First time trip to Australia

First time trip to Australia

Author
Discussion

durbster

10,682 posts

228 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
quotequote all
Jader1973 said:
Darwin = never been but I believe it is full of nutters. I'd like to go (in winter).
I love Darwin and admittedly that's partly because the heat, humidity and remoteness means people do go crazy up there. It's a very transient population too as lots of people clear off when the rains come.

Just for my own amusement, I like to check in on NT News quite regularly. The content of the stories and way they're delivered sum the place up pretty well biggrin
http://www.ntnews.com.au

For example, how many times have you read a news article that opens with the line:
"OH look, another drunk dhead on a crocodile trap."hehe

http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/a...

Vipers

33,091 posts

234 months

Wednesday 28th January 2015
quotequote all
Dont forget your visa, or what ever they call it.




smile

coopedup

3,741 posts

145 months

Saturday 31st January 2015
quotequote all
I spent a year in Oz doing voluntary conservation work about 5 years ago. I detest big cities but Melbourne blew me away, so cosmopolitan and just an amazing place to base yourself and then do the Great Ocean road, a stunning drive with stop off points like the 12 apostles, etc along the way.
If you get up to Cairns, as others have said, go to Port Douglas but take plenty of money, but also get up to the Daintree rainforest. I spent 17 weeks planting trees there and it is the most wonderful place to go, try and stay at Crocodilus which is right in the rainforest, but it gets get bloody hot and humid depending on the time of year.
In NSW try to get to the Blue mountains, another great place to explore. In Vic try to get to places like the Grampian mountains, stunning walks and viewpoints there, I was lucky to spend a week radio tracking yellow tailed rock wallabies at night and the aboriginal centres are brilliant.
The whole country is full of wonderful things to see and do, just take time to enjoy the sights and sounds, don't get me started on the amazing birds {of the feathered kind) that you can see there!

Norfolkit

2,394 posts

196 months

Sunday 1st February 2015
quotequote all
auto1 said:
Just got back ,first take plenty of money ,
very expensive now.
It's a lot less expensive than it was 4 years ago as the exchange rate has moved a lot in our favour, back in 2011 I got 1.38 to the pound, Sainsburys online are quoting 1.86 to the pound today.

OP, it depends a bit when you intend travelling, the south can have (Oz) winter days that wouldn't look out of place in Eastbourne while up North it's all sunshine, warmth and blue skys. The Aussie summer is the time to go south while up North it's hot, humid and the rain can be spectacular although that tends to come as thunder storms not endless drizzly days like we get.

Centralish Queensland where my daughter lives (near Rockhampton) is pretty much OK all year although the winter evenings can be cool (16 celsius or so but with very low humidity it feels a lot cooler than that) but the days are almost always clear blue sky with temperatures in the mid 20s, summer will have temps up in the high 30s with high humidity and it stays hot (not warm) at night.

As others have said distances are vast and the roads aren't superfast multi-lane highways, outside of the cities they're usually single carriage way (certainly in Queensland). We once took two days to drive from my daughter's house to Cairns, that's about 600 miles.

It's a fantastic country though and just so much to see.


Edited by Norfolkit on Sunday 1st February 15:30

speedy_thrills

7,775 posts

249 months

Sunday 1st February 2015
quotequote all
Norfolkit said:
It's a fantastic country though and just so much to see.
yes Been several times as it's a short hop from where I live, big place with lots of things to do and see. Not made it to Tazzy yet so that might be my next trip.

jmsgld

1,044 posts

182 months

Wednesday 11th February 2015
quotequote all
I'd avoid spending too much time in the cities and concentrate on the natural wonder type things, the cities don't compare favourably to Europe in terms of culture + food, though I never went to Sydney...


If you're going to drive, bear in mind that the speed limits are lower than you would expect and the police enforce them, so on the motorways you have a million drivers all with their cruise control set to almost exactly the same speed and driving within a few feet of each other.. It can be quite frustrating or otherwise quite boring / monotonous, the standard of driving is way below that of the UK.

Rent the car online from the UK, Australians get ripped off for everything and you'll pay a lot more if you do it in country...





Colonial

13,553 posts

211 months

Thursday 12th February 2015
quotequote all
On car rental check out vroom vroom vroom 9r similar.

Just rented a car in Melbourne. Through a rental company It was $290. Through them it was $210.

Just don't use Redspot as a company. Cheap but they will invent damages and hit you up for the full excess.

Vipers

33,091 posts

234 months

Sunday 22nd February 2015
quotequote all
Been down in Oz for the past two weeks, just to let you know their TV programmes are total crap.

Apart from that, bloody hot in Sydney, lovely place, lovely people, but so many Kronerbergs, oh well. Enjoy your trip




smile

anonymous-user

60 months

Monday 23rd February 2015
quotequote all
Vipers said:
Been down in Oz for the past two weeks, just to let you know their TV programmes are total crap.

Apart from that, bloody hot in Sydney, lovely place, lovely people, but so many Kronerbergs, oh well. Enjoy your trip




smile
You have a point, but the TV is better than San Francisco where we are now till we fly home tomo after a few wks doing Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney. Included a 1200 km drive up the coast, out to Bathurst for a few laps of Mount Panorama, a seaplane trip up the north coast from Sydney, swimming at Bondi and Manly....

Great weather, great people, great country. Australia that is.

Kenty

5,082 posts

181 months

Monday 23rd February 2015
quotequote all
Norfolkit said:
It's a lot less expensive than it was 4 years ago as the exchange rate has moved a lot in our favour, back in 2011 I got 1.38 to the pound, Sainsburys online are quoting 1.86 to the pound today.

