Trip advice please!

Issac

Hi all,

Need a bit of advice on where to spend time on a trip in January. Myself and Mrs.Issac are flying into Melbourne (in January) and 18 days (17 nights later) we are flying out of Sydney.

At the moment we were thinking of 5 nights in Melbourne (including 2 day trips to the Yerra Valley and Phillips Island)
Hire a car to see the Great Ocean Road for 3 nights
Flying to Sydney for 5 nights (including 2 day trips to the Blue Mountain and Hunter Valley)
Four nights then in a beach town (like Port Stephens/Maquaire)

After a bit of reading however we are starting to think of extending our stay on the the Ocean Road (maybe 2/3 days) and also out stay in Sydney by a day or so (visiting Bondi and Palm beaches) and skipping the final beach town stay near Sydney.

We want to avoid tacky/neon lights and like places with nice restaurants and etc.

Any advice appreciated!

Batgurl

Are you set on VIC and NSW? Seems a shame to come all that way and skip Queensland altogether seeing as it has some attractions that Australia is famous for; Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays.

I agree with skipping Port Stephens/Macquarie. I would go for two nights to Kiama or Central Coast instead.

Issac

Thanks for the reply! No, not set on any particular area yet. We were told to avoid Queensland in January due to the stormy weather. I would love to see the barrier reef but was told boats may not even sail out for dives etc. but don't want to waste 2 or 3 days (I imagine we'd need that length of time?) of the holiday. Do trips go out to the reef in most weather conditions?
We like the sound of the resort south of Sydney. You think it'd be better head there than spending extra time on the Ocean Road?

Thanks for the help, we really appreciate it!

minzabud

3 days is plenty for the great ocean road, worth finishing the trip in mount gambier to see the blue lake, however you will only be about a 4hr drive to Adelaide at that stage so if you have an extra day you could spend it in the barrossa valley and check the vineyards on a winery tour and then take the direct route to melbourne form Adelaide, I did it last month in 8hrs, no traffic once you get out of melbourne.

brandnewaward

i wouldn't bother with palm beach , theres nothing there. do the bondi-coogee cliff walk instead

crazy8

If you did a 2-day Great Ocean Road trip you could potentially continue on to Uluru/Ayer's Rock, fitting it in in a hit and run kind of way, then take turns driving back on the motorways.

A stop at the Ottways along the GOR is nice.
http://www.otwayfly.com/
Watch out for parked cars, that's where you'll find people checking out the Koalas in the trees.
If the conditions are good you could always take a whack at surfing in Torquay at the start of the Great Ocean Road, it's possible to arrange for a lesson/rent a board & wetsuit once there.

You could always do a night in the Blue Mountains once in Sydney. Takes 2 hours on the train to get out there, check out the three sisters and do a day-long trek using that base. Bring a light rain-jacket if so.

Regarding where to hang out in Melbourne city that's depend on what your preference would be. Everywhere the food and coffee will be good though The night and day markets on throughout the city in Summer are always a good call. Keep an eye out(i.e. google) for the St Kilda night market, Victoria Market night market and the Moonlight & Rooftop cinemas.

Issac

Great! Thanks for the replies! It's really helping me put this trip together.

So what I'm now thinking is:

Melbourne 5 nights (including trips to Yerra Valley and Phillips Island)
GOR - 4 nights (where would be the best towns? was thinking Torquay/Lorne, Apollo Bay and Port Fairy - sound good? Where has the best buzz and food?)
Cairns - 2 (or 3?) nights to dive in the GBR
Sydney for 5 or 6 nights (depending on the number of nights in Cairns) with day trips to the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley.

Any improvements necessary??

Thanks for the tips on the markets - are there any particular areas in Mel and Syd that I should be staying in (or near) or are most places accessible if we are anywhere near the centers? Funky areas with nice cafe's etc would be great.

