Australia - what a trip!

[Scuba]

We just returned from 2 months in Australia and had a wonderful time! Our itinerary was:
- Blue Mountains for 3 days
- Sydney for 10 days
- Dive boat on outer Great Barrier Reef for a week
- Port Douglas/rainforest for 3 days
- Sunshine Coast for 3 days
- Melbourne for a week
- Tasmania for 3 weeks
- Great Ocean Rd drive and Barossa Valley for a week

If anyone is thinking of going to Australia, it’s a great time for Americans to go. The US dollar is strong so your money goes a long way. The fact that English is the primary language makes it easier too. People are generally friendly and helpful.

We stayed mainly in AirBnB’s but also a few hotels. Took public transport in Sydney and Melbourne but rented cars everywhere else. Driving is on the left but is very easy. Everything is very well marked and roads are in great condition.

If anyone has questions, feel free to post them or send me a PM. We would go back in a heartbeat. It’s a huge continent so we didn’t even try to see West Australia, the Outback, or the Northern Territory. Would have needed another month at least to include those areas.

 

[VanWinkle]

Sounds like a great trip Scuba!! How was the barrier reef dive?

VW

 

[Free To Canoe]

Sounds great!
How was the weather?
Was 3 weeks in Tasmania too much?
3 days in the Blue Mts not enough?
Where did you catch the dive boat at?
How was the food? Where did you eat?

 

[Sunset]

How did you get there and come back, any suggestions for traveling back and forth ?

 

[Montecfo]

Welcome back Scuba!

 

[MarieIG]

How did you get there and come back, any suggestions for traveling back and forth ?

This is what I was wondering . . .

Welcome back Scuba!

 

[OldConch]

How did you get there and come back, any suggestions for traveling back and forth ?

Following this thread closely for ideas and suggestions. Thanks OP. We just booked flights from our home airport to Auckland late next December for AA miles + $5.60. The tentative plan is 3 weeks in NZ, a week in the Sydney area, a week in Melbourne and 10 days in Tasmania. I was concerned about the weather up north in the summer and our thoughts were to save that part of the country for another trip. Still working on flights home.

 

[Zona]

Welcome back! We leave for Sydney in a few days and will be in Australia for about six weeks, going to many of the same places you listed! Just wondering if you kept a blog or online journal somewhere of your trip? I always love reading about other people’s travel experiences!

We only have 8 days in Tassie, hoping it will be enough. Did you go to Mona in Hobart by any chance and if so what were your impressions?

 

[MuirWannabe]

DW & I are in Tassy right now.

We were in New Zealand for 3 weeks. Toured from Auckland on down through both islands and even spent 4 days on Stewart island.

Now we’ve spent 1 week on Tassy. We are flying out tonight heading to Hamilton Island in Queensland to visit the reef. We aren’t divers, but hope to snorkel, relax, and enjoy the scenery in our final 5 days before heading home.

This will have been a 5+ week trip for us. Doing two full months like OP did is amazing although might be too long for us.

Our impressions:
- NZ was somewhat disappointing. Weather was just awful and ruined much of our views and hiking. Stewart island was a highlight.
- Tassy is a treasure. Could have spent more than a week for sure. Driving as OP noted is easy. I was worried about it but piece of cake. Great hiking. Great weather. Good people. Loved Port Arthur area with amazing hikes and sea cliff views. Wish we had spent at least 2-3 days here. Loved Cradle mountain NP. Freycinton NP was nice also. Such good hikes we did. Summit of Mt Rufus and Cradle Mountain was tough but fun. Hobart & Launceston are both nice cities to travel through.

Hope we love our few final days in north Oz.

Scuba, your trip sounds amazing. The great ocean road is on our list one day. Glad you had fun.

 

[MuirWannabe]

One other note. Food is not a great experience either in NZ or Oz. In our opinion. Perhaps we’re too picky. Just not that great and rather repetitive. Restaurant service particularly in NZ was poor as well.
Didn’t negatively impact our overall experiences, just added nothing as well. Don’t travel here for a food destination.
I did try marmite and vegemite.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Additional thoughts as we wait on our flight out of Launceston.

