Hello everybody, this is my first time to ever use Fodors so forgive me if I have posted where I shouldn't be. I have the opportunity in June to spend a month in Australia and I am pretty much lost when it comes to figuring out what all to do. So if anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. I have 5,000 dollars to work with and my plan was to travel up the east coast from Sydney or Melborne. I don't know which is the better one to arrive in as far as sites and weather that time of year. I was considering staying in hostels everywhere I go and either booking flights or taking the train. I really enjoy scuba diving and if I could even get into a great white cage dive that would be insanely great. I enjoy beauty and tropical places but want to see the outback as well. Does anyone have any suggestions or backpacking information you could help me with? Is it freezing in Melborne and Sydney in June?

It is sure to be cold in Melbourne in June - not horribly so, but you would want a nice warm jacket and hat. Sydney will be slightly warmer, but still cool at that time of year.

I would also say that while I think the Fodors site and this forum are great, they generally don't cater to the backpacker style of travel. I'd suggest that you check out the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forum (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree), which is mostly populated with lower-budget folks. Comb back through postings there and you will see many lists of suggested itineraries.

In a month, you could do a big loop that would take you up the east coast as far as Cairns, then westward to Darwin and the Top End, then down the Red Centre back to the Southern Ocean coast, then finally back east to Melbourne. It covers a huge distance and you may not want to do it all, or at least fly some of it. You could take buses up the east coast, then fly from Cairns to Darwin or Uluru.

As for diving, there are plenty of good sites along the Great Barrier Reef, from Townsville, Cairns, or Port Douglas. You will have to take a boat out to the reef, which is quite far offshore. As for cage-diving, I believe that almost all of that is on the west coast.

ALF describes Aussie weather about right, June being just beginning of our winter and though cooler to cold, not savagely so, especially if we're lucky enough to have an Indian Summer as we call a continuation of warmer weather through Autumn [Fall].

Best deal is to wear layers and have a good quality rain and windproof outdoors jacket if being out an about is what you intend doing most.

ALF is a bit presumptuous in directing you to the Lonely Planet where lets say their Australian travel forum does leave a bit to be desired these days, langiage they are allowing quite amazing! and Fodors as far as I am concerned can cater to any traveller for we all have a range of experiences.
If you want another Aussie homegrown forum, http://www.australiaforum.com/index.php has quite a few travel posts as well.

Anyway, back to your questions Port Lincoln in South Australia is the Australian Home of Great White Shark Cage dives and there are a couple of organisations , www.calypsostarcharter.com.au and http://www.mikeball.com/great_white_shark_diving.html and I do not think that either of them are all that cheap - never enquired as not my stle of diving.

Port Lincoln is best reached via a flight from Adelaide that will go out over the St. Vincent Gulf, Yorke Peninsula and then Spencer Gulf.
If you do decide on that www.tigerairways.com.au has cheap flights between Melbourne and Adelaide and other airlines have to compete so check out www.webjet.com.au that shows all flights and then there is an air package you could look at with http://www.rex.com.au/Backpacker/default.aspx

A month would have you really pushing the envelope to do a full Australian loop and if you're going to do a cage dive as well, you'll be pushing the envelope to see the outback as well but that TEX package and cheap Tiger flights to Alice Springs will allow you to look at some planning.

There are bus passes that a lot of backpacking travellers use too, www.greyhound.com.au doing Australia wide but also having limited time use cheap east coast packages and then www.premierms.com.au also do the eastcoast with less services but could be a little cheaper than greyhound.

Hostels are plentiful and the way to go when travelling alone as people often make travelling friends and www.yha.com.au have the greatest Australia wide spread and www.bugaustralia.com is a good guide to where all hostels are.

If the cage diving looks a bit expensive there is swimming with seals and dolphins you may want to consider, http://www.bayplay.com.au/ , for Melbourne http://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info...php?page_id=94 , from Narooma south of Sydney , http://blog.expedia.com.au/archive/2...ing-seals.aspx - another reference and then north of Sydney there's Doplhin swims at Forster/Tuncurry.

You could also look at some Acquarium swims with sharks, think you can do that at Sydney, perhaps on the Gold Coast and probably a couple of other places, Perth for sure and though a long way across from the east coast, Tiger also fly there too.

For diving on the GBR, you do not need to go as far north as Cairns or Townsville, for places like the Whitsunday Islands have trips out to the GBR and also plenty of trips about the islands that do snorkelling and diving at island locations.
Further south again you have places like http://www.gkiholidayvillage.com.au/ http://www.spiritof1770.com.au/ and http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/ , a great LE/Fraser Island combo there under bookings.

So you could look at fitting a half loop of sorts in with starting in Sydney/Melbourne [ and btw, check out men in short pants football, www.afl.com.au] doing some shark/seal/dolphin encounters and even if not heading to Perth, fly to Alice Springs, do a camping tour out to Uluru - www.waywardbus.com.au or other cheaper short 2 night ones or have a look at the YHA site for some longer ones, and then you could fly over to either Cairns or Brisbane for the lower reef destinations.

