Australia - looking for info for a possible future trip

[Mamie Baldwin]

I am going in June and my itinerary is:

Fly into Melbourne- 5 nights
Fly to Ayers Rock - 2 nights
Fly to Cairns -2 nights
Fly to Brisbane- 1 night
Drive to Byron Bay - 1 night
Drive back to Brisbane then fly to Sydney- 6 nights.

[Heather1957]

Originally Posted by Pinkpams

I am going in June and my itinerary is:

Fly into Melbourne- 5 nights
Fly to Ayers Rock - 2 nights
Fly to Cairns -2 nights
Fly to Brisbane- 1 night
Drive to Byron Bay - 1 night
Drive back to Brisbane then fly to Sydney- 6 nights.

See more...

You're certainly packing it in, I'm sure once you have had a taster you'll want to go back again!

You may hear a lot of people now refer to Ayers Rock as Uluru as this is the Aborigine name for it and it is become used more and more. I think 2 nights there is plenty TBH, we watched the sun go down from our hotel and then took one of the trips to watch the sunrise over Uluru (it was pretty cold there so needed a jacket!)

I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time. I bet you're looking out for any rises in the AU$ like me!

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by Pinkpams

I am going in June and my itinerary is:

Fly into Melbourne- 5 nights
Fly to Ayers Rock - 2 nights
Fly to Cairns -2 nights
Fly to Brisbane- 1 night
Drive to Byron Bay - 1 night
Drive back to Brisbane then fly to Sydney- 6 nights.

See more...

That's sounds fantastic!

Lots of internal flights - can I ask which airline you'll be flying with ?

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Pinkpams

I am going in June and my itinerary is:

Fly into Melbourne- 5 nights
Fly to Ayers Rock - 2 nights
Fly to Cairns -2 nights
Fly to Brisbane- 1 night
Drive to Byron Bay - 1 night
Drive back to Brisbane then fly to Sydney- 6 nights.

See more...

This is very similar to our Australia part of our RTW trip we did although we flew into Sydney first and finished with Melbourne. We also did Brisbane and Cairns before Uluru.

Personally, I would want (and did have) more time in both Brisbane and Cairns but we had a month so it was easier for us to do this.

I agree that 2 nights at Uluru is enough. We did the base walk (just shy of 10km) after sunrise which was one of the highlights of our entire trip and then later went to Kata Tjuta for the sunset. A really quite memorable day.

[llamala]

We visited in 2006, Travelled via 3 days in Hong kong for the disney fix, then flew to Sydney arriving at midnight,so opted for 2 nights at Bondi beach to chill then a taxi to Sydney, for 3 nights. We walked the bridge, just the road( dont do heights).
Did a ferry over to Manly then back at sunset, magical.A concert at the opera house to see Olivia Newton Jon( a highlight)
Trip to blue mountains.
Train ride to Morrisette to visit a friend, who took us to the Hunter wine valley,then back to Sydney.
We then flew to Coffs Harbour to stay with other friends,they dr ove us up to Surfers which we enjoyed then they drove us up to Brisbane,twe stayed 2 nights visiting Steve Irwins zoo.Our final leg was 5 nights in Port Douglas. We loved it.
Finalyy home via Singapore.

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by ju_itfc

This is very similar to our Australia part of our RTW trip we did although we flew into Sydney first and finished with Melbourne. We also did Brisbane and Cairns before Uluru.

Personally, I would want (and did have) more time in both Brisbane and Cairns but we had a month so it was easier for us to do this.

I agree that 2 nights at Uluru is enough. We did the base walk (just shy of 10km) after sunrise which was one of the highlights of our entire trip and then later went to Kata Tjuta for the sunset. A really quite memorable day.

See more...

Originally Posted by llamala

We visited in 2006, Travelled via 3 days in Hong kong for the disney fix, then flew to Sydney arriving at midnight,so opted for 2 nights at Bondi beach to chill then a taxi to Sydney, for 3 nights. We walked the bridge, just the road( dont do heights).
Did a ferry over to Manly then back at sunset, magical.A concert at the opera house to see Olivia Newton Jon( a highlight)
Trip to blue mountains.
Train ride to Morrisette to visit a friend, who took us to the Hunter wine valley,then back to Sydney.
We then flew to Coffs Harbour to stay with other friends,they dr ove us up to Surfers which we enjoyed then they drove us up to Brisbane,twe stayed 2 nights visiting Steve Irwins zoo.Our final leg was 5 nights in Port Douglas. We loved it.
Finalyy home via Singapore.