- could spend longer than a week on Tassy. But the 3 weeks the OP did seems too much. Curious on Scubas thoughts. I think in a couple weeks you could completely cover Tassy. In 7 days we covered a rather good chunk of it. Only felt rushed with our one day in the Port Arthur area.

- the animal viewing in Tassy is great. Things you certainly won’t see in the states. Tasmanian devils, platypus, echidna, quoll, wallaby, and wombat to name a few. Sending pictures back to our grandies, they fell in love with the wombat. They are cute.

- upon our arrival in Hobart we rented our car. They asked us if we wanted animal collision insurance. Thought it was a strange ask so I declined. Figured out why pretty quickly. You’ll see roadkill everywhere. Typically dead wallaby which are essentially pests for the locals. But some of the other animals as well. Fortunately, I never hit an animal, but I came close once with a wallaby. They aren’t very car savvy and tend to jump right out in front of nowhere. Recommend the animal collision insurance.

- every road outside of the two big cities is twisty. We had a small MG3. I was grateful for the small car with sporty turning radius. Especially as I was concentrating on staying in left side of road.

- the locals were so darn friendly

 

[luckydude]

We just returned from 2 months in Australia and had a wonderful time! Our itinerary was:
- Blue Mountains for 3 days
- Sydney for 10 days
- Dive boat on outer Great Barrier Reef for a week
- Port Douglas/rainforest for 3 days
- Sunshine Coast for 3 days
- Melbourne for a week
- Tasmania for 3 weeks
- Great Ocean Rd drive and Barossa Valley for a week

If anyone is thinking of going to Australia, it’s a great time for Americans to go. The US dollar is strong so your money goes a long way. The fact that English is the primary language makes it easier too. People are generally friendly and helpful.

We stayed mainly in AirBnB’s but also a few hotels. Took public transport in Sydney and Melbourne but rented cars everywhere else. Driving is on the left but is very easy. Everything is very well marked and roads are in great condition.

If anyone has questions, feel free to post them or send me a PM. We would go back in a heartbeat. It’s a huge continent so we didn’t even try to see West Australia, the Outback, or the Northern Territory. Would have needed another month at least to include those areas.

Welcome back! Sounds like you had a great time.

I was in OZ for 4 weeks from late Dec to late Jan, and spent most of my time in NSW and Victoria. Strong USD made traveling there cheap by comparison.

I am heading back in July for 2 weeks to visit Darwin and the Northern Territory.

 

[luckydude]

Additional thoughts as we wait on our flight out of Launceston.

- could spend longer than a week on Tassy. But the 3 weeks the OP did seems too much. Curious on Scubas thoughts. I think in a couple weeks you could completely cover Tassy. In 7 days we covered a rather good chunk of it. Only felt rushed with our one day in the Port Arthur area.

- the animal viewing in Tassy is great. Things you certainly won’t see in the states. Tasmanian devils, platypus, echidna, quoll, wallaby, and wombat to name a few. Sending pictures back to our grandies, they fell in love with the wombat. They are cute.

- upon our arrival in Hobart we rented our car. They asked us if we wanted animal collision insurance. Thought it was a strange ask so I declined. Figured out why pretty quickly. You’ll see roadkill everywhere. Typically dead wallaby which are essentially pests for the locals. But some of the other animals as well. Fortunately, I never hit an animal, but I came close once with a wallaby. They aren’t very car savvy and tend to jump right out in front of nowhere. Recommend the animal collision insurance.

- every road outside of the two big cities is twisty. We had a small MG3. I was grateful for the small car with sporty turning radius. Especially as I was concentrating on staying in left side of road.

- the locals were so darn friendly

As the locals say, never drive at night as that's when all the animals come out.

I did a roundtrip drive on the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne in January and saw multiple dead kangaroos and koalas on the road, victims of roadkill.

 

[HI Bill]

...Food is not a great experience either in NZ or Oz. In our opinion. Perhaps we’re too picky. Just not that great and rather repetitive. Restaurant service particularly in NZ was poor as well.