Is Palm beach really not worth seeing? Mrs. Issac has a thing about seeing the Home and Away set! She hasn't even watched it in years! I'll try and talk some sense into her !

braddun

I did not think much of great ocean road,bondi beach is not worth seeing,its a small beach about 200 feet

you have to see Blue Mountains ,if you get a chance fraiser island but its up near Brisbane ,hire a camper van

school holidays start jan 28 approx. so everything gets booked up

try Tasmania



Melbourne to Sydney Coastal Drive – coastal route

1384 km/859 miles



Day 1: Melbourne to Phillip Island

197 km/122 miles, about 2.5 hours

Day 2: Phillip Island to Wilsons Promontory

123 km/76 miles, about 1.75 hours
Day 3: Wilsons Promontory to Metung

264 km/164 miles, about 3.5 hours
Day 4: Metung to Mallacoota

226 km/140 miles, about 2.75 hours
Day 5: Mallacoota to Narooma

214 km/133 miles, about 3 hours
Day 6: Narooma to Jervis Bay

175 km/109 miles, about 2.5 hours
Day 7: Jervis Bay to Sydney

185 km/115 miles, about 2.75 hours



Sydney to Brisbane Coastal Drive.

Approx Driving Distances/ Time . 12 hrs from Sydney (950Km) to Brisbane.
Approximate Driving Times.

Sydney to Port Stephens – 2.30hrs

Port Stephens to Port Macquarie – 3hrs 30 mins

Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour – 2 hours

Coffs Harbour to Byron Bay – 2 hours

Byron Bay to the Gold Coast – 1.5 hours.

Gold Coast to Brisbane – 1 hour

Newcastle is only approx 2 hours from Sydney. It is located in the heart of the Hunter Region and bordered by a stunning coastline with beautiful beaches. This city is NSW second largest city and it has certainly come along way, and is now a vibrant and interesting city to visit with some absolutely gorgeous beaches.

One needs to divert from the Freeway at the Newcastle Link Road. Stockton Beach and its sand dunes are truly one of nature’s masterpieces. Explore the sand dunes on a 4WD adventurer tour or camel, horse or sand buggy.

Situated only 2.5 hours drive north from Sydney; Port Stephens is an outstanding holiday destination. Covering over 126,000 square meters of water, two and half times the size of Sydney Harbour. Port Stephens, offers gorgeous and stunning unspoiled waters and over 26 golden beaches and eco-diverse Marine and National Parks. This area is really a must do if visiting Australia.

Port Stephens offers a unique diversity of activities for travelers, from snorkeling, diving in marine parks to discovering koalas in their natural habitat, to cruising the waters or standing on a beach to observe the resident bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales on their migratory journey up the coast (June to November).

The most popular beaches are Birubi Point, Fingal Beach and One Mile Beach, for calmer waters Little Beach and the foreshores of Nelson Bay are good family spots. The local Visitor Information Centres can answer all your questions and provide maps.

Drive Sydney to Port Stephens on F3 highway then Pacific Hwy. Approx 2.5 hours. Coaches depart from Sydney daily

Tea Gardens is a small town, located 219 km north of Sydney via the Pacific Highway, and 10 km off the Pacific Highway. It is separated from the town of Hawks Nest by the mouth of the Myall River, which runs from the Myall Lakes down to Port Stephens, and joined to it by the 'Singing Bridge', named for its tendency to act like a wind harp in a strong south-westerly breeze. Wild Koalas can often be spotted on the northern side of the bridge.

Coast road to Port Macquarie: If you have the time to spare, take a detour from the Pacific Highway at Bulahdelah and do the coast road. Visit the wonderful Myall lakes National Park and check out the super trendy Blueys and Boomerang beaches. Cross the bridge at Wallis Lake and discover the waterways of Forster/Tuncurry. Stay close to the coast and drop into Diamond Beach and Old Bar. Do the loop back onto the highway to Taree and then head for the coast again to Crowdy Head with a magnificent lighthouse and 360 degree views around the Manning Valley.

From Sydney follow the Pacific Highway north. It is a 4.5 hour drive to Port Macquarie via the Oxley Highway turnoff. Port Macquarie is a wonderful busy town with beautiful beaches and excellent accommodations and restaurants. You can take a cruise with the Hasting River Cruises or do a camel safari along the beach. The kids will love this town; don’t forget to visit the Koala Hospital and Wildlife Park as Port Macquarie is known as the Koala Capital of Australia. Free Koala Hospital tours are at 3pm daily.T here is plenty of accommodation here to suit all budgets.

Crescent Head is a seaside village located east of Kempsey. Its surfing beach is well known, but this is just one of the many fine attractions to satisfy the visitor to the village. Nearby is the Hat Head National Park , in itself a great attraction, as well as many other fine beaches, such as Back Beach, Goolawah, Delicate Nobby, Main Beach and Racecourse Beach. For campers/caravans Hat Head and South Head Rocks.

Make sure you drive the coastal road from Crescent Head to Hat Head; if you have a 4WD then you can also drive the coastal road from Port Macquarie. Crescent Head has a fabulous caravan park with cabins overlooking the beach.

Make sure you also visit South West Rocks and Scott’s Head along the way. There is a fabulous caravan park overlooking the beach at South West Rocks with self contained cabins. Head back to the main highway and take the next exit to Stuarts Point.

These sleepy gorgeous little gems are hidden amongst beautiful beaches and bush lands. Stuart Point is the largest of the three , whilst all have wonderful beachfront caravan parks. If looking for solitude , good beaches and surf then stay a few days and enjoy this lovely part of the coastline.

South of Coffs Harbour and stretching from the coast to the New England National Park is the Nambucca Valley with a laid back village feel and ideal fishing destination.The area has over twenty kilometres of coastline, lovely waterways, rainforest and empty beaches; Nambucca also has a number of friendly historic towns. Enjoy a drink at Slim Dusty’s “Pub With No Beer” in Taylor’s Arm, learn about the early settler history of Bowraville, walk along the river at Nambucca Heads and sample Macksville’s country hospitality.

Coffs Harbour is about a 6.5 hour drive from Sydney. Coffs has some excellent beaches, like Gallows, Park Beach, Diggers, Sapphire, Emerald, Sawtell, Sandy and more. Whale watching and professional fishing charters are also available at the Coffs Harbour Marina. It is one of the busiest and largest towns along the Pacific Highway. Now, if you have some spare time to explore, discover the wonderful towns of Bellingen, known for its National Trust buildings and the Dorrigo National Park. Take the road from Macksville to Dorrigo and see some wonderful scenery, then take the road from Dorrigo back to Coffs Harbour. Make sure you drop into the local Visitor Information Centres along the way to get local knowledge!

pete4130

Palm beach is just a beach. It's got a surf club that's used for the surf club shots. Not worth it. Nothing else there of the set. It's filmed in 7 studios in Alexandria mainly.

If you can take a day trip up to Anna bay it's worth it. You've got Stockton beach. 32km of sand dunes. Can go sandboarding, take a 4wd your in a big 4wd bus, rent out a 4wd and drive the beach yourself (expensive to rent a 4wd for the day though). Some of Mad Max was filmed there in Tin City (small group of tin shacks built in the 1920's. Very post apocalyptic now).
Nelsons bay is nearby too. There's a cool camp site called Melaleuca Backpackers. You can get a site, a pre constructed tent or rent a cabin for about $80. It's all wooden, good kitchen facilities, rescue birds and a rescue pet kangaroo that you can approach, pet etc...

Across the road is One Mile beach. It's got free public gas BBQ there (bit slow to cook). You can rent a surf board there in the morning or drink on the beach at night and relax looking at the stars. It's a regular spot when I get out of sydney.

Here's some shots from my trips to Stockton Beach.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/pete4130/sets/72157633183422958/

crazy8

I can only advise on the Melb/Victoria side of things.

I think most people would agree 4 nights on the GOR is a bit much. I think it's good to note that these are very very small towns. Torquay has just over 6,500 people and is the biggest along the way. Buzz is not a word I would associate with the GOR towns. Lorne is a good stop for food. The towns are a bit busier at weekends(a good thing) with holiday homers getting out of the city. If you are lucky there will be a music or food festival on in one of them, it being Summer.

Instead I'd recommend extending the trip from Phillip island on down to Wilson's Prom another 90 mins, trek up Mount Oberon for the stunning views in a 3 hour round trip, play about on Squeaky(literally) Beach.

Careful driving at dusk/dawn btw. That's when the 'roos and Wallabies come out.

Re Melb City, St Kilda is popular with the backpacking crowd, it's on the bay and has various markets on in the Summer. The main st there, Ackland st, is good for restaurants, cafes and bars.
Just north of the centre, Fitzroy has a hipster vibe with live music, plenty of trendy bars and restaurants.
Southbank in the CBD(the centre)has various entertaining buskers along the riverbank walk and is a bit more upmarket($$).

Even if you're not into the Tennis the Australian Open in January is a good buzz. Go to one of the cheaper rounds, see the various big names at the practice courts and soak up the vibe.

podgemonster

Here was our trip on the great Ocean Road.

http://vimeo.com/95362290

Spent 4 days but really could have cut it too 3 or even 2.5 and we drove on to Adelaide.

