stiscooby

We (me and the g/f) are thinking of planning a holiday to Australia next year, if we can save our pennies.

We have started to pick up a few broachers to have a browse of the different areas but as silly as it sounds we are not really sure where to go as yet, what's good to see etc. I'm guessing there are several of you on here that have been before so could you recommend and areas/places to go?

I also assume there isn't much point in going for less than 3 weeks?

Which airline did you go with too, Singapore Airlines seem to be well rated?

Did you go on organised tour(s) to get the most out of it or did you make your own way/find things yourself?

Any advice much appreciated, thanks

SiPie

Fly right over it and spend your time in NZ

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Singapore - well looked after planes - lovely stewardesses

Where to go?!

Sydney - bridge, harbour, waterside, eating out, nightlife, etc, etc

Gold Coast - great beaches combined with nightlife, back country with serious wine growing, rain forest and I'm a Celebrity Get me Out of Here!

Cairns and North-East - Great Barrier Reef, great beaches, Wicked Weasel bikinis

Perth - great beaches

Adelaide - the Birmingham of Australia, with great beaches

Melbourne - sophisticated nightlife, great eating out, museums and galleries, great beaches, penguins

The bit in the middle - hot, humid, Uluru, spiders, very, very, very long roads, no beaches

RAJ27

on top of spiders there are flies, mossies, cockroaches, snakes, crocs, dingos and sharks. ENJOY

oldsplice

And jellyfish.

Coffin Dodger

Done both Oz and NZ and I know which I choose to go back to first

That said had a really good time in Oz, and this is what we did in a month.

Flights were with BA/Quantas. They had a deal going at the time where you got up to four internal flights thrown in. Flew direct, just an hour in Singapore to re-fuel. I know a lot of folk do a stopover somewhere but it was Oz we wanted to visit so thought we'd get the travel bit over as soon as we could.

The driver for the trip was an invite to a mate's wedding in Sydney so we flew into there, had a week looking round the city and also spent a few days in the Blue Mountains by way of an impromptu stag do Did all the obvious sightseeing stuff in Sydney and also went out to Bondi etc. Pretty chilled week and good to help get over the jet lag.

After the wedding we flew up to Cairns. Got an apartment in a place call Palm Cove which was really nice. Did a couple of excursions, one to Cape Tribulation that included a river boat trip where we saw some crocs The other was a boat trip out onto the Barrier Reef to snorkel (scuba diving also an option). If you do one thing while in Oz this is a must, it's like swimming around is the most massive tropical aquarium, so many colourful fish and coral to look at. My brother did a scuba dive with them (unfortunately I'm not great with water so didn't ) and saw reef sharks. For the rest of our time in north Queensland we hired a car and toured around a bit ourselves. We were there for a week before flying to Alice Springs.

From Alice Springs we had a three day excursion booked to see Ayres Rock/Uluru, the Olgas, and King's Canyon. That was simply amazing, in part helped by the really mad tour guide we had Even though we were up a 4am to see the sunrise over the rock it was still followed up with a late night round the camp fire (the accommodation was in tents ). Also had a helicopter ride at the cattle station we camped on near King's Canyon. That was really cool. Only spent the night we arrived and the night we got back from the excursion in Alice Springs but based on our experiences that was enough The flew to Brisbane.

Spent a couple of nights in Brisbane itself before getting a hire car and touring the Sunshine Coast. This is the bit where all the surfers go. Really nice beaches and places to go. Whilst there we went on a 4x4 tour of Fraser Island (world's largest sand island), that was great fun. Got to swim in this amazing freshwater lake in the middle of the island, the water was so clear. After the coast we headed inland for a couple of days into the mountains and found a cabin to stay in on a cattle farm. Finally headed back to Brisbane, stopping at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo on the way to see the crocs, and flew home the next morning

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

And sheila's!

Funkii Munkii

And Dagwood Dogs !!

There was a thread on Oz recently
https://www.scoobynet.com/non-scooby...day-in-oz.html

Scooby Roo

Also planned what time of year

Aus Winter May to October and Summer after that. Anywhere South of Sydney is pretty cold in Winter [generally]. We currently live in Adleaide and it certainly cools down and gets wet in Winter.

Airline..........................there is only one Singapore.........Changi is brilliant, Singapore is fantastic.........airline superb. Have tried most others and Singapore comes top.

If your visiting for three weeks then try to:

1. Go to Sydney for three days, land there chill get over jetlag as bummer on way here. Do the touristy things and you'll have a good time. Great pubs in city, cant't remember the building but there is a skytower which has panoramic views.

2. Get on a flight to Adelaide and then a short hop to Port Lincoln. Couple of days there and go diving with Great Whites.......woooosh takes your breath away. Fly back to Adelaide go to the Indoor Market in the CBD, that's Adelaide done [aprat from the beaches]. This time of year normally good as Clipsal 500 V8's this weekend.

3. Melbourne.......Ok if you have 2 /3 days spare do Melbourne [normally next weekend is always good as still just summer and the F1 is there]. Otherwise quite like London, spaced out too much to see.

4. Fly straight to Brisbane, you then have the choice of millions. Firstly' Gold Coast/Surfer's as said nightlife and in ya face. Further down Byron Bay, brilliant place try and get a cabin near the beach awesome. Further down Coff's Harbour.....not too bad. Otherwise hire a 4x4 and travel up to Sunshine Coast. You have Glasshouse Mountains, onto the Bruce Highway past Bribie Island [worth drining up the beach at Worim] up past Caloundra, Mooloolabah and onto Noosa [worth stop off], then travel to Fraser Island [a must for 2-3 days cos it takes forever on the roads there ]. If you want a real trip get further on to Rockhampton etc. up to Cairns [but that all depends on how much time you have] otherwise fly to Cairns/Port Douglas and get to the reef.

5. If down in Adleaide and you have a few days fly to Alice Springs [$400 return present] and go to Uluru [Ayres], great but beware there are a billion million flies and there all arounf you.

6. Perth. Fly in fly out that's what generally happens unless you know someone.

7. Darwin. Deliverrance [nuff said, unless anyone one on here's from there then sorry cuz ]

Just my take for a whirlwind tour.

Roo

RobJenks

I would recommend a trip into the bush and stay overnight.
The night sky is like nothing you have ever seen , because of the lack of air and light pollution.
I have been all over Oz and nights witnessing the COSMOS in all its wonder is not to be missed.
If your lucky try and catch a test match at the MCG

Scooby Roo

Agree with that. If you do anything rent a 4x4 go to Anaconda, buy the cheapest stuff you get and go to Bribie Island [just up from Brisbane], drive along the beach [Woorim] for 20km find a place, camp.

The shy is a pin cushion of light it's fantastic.

Missus would go near a tent, did the above, always out. Plus the sea breeze in at Bribie knocks out the 80-9-% humidity.

Ya can do plenty of beach driving [Fraser the best] but if you don't have too much time the above is easy.

Roo

mattsan

Do as much traveling as you can round Oz but may need more than 3 weeks. All the advice above is spot on. Defently fly Singapore airlines, you can't beat there service. We have been living in Brisbane now for 3 and half years and just to see the sights here could be 3 weeks, with the gold and sunshine coasts and theme parks, Fraser island, Australia zoo ect.. It will be just flying visit in each place but well worth the trip. Oh and one of the pubs in George St in Sydney had a Scooby rally car on the wall last time we went a few years back!

stiscooby

Many thanks for the pointers

Plenty of places/things to consider by the sounds of it.

If we can, we would probably go around this time next year, give or take a few weeks, might even be able to catch the F1 while we are there