Something like that would fit your month/$5000 [US is it?] budget.
So best to look at what your top desires are, look at stop and travelling times [ always a day lost] and then you can fine tune the skeleton.

thank you both so much. That gives me some good direction and places to look.

kwroberts2. With a month, you're going to have to be pretty selective and not bite off too much. I think trying to see the whole east coast is not the best use of your time. If you can afford it, I'd first consider the feasibility of flying a couple of sectors. North Queensland is a real mecca for backpackers, and deservedly so, since there is so much to see and do up there (most prominently, the GBR). Plus the weather should be lovely and warm in June. I'd plan on at least a week or 10 days in the area - Cairns, Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation and maybe Cooktown.

Based on your interests, I'd also suggest a trip up to Darwin, again tropical and warm, but different altogether from North Queensland. This is area where my wife and I did some backpacking ourselves several years ago, staying in youth hostels and traveling by bus. We started out in Darwin, took a Greyhound to Katherine Gorge (great!), then continued by bus across the outback to Kununnura, over the border in Western Australia. We stayed 3 nights in a youth hostel there, visiting Lake Argyle. We then took a backpacker's 4WD 10 person tour run by the youth hostel to the incredible (!!), Bungle Bungle ranges and the various gorges along the unpaved Gibb River Road, which crosses the Kimberley region. Remote and ruggedly beautiful - we'd go for an hour or more without seeing another vehicle. Six days later we ended up in Broome, about 500 miles away, where we spent a day swimming in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Along the way, we slept out under the stars at night and cooked over fires. We had most of the gorges to ourselves swimming in pristine fresh water plunge pools under waterfalls. We saw lots of wildlife too - emus, crocs, kangaroos. It was easily one of the most amazing experiences I have had in my lifetime - an absolute blast!

So think about it!

Wow that is really great. Thank you so much, that really gives some direction. Would you fly in and out of Sydney.

Sydney is the usual first port of call in Australia as it is the city to which most airlines fly. I think there are direct flights from USA to Cairns, but I'm not sure which airline. But keep in mind Sydney is a great city to visit and, of all the capital cities in Australia it is the one I wouldn't miss.

I support ALF's advice as to the Lonely Planet website. While you can get (and are getting) some good advice on this forum, you'll find much more in regard to backpacker-style travel at Lonely Planet. In fact I recommend you hotfoot it to your nearest bookstore and pick up one of their guidebooks to Australia ASAP.

My 2c worth - if you are contemplating long-haul travel our railways are not one of Australia's crowning glories, whereas the domestic air travel business is pretty competitive right now. Check the websites of Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Blue and Tiger.

kwr2
There is in deed a lot to see other than the east coast [if you have the time] and backpacking is often more time consuming than point to point flights for a holiday.

I spent nearly three weeks last year to get from east coast to Darwin for Kakadu and then a few days in each of Kununurra and Broome regions, flights over Lake Argyle and the Purnululu National Park [Bungles] along with another flight over Buccaneer Archipelago being rather spectacular, the Bungles flight taken in conjunction with a Lower Ord River trip [plenty of Crocs to be seen] being about $400.

But in that time frame you really only brush the surface and there's far better value to be had in picking your key interests as a starting point with planning and get an idea with travel and stop times what how much of your month will be taken up on that.

The concept of doing north queensland and then Darwin and the NW of WA will take a lot more time than a month if you want to stick with some diving interests as you have indicated.

The distances are huge and yes you would need to be considering fly point to point for most if not all of it, there being minimal diving opportunities over in the west until you get to Ningaloo Reef and though swimming with whale sharks there I'd imagine to be exhilirating you would have a lot more diving opportunities/choice along the east coast.

I'd suggest that you'll find information at Lonely Planet of no greater value than here and in a less friendly manner, it being something more of a chat site these days that regulars have engineered for themselves and travellers come very much a second interest, the regulars being mostly far removed from doing backpacking.

As to buying a guidebook, a waste of money given the extent of information you can find on the internet and far more up to date.
On arrival in Australia, you'll find that any good hostels will usually have all sorts of free travellers magazines, pocket book size guides and general touring information.
If you want to look at a guide prior to travelling, check out what your local library has and may save you some expense.

You do not need to go to individual airline sites for all can be checked at www.webjet.com.au

What airport tou fly into ought to be decided by your interests, for instance if you want to stick with the Shark Cage Dive, it'll make sense to fly into Melbourne or even Adelaide if possible, though less International flights into Adelaide and then use whatever the cheapest flights are to Port Lincoln, or use the REX airpass package if that suits.

It may help in your travel times if you are able to consider an open jaw ticket, in at Sydney or Melbourne and out from Brisbane or whatever.

Just remember you need to get yourself a tourist visa or ETA is cheaper and could be free if an agent/airline is used to book ticket other than over the internet, other wise get the ETA yourself online for $20 - it being an electronic travel authority registered in the Australian Immigrations computer against your passport number - all info at http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/eta.htm

And btw, if you're eligible for a http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/work...sa-options.htm , that might be something you could consider for later on to enable you to have time for travelling about the more distant places.