travel between sydney and cairns

irishboyuk

i am going to oz in february and im unsure about travelling from sydney up the coast to cairns. ive heard of the greyhound passes but dont know anything about them. if anyone has experience of this route i would greatly appreciate their advice.

im going to be in oz for a month and i want to take in melbourne, sydney and the east coast up to cairns and the barrier reef. i am allowing €1500 for the duration of my stay to cover everything from travel while im there, hostels, food, drink and activites etc!! is this realistic?

Morlar

irishboyuk wrote: »

i am going to oz in february and im unsure about travelling from sydney up the coast to cairns. ive heard of the greyhound passes but dont know anything about them. if anyone has experience of this route i would greatly appreciate their advice.

im going to be in oz for a month and i want to take in melbourne, sydney and the east coast up to cairns and the barrier reef. i am allowing €1500 for the duration of my stay to cover everything from travel while im there, hostels, food, drink and activites etc!! is this realistic?

Flight Sydney to Cairns is not too bad, from what I remember about 120 AUSD. Thats a 3 or 4 hr flight from what I remember so the thoughts of doing that on a bus are horrific imo. The drive would be a major pain ;



1.5k for a month is optimistic, when you get to the barrier reef you have to get out about 100k to the actual barrier reef from the shore (this is going to cost money too). Aus isnt expensive but things add up, for example the sydney harbour bridge climb is appox 110AUSD (not that it is a requirement but just to give you an idea).

Morlar

Just to say Cairns, Port Douglas the reef etc is well worth the excursion - you wont regret it if you decide to include it in your itinerary. If you can stretch to an underwater excusrion in a mini sub out on the reef it will be one of the highlights of your trip. These guys (Quicksilver) include that in the price of getting you to it ;

http://www.quicksilver-cruises.com/OBR_fares.htm

macca1983

I did Melbourne to Cairns earlier this year via the Greyhound.

The Greyhound ticket from Melbourne to Cairns will cost you about 350 Aussie dollars (can't remember the exact figure but close to that).

The Greyhound is a great service(there is a slightly cheaper service called Premier but not as good). Very simple to use. Don't bother buying one online - just pick one up at what ever hostel you stay - every hostel in Australia will sell them. When you buy your ticket you will get a code and you just book yourself in to what ever bus you are going to take online - very user friendly and easy.

The further you go up the coast the cheaper it will get.

I would say 1,500 will not be enough. I'd say more like 2,000 Euro is what you should bring. It will depend on what activities you get involved i suppose.

Also doing that route in 4 weeks is pushing it - you can do it for definite, but if possible i would give myself more in the range of 5-6 weeks to be more comfortable.

The_B_Man

it took me 7 weeks from cairns to sydney and cost me about 6 grand aussie. 1500 of that was campervan rental. we did a lot and stopped at most towns. nothing was that expensive, but it all added up, like someone above said.

dang

I need some advice. We are travelling the East Coast of Oz in Dec, doing Fraser and Whitsunday’s but between these 2 trips it will be 25th and 26th Dec. Does anyone have any suggestions of the best place to go for Christmas Day between Fraser and Whitsundays?