Sydney to Cairns cost??

lucymoomoo

Planning on heading up the coast as far as Cairns from sydney next month, only have 2 weeks(which is tight enough) so am gonna try and squeeze everything in, ....there's only 2 of us, so trying to work out which would be cheaper?
We found a tour doing Byron, Faiser and the Whitsunday inc accom for around $2600 in total.

Would rather drive ourselves so we're not stuck to a timetable, anyhow, have got a deal for $650 for a car for two weeks so trying to figure out would it be the same price to plan our own tour.....and sort out accom as we go along....

it's a 1.4 manual car if that helps to give a rough idea on petrol......i appreciate it if anyone takes a min to try help me out!!!

unreggd

Well its a ballpark, but petrol for my 96 1.4 was abt 17 euro per hour on a motorway

I think a train pass would be a good compromise for this

Im pretty sure theres an "East coast explorer" pass or somethin like that

Tours are always more expensive cos they're organised for u, so look it up

aido79

Hi there,

I done the east coast last year with my girlfriend but we done it the opposite way. We drove from Cairns to Sydney in a campervan. If you look on www.cheapmotorhomes.com.au you can probably get one for about 6 or 700 dollars for 2 weeks. you'll save a bit on accomodation that way. fuelwise you'll probably use 10litres per 100km on average. its about 2500km from sydney to cairns so thats around 250 litres so you should allow around $300 dollars for fuel. The rest depends on what you wanna see and do. you can spend as much or as little as you like depending on what you decide to see and do. you'll probably try and do as much as you can as you'll probably only do this trip once. Have a look at some of the deals you can get in Peterpan. they'll usually give you a discount if you book a few different things with them. any other questions just ask!

Dancor

When me and the missus did the east coast during the summer we flew between some places. Internal flights are cheaper and take a fraction of the time it does to drive.

lucymoomoo

aido79 wrote: »

Hi there,
any other questions just ask!

A few questions if u dont mind?

Looking into the camper van now as a better option, around how much approx did it cost to park the van up overnight? and when did you go, as in how hot was it??? don't know if i'd be able to stick the heat in early december!!!

Just have the 2 weeks ourselfs, did u find it long enough or did you spend a lot of time driving??

Thanks Again
Lucy

pablodunlop

aido79 wrote: »

Hi there,

I done the east coast last year with my girlfriend but we done it the opposite way. We drove from Cairns to Sydney in a campervan. If you look on www.cheapmotorhomes.com.au you can probably get one for about 6 or 700 dollars for 2 weeks. you'll save a bit on accomodation that way. fuelwise you'll probably use 10litres per 100km on average. its about 2500km from sydney to cairns so thats around 250 litres so you should allow around $300 dollars for fuel. The rest depends on what you wanna see and do. you can spend as much or as little as you like depending on what you decide to see and do. you'll probably try and do as much as you can as you'll probably only do this trip once. Have a look at some of the deals you can get in Peterpan. they'll usually give you a discount if you book a few different things with them. any other questions just ask!

Will be doing this in a few weeks except will more than likely rent a car and stay in hostels along the way.

Only have between 2 and 3 weeks to do it though so will have to prioritize a little but as you say will try to do as much as possible.What places or activities would you recommend?

aido79

Try and make it 3 weeks if ya can just to give yourself enough time. Most of the best things to do are between cairns and byron bay. From byron down to Sydney isn't that good. it rained all the way from byron to Sydney when we done it so we didn't really stop at all. Byron is really nice..we've been back there since! Surfers is good for partying. there isn't that much to do in Brisbane so either stay for one night or give it a miss if you don't have the time. I lived there for 3 months and wasn't overly impressed. Noosa, just above Brisbane is nice. You can't really do the east coast and not do Fraser Island and the Whitsundays. They are definitely worth doing. If you want to go diving or snorkelling check out the great barrier reef... its probably easiest to do this from townsville. Johnson's croc farm in Inisfail is worth a look as well. you could also go white river rafting on the tully river. its supposed to be the best in oz. If you wanna go skydiving do it at mission beach. Airlie beach is good too. Try and get a copy of the rough guide to australia or the lonely planet one. Personnally I'd go for the rough guide one but either one is worth getting.

aido79

lucymoomoo wrote: »

A few questions if u dont mind?

Looking into the camper van now as a better option, around how much approx did it cost to park the van up overnight? and when did you go, as in how hot was it??? don't know if i'd be able to stick the heat in early december!!!

Just have the 2 weeks ourselfs, did u find it long enough or did you spend a lot of time driving??

Thanks Again
Lucy

its around $20 a night for a campervan. We went in May last year so it wasn't too hot. you can get a portable fan for the back of the campervan to keep it cool at night.
We done it in around 3 weeks. Think the longest we spent driving was around 6 or 7 hours in one day. If you are doing it in 2 weeks you would probably need to be driving around 200km a day which doesn't sound much but if you spend more than a night somewhere then you would need to drive 400km the next day to make up for it so you need to plan carefully. If you haven't got a copy of a rough guide or lonely planet guide to australia then I'd advise you to get one.

Tigerandahalf

Is renting a car and staying in hostels a better idea than a camper??
Having been researching the different camper sites and you are talking about AD3000 for 3 weeks incl a decent camper and camper sites, fuel etc. Would you be able to get hostels for 20d a night outside of the cities? Trying to do up a budget and weighing up the pros and cons of each.