Australia itinery

gary the great

Am in Oz at the moment and due to me working like a mad thing before i came i never got mch of a chance to plan. i have 8 weeks on the east coast, flew into cainrs and out of Brisbane.

I was thinking of gettign a greyhound bus pass and jsut taking buses down to each place of intrest and city (from cairns, airlie beach, townsville, byron bay, brisbane, sydney, melboure etc and then backl to brisbane)

Any tips on what to miss and not miss? Any tips on howe to do the trip on the cheap (cant believe how expensive it is out here, 4euro for a pint!)
Any tips or advice would be cool.

scary

if your heading out of cairns stop in mission beach,about 3 hrs south of cairns by bus. stay in scottys hostel, do a skydive and some white water rafting on the tully river, you can book it all through the hostel. well worth it.

corm

hussey

gary the great wrote: »

Am in Oz at the moment and due to me working like a mad thing before i came i never got mch of a chance to plan. i have 8 weeks on the east coast, flew into cainrs and out of Brisbane.

I was thinking of gettign a greyhound bus pass and jsut taking buses down to each place of intrest and city (from cairns, airlie beach, townsville, byron bay, brisbane, sydney, melboure etc and then backl to brisbane)

Any tips on what to miss and not miss? Any tips on howe to do the trip on the cheap (cant believe how expensive it is out here, 4euro for a pint!)
Any tips or advice would be cool.

Not miss -> whitsundays sailing & fraser island

doing the grayhound route would be cheap yeah, cheaper if you can hitch a lift with backpackers and chip in for petrol ... ;-)

4euro a pint? depends where you go, if bars are in city are generally more expensive, in the suburbs (of sydney) can can get a 'pint' for $5AUD = 3euro ish

ibh

There is an alternative to the Greyhound bus and its cheaper but can't remember it's name.. Now that i think of it, the Greyhound is better cause it has more stops.. The best place on the entire East coast is a little place called 'Town of 1770'. It's really small but theres a good beach, great pubs and restaurants and it is the best craic you will find. If your going anywhere you just hitch a lift. The locals are really friendly and like backpackers, which is pretty unusual in Australia..
Also just off the coast of Brisbane is Stradbroke Island. Again its a bit isolated but it's a really nice relaxed place. YHA hostel is top drawer, and lots of outdoor activities.
The above places were great in my opinion cause not ever backpacker was going to them so you got to see some different stuff and to actually meet some locals. If your into the Santa Ponsa of Australia, then Airlie Beach and Hervey bay are where u should head..

hussey

ibh wrote: »

If your into the Santa Ponsa of Australia, then Airlie Beach and Hervey bay are where u should head..

Yes and no, that option is certainly there, but to put all the options into that bucket is unfair.

Hervey bay is more like a retirement home, airlie beach - yes pure party town.

But there are many different options on both whitsunday and fraser to cater for individual tastes.

You can do the whole 3 day drinking tour, or you can do other types, so it depends on taste.

ibh

hussey wrote: »

Yes and no, that option is certainly there, but to put all the options into that bucket is unfair.

Hervey bay is more like a retirement home, airlie beach - yes pure party town.

But there are many different options on both whitsunday and fraser to cater for individual tastes.

You can do the whole 3 day drinking tour, or you can do other types, so it depends on taste.

Yea i was talking more about Airlie Beach itself rather than the actual Whitsunday sailing tours. I agree about those. You really just get what u pay for, and the various sailing tours differ greatly.
The town / village itself is tacky though.

Hervey bay is pretty nice but again it's the masses of people that bring the tone down a bit..

BTW i wasn't a bore when i was in these places. I went out and enjoyed myself, but just found the less commercial locations to be better craic..

Horses for courses and all that..

Jugs82

Just back..

There is an alternative to the Greyhound bus and its cheaper but can't remember it's name.. Now that i think of it, the Greyhound is better cause it has more stops

Its called Premier Bus Service - avoid, late departures, never on time and frequently packed so you could get stuck somewhere for a few days wating for a bus

The best place on the entire East coast is a little place called 'Town of 1770'. It's really small but theres a good beach, great pubs and restaurants and it is the best craic you will find.

Another vote for 1770 here - has a great motorcycle tour where you head off on Harleys cheap enough and great craic

For the Whitsundays, do a bit of research on which boat to take, talking to other backpackers is usually the best way but avoid boats called Reality Is, Tallarook or Habibi

Townsville?? maybe for a night if your heading to or coming back from Magnetic Island but otherwise, IMO its a hole - Magnetic Island is worth a few nights, i really enjoyed it!

If you wanna party, Surfers is the spot - dont get too comfortable, youll end up broke

Oh yeah last nugget of wisdom - do Fraser Island from Rainbow beach (YHA are recommended) not Hervety Bay - avoid a hostel called Kookaburras - blatant con men...

Have a ball and remember if ya run outa money, theres lotsa fruit n veg to be picked...

tippbhoy

Jugs82 wrote: »

Just back..



Its called Premier Bus Service - avoid, late departures, never on time and frequently packed so you could get stuck somewhere for a few days wating for a bus



Another vote for 1770 here - has a great motorcycle tour where you head off on Harleys cheap enough and great craic

For the Whitsundays, do a bit of research on which boat to take, talking to other backpackers is usually the best way but avoid boats called Reality Is, Tallarook or Habibi

Townsville?? maybe for a night if your heading to or coming back from Magnetic Island but otherwise, IMO its a hole - Magnetic Island is worth a few nights, i really enjoyed it!

If you wanna party, Surfers is the spot - dont get too comfortable, youll end up broke

Oh yeah last nugget of wisdom - do Fraser Island from Rainbow beach (YHA are recommended) not Hervety Bay - avoid a hostel called Kookaburras - blatant con men...

Have a ball and remember if ya run outa money, theres lotsa fruit n veg to be picked...

If you're flying out of Brisbane and going down as far as melbourne, there probably isn't much point retracing the same steps again, it will only give you less time in different locations. You should look at the option of a cheap flight back from melbourne to Brisbane. virginblue.com.au was reasonable when i was over there. Don't miss out on the biggies, whitsunday sailing, fraser island, surfers paradise, etc. I didn't get as far as Melbourne so i can't comment south of Sydney.

Townsville is a kip btw as are most of the mid size towns on the route from what i could tell.

Don't forget home and away