Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Big family trips on a budget in Australia

I am pretty savvy at traveling for amazingly little when by myself, or in a small group. However, it seems more difficult to travel this way as the group gets larger. I am currently trying to plan a trip for my extended family, from various parts of the US to Australia, for next August. My mother has not had the opportunity to travel a lot and has dreamed of visiting Australia. I am trying to coordinate it so that she can experience Australia with all of her grandchildren. We would have 4-6 adults and 3-5 children (including several babies). I would love to set a budget of $1000 to $1500/person (excluding the babies), for a two week trip.

I have been contemplating house swapping, renting a motor home for part of the trip, and am open to lots of other ideas. I am the only one with any miles, but have thought about working together on the miles and points deals to pay for rooms for the trip. And, I have been watching for great fares/mistake fares as well.

If people have creative ideas on how to pull this off, I would love to hear them.

..christy.. The Australia Forum in FT is truly great. There are so many active posters who are willing to share information. Therefore, I am moving your thread over to the Australia Forum (Travel & Dining>The World>Australia).
All best wishes...
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

This is not impossible to do, if this budget does not include the cost of actually getting to Australia (the flights will be $1k+). After all, Australia is the land made for backpackers so there is a big budget travel industry in the country.

The biggest question is where you want to go. Australia is huge so you will need to make up your mind.

As a suggestion, I would fly to SYD, stay for 2-3 days, fly to Brisbane and rent two campervans and drive up to Cairns. Or one campervan if you are 4 adults and two kids. Or alternatively one CV and one small car and a tent.

Another way is buying a car and selling it later if one of you has the time and staying in Youth Hostels on the way. There are some really nice ones with one in Sydney having Opera House views.

You can do Fraser Island, Whitsundays, Noosa, Great Barrier Reef and Cape Tribulation on this tour.

At the Whitsundays, you can do cheap sailing tours for 2-3 days which are a lot of fun.

August is mid-winter in Australia. This means anything from skiing to pleasant weather (in the tropical/outback areas). So what temp range were you wanting to experience? That significantly changes the nature of your trip and the cost. As a rule of thumb, expect to spend double what a similar trip in the US would cost. Many hotels limit occupancy to 3 per room unless booking a suite, so for 11 people you are looking at 4 rooms per night -- or about USD 400 - 800 a night depending upon the location. Serviced apartment rentals are not cheaper, just more space, so about USD 7000 will go just for accomodation. Even Formule 1 costs AUD 99 in the major cities (and AUD 69 in the middle of nowhere), and that is Motel 6 equivalent. With food and car rental, sightseeing, etc. I think USD 200 pp per day will be more likely as a budget and not the USD 100 per day that you are wanting. This is presuming that backpacking is not an option for you (and even backpacking is not cheap, I saw one backpacker hostel in Sydney charging over USD 100 per night!).

I have been contemplating... renting a motor home for part of the trip... My family and I have done this twice, once in NSW / Queensland, once in WA... it's great fun and easy driving, but it doesn't cost out versus car + hotel. Figure AU$200 / day for a mid-to-large campervan, plus insurance (+/- $AU40 / day), plus fuel (easily AU$100 / day for days when you're on the move), plus campsite fees assuming you want power and water each night (AU$25-$50 nightly). After each time I added up my rental, food and fuel chits and realized it would have been cheaper to rent a big Ford or Holden and stay in 4* hotels with clean sheets every night! But we did it for the touring, access to remote places like Monkey Mia in the northwest, and the fun of meeting people in campgrounds.

If you do want to press ahead with RV rental I can recommend:

www.coolabahmotorhomes.com.au

Good vehicles and great service, depots nationwide.