A travel post: Help me plan my first Australia trip.

[renodoc]

I have horded my frequent flyer miles for years and have found a round-trip in a combination of business/first class for December. Those of you who are frequent travelers or readers of FlyerTalk will understand just how balla/robusto it is to obtain free premium tickets on this trip. It has taken much effort and I may post a trip report on FT later. (Retail could easily top $40,000)

But I digress.

I'm travelling with my beautiful Australian wife,(no pics, but I do not believe that Borodog has anything on me here) her equally stunning mother, and our 5+ year old son who fortunately got their genes. While her passport is Aussie, she came to the states at age two and thus isn't a local. We are flying into Brisbane in early December, and flying home out of Sydney the first week of January.

My current vague plan has us exploring Queensland for a few days. Playing on the reef, etc. I'm considering then flying to Darwin and taking the Ghan train through the outback down to Adelaide. Hang there awhile and then off to Melbourne and then Sydney. Plan to do NYE at the harbour. Probabaly try to rent a beach house for the last week of the trip. Unfortunately, unless something changes dramatically, we will have to head back before the Australian open or the Aussie Millions. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Since many of the readers of the ElDGDF are well-travelled, or may in fact live down under, I ask you for your best Aussie suggestions:

Where to go?
Where to stay?
Places to eat and drink?
Sights, sounds and adventures not to be missed?

Thanks in advance.

RD

[homeboy604]

need a timeline...

[renodoc]

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need a timeline...

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We're very flexible. Arrive BNE 12 Dec Depart SYD 6 Jan.

I'm sure I could get lost in the wine country for a week....

[Dominic]

don't forget wine country outside of Sydney...

[BHold]

Queensland was probably my favorite area of Australia. Definately get out to the reef and snorkel, scuba if you can. Also go up to the Daintree rainforest north of Cairns and Port Douglas. Cape Tribulation up there is gorgeous (its a long white-sand beach where the rainforest meets the reef, but you won't be able to swim there at your time of visit due to the high amount of stingers in the water in summer).


When you are in Melbourne go out to the Great Ocean Road. Its a good day trip in Victoria a bit west of Melbourne. Lots of huge rock formations along the coast near the end of it, and some great gorges you can climb down to.

About 2 hours out of Sydney is the Blue Mountains. It's a very nice national park in a large canyon. Your young son probably can't do many of the hikes but he can ride on the scenic cableway and railway that run through the park for some nice views.

[lennytheduck]

I went to Australia for a couple weeks during my freshman year of college.

One of the most memorable experiences that anyone could appreciated had to be dancing/partying legally for the first time at the Opera Bar and then watching fireworks over the harbor. The bar is located right under the Opera House.

Definitely one time where I felt wholly happy and content with everything in my life.

[xedin]

[ QUOTE ]
I went to Australia for a couple weeks during my freshman year of college.

One of the most memorable experiences that anyone could appreciated had to be dancing/partying legally for the first time at the Opera Bar and then watching fireworks over the harbor. The bar is located right under the Opera House.

Definitely one time where I felt wholly happy and content with everything in my life.

[/ QUOTE ]

attn gay menz

[goofball]

I was there for a month last summer. A few thoughts:

Brisbane
-Lonepine koala sanctuary was so awesome. You can walk around with kangaroos, hold koalas and generally see australian animals to your hearts delight. Highly reccomended.
-South bank market on friday nights. There's a guy there who makes this kind of hungarian sweet bread called langos. Get one with garlic, sweet chili, sour cream, and something else (he'll know)
-South bank is a generally cool place to go
-I liked going on the tour of parliment, the building is neat and the tour guide was pretty entertaining.
-Walk around downtown. The casino is in the old treasury building and looks very cool.
-Across the river from downtown is the natural history museum. It's free and is great if you are into that stuff (I am). It's especially cool since it's so much australian natural history instead of the same old u.s. stuff you're used to.

Sydney
-Take a ride on a ferry around the harbor. Looking at the opera house/bridge/skyline from the harbor is breathtaking.
-Go to an opera in the opera house and go on a tour of the opera house. You'll take roughly 90000 pictures of the opera house.
-Take the ferry to manly (on the other side of the harbor) and walk around. I ended up staying in manly for the second half of my time in sydney. It's just a chill beach community that has a rural feel but is a mere 20 minute boat ride away from sydney
-Spend time just walking around the waterfront area. It's just super vibrant and fun and just being there elevates your mood in my experience.

Cairns
-reef
-do you scuba dive? if so do so on the reef
-if not snorkel on the reef
-if dive do a liveaboard where they go out for x days and dive dive dive.
-the reef
-there's an art museum in cairns that's kind of cool and only costs $2 to get into.
-there's a bar that does toad races every few days. it's kind of in the downtown area there. if you ask around it should be easy to find.
-the reef.

[slickpoppa]

Renodoc, there are so many things to do in Australia. I don't have too much time right now, but I'll give you a list of must dos with some pics:

Sydney:
- Have dinner and see a show at the Opera House (make sure it's in the main theatre)
- Walk the Harbour Bridge
- Bondi Beach. Also, walk from Bondi beach to Coogee beach.
- Manly Beach
- Royal Botanic Gardens
- Go drinking in the Rocks
- Go to an Aussie Rules Football game
- Taronga Zoo

Drive the Great Ocean Road:


Great Barrier Reef/scuba diving (Cairns is the most common launching point):


Fraser Island:


Sail the Whitsunday Islands (and you MUST visit Whitehaven Beach. The pictures don't do it nearly enough justice):


Uluru/Ayer's Rock :


Go camping for at least 3-5 days in the Outback surrounding Uluru. Nothing cooler than stargazing in the absolute middle of nowhere. (This may not be feasible in the middle of the summer with a 5 year old, but think about it).

Go camping in Kakadu National Park (where they filmed Crocodile Dundee II. It's a lot different than the Outback.):



Spend a full day at a random deserted beach on the east coast:




I never made it to Mebourne but I've heard good things.

It's too bad that you'll have a 5 year old son with you. Perhaps you can ditch him with the mother in law for a week so you can do some of the more adventurous things. My best advice in general though is to spend as little time in the cities as possible. Australia has so much natural beauty that even in a month it is hard to see it all. Ten years from now you'll remember that peaceful day at the beach or in the Outback much more fondly than any 5 star restaurant in Sydney or Mebourne. Or at least that's my opinion.

[adsman]

hey renodoc,

I'm a little confused. Isn't your wife Australian? Surely she would have a list of top places to go? Anyway, the Cairns advice while good is bad. Your time frame is the middle of the wet season. As someone who lived in cairns for 4 years, trust me you won't like it. That goes for Darwin too.

I like the Ghan train idea though. I suppose if you're just going to Darwin to leave it then that would be ok. After you arrive in Adelaide you can do the Barossa wine valley. Then get a car and drive the Great ocean Road to Melbourne. After Melbourne, head out up the coast until you come to the Alpine Highway. Take it and head through the Snowy Mountain ranges. Beautiful in Summer. You'll eventually come out in Gundagai. From there you can pick a ton of routes to get to Sydney.