# 35 days in Australia-some help please!



## open2334 (Sep 13, 2009)

Hello,

This will be my first trip to Australia. I am arriving 28 Nov. until 2 Jan (35 days) and a bit clueless. I arrive in/depart from Melbourne. I was thinking perhaps:

1) Melbourne-7 days total for visiting the city + day trips to near areas with tour companies
2)Adelaide-same
3) Sydney-same
4) Brisbane-same
5) Cairns?-same

Maybe spending New Years in Melbourne, just because I leave on the 2nd anyway. Anyway, I am 37, male, like cities more than hiking in the wilderness, like good food, restaurants, good beach scene like we have here in Spain, good nightlife (not too young, let´s say 25-40). I don´t see myself necessarily as the camping in the wild, snorkeling with fish and sharks, etc. type of guy. I want to see these things on operated tours I think, but I´m sort of at an age where I´m a little less adventurous I guess. Not to mention snakes, spiders, etc. these things terrify me! Any ideas of how to spend my time would be greatly appreciated? Thanks!


----------



## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

Seven days in Melbourne and Sydney can be put to good use with plenty about the cities and quite a few day or two day tours or even drives/public transport you can do yourself,
The Blue Mountains at Sydney and a day/night added on for the Home - Jenolan Caves for some soft easy walks and there are many beaches easily accessed from the CBD by bus to Bondi, ferry to Manly and other buses to the northern beaches, plenty of good waterside and other restaurants about and other than Manly and Bondi you have The Rocks precinct which expands into the nearby CBD area closer to the Harbour and area around the Opera House with less touristy areas up around the Central Railway Station area on George Street and cross streets, the Sydney Chinatown not far away in Dixon Street, Sydney University area City and Glebe Point roads also have a few restaurants.
There are national parks to north and south of the city which have some good easy walking paths and you can get there by bus/train/ferry.
You may want to look at getting yourself a travelpass for Sydney, 131500 Transport Infoline - Home though Sydney has a free CBD shuttle but you'll probably love to take a ferry across to Manly a few times - a great way to see the city and one of my favourite trips when visiting.

For Melbourne you have a few different vineyard areas very close, the Dandenong Ranges, Parks Victoria: Parkweb.vic.gov.au a site that lists various places of interest, some very close to Melbourne. Como | Como Historic House is one example of local national trust type places if that interests, Fairfield Boathouse - Arrange a Gathering another interesting little spot on edge of the city and the area also gets a reference under Yarra Bend Park on the parkweb site.
Sovereign Hill - Home is an interesting living museum village based on the goldfields history and they have an evening dinner show and you can stay there overnight, a days outing from Melbourne you can do by train.
There is a free city circle tram about the heart of Melbourne and if anything, the City has a more open feel to it, more like Barcelona and some of Madrid and though no La Rambla [is it?] Melbourne has turned its main street, Swanston into something similar with limited traffic making it pedestrian friendly and many cafes in that street and other cross streets and lane ways.
There are many different eating regions within the city and also in closer in suburbs easily reached by train, foods from a lot of different nationalities in most cities, perhaps more so in Melbourne, Fitzroy for a bit of everything, European, Asian and Aussie Pubs, St. Kilda likewise, Lygon Street is known as Little Italy and within the CBD there is the more modern areas of Docklands and Southbank, and then Hardware Lane having a variety of Italian style restaurants, Chinatown in Little Bourke Street and South Yarra, Toorak on Toorak road and crossing it, Chapel Street for Prahran, all places you will find easily enough. 
A first stop for Sydney ought to be the Visitor Information Centre, easy to find about opposite the Ferry Terminal in the Rocks area and in Melbourne, likewise the VIC is at the south end of Swanston street down some stairs at Federation Square which is on the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets.
You can catch the free city circle tram there and do the loop at least once to egt an idea of where a few places are, Fitzroy near NE corner, Nicholson Street and Victoria Pde. for instance and a nice quieter though sometimes noisier drinking spot is the Celtic Club on corner of Latrobe and Queen Streets, 6 pm. on a Friday being a good time to catch some Irish musos jamming and not far from Hardware Lane that runs parallel with and between Queen and Elizabeth Streets, starting in Lonsdale Street, a block further south from Latrobe.

One thing you'll find about Melburnians inparticular, Sydneysiders perhaps not so much but Australians in general, they do not mind being asked for help and so if you have a map but are still a bit lost do not hesitate to ask someone who looks a reasonable type.

Adelaide doesn't really need seven days but one trip you might want to look at for a soft tour is the three day trips that go from Melbourne to Adelaide via the Great Ocean road and then tack a few days on at the end for Adelaide.

If you're thinking of heading Cairns way to at least see the Great Barrier Reef, you can see that by doing a trip a little north from Brisbane and though Brisbane itself also does not warrant a full seven days, there are some reasonable day trips, Moreton Island being one but the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, Noosa for instance [GC 90km. south and Noosa 110 km. north of Brisbane] might keep you occupied a few days, or say about four for GC and 2-3 for Noosa and nightlife as good if not better than Cairns which is more touristy driven whereas the GC and Noosa cater to locals as well much more.

If it is Cairns for GBR, think about hiring a car for a few days or fly Brisbane to Bundaberg [home of Bundaberg Rum] but more a quieter country city but plenty of pubs/clubs to see some country nightlife and The Great Barrier Reef - Lady Musgrave Island - 1770 Great Barrier Reef Cruises run a shuttlebus from Bundaberg to Agnes Water for cruises to Lady Musgrave Island on the Great Barrier Reef, one of the better locations actually and you will find that the weather could be a bit better and also chance of seeing some whales on trip out to or back from LMI.

I reckon your best plan might be to [after a couple of days in Melbourne adjusting for jetlag and having a preliminary look about to check out the scene] get a flight Melbourne to the Gold Coast [ Welcome To Tiger Airways running cheaper flights but check all with Cheap Flights & Airfares - Compare Domestic and International Airlines - Webjet.com.au to get best fare and then book direct with the airlines, earliest possible for best fares].
You can get from the Gold Coast on to Brisbane and from there to Noosa easily enough.

If you want a great island stay experience and not too expensive, you could bus back to Brisbane Airport and fly to Rockhampton for Great Keppel Island,
Great Keppel Island Holiday Village - QLD Australia and if doing that, check out the Great Western Hotel at Rockhampton, owned by one of our Country and Western singers. You can fly to Great Keppel but getting a bus to Rosslyn Bay and the barge over lands you right on a beautiful dandy beach, a great holiday feel.

And if you want to do that, You could look at flying Brisbane to Rockhampton first and then hire a car or get www.greyhound.com.au back to Agnes Water, it only being a few hours by bus.
If not hiring a car, a flight from Bundaberg back to Brisbane would be the go then and a bus up to Noosa if having the time and desire.

You should be able to get a flight from Rockhampton, Bundaberg or Maroochydore [Sunshine Coast/Noosa] back to Sydney for your week there.

Depending on how much time you have used up by then you can get cheap Tiger flights from Sydney to Adelaide or direct back to Melbourne, Adelaide being probably the one city you could give a miss to and the only thing to watch with Tiger beside luggage limitation [15 Kg.] is giving yourself plenty of time to get checked in for they do have a rigis 45 minutes prior to flight cut-off, even if a queue at the check in counter so make sure of being no later than 1.5 hours before.

Should be a fun trip.


----------



## open2334 (Sep 13, 2009)

*thanks*

Thanks for the awesome reply!


----------