I'm a Yelp Elite reviewer (of mostly restaurants), and I found the food in The Rocks area of Sydney (by the Opera House) to be varied and good to great (and they have Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe). We didn't do high-end. In New Zealand, we spent 7 weeks in North and South Island. My wife did extensive research on restaurants, and we ate at quite a few that I'd consider exceptional, in the larger cities. We weren't going for Michelin star restaurant quality, and were quite happy with both the food and the coffee!

 

[GaryInCO]

@Scuba, how was the diving on the GBR? Ex-DW and I went there on our honeymoon 32 years ago, and it was spectacular. I especially remember the colorful gigantic clams -- big enough I could have climbed inside one !! But the Reef has had a rough go for the last few decades and I had the impression it was pretty sad now.

- NZ was somewhat disappointing. Weather was just awful and ruined much of our views and hiking. Stewart island was a highlight.

Interesting. I've been to about 38 countries, and NZ and Thailand are my favorites. The scenery was gorgeous, the culture was interesting, the people were sweet, what's not to love. Of course the fact that I was on my honeymoon might have colored my perception.

Never heard of Stewart Island. Sounds fun though! I'm guessing you saw some kiwis? (The kind with feathers. ) We didn't go down to Invercargill, just Queenstown, Te Anau, Milford, Wanaka, etc.

 

[Scuba]

Sounds like a great trip Scuba!! How was the barrier reef dive?



VW

Most of the sites were very good. We dove the outer Ribbon Reefs as well as Osprey, Bougainville and Holmes Reefs. Two leopard sharks, a manta, leafy scorpionfish, cuttlefish, and a tiger shark (which we didn’t see) were highlights, along with lots of beautiful healthy corals. The weather was a bit rough the first few days which made the current extremely strong. Luckily that calmed down after the first 2-3 days.

 

[Scuba]

Sounds great!
How was the weather?
Was 3 weeks in Tasmania too much?
3 days in the Blue Mts not enough?
Where did you catch the dive boat at?
How was the food? Where did you eat?

Weather varied from hot/humid in Port Douglas/Daintree Rainforest to cold at Cradle Mountain. Sydney and Melbourne were very pleasant, similar to Southern CA in the fall - some warm days and some cooler days. Not much rain other than in the rainforest and a few days in Tasmania.

Three weeks in Tasmania is definitely not too much, depending on your interests. If you like nature/scenic beauty, hiking/walking, food and wine/beer/cider/alcohol tasting, one could argue that 3 weeks were insufficient. So much to see and do there, and the drives between places take a long time. We didn’t even see anything west of Hobart except for Cradle Mountain. To really experience the entire island, at least 5-6 weeks would be better.

For Blue Mountains, 3 days was good for us as we had just arrived and many of the hiking trails were closed or partially closed due to flooding last fall damaging some of the trails. Again, it depends on your interests. We really enjoyed our time there and could have spent a few more days, but 3 days allowed us to see the highlights, do a couple of hikes and explore Katoomba and Leura.

Dive boat left from Cairns, as most of them do, and returned to Cairns 7 days later.

Food was generally good. We ate a very high end tasting meal in Katoomba and some great Asian food in Melbourne. Tasmania is the food and wine capital of Australia with excellent fresh produce, wines and cheeses. We ate at many different restaurants and also cooked a fair number of meals at home since we mostly stayed at AirBnB’s.

 

[Scuba]

This is what I was wondering . . .



Welcome back Scuba!

Thanks! We flew non-stop from LAX to SYD on Delta. 15.5 hour flight, very pleasant, had exit row seats in economy. On the way home, we flew from Adelaide to Fiji and then Fiji to LAX on Fiji Air. Exit row seats from ADL to Nadi but then on the long flight, extra legroom seats. Flights back took longer - 5+ hours ADL to Fiji plus 10.5 hours Fiji to LAX.

Looked at pricing of business class. Way too big of a difference for us. Flew Virgin Australia on most flights within Australia. Very good. Took one Qantas flight which was also good. Avoided Jetstar based on reviews and were happy with that decision. Massively long lines at the airport for Jetstar, much worse than VA and while a bit cheaper, not worth the savings to us.

