Elaine Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Have you been? Did you do a package trip? Or if you live there can you give me any insider information that might be helpful? We are not looking for a big, fancy hotel, just a place to sleep. We care more about the experience. Thanks in advance for any input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awisha. Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Any advice given depends on when you are coming to Australia, where you will be travelling to and how much you are going to spend :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Pretty much what she said. ThoughI think I can safely say that a package is not the best way to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 Pretty much what she said. ThoughI think I can safely say that a package is not the best way to do it. Really, Rosie? Why is that? I assumed, most likely out of ignorance, that a package would be a good thing. We want to go see all of the main sights, Great Barrier Reef, Syndey, the Outback and whatever else we can find. We are not looking for a 5 star hotel experience, just the outdoor Australia experience. We will most likely have a budget of $15K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 15 grand isn't much. Won't most of that be gone in getting the four of you here? I can't imagine how you could fit four return flights and four seats on a tour into 15 grand, honestly, and I've just spent half an hour searching options. How long are you planning to stay? And where do you mean when you say Outback? Uluru? Can 4 people cover a quarter of the US on 15 grand when they are flying in from the other hemisphere? :drool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awisha. Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Also, how do you plan to travel from A to B when you are here (if you don't go the tour route). Queensland and more so the Northern Territory are HOT during half/most of the year. Queensland accomodation along the beaches/near attractions will be expensive. Same with Sydney. If we go on a holiday (as in, going to a town in Victoria), we stay in a caravan park but we use the cabins. So, as an example, we stayed 7 days in a town 2 years ago and we paid $500 to $600 for the mid size family cabin. That was hundreds cheaper than staying in a motel or hotel. That example is country Victoria, so staying at a popular tourist destination will be much more expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 I would think that the plane tickets would be around $2000 per person, that adds up to $10K just to get here and return for the five of you before you even think of doing anything. How long are you thinking of staying? Just remember that Australia is around the same size as the USA, and it is a very long way from the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney and the Outback. To hire a campervan and travel around to get more of the experience would cost you over $6000 for a month, more if you want a fancier van. so we are already over $15 and have got tickets, vehicle and accommodation.Hiring a rental car and setting up tents would be a it cheaper. though most caravan parks (campgrounds) would charge at least $ 50 per night for a tent. Food is around double what you pay in America, fuel is around $150 per litre, way more in the outback, The AU dollar is currently worth more than the US dollar . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awisha. Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 I would think that the plane tickets would be around $2000 per person, that adds up to $10K just to get here and return for the five of you before you even think of doing anything. How long are you thinking of staying? Just remember that Australia is around the same size as the USA, and it is a very long way from the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney and the Outback. To hire a campervan and travel around to get more of the experience would cost you over $6000 for a month, more if you want a fancier van. so we are already over $15 and have got tickets, vehicle and accommodation.Hiring a rental car and setting up tents would be a it cheaper. though most caravan parks (campgrounds) would charge at least $ 50 per night for a tent. Food is around double what you pay in America, fuel is around $150 per litre, way more in the outback, The AU dollar is currently worth more than the US dollar . She means $1.50 per litre not $150!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 She means $1.50 per litre not $150!!! Oh! :ohmy: I most certainly mean $1.50 what a difference a decimal point makes :leaving: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 most caravan parks (campgrounds) would charge at least $ 50 per night for a tent. What? $50/ night for a TENT? :svengo: I've never paid that. But the last time I camped was in the Wimmera. :p (To everyone else, that's the middle of nowhere in our state. My brother picked up a free camp site book. I think should all get one! I paid, I think, about $1.68 per litre for petrol in Coober Pedy a month or two ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maplinmum Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 We did this several years ago, if you have a limited budget look at youth hostels for accommadation. Most of them have family rooms that you can use and often have cooking facilities which saves eating out for every meal. The youth hostel in the Daintree Rainforest is a real experience. my kids were 12, 10 & 6 when we did it. We started in Sydney and had a few days there with a day trip up to the Blue mountains, then we flew up to Cairns, hired a car and went up the hinterland for a couple of days before moving onto port Douglas. The older 2 kids and i went on a 3 day scuba diving trip up to the northern part of the great barrier reef, wilst my husband and youngest stayed in port Douglas. We then flew out of Cairns to Uluru where we had a 3 day trip that took us around Uluru and out to Kings Canyon. We then flew onto Perth to visit family. It was a great trip and gave the kids a brief overview of Australia covering city, coast/reef and desert. I booked the airfare through out travel agent but everything else i researched and booked over the internet to save costs and allow us to customise it to suit ourselves. The airfare you need to book as far ahead as possible to get the