Australia Trip

[bearbear801]

I plan to go Australia next year, is my travel duration enough :s11: . Cannot travel too long cos cant take many days leave n not cheap also

Brisbane = 2 days
Gold Coast = 2 days
Sydney = 4 days
Melbourne = 3 days
Perth = 4 days (meet my cousin there)

[jarvis]

do you really wanna go from one place to another and spend 2 days only? how are you going from one place to the other? fly? drive? either way, at least half the day will be spent getting to the place, then half the last day will be spent getting out of the place... so you effectively only have 1 day... do you really wanna go to all that hassle and cost just to spend 1 day at the place.

[Boon Sim]

I plan to go Australia next year, is my travel duration enough :s11: . Cannot travel too long cos cant take many days leave n not cheap also

Brisbane = 2 days
Gold Coast = 2 days
Sydney = 4 days
Melbourne = 3 days
Perth = 4 days (meet my cousin there)

do you really wanna go from one place to another and spend 2 days only? how are you going from one place to the other? fly? drive? either way, at least half the day will be spent getting to the place, then half the last day will be spent getting out of the place... so you effectively only have 1 day... do you really wanna go to all that hassle and cost just to spend 1 day at the place.

I agree with Jarvis. Having to travel every two to three days can be quite tiresome. Spend one or two more days in each city, as beside the city itself, there are many places outside each city which can be visited. Quality over quantity. Usually a day trip out of the city will take, a day. For example, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne all have good wine growing regions (Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley and Yarra Valy respectively) which are accessable by a 1 - 3 hour car ride (or coach ride) each way, which make good day trips. These wine growing areas all have free wine tasting so you can go from cellar door to cellar door. You can even spend a few days down South in Western Australia, nice scenery and very relaxing.

To get from point to point, if you can plan and commit to your itinerary ahead of time, then you can monitor the various budget airline websites for cheap deals/promotions which they regularly have (Virgin Blue, Tiger and Jetstar). Well worth doing this as you can save more than half the price sometimes. Tiger will have zero dollar Australian fares (as usual, just pay tax and surcharges) starting on this coming Sunday, Virgin yet to announce their promotions. You can easily get on an early morning flight and be in the next city within hours (except for Perth - anywhere on the East Coast of course), because all the cities you have named are the big ones with many daily flights.

Maybe consider visiting 1/2 of your intended places this trip, and the other half in the future? Nowadays with cheaper Australian dollar and many budget flight options(Jetstar to Melbourne via Darwin, Tiger to Perth, AirAsiaX to Melbourne via KL), the price is really affordable.

I would recommend maybe since you are commited to visiting Western Australia to see your cousin, maybe you could consider Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne for your two week trip. Adelaide to Melbourne has very scenic drive via Great Ocean Road which you should make. In the future, consider visiting Cairns, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sydney together. Can check out Wikitravel for some ideas what to do. Just a thought.

If you want to stick to your original plan, you could probably spend one day less in Sydney and one more in Gold Coast, and consider Brisbane as just a one day trip from Gold Coast (as imo there is not much there), and spend the extra day driving out of Perth city or Melbourne.

[bearbear801]

I understand that spending 1-2 days for a city is slightly too short to explore all. That is why I may skip all the outskirt area like wine cellar. I only concerntrate to travel city area only. For the first 4 days, I may skip Brisbane and allocate 4 days for Gold Coast after getting to know there are so many places to go there.

I will take early morning flight to travel from city to city using virgin blue airline. Even when I reach the destination, I still have whole day to travel around. For Sydney, I will travel around city area with 1 day for blue mountain.

My schedule may be a bit too rush so have to maximise the route and only visit the hot spot. What to do, I only have 2 weeks for my trip

[devilish_me]

maybe just pick 3 out of the 5 you've listed?? say for example, perth, melbourne & sydney...or perth, gold coast & sydney. i know you are trying to do alot out of your limited time there....but touch-&-go is rarely fun/exciting like what the rest have pointed out.

i know you are meeting your cousin in perth...but if i were you, i'd cut short my stay in perth and allocate more days to cities like melbourne/sydney where there are so much more interesting stuffs to do. perth is quite boring really!

4 days in gold coast is also abit much....you'll overdose on the sun, sand & sea (& theme parks)!!

during which season are you visiting australia? if winter...then forget about gold coast...and just stick to the cities.

[kekeNarwen]

i think this trip will be too rush for u... especially from brisbane to goldcoast to sydney... i didnt go for the other cities except for perth, sydney n melbourne but i must say that u should put more days on melbourne than sydney... maybe 3 days sydney and 4 days melbourne

for sydney, i spent 1 day walking from george st to chinatown to darling harbour to opera house to oxford st and then took a bus to bondi beach for dinner. then the next day, i spent a morning going to the sydney fish market and the powerhouse museum and the rest of the afternoon going to the market and walking around along george st. u can go to blue mountains if u have the time but it took like 2 hrs plus journey to drive up there. i stayed in sydney for 3 days.

for melbourne, this is the place where i think u can spend 2 days in the city and maybe 2 days in the outskirts like the great ocean rd, puffing billy, mornington peninsula and the phillips island. but i think 4 days in melbourne is also not enuff. i spend quite some time walking in victoria market, londsdale st, swanston st, elizabeth st, bourke st, collins st, flinders st, lygon st and took a ferris wheel ride at the yarra river. i stayed in melbourne for 5 days then i extended it for another 2 days becos there were too many things to explore and also becos i and my partner fell sick.

after going to melbourne and sydney, u will see that perth is really boring as compared to these 2 cities...

