Mwenenzi

Uluru/Alice Springs & Darwin/Kakadu are all in the Northern Territory
Its big https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Territory

Single_Flyer

Yeah, I'm thinking of either Uluru OR Darwin/Kakadu; not going to try to see the entire NT.

Or is there a better option than those locations?

Travel K

Fully aware of the size of NT. Still think it is a good territory to visit and should be considered. There is also more to it than just Uluru and the Olga's, which is why I mentioned all of NT, not just the one stop most seem to go to.

Mwenenzi

Single_Flyer has 3-4 days for somewhere away from Sydney, so responses are made for that short time.

joanek

Drive to Canberra via Batemans Bay. Stay at the Park Hyatt, walking distance to the fab a Old Parliament House, home to the Museum of Australian Democracy. The name is much too dry - it's a must if you like politics, history, pop culture, etc. The town has other wonderful museums & sites, too.

Or take the train. Or fly.

robr

It's been 6 months since our trip already (Nov-Dec 2016), and I thought I had my own thread on this topic, but perhaps there was some consolidation to clean things up, but a few people have asked about a trip report. I'm not much of a writer, but my wife put together a photo album of our adventures and finally completed it a few days ago.

https://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/...?vk=759PD8gn7A

angra

nice! It's pleasing to hear back from folks after advice has been given, digested, and maybe acted upon! Thanks for posting!

Maykita

Just wanted to post a quick thank you to the folks who advised me to visit Tasmania. We were there for 8 days in March and had a great time. It was truly ideal for wildlife viewing and enjoying the outdoors, which were our priorities. Our roughly counterclockwise itinerary was Launceston, Mole Creek, Cradle Mountain, Hobart, Cole's Bay, St. Helen's, and back to Launceston. Could have spent a lot more time there!

Don in LA

I'm back! Just booked LAX-AKL on June 13, AKL-SYD on June 24, and SYD-LAX on July 5. So I have 11 days (really only 10) in Oz. I have nothing planned yet, nor any hotels reserved. [Update: using points, I booked our first 5 nights at the Sydney Hilton; needed two rooms, so 346,000 points gone]. All I want to do is explore Sydney, maybe do a day trip to the Blue Mountains, and then head north to dive the Reef. Wife and 13 and 15-year old daughters do not dive, but will snorkel. I hear bleaching is bad in Cairns, but the thought of GBR and Daintree Rain Forest is very appealing.

Any interest in helping me plan this part of my trip (or the NZ part -- I've done a similar amount of planning for that)?

Thank you all so much in advance.

portland67

I'm currently looking at booking a 2 week trip next February to either Australia/New Zealand or just Australia itself. Any advice would be great because I'm on the fence on both itineraries.

Australia/NZ
Day 1-4 Auckland and surrounding areas
Day 5-7 Alice Springs/Ayers Rock
Day 8-10 Melbourne
Day 11-14 Sydney

Australia
Day 1-3 Melbourne
Day 4-6 Alice Springs/ Ayers Rock
Day 7-8 Brisbane
Day 9-10 Canaberra
Day 11-14 Sydeny

What would you do if you're going on this type of trip?

tom911

I'd bypass New Zealand this trip and hold it for a future trip, particularly if you don't have time to get over to Queenstown or Wellington and do some trips out from either of those. Maybe you can do a 10-14 day New Zealand trip down the line and just get a little more in.

Before you commit to Ayers Rock, make sure affordable accommodation is available out there. My first time out, as a backpacker, I showed up without any kind of booking and ended up sleeping in a caravan park under a canopy (wasn't alone - two others on my flight also didn't have bookings). Everything in town was booked. There's not a lot to choose from so take some time to research this if you go directly here and bypass Alice Springs.

If you're looking to do a tour from Alice Springs that would include Ayers Rock, you'll need more time that you've budgeted - maybe in the 4-5 day range to include your arrival by air in Alice Springs and then a 3 day ground tour that would include Ayers Rock. Look around and see what tours might be offered between the two and what type of accommodations are offered (one I did was all camping and you rented a sleeping bag from them).

