carty

Hi

we are going to australia for 5 weeks soon and were wondering what the cost of living would be like. How much does a pint ( or equivalent)of larger cost? Average meal for two? public transport? Clothes? We are staying in nice hotels but won't be spending much time in them as we would like to experince the real city - visiting Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns.

Mucky

Hi Carty,
You are so lucky !!
I wish we were going back !
Anyway, you don't say where you are from so its difficult for us to say if it will be expensive or not.
I live in Wales and for me the cost of living was much less than I was used to. But the xchange rate was only slightly in our favour this time.
2 years ago it was 15% better.
Sydney was more expensive than Brisbane but not hugely so.
If you are from U.S,then the U.S exchange rate will no doubt play a bigger part in your costs than anything else I guess.
Muck

carty

thanks for the reply i am from the north of england, so this is really useful!

SusanInToronto

We're going in just over 2 weeks time, and I'm hearing different opinions. A co-worker here in Toronto was there in late December and she said that she thought prices in restaurants were slightly higher than Toronto prices. She was visiting family in Sydney, so wasn't just in the standard tourist places. Another friend from California was there in January. He said that he thought that prices were very high. So I guess it's all relative.

Even though the CAD has increased in value against the USD, it doesn't seem to have done as well as the AUD over the last few months. Back in September, our dollar was worth more than the AUD and now it's worth slightly less. So I expect prices to be almost 10% higher than when I started to plan the trip in September. I'm not thrilled about that, but at least I've already paid for our flights.

Mucky

Hi susan & Carty,
We were in Australia for most of December with NYE at sydney, the prices were hiked up due to the time of year,so I am not sure how it would be in the cold light of day without a holiday period in sight, really I should nip back over there, but I am skint...lol.
Places to avoid if you want to keep your money are Darling Harbour restaurants ...dreadful !!
Do you know the best place we found for value and an enjoyable menu was Hard Rock Cafe, the Melbourne place was fantastic and Sydney although smaller offered the same great value.

Enjoy

Muck

SusanInToronto

I actually won't be spending a lot of time in Sydney this time around. We're visiting my mother-in-law, who lives in Maroubra (suburb). My husband will be visiting her for a week before I arrive, then we'll be moving to a hotel for 3 nights in Coogee - seems like it's the closest to Maroubra. (Mother-in-law is in very small apartment.) We spent almost 2 weeks in Sydney a few years ago, so I'm limiting my time there this time. (May do the bridge climb - if I can get over my fear of heights.) Itinerary this time around includes Byron Bay, Noosa and Darwin. We'll finish up with 2 nights in Sydney before flying home via Hong Kong.

I think we'll be fine with restaurants - we'll probably do a mix of cheap dinners and some nicer meals as well. What I do find quite expensive is breakfast - luckily neither of us want to eat big breakfasts on a regular basis! Coffee and a bagel or whatever are usually fine.

Originally we planned to go in March, then I had to change my vacation dates for work reasons. I did find that hotels were definitely more expensive around Easter than they would have been had we been able to go in March. We typically go on holiday in February or March, so it's been a long winter for us - I can't wait for the next couple of weeks to pass!

Neil_Oz

We don't usually drink our beers by the pint, but a "schooner" (15oz in pre-metric days) will cost you maybe $2.50-5.50 (£1.00-2.20) depending on the establishment's ambience. A meal in a modest restaurant might cost $50 (£20) for two plus drinks - many allow you to bring your own wine, and a decent red or white from a liquor shop will set you back $10-20 (£4-8). You can't bring your own beer unless the restaurant doesn't have a liquor licence, but for the record a sixpack of premium beer is about $15 (£6). If you like beer, my advice is to avoid the ubiquitous Victoria Bitter (VB) and go for something better like the James Squire range.

Of course you can pay a lot more for a meal if you want to, right up to the heartstopping bill at Sydney's Tetsuya's ($185 or £75 per head plus wine) - but there are plenty of good Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian (etc) places at reasonable prices. I'm out of touch with public transport fares, but from what I've heard of British prices these days you should find them pretty reasonable. Clothes - how long is a piece of string? In a department store (e.g. David Jones or Myers) most men's casual shirts are in the $40-100 (£16-40) range, a pair of Levis maybe $80-90 (£32-36). As I seldom wear anything else that's as far as I can take you.

Carrabella

Most Aussie hotels and motels have fridges, and electric jugs so why not a leisurely self-catered breakfast - buy a packet of cereal and milk and a couple of cheap plates, or paper ones, from a supermarket. Add a piece of fruit or two and you have saved lots of money for a better lunch or whatever. Easy and pleasant to have breakfast in bed.

As for relative prices, there are cheap restaurants and more expensive, not necessarily with better food. Ask a local when you get here.I agree with Mucky - don't eat in restaurants in tourist areas - around the corner will be better.

I think you will find clothes are a lot cheaper here because of the exchange rate.

Sydney has "Day-Saver" tickets for travel on trains, bus and ferries, I think about $13. Seniors can travel much cheaper.

I spent a lot of my childhood in Coogee - wonderful beach, and Wylie's Baths are an icon. The coastal walk from Bronte to Bondi is spectacular. I also lived at Maroubra many years ago. We used to take a tram (only buses now) out to La Perouse (aboriginal settlement) and visit Bare Island, a fort built to repel the expected Russian invasion in the early days. It is still open, I believe. On the way, you would see the "real city", warts and all!

lizF

Unless there is some sand pumping done in a hurry there will not be a beach in Noosa to go to as its been ripped away by cyclonic winds and huge waves in the last few days.

SusanInToronto

Wow, Liz, that's not good news about Noosa. Well, we're not there until after mid-April, so maybe it'll improve.

Carrabella, re exchange rates, we're not from the US - we use Canadian dollars and at this point, they are slightly less than Aussie dollars. It's almost one to one, which will make it easy for us to know how much we're actually spending. I agree with you about breakfasts - we almost always have a 'self-catered' breakfast when we're on holiday. We're even bringing along our little battery operated "frother" to froth milk for our morning coffee!