BootsnAll Travel Community

Hello,

My friend and me will have 10 days in Australia end of October, beginning of November. We have to start in Sydney, while leaving from Cairns. I did my research and found out that driving up north would not exactly what we would like to do. We would like to see a little bit of Sydney, "typical" deserted outback areas and maybe do a reef trip from Cairns. What would you recommend? We can drive, fly, take a bus or train. Budget is not big, but we would like to see something ... :-)

thanks!

G'day Kilgore, some distances:

Sydney to Cairns ..........2,500 kms
Sydney to the Gold Coast...927 kms
Gold Coast to Cairns.......1,573 kms.

With only ten days in Australia, it doesn't leave you much time. the classic route is Sydney- Alice Springs/Ayers Rock-Cairns. But as only Qantas fly to/from Ayers Rock you'd be looking at $200 to the Rock plus $391 onto Cairns. And this is without either car hire or a tour around The Rock.

If that is within your budget then
Sydney....... 4 nights
Ayers Rock... 2 nights
Cairns........4 nights.
As there are two of you I'd suggest hiring a car, but you will need to purchase a permit which is $25 (each) and valid for three days. there is a YHA there and a dorm bed is around $40.

Cheers.

overnight buses can help you reduce the amount of travel time.

I'd spend 3 days in sydney, 3 days in the middle (byron bay/gold coast), 3 days in cairns and leave an extra day in case something slows you down.

That way you dont have to spend money flying. Buses on the east coast are really cheap! Flying into Alice Springs is expensive b/c Quantas has a monoply and Tiger Air has started flights yet.

Whilst it is true that Qantas does have a monopoly on flying to Ayer's Rock, Tiger Airways are based in Melbourne and fly Melb- Alice springs. And yes, buses would be cheaper. The suggestion I gave earlier fullfills your requirements of
cities, "typical" deserted outback, and beaches.

However, should you decide to bus it up the east coast, I checked Greyhound, long doistance bus for time-tables.

Day 1. Sydney
Day 2. Sydney
Day 3. Sydney,... depart 7.00pm
Day 4. Byron Bay. arrive 8.35 am
Day 5. Byron Bay
Day 6. Depart Byron Bay 7.45am
. . Arrive Brisbane 10.15am
. . . .Depart Brisbane 12.00 noon
Day 7. Arrive Cairns 5.35pm
Day 8. Cairns
Day 9. Cairns
Day 10 Cairns

Virgin didn't seem to have direct flights to Cairns, flying Gold Coast - Sydney Sydney - Cairns.
They do have direct flights Brisbane - Cairns with promo fares AUD$99

Jetstar have direct flights Brisbane - Cairns ranging from AUD$89 - $129.

If you decide to go straight up the east coast I'd suggest bus to either Byron Bay or Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise), then fly to Cairns. flight takes appros 2.5 hours.

Do you know your dates, as if choose to fly you need to book them. Virgin Blue ... Jetstar... Qantas

Greyhound Australia
Cheers.

Thanks for suggestions. I think we may go for Ayers Rock, even the flying there with Qantas is not the cheap one. East cost as one of my friend said would be one week of ocean on the right and forests on the left :-)

Another option that I found yesterday would be to drive southwest from Sydney to Victoria, take the Great Ocean Road and end up in Adelaide. Then we can fly Jetstar or Virgin to Cairns. What do you thing about this plan? Is there any desert in South Australia close to Adelaide which is worth of going there?

Cheers!

Hi Kilgore, driving from Sydney - Meblbourne - Adelaide won't give you an outback experience and there are no desert close to Adelaide. The Oodnadatta Track starts from Marree which is 685 kms from Adelaide.

If you want "outback" then it'll have to be Ayer's Rock.

Sydney to Melbourne is 881 kms
Melbourne to Adelaide is 941kms (via GOR. the GOR is classed as the best drive in Australia but driving all those distanceswould be IMO a waste. Because you have ten days only and you still won't see the desert.

Can I help you with something else? Hostels?

Hello Whistler,

thanks for all the advices. We already decided to go for Ayers Rock. I may take the Qantas air tickets for Flying Blue miles as award tickets, which makes it all cheaper :-) We are OK with hotels/hostels, as there is a lot of resources on the net.

Thanks again!