See more...

All these places sound amazing! I'm taking notes of everything here

I've ordered an australian travel guide book to give me some idea's too so hopefully that'll come during the week

Is it advisable to stay in hotels or is there another mode of accomodation we should try? i.e. log cabins etc if they have them?

I've priced a few hotels up but because we will be travelling with my two sons who will probably be 18 and 13 when we go (if we can go in 2 years time) then it's working out to be pretty expensive as we basically need 2 rooms

I have seen some apartments to rent so will also look into that

The flights are surprising reasonable for us considering what we pay for Florida! x

[Hudson]

We did a trip to Australia a few years ago.
We had 3 nights in Hong Kong on the way out before arriving in Melbourne for 4 nights.
Amongst other things in Melbourne we spent a day on Phillip Island and watched the penguins coming in at night. We rented a car and drove down The Great Ocean Road to The Twelve Apostles and I had to suffer the embarrassment of doing a "Neighbours"
tour to Ramsay Street.
We then flew to Sydney staying at The Rocks for 5 nights. Had a day at Manly beach, a meal at the top of The Sydney Tower etc. We also rented a car and drove out to the Blue Mountains and spent a night in The Hunter Valley (wine region).
Before having our final night in Brisbane we had 4 nights on Hamilton Island and 3 nights on Hayman Island in the Whitsundays(with helicopter transfers)

[purple myra]

We booked round the world flights with BA/Quantas, these included 2 'free' internal flights.
We flew:
Edinburgh -
London -
LA -
Fiji (5 nights in Fiji) -
Sydney (3 weeks with family in Bowral and Wollongong including visits to the Blue mountains, Blowering Dam, Kiama, Canberra and Forster/Toncurry. We also spent 2 nights in Sydney and visited Taronga Zoo and did the Bridge Climb ) -
Cairns (4 nights including trips to the Great Barrier Reef, the Kuranda Railway and a hot air balloon ride over the Atherton tablelands) -
Uluru (2 nights including sunrise and sunset visits to the rock, a trip to the Olgas and the Sounds of Silence dinner) -
Perth (4 nights including a city tour, a river cruise to Fremantle, a trip to Hillary's boat harbour) -
Singapore (1 night/2 almost full days including a night time city tour visiting Bugis Market and a Singapore Sling at Raffles, a half day visit to Sentosa Island) -
London -
Edinburgh - home!

[TrueBlue]

Originally Posted by purple myra

We booked round the world flights with BA/Quantas, these included 2 'free' internal flights.
We flew:
Edinburgh -
London -
LA -
Fiji (5 nights in Fiji) -
Sydney (3 weeks with family in Bowral and Wollongong including visits to the Blue mountains, Blowering Dam, Kiama, Canberra and Forster/Toncurry. We also spent 2 nights in Sydney and visited Taronga Zoo and did the Bridge Climb ) -
Cairns (4 nights including trips to the Great Barrier Reef, the Kuranda Railway and a hot air balloon ride over the Atherton tablelands) -
Uluru (2 nights including sunrise and sunset visits to the rock, a trip to the Olgas and the Sounds of Silence dinner) -
Perth (4 nights including a city tour, a river cruise to Fremantle, a trip to Hillary's boat harbour) -
Singapore (1 night/2 almost full days including a night time city tour visiting Bugis Market and a Singapore Sling at Raffles, a half day visit to Sentosa Island) -
London -
Edinburgh - home!

See more...

Wollongong! OMG i've got a friend that moved to there from Louisianna in the States back in the 90's and i've been trying to track her down ever since with no luck

I know she got married not long after moving to Wollongong but I don't know her married name and her Mum has passed away a few years back so can't find out

Would love to visit her if I can trace her x

[Mamie Baldwin]

Originally Posted by TrueBlue

That's sounds fantastic!

Lots of internal flights - can I ask which airline you'll be flying with ?

See more...

Hi, Our international flights are with Malaysian Airlines and the internal ones with Virgin Australia.

I booked everything with Dial a Flight.

Pamela