oz travel blogs

aidan12124

can somone who spent a year in australia post their travel blog so i can get some ideas on where to go etc.. am going over for the year on a working visa + have no idea what im going to do after i arrive in sydney.. how much money do people generally bring with them

hussey

can't help you with blogs

But your question about money: that's very hard to answer
it depends what you wanna do, where you go, how much you're gonna spend in oz, and how much your willingt o work

Firstly you a book from the library, lonely planet most obvious. have a read through what you wanna do and see, when I did it I had no idea about sydney and what i wanted to do.

Alot of people say they get stuck in sydney, as in settle down spend too much time and money there, I believe it's because it's usually their first point of landing etc.

you when you arrive is important too, accommadation after decemeber in backpacker houses near the hot spots (bondi/coogee) are very hard to find and usually expensive. so bare this in mind.

From my experience you'll need about 1.3k/per month of non-working + partying. But that's just a guess, it really depends how often you go out, what adventures you do, if you eat out every night etc.

If you truely have no idea what you want to do and see, when you get to sydney talk to a few people (stay in a hostel, meet fellow backpackers) lots of info sheets knocking around.

Darren

Glowing has a cracking blog which includes Oz ( And many other places)

aidan12124

hopefully ill have about E5k (about $9k) do people generally travel around first or should u focus on getting a job and then go traveling after. do u have a link to that blog? just want to get a general idea of what people do, going in august, sy=taying in thailand for 10 days and then headin on to sydney

Glowing

Aww thanks Darren! It was a cracking trip
Edit: http://www.ballofdirt.com/journeys/9772.html

I found australia to be very expensive. You really won't get that far with 5,000. How do you plan to travel around? Car/bus/plane? Why do you want to see Australia? If you're really into 'travelling', there are cheaper places to go (and possibly more interesting) - but if its Australia you want to see in particular, then give us an idea of what you'd like to get out of the experience. Drinking/sightseeing/adventure sports/hiking etc. Its a big place!

Don't do what 'people do'. Do what you want to do! Have you thought about staying in Asia longer? You could stay in Asia for months on that money, then go to Oz when you're broke and get a job!

aidan12124

thanx glowing,
surfing (altough i dislocated my shoulder last wk), sun, summerbay, scuba diving, partys, great barrier reef, women, fun. more drinking... always wanted to c oz+ no1 goes and comes back regretting it.. have flights and visa paid for.. cant wait.
so u reckon 5gs is pretty poor?

BuffyBot

Any chance we can have in English, as per the charter?

aidan12124

hey Glowing, wat were the highlights of your time in oz, wat wud u recomend, the blog is great, gona get loads of ideas from that!!

aidan12124

BuffyBot wrote:

Any chance we can have in English, as per the charter?

what? u mean how were the flights?cant remember, think it was E1500 inc tax return, got them with trailfinders

BuffyBot

what?

I mean without text speak, as the rules of this forum ask for

Darren

Glowing wrote:

Aww thanks Darren! It was a cracking trip
Edit: http://www.ballofdirt.com/journeys/9772.html

I found australia to be very expensive. You really won't get that far with 5,000. How do you plan to travel around? Car/bus/plane? Why do you want to see Australia? If you're really into 'travelling', there are cheaper places to go (and possibly more interesting) - but if its Australia you want to see in particular, then give us an idea of what you'd like to get out of the experience. Drinking/sightseeing/adventure sports/hiking etc. Its a big place!

Don't do what 'people do'. Do what you want to do! Have you thought about staying in Asia longer? You could stay in Asia for months on that money, then go to Oz when you're broke and get a job!

I'll second all this especially the bit about staying in Asian longer. I did a trip from London-Hong Kong-Saigon-Phnom Penh-Sihnoukville-Phnom Penh-Srim Reap-Bangkok-London in January 2006. I had a great time and it didn't cost hardly anything.