Think I'd add a day or two onto Brisbane and visit the Sunshine Coast to the north - places like Noosa and Maroochydore, if you're looking for beachfront. There are some rail/bus options up that way but be sure you know where the bus stops are on the way back (I thought I did once, standing in a marked bus shelter, but the bus I wanted to the train station didn't stop at that particular stop and went right by me). You could also go south to Gold Coast but it looks somewhat like Miami Beach with an active nightlife scene, so depending what you're looking for on this trip could be an option.

I'm heading back to Australia this weekend for what may be my 20th trip over and I still haven't made it to Canberra. I'd be tempted to use that time for Brisbane instead and not try to pack too much into one trip.

Exec_Plat

Couple O thoughts....

Skip New Zealand this trip. two weeks isnt enough. (or skip Oz...)

You really should understand that each 'segment' in you itinerary requires one full day of travel to 're-position'...so you have 4 days of travel in that itin. Considering you spend two getting there, and one getting home, that is 7 full days of 'being there'.

Here is the most important question: WHAT INTERESTS YOU?

I am an 'off the beaten path'..'never tour groups'...'nature/hiking/biking/snorkel/scuba' kind of person. Enjoy cities, but a day or two and I've had it.

But what about you? That will help folks give advice

Specifics:

February at Ayers Rock can be special. It is summer. I was there at the end of March and it was well over 40C (got up to 109F). Im a nut, so it was OK. Start early, pace yourself, sweat profusely. I deal with 100F here all the time. Many people do not- so be aware. (Also. 109 isnt really THAT hot for this area...some will say "oh, at least you did it on a cool day") We drove from there up to Kings Canyon then on to Alice Springs.

Why are you doing Brisbane, Canbera and Melborne? Are there specific reasons to go to these places? (I spent two days in Canberra many years ago..... Im now 'good' on my lifetime Canberra needs. ) Brisbane felt like Florida/Miami. If you are using Brisbane for access to the area, fine- I jsut wasnt wowed by the city. As Tom mentioned, we used it for the airport- but drove north to Noosa and Fraiser Island

Consider:

Stay in 'the Sydney area' for, say, 7 days. Sightseeing in the city; take 2 days and do an overnight trip up to the Blue mountains (car or train)....take 2,3 days and do a roadtrip up or down the coast from Sydney. This way you are not making big relocations, with the time wasted traveling by plane, changing hotels, etc etc, but you are taking in a very different sort of Australia by venturing outside of Sydney. If you have a car and can do it self guided and just follow your nose a bit, it can be quite interesting.

My 2 cents

portland67

The biggest thing we're looking for is a good variety of Australia. My wife and I aren't very big off the beaten path people. We choose those cities mainly because those are the big landmark cities that we know about.

I think we had some priorities it would be

1. landmarks ( i.e blue mountains, great ocean road, etc)
2. food and wine. That's part of our love of travel is the food and culture
3. things at a leisurely pace

Ideally a cruise along the east coast would be wonderful but I know there's not an itinerary that caught my eye.

portland67

Thanks Tom. I think we're going to listen and save NZ for another trip. I think the biggest thing is making use of our time down there since this is definitely one of our bucket list trips.

toz100

We (couple) will tour a bit of Australia this November/December for about 3 weeks. Besides seeing Melbourne (3 nights) and Adelaide (2 nights) we want to go by car from MEL to ADL (7 days) and will also have 7 days by car in Tasmania.

My question to the Aussie experts is how to best partition (overnight stops) the tour from MEL to ADL and also the 7 days in Tasmania. We want to include Kangaroo Island. In Tasmania we want to do also some short to medium walks/hikes but no day- or overnight-tours. I would be grateful for suggestions and also for recommendations for hotels or B&B's (upper comfort level, no extreme luxury) and - if possible - also for restaurants (good to up market).