I'd like to plan a trip for late Oct for 3 or 4 wks to AU, with a return no later than Thanksgiving wk-end (from LAX) My friend who travels often, says it can't be done, however she plans every minute of everyday for her trips, whereas I am a MUCH more relaxed traveler. If I select specific dates for 3 or 4 major cities starting and ending in SYD, taking day trips in each city, with no reservations, Does anyone think I can get this plan accomplished?

Sure you can. I am now planning for 2 weeks at Christmas, and have found all aspects easy to deal with: car rental from avis over the internet, some internet and some phone reservations for hotels. Lots of good websites and printed books for info. See the current posts under Ansett. I paid more for the G'Day "passes" than I would have paid for the lowest internet fare--as far as I can tell they have the flexibility of a full fare ticket-completely changeable or even refundable. You can even buy more when you get to Australia. If you have Hilton or Marriott points, check out the hotels. All dates I checked out were available. The US dollar goes a long way, which helps too.
Good Luck

yes you can do it. I like to have things planned out well in advance, but I have learned this isnt always the way things can be done, and you will have no problem planing this trip in the amount of time you have.

Thx for the boost, I feel more confident now.
I'll head to the book store tomorrow, and check out the Ansett posts tonight.

You can see a lot of things in 4 weeks.
Here's an example itinerary: http://www.geocities.com/e94de/itinerary.html .
I'm leaving on Sunday!!!

Vunder31 I am very jealous!! Enjoy the trip!!
I loved it there! The one thing I liked was that the people are all so friendly.
Cheers http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif