Is a Road trip from Sydney to Cairns worth it?

I'll be coming to Australia for a month this summer. I got my gf that lives there and I want to see the country.

Now she lives in Sydney. I personally don't want to stay in Sydney for a month. It's a huge country and I would like to see most of what I can. So I was thinking of a little plan to do.

I'm thinking of staying in Sydney for two weeks, then I was thinking about renting a car and doing a little road trip. (I'm a big fan of raod trips by the way, you can see more of the country like that)

I'm thinking of going to Melbourne first for a couple of days then driving up to Cairns. Wanna go see the Coaral reef. Now myy gf says I can't do it. But I'm sure I can. So I wanna ask you guys is it worth it? Or maybe is it worth driving until there then just getting a plane back. Or maybe even just going by plan or train or bus and coming back.

What would you guys recommend?

Hey Hooligan. I'll be in Australia for Mid may until June and my plan was the same. From Sydney, travel up the coast to Cairns. I'd totally be interesting in making the trip up with both of you (especially a fellow Canadian!!). If you want to save some cash and don't mind a tag along, I'd love to join!! Let me know if it's possible. Cheers!!

I did a trip years ago from Melbourne to Brisbane... it took 19 hours of straight driving between two people, the trip youre proposing to do is double that, 38+ hours of driving.... that would take you 7 days to do if you drove for almost 5.5 hours per day.

go to www.google.com.au and plug in transport + sydeny + cairns ... or something like that and check out the prices for other options like bus or train, there are quite often domestic airfares available quite cheaply, depending on the demand at the time.

Good luck!

I just read this on some website...

Which is the longest distance to drive
a) Perth to Sydney?
b) Lisbon (Portugal) to Moscow?
c) Melbourne to Cairns?
d) Los Angeles to New York?
e) London to Edinburgh 7 TIMES

ANSWER
All are roughly the same (approx 3,500km, or about 2,100 miles)


Melbourne to Cairns is really far (wow, how profound). But if you divide 2,100 miles by 2 weeks, that's only 150 miles a day, which doesn't sound that bad. But if you wanted to stay somewhere a few days, you'd really have to drive a lot the next day to make up for it.

CanadaGirl

I'd love for you to tag along, but I'll be in australia in late july to late august. Our schedules don't seem to be compatible.

I'm still looking into the Roaad trip. But there are some really cheap flights also, so I still don't know what I'm gonna do. Time will tell I guess.

Hey Hooligan, I drove from Brisbane to Sydney, from Sydney via Canberra to Melbourne and then back to Sydney by the most direct route possible. I did all the driving and by the time I got back to Sydney, I was happy to stay there for a while. I then drove back to Brisbane from Sydney. Realistically, you can drive between Brisbane/Sydney and Sydney/Melbourne in a day, but it is a LOOOONNNNGGG day (10 hours+ driving).

I've been told that, after you get a few hours away from the Sunshine Coast, the scenery gets pretty ordinary for a few hundred kms when you head north. I haven't done it, but I've decided that I would MUCH prefer to fly to Cairns from Brisbane. I think $$$ wise it's cheaper too.

I've done the drive! In spurts and bits, but the last chunk being straight from Surfers Paradise to Cairns = 17 hours.

If you like drives, have the time and nothing better to do, go for it, but if you really expect to see some major sites and VARIED ones, you might choose the extent of your route more carefully. There are a lot of different cities and cool stops along the main route all the way through the gold coast. Then, small towns really start looking the same and you're wishing the drive was shorter until you're up around Frasier Island (a MUST see at some point in your life) and then really not again until you get to Cairns.

Cairns is definitely worth seeing, great place to party, sunbathe, and really good mix of locals and travellers, all of which combine and really get along. But the sights along the shore up that far are just touristy beach town after touristy beach town, if you catch my drift. There are some great falls and rainforest stops just south of Cairns though.

So, all depends on what you hope to see and do. It'll be a LONG drive.

i just hopped on a flight from Melbourne to Cairns for $59 with Virgin Blue!!!! $59!!!!!! It came to $89 with my taxes and stuff, but COME ON PEOPLE, isn't that amazing?! And it takes under 3 hours. Impatience is a virtue.

Got back last week from a four week roadtrip from Cairns to Sydney and I absolutely loved it!!! Well worth doing it even if there is a lot of driving involved. There were four of us so that wasn't a problem but finding a hostel at 8pm wasn't that easy for four. As long as you accept there will be some days where you're driving all day then it's cool and the days on the coast and exploring once you get there more than make us for it! I say do it!