First time 3 week trip - how to start

ShoulderChip

Hi there,

I am very good at planning and organising holidays usually but I have never been to Australia or New Zealand before and this is exactly where I want to head this year for about 3 weeks with my family.

If anyone has any advice on where to start it would be much appreciated

What is the best way of getting there - should I be looking at package deals or book flights directly

Once there where should we go?
what time of the year - we are very flexible


should we be looking at a road-trip or booking internal flights/both

Are there any organised tours that are good value and worthwhile


I know that I have asked for a lot but if you could post me links to any place to start I will do a lot of research on my own

I will post my plans when I have them sorted so I don't miss anything but for now we are just going to experience the area and don't exactly know what we want to do when there

thanks for your help

Delorian

I went with Usit, found them quite good and competitively priced.

3 weeks is so short, you'll have to consider internal flights if you want to see a few cities.

Oz is about the size of all of Europe inc. UK & Ireland but with a much, much smaller population. Can you imagine planning a road trip (imagining it was road all the way) from Dublin to Rome with no cities in between?

Choose either Oz or NZ, 3 weeks is not enough to travel between both.

The east coast of Oz most likely has the most places you'll want to see.

I found Queensland the most impressive place in Oz.

I found Melbourne the most beautiful city, although did like Brisbane.

I did Cairns to Brisbane in a week without Frazer Island and only one or two night in any place. You could prolly do Cairns all the way to Melbourne, but it would be a long journey.

Consider Cairns to Brisbane (10 days), fly Brisbane to Melbourne, Melbourne to Adelaide (7 days), fly to Sydney (4 days), home.

Mellor

Delorian wrote: »

I went with Usit, found them quite good and competitively priced.

Who else have you gone with or priced to consider USIT competitive?

Thay are handy and do a lot of the donkey work, but they aren't competitively priced.

Sites like expedia and other comparisments websites willl be the cheapest.

I did Cairns to Brisbane in a week without Frazer Island and only one or two night in any place. You could prolly do Cairns all the way to Melbourne, but it would be a long journey.

Consider Cairns to Brisbane (10 days), fly Brisbane to Melbourne, Melbourne to Adelaide (7 days), fly to Sydney (4 days), home

I'd be inclined to leave out some places, in order to see more in the cities you do stay. The more cities you see, the more you waste travelling.

I'd land in sydney, see the typical sites (opera house and harbour bridge are the only widely recognized city landmarks in Oz, melbourne has none), fly to brisbane, brisbane to cairns getting in frazier and whitsundays, cairns to melbourne and fly home from there.

Thats still a packed 3 weeks, and i'd honest say you'd need double to do it right

holiday girl

I used to live in NZ and traveled around OZ a lot so I hope I can help.

Both countries are very easier to travel around, esp NZ as it small and compact, you can see a lot in short time as places are quite close together.

Saying that 3 weeks is still short so maybe just visit one country? If you choose NZ then the summer is the best time to visit, the winter can get very wet, a lot wetter than Ireland. Jan/Feb/March are the best times to visit NZ, if you don't want to wait until next year then Nov/Dec can be nice.

NZ is very easy to travel around so maybe hire a camper van instead of tours as it gives you more flexibility. If you don't fancy hiring a campervan you could maybe hire a car and stay in motels which you can hire for 1 night and they have beds, kitchenette, bathroom.

If you did decide on 3 weeks in NZ then maybe 1 week in the north island and 2 weeks in the south island. The NZ tourist website has some sample driving itineraries to follow.

Have a great trip.

Delorian

Mellor wrote: »

Who else have you gone with or priced to consider USIT competitive?

Thay are handy and do a lot of the donkey work, but they aren't competitively priced.

Sites like expedia and other comparisments websites willl be the cheapest

I was thinking more about the walk-in's I went to as I wasn't exactly sure of the trip I wanted to take, so wanted to go through options. And I did a multi-stop trip, so I definitely think they're worth talking to if you want to do one of those.

I compared to Trail Finders and a number of travel agents such as the Oz travel ones. Also tried to go direct through BA, Qantas, Star Alliance, etc. but found it awkward and similarly priced.

As far as I remember about 15months ago it was Eur1,600 Dublin to Brisbane via Tokyo and Bangkok.

Mellor

Delorian wrote: »

As far as I remember about 15months ago it was Eur1,600 Dublin to Brisbane via Tokyo and Bangkok.

I paid 700 dublin via bangkok (with a weeks notice), I didn't stay in thailand long, so dunno how it would of affected price