always count on you for a good story.

judilie - Tasmania is definitely worth as much time as you can give it.

Well Judilie,

Hello!! On first reading your itinerary sounded OK for the time you have. But now I see that Adelaide and KI are what you have come up with instead of going to Melbourne to see penguins.

Bear with me here. But I cannot understand why penguins figure so large on your wish list. You are coming all this way and the need to see penguins dominates the second half of your itinery.

I've never been to the Penguin Parade though have had many opportunities. Why?It's a commercial operation with stands and floodlights. I feel story for the penguins.

You can see penguins in S Africa, in Namibia, in Argentina and Chile, and New Zealand of course.

Austalia has unique stuff to offer. So if I were you I would skip Adl and KI - spend more time in the centre. I mean you have already decided to spend the money on the flights, and you are going at a time of year when it won't be so hot. So spend more time there. Hire a car from Alice and go out to the West Macs. Check out the colour of the rocks and swim in the swim holes. Or take one of the organised day trips - my picks would be to go to Chambers Pillar - landscape, wildlife, flora and fauna; history both white and black. Or Palm Valley, or Trephina Gorge.

You will never forget it.

Thanks, everyone. Has anyone (except Percy) been to see the penguins on Phillip Island? Has anyone (except Neil_Oz) been to Kangaroo Island? We know we want to go to Sydney, the greater Cairns area, and Tasmania, and everyone seems to think Ayers Rock (?and Alice Springs) are worth it. I'm confused about whether to go to Adelaide/Kangaroo Island or Melbourne or neither. I'd appreciate more opinions about this.

As for flights, how about booking the Promo Fares on Virgin Blue and and Red-e-Deals on Qantas that one sees online?

Many thanks,

Judilie

Don't forget www.jetstar.com.au for cheap fares - doesn't go everywhere tho.
If I were to prune it would be Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and the centre. I know that people say that they love it but unless you are doing a nice two weeks in the centre taking in all of the sites then I feel that its a lot of money for very little. Everyone seems to think that you only see animals on Kangaroo Island ( probably because its called Kangaroo Island but for my money you see many more animals in Tasmania than just about anywhere if you get a flashlight and get onto a country road early in the night - they are everywhere. You will also see plenty in North Queensland as well together with some of the World's most colourful birds. For the record Australia and Brazil have 2/3rd of the World's Birds and in Australia you don't have to go into a jungle to see them - they visit you all the time. There are some wonderful places near the GBR where you can see a lot of our birds and get real close and cuddley too. Personally I found Kangaroo Island a boring and underwhelming place, I like Adelaide but its only a city. For me there is much more to the outback than Ayers Rock and Alice Springs AND you don't have to go that far to experience it either.

Oh Neil you are always so comical.!!

G'DAy !!

Percy

you asked if anyone else had BEEN to KI. Yes - I have. And I enjoyed it - a three day two night easy as she goes,no rush, budget tour. But I didn't do it on my first trip to Australia. It took six years of living here to get around to it - why? Because .. look - if you are really outdoors sort of people and want to walk in a world of your own and maybe see an animal or two - fine.

But I think people are seduced by the name - or there's some sort of "our neighbours went there, so we must too" aspect to it. I'm really surprised by how often it crops up on this board, because, honestly, if I had 3 weeks here it would hardly make the short list. I would spend more time in the Centre or Tassie.

It's so hard I know planning an itinerary - and only you can know what is important to you.

Thanks, everyone, for your advice and suggestions. Based on these, I have revised our itinerary to delete Adelaide and Kangaroo Is. and have added a couple of days in Melbourne. Here's our current plan:

Sept. 24, early am - Sept. 28: Sydney

Sept. 29, around noon - Oct. 4: Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, and environs

Oct. 5, around noon - Oct. 6, early am: Ayers Rock

Oct. 6, around noon - Oct. 7, early am: Alice Springs

Oct. 7, late afternoon - Oct. 9, evening: Melbourne

Oct. 9, late p.m. - Oct. 15 am: Tasmania

I've booked the Russell Hotel (in The Rocks area) in Sydney. I'd welcome suggestions of nice, middle-price-range accommodations in good locations in the other places where we are going. I still haven't decided whether we'll be based in Cairns, PD, or Palm Cove for that leg of the trip. With 6 nights total, we may do 3 nights each in two different places, and would probably have the last 3 of those be in Cairns because of the early-morning flight out.

Suggestions regarding places to see, things to do, or restaurants would be most appreciated also.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Judilie

We went to K.I. on our first (and only) trip to Australia. We spend the preceeding afternoon and evening in Adelaide, flew to K.I. 1st thing in the morning, spent 2 days/1 night there, and returned to Adelaide on the evening of day 2.

In our 2 weeks in Oz, our K.I. experience ranked near/at the top of our trip. We did the 2 day tour with Adventure Charters, and had tons of fun.

If you're into nature and wildlife, it really is a spectular place to be.

Thanks, Dave. I keep changing our tentative itinerary regarding whether we are or are not going to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island (vs. Melbourne). Where else did you go on your trip?

Judilie

Judilie- Here's a trip report I posted here a couple months ago (we really covered a lot of ground in 2 weeks). Our itinerary was:
Adelaide-Kangaroo Island-Melbourne-GOR-Port Douglas area-Sydney

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34750423

You can fly in and out of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Consider flying into one and out of the other. Perhaps spend a day or two in Melbourne or Brisbane.

I took a two day tour on Kangaroo Island and was very happy with it. They knew the best places to go and exactly the right time to be there.