 

[Scuba]

Following this thread closely for ideas and suggestions. Thanks OP. We just booked flights from our home airport to Auckland late next December for AA miles + $5.60. The tentative plan is 3 weeks in NZ, a week in the Sydney area, a week in Melbourne and 10 days in Tasmania. I was concerned about the weather up north in the summer and our thoughts were to save that part of the country for another trip. Still working on flights home.

If you only have 10 days in Tasmania, my advice is not to try to cov too much ground. We felt very rushed our last week or so covering the East Coast, Tasman Peninsula, and Hobart in 8 days.

 

[Scuba]

Welcome back! We leave for Sydney in a few days and will be in Australia for about six weeks, going to many of the same places you listed! Just wondering if you kept a blog or online journal somewhere of your trip? I always love reading about other people’s travel experiences!

We only have 8 days in Tassie, hoping it will be enough. Did you go to Mona in Hobart by any chance and if so what were your impressions?

No, I just posted photos with some narrative of our experiences on Facebook. If you want to see them and you’re on Facebook, DM me and you’ll be able to see all of my posts once we connect.

Where are you going in Tassie? 8 days is fine if you’re staying in a small area. Definitely not enough if trying to cover a lot of ground. My suggestion is to prioritize and limit the geographic area. Driving takes much longer there vs the US for a similar distance. We did not go to MONA as we were more focused on nature, food, and wine. If you are there on a Saturday, Salamanca Market is awesome. Some great food items and quality handmade souvenirs.

 

[Scuba]

DW & I are in Tassy right now.

We were in New Zealand for 3 weeks. Toured from Auckland on down through both islands and even spent 4 days on Stewart island.

Now we’ve spent 1 week on Tassy. We are flying out tonight heading to Hamilton Island in Queensland to visit the reef. We aren’t divers, but hope to snorkel, relax, and enjoy the scenery in our final 5 days before heading home.

This will have been a 5+ week trip for us. Doing two full months like OP did is amazing although might be too long for us.

Our impressions:
- NZ was somewhat disappointing. Weather was just awful and ruined much of our views and hiking. Stewart island was a highlight.
- Tassy is a treasure. Could have spent more than a week for sure. Driving as OP noted is easy. I was worried about it but piece of cake. Great hiking. Great weather. Good people. Loved Port Arthur area with amazing hikes and sea cliff views. Wish we had spent at least 2-3 days here. Loved Cradle mountain NP. Freycinton NP was nice also. Such good hikes we did. Summit of Mt Rufus and Cradle Mountain was tough but fun. Hobart & Launceston are both nice cities to travel through.

Hope we love our few final days in north Oz.

Scuba, your trip sounds amazing. The great ocean road is on our list one day. Glad you had fun.

Sounds like you are having a great trip too! Oz is wonderful. We’d love to go back and catch some of the areas we couldn’t fit in this time. Freycinet NP was our favorite hiking, although Cradle Mountain was great too. We did not hike to the summit. Marion’s Lookout was tough enough for me!

 

[Scuba]

One other note. Food is not a great experience either in NZ or Oz. In our opinion. Perhaps we’re too picky. Just not that great and rather repetitive. Restaurant service particularly in NZ was poor as well.
Didn’t negatively impact our overall experiences, just added nothing as well. Don’t travel here for a food destination.
I did try marmite and vegemite.

No wonder you didn’t love the food! [emoji23] We liked the food better than we thought we would. Highlights were:
- Great salmon, lamb, cheese, chocolate, berries, produce in general, wine, beer and cider in Tasmania
- Asian food, coffee and croissants in Melbourne. There is a place called Lune that was written up in The NY Times as possibly having the best croissants in the entire world.
- Five course tasting dinner with wine pairing in Katoomba
- Chicken katsu, bao buns, gelato, and chips (aka fries) were delicious.

I’m sure the food doesn’t compare to some of the best gourmet cities, but it was fine for our needs and good enough that we both put on several pounds. I never knew I liked cider until this trip!