Glowing

Yeah I'm not saying that Australia isn't great or anything, its a fantastic country. I'm just saying that you don't HAVE to go to Australia just because everyone else is. If you've got a bit of money, travel a bit through Asia before you get to Oz, your money will go a lot further here, and then you can pick up a job when you arrive in Sydney. Activities are pricey in Oz too, maybe 100 dollars for any sort of day trip - and believe me, it all adds up!

The highlights for me were diving on the barrier reef, the wildlife (amazing birds, insects, kangaroos etc!), and the beaches were stunning. I didn't particularly like the nightlife, very 'backpackery' with jelly wrestling etc - it was a bit cheezy and I did notice that the average age group of travellers in australia was a lot younger than in Asia. I'd love to live there, but not necessarily travel through it as a backpacker again.

phelana

Hey Glowing (and aidan12124), I'm actually thinking of doing the same trip in the next few months, but am trying to decide now how long to spend in Asia, and how much time to spend in Oz. I know this is fairly subjective, but how long would you recommend spending in Asia to see Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia... Also, how long would €5000 last you in Asia then?
Sorry if the questions are kind of vague!

Glowing

Australia is just like home, with more sunshine and nicer beaches (i'm sure people are going to disagree with me here!). If I could do my trip again, I wouldn't go there at all and spend all my time around Asia!

We spent on average 500-600 a month in S.E. Asia and that included doing dive courses, day trips, the odd internal flight, and eating out 3 times a day! You can do it much cheaper if you're willing to rough it.

deisemum

I just got back from Sydney yesterday. We stayed in Sydney for 5 nights and in the Blue Mountains for 3 nights.

We found it more expensive than here. Prices on some things were mad. Even Aldi over there is more expensive than here. 2 of us spent almost €1500 and this didn't include accommodation, breakfast or the car hire apart from the extra insurance to reduce excess. We weren't out drinking apart from with our meals. We didn't go mad bringing home too many presents.

Public transport in Sydney is very good and was reasonable pricewise.

Richie99

Hi All,

I'm leaving for Australia in 4wks, with the intention of travelling for 6wks and then looking for a job in Sydney around August.

i wish to post work clothes/suits out to Sydney, from Dublin. Does anyone know of a cheap/long postal service that would do this in Ireland?
I know people have sent large packages from Auz to Ireland that generally take 2mths, i just can't find any of these services in Ireland.

Any tips would be a help.. Cheers!

Spud83

I have one at www.bugbitten.com/alanmurphy.

I have updates from all around Oz, not sure if I posted from Sydney there. If ya have any questions just PM me. I would recommend leaving Sydney till last as a lot of people get stuck there. Also rememebr the weather as the summe rup north can be too hot for some people, and down south can be fairly cold in the winter. Prob best to stay in two/three cities for a while working a fit your travelling in between that. I brough about $6000, and worked for about 4-5 months as well.

phelana

Hey Glowing, I had a read of your blog over the past couple of days - sounds like you had an amazing trip! Just a quick question with regard to Laos, I was just wondering how you managed your money there, seeing as the country has no atms. Did you just estimate how much you needed for the time there and then bring that around with you?? Will definitely be heading there in October and was just curious about this!

Glowing

Hi Phelana, I'm pretty certain there was a new ATM in Vientienne, and we were able to take out US dollars there. I can't really remember how else we got money but i'll ask the other half and let you know later!

Regarding money, you should really only bring your Visa card. Keep it topped up in the positive using online banking then when you use the ATM machine you don't get charged any fees once you don't go into debt. If you drop your limit to the minimum, it'll reduce the damage in case it gets stolen! We used this system for the entire year and only got charged once or twice max!

Edit: Yep, there was an ATM alright, but we also went into the bank and were able to withdraw from our visa card over the counter. Our visa was only for 3 weeks, so we didn't need a whole lot of cash. You could have a couple of travellers cheques stashed away just in case ....