Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Help needed....3 week Australian holiday

Hello all,

I am off to Australia for 3 weeks in Jan09. Skeleton plan is 1 week in Sydney followed by 5 nights Whitsunday islands and 5 nights in Cairns.

Really interested if anyone has any ideas on best things to do in all of the places, best places to stay and best restaurants?

As for budget I guess we will be looking at 3-4 star hotels.

Thanks for reading.

P

Scroll down old threads & search this forum. Your question that has been asked many many times before

What to do depends on your prefernces:
* city life
* outback Aussie
* beachs
* time of year when visting
* been to Au before
* ?
* ?

And remember Aussie is very big

Hello all,

I am off to Australia for 3 weeks in Jan09. Skeleton plan is 1 week in Sydney followed by 5 nights Whitsunday islands and 5 nights in Cairns.

Really interested if anyone has any ideas on best things to do in all of the places, best places to stay and best restaurants?

As for budget I guess we will be looking at 3-4 star hotels.

Thanks for reading.

P

I am assuming this is a first visit to Australia Forum so WELCOME

You do not state where you are from. Cairns and Whitsundays to a slightly lesser extend will be very hot at that time of the year.

5 days in either place may be too long or too short depending on what you like to do or what you may like to see.

In addition to reading the many, many questions and answers already listed in the forum, you should be aware that it is summer in Australia in January and it is the peak holiday period for us.

Therefore, accommodation will be booked out.

Do you mean January 2010? That might be a bit easier to book for.

Cities like Sydney will be on summer schedule / very quiet for the first two weeks on January and slowly get busier for the rest of the month.

You will most likely find out all of this with a bit of research.

Good luck with finding the accommodation (don't forget the hotelclub USD$50 voucher - click $50 09 H'Club below this post for information on how to get it). If you can ask more specific questions, you might get more useful answers.

There are a lot of resources here, if you can use the 'search this forum' (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=461&nojs=1#goto_forumsearch)button to filter what you need. :)

Thanks for your replies.

It will be my third time in Sydney so I know my way around there. It will be my 1st time up the coast.

We are flying into Hamilton Island from Sydney and wondered if anyone could recommend a decent cruise company as we are planning to sail round the Whitsundays. I've heard Hayman Island resort is nice. Can anyone recommend any others? I like lovely beach, good quality food and drink. What are the best hotels in this region? I'm 33 so don't want anywhere too lively (full of travellers) but not to quiet either.

Then we are on Cairns. Want to spend some time in the rainforests, bit of white water rafting and travel around a bit. Any decent places to stay? Around $150 AUS mark.

Cheers

Paul

Thanks for your replies.

It will be my third time in Sydney so I know my way around there. It will be my 1st time up the coast.

We are flying into Hamilton Island from Sydney and wondered if anyone could recommend a decent cruise company as we are planning to sail round the Whitsundays. I've heard Hayman Island resort is nice. Can anyone recommend any others? I like lovely beach, good quality food and drink. What are the best hotels in this region? I'm 33 so don't want anywhere too lively (full of travellers) but not to quiet either.

Then we are on Cairns. Want to spend some time in the rainforests, bit of white water rafting and travel around a bit. Any decent places to stay? Around $150 AUS mark.

Cheers

Paul

$150 might be a bit tight for that time of year its peak holiday time.

As for Cairns you may want to consider Port Douglas it's a bit nicer than Cairns and has pretty good access to the rainforests etc. $150/night in Cairns will probably get you something more substantial than the same in Port Douglas.

Sailing:
Can you sail? If you google 'Hamilton Island Charter' you will find Sunsail based there and there are a couple of other companies. I did have the info as brochures but have already recycled them. I think we checked out Prosail, too.
Hammo has a decent General Store for provisions, to stock up if you're going out for a few nights.

In the end we booked a group sail on Whitsunday Magic (http://whitsundaymagic.homestead.com/WhitsundayMagicItinerary.html), with Southern Cross Sailing, with this company: Oz Magic (www.ozmagic.homestead.com). Contact Gary Crockett. Google the company - Gary should offer the best deals (he did the best one at the time for us... 5% better than the rest).

All the info for 'bareboat' charters is online but at this late stage I would not be hopeful that you can pick up a boat charter this close to the date. Good luck, anyway!

Accommodation:
Last time on 'Hammo' (end of Race Week) we stayed in one of the older sets of acommodation (Poinciana Lodge, #209) because we had a view, a great deal and importantly, our own wheels - the good old golf buggy! :D
We booked through www.stayz.com.au (a local VRBO style listing service) and negotiated a good rate with a really friendly, helpful owner. We would highly recommend the owner of this place and they have several places for rent. PM me if you like.

Cost would be close to AUD$300/night.

www.OzAdventureSailing.com.au

They appear to be a lot cheaper than many of the other sailing companies,

$150 might be a bit tight for that time of year its peak holiday time.

As for Cairns you may want to consider Port Douglas it's a bit nicer than Cairns and has pretty good access to the rainforests etc. $150/night in Cairns will probably get you something more substantial than the same in Port Douglas.

I stayed in Palm Cove and enjoyed myself. Can't remember the name of the place we stayed.