What is a good tourist plan for a 2-week Australian vacation?

Dear IL'ites,

What would be a good tourist plan for a 2-week Australian vacation? We have always thought of taking a vacation to the exotic Australia. If I take a couple of weeks off and travel to Australia, what would be a good tour plan?

Good on you Jey! When can we the IL members meet you here in Melb?

Please PM me so that we can catch up.......

For a two week vacation to the Magic land of Oz, I would recommend these websites:

Melbourne Victoria Australia - visitvictoria.com The official travel and accommodation site for Melbourne Victoria Australia

Travelmate - Australia Accommodation and Hotels, Tours, Car Hire, Maps, Australian Travel Guide

The Official Site for Australian Travel and Tourism Australia

You can contact a travel agent for your bookings or the best way is to hire your own car & drive around with the family...

Happy journey!

Regards,

Corallux

Hi Jey
Trying to see it all in 2 weeks might be a bit too optimistic. I know of a friend, who did it in 3 weeks. They started from Sydney, moved on to melbourne, then brisbane and ended in cairns and flew back home from there. That way they pretty much covered the east coast of australia.
You could choose one chain of hotel and book with them through out. I have heard Big4 is really good and have used them personally as well. They are very chil friendly ( i am not sure if you have kids, but if you do, I would certainly recommend Big4). You could check their website , google for big4 holiday parks.
Hope this helps.

Cheers
Sky98

Originally Posted by Jey

Dear IL'ites,

What would be a good tourist plan for a 2-week Australian vacation? We have always thought of taking a vacation to the exotic Australia. If I take a couple of weeks off and travel to Australia, what would be a good tour plan?

hi jey,

ours was a 25 days holiday just last year
so quite fresh in my mind....
landed in adelaide,went to kangaroo island...drove till sydney via melbourne ..the penguin parade near melbourne and the drive thru great ocean road was too good...at sydney besides the harbour opera house bondi beach .....in the ouirts must visit blue mountains.....also we went for a dolphin cruise at port stephens i think...this should take 2 weeks....
we then flew to gold coast....again took a car and drove upto brisbane visiting tangalooma island,australian zoo etc and flew back to kl from brisbane....that to
ok another 8 days....
was fun driving on our own...

have a nice holiday

mindi

Thanks everyone for the response. Just updated a map here so that it is easy for me to reference.

Okay. I agree with sky that two weeks to see all of Australia is pretty unrealistic. Need to stick to the east coast for this trip. Broader plan is for us to fly in to Melbourne and drive the eastern coast. How far up should we go?

Another question is if I should do all the planning/booking etc on my own or should I use a travel agent. I started a separate thread on that so that we keep this thread only about itenery and places to see etc.

Dear IL'ites,

Did some research using google maps and found the following as the driving times..

Adelaide -> Melbourne - 10 Hours
Melbourne -> Sydney - 10 Hours
Sydney -> Brisbane - 12 Hours
Brisbance -> Cairns - 22 Hours

Is there anything inbetween Brisbane and Cairns to warrant the 22 Hour drive? Or is it better to fly there?

Hey Jey,

Its really a wonderful tread started by you. Like my motherland India , Australia is a unique place by itself for tourist to visit. But I would suggest before you start planning your priorities and your inclinations towards what you want to see in Oz land.

In Australia you have lots of tourism avenues and you need to decide which is of your interest

• Natural Scenic routes to drive
• Wildlife
• Beaches and flora and fauna rich sea coast
• Aboriginal art and culture.
• Different landscapes- snow capped mountains(in winter), lush green landscapes, outback desert, beautiful coasts
• Adventure sports and Theme parks

and the list goes never ending.
So I suggest you first decide on what you would like to visit the most and then go ahead choosing the places of your interest. This suggestion is because you have planned a very short span for your trip....

I would suggest fly from Adelaide to Melbourne than driving as there are not much worthy places on the route. Also instead of reaching Melbourne you can reach Avalon by Jetstar airlines as you would save time (of traveling out of Melbourne city) and money(as flight fares are less to Avalon airport if you fly from Sydney) if you plan to visit “12 Apostles”. You will have car hire options in all major airports (Tullamaraine-Mel, Avalon, Sydney, Gold coast,(not sure about Adelaide, ILites please confirm)). Also I would suggest you to go to Gold coast by air instead of Brisbane and travel by car from GC to Bris on a days trip, as you have more entertaining options in GC than Brisbane.
I am not the right person to give suggestions on the road trip to Cairns from Brisbane as I have never done it.

I think my write up would have helped you plan. ILites u are welcome to correct me if I am wrong in any of the suggestions made.

Happy journey Jey...

For details on places in NSW and sydney refer Sydney and regional NSW accommodation, attractions, tours and events

Cheers,

Thanks for the detailed instructions svrlax. You have really helped organize my thoughts around this trip (by categorizing the type of places to see) as I was all over the place with my vacation plan. I totally agree with you that inorder to build this tourist plan, I first need to know what are the places that I want to see. I started a separate thread called "Top 10 MUST SEE places in Australia". Can you help me with the top 10 must see places in that thread?

Also, thanks for the tips on where to fly and where to drive. I am doing some research on that and will be back with more questions:) Thank you.

Hi

Can I request you Jey to prioritize the tourism avenues you would like to visit. This will help ILites to narrow the list of suggestions on the places you can shortlist in your travel plan... Its my 2cents of advice, correct me if I am wrong by providing this suggestion.

Hi Svrlax,

This is great input. Based on our past experience, the things that we seem to like the most are..

1. Famous places if there are any in Australia (e.g. Taj Mahal, State of Liberty, Rome Cathedral etc.)
2. Natural scenic drives with plenty of stop and starts
3. Wildlife

Look forward to your recommendations Svrlax.