[jarvis]

whatever time your flight is, don't forget to add the travelling time (and cost) to and from the airport, check-in time and then flight time. even if the flight is a 2 hour flight, you will probably still spend a good 4-5 hours getting from one place to another. it is very tiring and you will only have about half the day left.

to me, holidays are to rest and relax. if i have to rush all over the shop, then there's no point in going on holiday. Also, if you're talking about cities, one city is not THAT much different from the next. so going into the outskirts is sometimes a very good break.

I just spent 2 weeks in Australia - Sydney and Melbourne (and 6 days in between). I enjoyed the 6 days I spent driving in between the cities more than I did the cities.

[Chlorpheniramine]

If you lack the time and find it expensive as well, all the more reason not to fly all over the place. Your plan is costly and won't allow you sufficient time to properly appreciate each location. I think you will very likely find that you missed too much at every single place and feel a need to return. And that would make your trip a wasted one.

Have you done your research to decide on what you want to see and do at each location, and how long it will take?

[Wei Xiaobao]

4 days in gold coast is also abit much....you'll overdose on the sun, sand & sea (& theme parks)!!

I bet to differ.

I just came back from a 6D 5N trip to Brisbane/Gold Coast .. I still find there's not enough time to visit the places..

Day 1: Brisbane City Tour/Mount Cootha/Paradise Country Assie Farm
Day 2: Carra markets/Harbourtown shopping
Day 3: Various nature walks at Mount Tamborine/Harbourtown again
Day 4: Dreamworld/Springbrook mountain at night
Day 5: Moreton island day tour
Day 6: Harbourtown (0.5 day) / Movie world / back home

i still got some places didn't go with these 6 days

[devilish_me]

I bet to differ.

I just came back from a 6D 5N trip to Brisbane/Gold Coast .. I still find there's not enough time to visit the places..

Day 1: Brisbane City Tour/Mount Cootha/Paradise Country Assie Farm
Day 2: Carra markets/Harbourtown shopping
Day 3: Various nature walks at Mount Tamborine/Harbourtown again
Day 4: Dreamworld/Springbrook mountain at night
Day 5: Moreton island day tour
Day 6: Harbourtown (0.5 day) / Movie world / back home

i still got some places didn't go with these 6 days

i guess you are right....it all boils down to how well you wanna cover the different places and your interests....hence the importance of researching in advance where you wanna go/what you wanna do.

some people are happy just spending days shopping in the same places...some people prefer to do the outdoorsy stuffs...some people just wanna laze at the beach....to each its own...

for me...give me 1 year in sydney and i'll still be wanting more...give me 1 week in gold coast and it'll drive me mad with all the touristy cheesy stuffs.

[Mercury]

You can skip landing at Brisbane and just land at GC airport aka Coolangatta airport.

That would save you some time.

If you are out to have a good city life then drop Brisbane and concentrate on the Sydney and Melb, for city life.

Queensland has many things to do and see, but not for a city-bum.

Do make a trip to Byron Bay if you can, well worth it.

[Andrew4]

what are the hotels to recommend to stay in at melbourne?

[mambofever]

wow so many good replies. too short la.. i can easily spend a month in Melbourne.

[kekeNarwen]

what are the hotels to recommend to stay in at melbourne?mercure welcome. it took me quite awhile to do research to discover this hotel. no regrets. but have to book fast because of its high occupancy rate. it's cheap and the location is good. value for money. i choose it because it's right inside CBD. to put into singapore context, it's like staying at orchard road and the price u paid is more or less similar to paying for a chalet at costa sand resort in pasir ris.


also if u want to book a day tour, the tour buses are located just outside of mercure for pickup and as for drop off, they tend to ask the passengers where their hotels are and they specifically drove to each and every hotel that those passengers stayed to drop them off.

[Amery02]

south eastern australia has been enduring a decade long drought. unless you have magic drought ending powers you will find the weather may get a little cold at night but it will be far from horrible

[Jataro]

Agreed that trip is too short for all the major cities. Should just stick to 1 or 2 city areas or regions.

Costing from flying east and west of Austrialia could easily cover 2 trip if you are not careful.

[user_travels]

I would recommend maybe since you are commited to visiting Western Australia to see your cousin, maybe you could consider Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne for your two week trip.
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[silviachef]

Skip brissy... Jus stay in Surfers..

[devilish_me]

ya...agree that brisbane is *yawn*

probably more fun to just explore the entire gold caost fstretch from the spit up till coolangatta...the beaches are one of the most amazing ones in the world!

[iprospecthk]

Planning is essential to the success of your trip especially one as packed as yours. Read up on the destinations you're visiting to get a general idea how long you might want to stay. Here's a good link to gain an overview of some of the popular destinations you mentioned to help with your planning:

http://www.australia.com/things_to_do/journeys.aspx