Melbourne and Sydney are great cities. Melbourne is more bohemian, full of quirkiness and hidden gems, cafés and graffiti. Sydney is more metropolitan I found but has a wonderful city landscape from Darling Harbor to the Rocks to Manly Beach.

bladebrew

I was thinking the same about palm beach, there is nothing to see there, if you watch home and away you will recognise bits of it but that's it, its a long windy road out and back and the café I was in was closing at 3pm! I assumed they would try link it to home and away for tourism but it's just a sleepy town,

I would definitely head up to Cairns though, the reef is well worth seeing, there is a chance that it could be stormy, if you are there for a few days you should be able to pick the calmest day, I loved Cairns, there a loads of places to stay and loads of places to eat/drink, the humidity takes a bit of getting used to though!

mandrake04

Palmy is not a bad beach but its about 1 hour drive from Sydney CBD and near double that on the bus. During January there will be no filming as its the summer holidays so unlikely to see any cast, all the landmarks are still there and if you have a car with a 2 hr round commute its worth a visit to get a few snaps of each other at the landmarks maybe a quick walk on the beach and brunch at the sandwich bar which you could easily put in 1.5 hrs. imo for the sake of 3.5 hrs (but If you are bus'in it forget it) at least you can say you been to Summer bay ....probably better than bondi which isnt worth more than 30 mins at the most.

Port Stephens can be a great spot, I spend a lot of time around here in the summer as its great for Jet-skiing and one of my friends lives in Salamander Bay. Fingal Bay has to be one of my favorite beaches, the scenery is fantastic. Jimmy's Beach at hawks Nest is good as well but its a bit of drive around the bay better from the water. A nice cruise out from the bay and you will definitely see Dolphins. Nelson Bay is not a bad little town, around the marina has few restaurants can be a bit tatty but if you want good food try the Wharf Restaurant and also the The Galley restaurant at Anchorage. If you are pushing the boat out Anchorage is good place to stay otherwise you could get a B&B around Corlette or Salamander bay or I would definitely recommend Oaks Pacific Blue resort.

Here is couple of snaps of Fingal bay in January.

http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g458/mandrake04/FingalJan1.jpg
http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g458/mandrake04/FingalJan2.jpg

Anchorage marina Corlette
http://s1102.photobucket.com/user/mandrake04/media/STA_2291.jpg.html

Here's a video a mate took of a group of us on Last St Stephens Day on a run out to Tea Gardens, Jimmys beach and then Fingal bay

http://vid1102.photobucket.com/albums/g458/mandrake04/Nelson%20Bay%20St%20Stephens%20day.mp4

If you are thinking of Port Macquarie I spend a lot of time working around this area, its a bit of retirement village but it has probably best year round climate in the country, few good beaches out towards the light house. Strangely i find it has a very high proportion of Thai restaurants and every time I stay in town I stay at Rydges everytime, its very good plus the Zebu Grill and the barfood is great. If you are in the area Foster/Turncurry is not a bad little town, about 90 mins drive away.

Also a correction as someone mentioned that school Holidays start in late Jan, they actually start late Dec and finish last week in Jan.

Anytime in January is summer holidays and very busy so you might need to think about making decisions now.

Issac

Thanks everyone. Sorry it's been a few days since I've had a chance to reply (been very busy working overtime saving for this trip!).

All the suggestions sound great. I will look to cut the GOR bit by another day (bringing it to 3 days/2 nights), which will give me a bit more time in Cairns or somewhere near Sydney.

So now trip is looking like:

Melbourne - 6 nights inc. Yerra Valley & Phillips Island (going to look into St. Kilda)
GOR 2 nights (maybe Lorne/Apollo Bay night 1 and Warnnoamboll/Potr Fairy the second night before heading back to Melbourne or on to Adelaide)
Cairns 3/4 nights depending on flight costs - do GBR dive
Sydney for the remaining 6/7 nights with a night or two in the hunter valley and blue mountains

Wohoo!

Unfortunately that's all I think I will have time to do. I don't want to just run around and not really experience the different places, it's nice to chill and take in the vibes of the different places.

Thanks again to all who have helped (I'm still open to suggestions if I'm missing any must do things / places!)

I'll post back when I make the final bookings