best deals and again research first on the internet. For example in Jly we are going to visit the USA so i found the best deal on the internet which Ithen took to the travel agent and we played around with it to see what we could change with out affecting the price. For example the route had us flying back from Atlanta to Perth via New York. We could add a 4 day stopover in New York without changing the price and we could alter the flight time leaving Atlanta so that we got to New York at a better time of day. Feel free to email me if you want more information, but if you put the work into planning the trip you will be able to get one that is a lot better than a package tour. Look at thigs like public transport deals, we got a ?5 day pass for public transport in Sydney that included the ferry boats, we could do a 2 hour harbour tour as part of it and I think it might of included the return trip to the airport. Good luck with the planning, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingmama Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 We want to go see all of the main sights, Great Barrier Reef, Syndey, the Outback Keep in mind these places are HUGE distances apart (all three of those are in different States). Also airfairs to the outback if you mean Uluru are close to $500 pp. one way. When are you coming? You do not want to be camping in the outback in the middle of summer :lol: Like anywhere - prices double during school holidays so booking off-peak is advisable. The "outdoor" experience of Australia is very different to the "outdoor experience" in the USA. There are (posionous) snakes and spiders and if you go to the outback -millions of pesky flies. The heat can be a killer if you ar not used to it. Outdoors in Australia means lots of dust and dirt and bugs :glare: Sydney is one of the top 5 most expensive place in the world to live and very, very congested. Canberra is a great place to visit though if you want to see Australian parliment and lots of Aussie history. You can safely skip Adelaide -nothing to see here :laugh: Maybe you can camp in Rosies backyard if you visit Victoria :p I think you prabably need to shorten your list of things to do while you are here - mosts Aussies couldn't do all those things you listed inside a few months (unless you are Oprah of course). Oh and whatever you plan to set aside for food expenses -triple it. Food is crazy expensive here - you'll be suprised how little you get for your money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 Why do you want to go to Sydney, anyway? Canberra is better, as long as you walk. Most of the stuff there has free entry! Rosie doesn't own her backyard, so if you want to stay, you could try her aunt through the wwoofer website. That would get you fed in exchange for work. If you didn't want to work, she'd probably let you stay anyway but wouldn't feed you. Hope you like chickpeas, because it is my chickpeas she'd probably feed you on. :p I dunno. If I were you, I'd hire/buy a car, pack a tent and drive until I ran out of petrol money. Oh wait. That is how I get around here. :p Hmm. What does the outdoor experience mean to you? Tourist places and outdoor experience don't conjure up the same image in my head. Using Melissa's calculations, I'd estimate that you could afford to road trip for a fortnight if you ate sandwiches for each meal and camped. One week if you didn't. Mind you, if you pick the right areas of the country, you can cover a lot of territory in a week. As long as you don't mind driving ten hours a day. ;) Look up Seymour, Victoria and Coober Pedy, South Australia. Driving ten hours a day, I got from one to the other back in four days. A week and a half from Bendigo, Victoria to Sapphire, Queensland and back, mainly avoiding the coast. Again, driving about 10 hours a day. When you are out in the country parts of the country, there's nothing much to do but drive anyway. Happily, my kids are great travellers. Exmouth to Perth, Western Australia, takes a full day of driving. The same distance on the east coast takes about three days. If that gives you any idea on travel times and distances. I don't know what you could manage by flying instead of driving because I don't fly. I'd guess at two locations, but someone else may have a better idea. You'd better give us your bucket list destinations so we can help more. Consider the Ningaloo reef instead of the Great Barrier. It may be cheaper. (Anyone know about that?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 What? $50/ night for a TENT? :svengo: I've never paid that. But the last time I camped was in the Wimmera. :p (To everyone else, that's the middle of nowhere in our state. My brother picked up a free camp site book. I think should all get one! I paid, I think, about $1.68 per litre for petrol in Coober Pedy a month or two ago. DH went to merimbula fr a basketball tournament with 2 children last month. 1 adult and two children was $43 per night for a campsite. So I am guessing that OP with 3 children and 2 adults would be a minimum of $50 per night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 :svengo: $50 wasn't a typo! I was talking to my brother about this. Our conclusion was the cheapest way to get around is for you to hire him and a minivan. You can borrow my tent, he'll sleep in the van. :p If he can get annual leave, heheh. He would also like to suggest that more Hivers come to Australia so he can quit his job and drive you all around. :rofl: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 DH said maybe look into Wicked Campers. the are very basic, but cheep. http://www.wickedcampers.com.au/ the only problem with them is their vehicles are full of graffiti on the outside, and some of it isn't very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted December 14, 2012 Author Share Posted December 14, 2012 Thank-you all!! This has been so helpful. I think that I was a little overzealous in the things that we would like to see. I forget how big Australia really is! :-) :tongue_smilie: We are planning on going in two years, so I do have time to plan. I knew that it would be very expensive, and that's fine. Now I can safely assume that we will need at least $20K, and we have already begun to save. I really appreciate you all taking the time to answer and I will look into all of the things that have been mentioned. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.