BadgerBoi

I love Melbourne, I know it well, have worked there, spent holidays there and would go back in a heartbeat.

I just can't bear to relive the recent thread where someone who was looking for a beach holiday in Queensland in June or July was advised that Melbourne would be an appropriate alternative. You were a protagonist in that thread and kept contradicting my views on Melbourne, so you should know what the point of this post is.

As I said, I love Melbourne, but its apologists are just bizarre.

Zarf4

Although the Melbourne rocks/sucks/is too esoteric/etc. debate is rather enjoyable perhaps some VIC enthusiast who would love to go back or knows some of its secret charms might share some actual places to see/things to do.

Unfortunately my only knowledge is of Tullamarine airport and the only useless bit of advice I can offer is before returning to the states purchase a bottle of Koala Blue water from the duty-free shop, it's about 1/2 the price of a Mount Franklin out of a vending machine.

concordian

Looks like I will be coming there in August 2014(planning for 14-15 days) and trying to do some reading of Lonely Planet/Travel Guides on the places to visit.

BadgerBoi

Can't you come for longer? It's a great big varied country, you won't get much more than a taste of it in two weeks. I guess it will leave you hungry for a return visit though.

concordian

Looks like Australia is a costly place, I need to budget for that and also getting more than 15 days vacation may be tough for me.

BadgerBoi

Meh, I travelled regularly to the US when our dollar would only buy 65 US cents, you just have to suck it up I'm afraid

Annalisa12

Aussie rules footy match. Blend in like a local with a VB and pie at half time and hot jam donuts for the kids. My overseas relatives have all loved the atmosphere and the different game.

nas6034

Just booked a trip for 5nts into Sydney. Just want a taste for future visit. Will do blue mtn one day. Maybe a wine tour and see the kangaroo's and koala's another. Do the bridge climb and maybe see a show at the opera house. Any other ideas?

BadgerBoi

Why not think about doing a tour of the Opera House rather than seeing a show. You'll probably see several of the halls and get a great feel of the place and its story. The Australian Opera is world class, but the halls are a bit ordinary as performance spaces

The State Theatre in Market Street is a beautiful old building that sometimes has tours, well worth a look. It used to have a wonderful cocktail bar, I don't know if it's still operating, but well worth popping in for a drink if it is, it's a trip back to the 1920s.

I love the zoo and also the aquarium, we always take visitors there. The ferry ride to the zoo has great views of the Opera House.

concordian

I need experts to review my tentative itinerary:

Sydney - 4 days
SYD-Alice Springs Flight - 1-2 days
Rent a car drive to Uluru - 2 days
Drive back to Alice Springs - fly to Darwin
Darwin - Kakadu NP - 3 days
Fly Darwin - Cairns - 2-3 days
Cairns - MEL - spend 2 days

I want to ask about availability of Vegetarian food. Do we have choices esp at Uluru/Kakadu NP etc?

harvyk

You've certainly packed the trip in.

SYD to Alice Springs is about a day, Alice Springs is interesting enough (I've spent a couple of days there) but on a tight time frame I'd plan on landing, getting a car and driving out to Uluru on the same day as the Alice is not that interesting.

Can't tell you for sure about vegetarian food as I'm not a vego, but you'd probably be able to find it at both Uluru and Kakadu as both are pretty big tourist spots.

I'd suggest taking your own food for the drives though as you may be very limited along the way.

The other thing, make sure you are well rested before doing the drive. Having driven along the absolute flat boring roads you get out there it does not take much for the mind to wander (and the speed to creep up if not using cruise control).

Also be careful overtaking road trains (really large trucks with up to 3 full sized trailers), what ever distance you expect you'll need, double it (if not triple it) esp as there is now speed limits out there. (130km/h) Also be careful around the 3rd trailer as that thing can swing around wildly and can catch ppl unaware.

a330j

Be aware that Alice to Uluru is about a 6 hour trip one way (its over 600kms). There is the odd roadhouse along the way. This link provides some useful info. http://traveloutbackaustralia.com/dr...ers-rock.html/. Its a lot of time on the road given the length of your trip. As an alternative, there are 4wd/camping tours that run out of Alice that do a loop including Uluru but taking in the back way, which would let you relax and enjoy the trip with your kids but still see the country. Another alternative is to fly direct to Uluru (forget Alice), and hire a car(4wd) or take a tour out of there. Depends how far the budget stretches I guess.

shillard

FINALLY!

I've always wondered who thought that Sydney was superior to Melbourne - now I know the one person on the planet with this view. Thanks!

shillard

Lies.

Nobody "lives" in Sydney.

People may exist there, but nobody "lives" there.

BadgerBoi

Err, actually I live here, and quite happily, as do another 4 million or so other people. Sorry you don't get Sydney, but that's just your loss I guess.