OP, it depends a bit when you intend travelling, the south can have (Oz) winter days that wouldn't look out of place in Eastbourne while up North it's all sunshine, warmth and blue skys. The Aussie summer is the time to go south while up North it's hot, humid and the rain can be spectacular although that tends to come as thunder storms not endless drizzly days like we get.

Centralish Queensland where my daughter lives (near Rockhampton) is pretty much OK all year although the winter evenings can be cool (16 celsius or so but with very low humidity it feels a lot cooler than that) but the days are almost always clear blue sky with temperatures in the mid 20s, summer will have temps up in the high 30s with high humidity and it stays hot (not warm) at night.

As others have said distances are vast and the roads aren't superfast multi-lane highways, outside of the cities they're usually single carriage way (certainly in Queensland). We once took two days to drive from my daughter's house to Cairns, that's about 600 miles.

It's a fantastic country though and just so much to see.


Edited by Norfolkit on Sunday 1st February 15:30
We are in Brisbane at the moment having experienced cyclone Marcia in Rockhampton, I hope your daughter is ok because Rocky is trashed and in a very serious condition, no power, little fuel, short of water and sporadic lawlessness. We escaped the day after and after two very stressful days got to Brissy.

Vipers

33,091 posts

234 months

Monday 23rd February 2015
quotequote all
REALIST123 said:
You have a point, but the TV is better than San Francisco where we are now till we fly home tomo after a few wks doing Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney. Included a 1200 km drive up the coast, out to Bathurst for a few laps of Mount Panorama, a seaplane trip up the north coast from Sydney, swimming at Bondi and Manly....

Great weather, great people, great country. Australia that is.
Certainly is, had a dip down Curl Curl beach this afternoon, but still a tad hot for comfort, but better than Blighty.

Off to Manly later this evening.




smile

Kenty

5,082 posts

181 months

Monday 23rd February 2015
quotequote all
We are in Mosman tomorrow for a week, couple of trips organised - Blue mountains on Thursday and Madam Butterfly at Opera house on Friday evening.
Small world Vipers!

Colonial

13,553 posts

211 months

Monday 23rd February 2015
quotequote all
Kenty said:
We are in Mosman tomorrow for a week, couple of trips organised - Blue mountains on Thursday and Madam Butterfly at Opera house on Friday evening.
Small world Vipers!
My old stomping ground.

Going to Taronga Zoo? Great spot. Used to hear elephants from my balcony.

Kenty

5,082 posts

181 months

Monday 23rd February 2015
quotequote all
Yes we will probably get to the zoo, we are staying a house just above Balmoral beach. Any good restaurants you can recommend?

Vipers

33,091 posts

234 months

Monday 23rd February 2015
quotequote all
Kenty said:
We are in Mosman tomorrow for a week, couple of trips organised - Blue mountains on Thursday and Madam Butterfly at Opera house on Friday evening.
Small world Vipers!
Enjoy Madam Butterfly, did the opera house tour last time we were down, fantastic place, blue mountains is good, and the three sisters. Also Laura is good, it's on the way to the Blue Mountains, have a good one cobber biggrin

Thank god we are not in Perth by the way, apparantly 41 tomorrow. Enjoy your trip.


smile

Colonial

13,553 posts

211 months

Tuesday 24th February 2015
quotequote all
Kenty said:
Yes we will probably get to the zoo, we are staying a house just above Balmoral beach. Any good restaurants you can recommend?
Haven't lived there for 4 years - moved to Newcastle about 2 hours up the coast.

There's a good Vietnamese at Spit Junction (Trans), Ormeggio at the Spit is great for a blow out degustation style fine dining option, but would need to get a taxi.

For burgers and BBQ chicken then Chargrill Charlies is impossible to go past.

Friend raves about Afous, but it opened after I left.

Mino is a good reliable Japanese option, just a few doors down from Trans.

If you want pub food avoid the Buena Vista. it used to be great and was just around the corner from me -$7 cook your own steak/chicken on Tuesday/Wednesday night. Now it's overpriced deep fried crap. If you want pub food go to the Hotel Mosman at Spit Junction. Not going to blow your socks off, but it's $7.90 for a 300g Porterhouse steak which isn't bad eating at all.

Heaps more fine dining/trendy options in Neutral Bay, and a few decent options in Cremorne as well.

krallicious

4,312 posts

211 months

Tuesday 24th February 2015
quotequote all
This is probably very out of date but I was in Oz with 4 friends for a month in 2003. We flew into Cairns, had a car booked for 4 weeks and a return flight from Sydney.

Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.

We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.

Vipers

33,091 posts

234 months

Wednesday 25th February 2015
quotequote all
krallicious said:
This is probably very out of date but I was in Oz with 4 friends for a month in 2003. We flew into Cairns, had a car booked for 4 weeks and a return flight from Sydney.

Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.

We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.
Petrol is about 66p a litre.




smile

Vipers

33,091 posts

234 months

Wednesday 25th February 2015
quotequote all
krallicious said:
This is probably very out of date but I was in Oz with 4 friends for a month in 2003. We flew into Cairns, had a car booked for 4 weeks and a return flight from Sydney.

Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.

We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.
Petrol is about 66p a litre.




smile

bramley

1,676 posts

214 months

Wednesday 25th February 2015
quotequote all
I went recently and paid for everything on card. Bad idea.

Beautiful country and great people.