No one is interested in Australia?
Alright - Maybe this is more exiting for German people like me But I still don't believe that no one here has been to Australia before.
I will be patient and see if there is another Aussie-Fan out there in this forum who wants to discuss about cities in Down Under.

Cheers

Hi Meschugga,

I have been to Australia once before back in 2008! I had a great time there and would love to go back some time soon!

Unfortunately when I visited I only stayed around Sydney and didn't really venture much further afield. 3 weeks just wasn't enough!

Have you been quite a few times? Or did you manage to visit those places all in one visit?

Cheers, Phil

I've never been to Melbourne but Adelaide is definitely top of my list by a long way.
Only 1 mile square in the city, but the suburbs do stretch out. A regular tram service between North of the city and Glenelg where there is a great little beach, and a lot less nasties in the water which you find in Sydney, Newcastle, Gold Coast and Brisbane. (By nasties, I mean sharks, jellyfish and blueies, though you do get some)
North of Brisbane is the Sunshine Coast which is getting more built-up, but the building heights are restricted, then up to Rocky and Townsville. Both large towns but not up to par like Adelaide.

Sydney for me - there's so much to do in the city and then you have the nearby beaches of Bondi and Coogee - a trip across to Manly- I loved the place and I'd go back tomorrow if I could.

I prefer Sydney to Melbourne, although the fact that it persisted it down with monsoon rain, day and night for 4 days during the time we were in Melbourne, it took the shine off the city somewhat, so maybe I would have looked at the place differently if I hadn't been so drenched.
We didn't get to the Great Barrier Reef because of cyclones threatening the area - one regret we have.
Brisbane was under water ( a lot of water!) during the time we were in OZ, (Dec/Jan 2010 -2011) so, we gave that a miss too.

Sanji

Hey,

@ Phil - That's not a long time but Sydney is a good choice and better just to have a little bit of time than nothing at all!
@ PARKY45 - I have only spend a day in Adelaide but liked the atmosphere there. If I go another time again I will try to stay a bit longer!
@ Sanji - Oh yes, beaches in Sydney are great!

Does anyone know something about living in Newcastle? I heard it is also supposed to be nice?

We had the use of a house in Newcastle but didn't do a lot in the town as we were out visiting friends of the family for most of the time. It's cheaper than Sydney, food is just as good and plenty of lovely places to visit in the area.

In Adelaide, go to the Bus Station where you can join the organised trips, most of which are good value for money and not too much time spent on the coaches.

Alright.

I also wonder what it's like to live in places like Mt. Isa or Birdsville. I can't imagine having a good time there in the middle of the outback. I guess you have to love the desert and earn good money to be happy at places like that.

We spent a few days in Sapphire, near Emerald. A pokey little place where the main pastime appeared to be for the workers sitting in the bar and waiting for the local Police to knock off so they could drive home drunk without fear of getting nicked. There's not a lot to do in places like that, and most of the youth have fled the nest for the big cities.
Pretty much like some of the villages in the UK.

Hey...

Sorry for my late response! But better late than never
Oh Emerald doesn't sound too good. I remember beeing in a suburb far out of the city centre in Melbourne. Because going to the city took so long (with your own vehicle and with public transport more than 1 hour) people met in the RSL Rooms where the pokies were to gamble some money and drink the cheap beer. That wasn't very nice either. But I thought that the area around Coffs Harbour and along the coast there is supposed to be pretty nice. I just read this article http://www.in-australien.com/coffs-harbour_1050162 about Coffs Harbour and though it sounds and also looks pretty good. Especially for families with kids. I mean it's probably different when you live there but there are heaps of beautiful beaches, national parks and you can do a lot of different water sport activities.

Personally I would prefer a differnt place to spend my time but maybe in a couple of years when I am a bit older I might find that suitable. All the photos looked pretty good to me and also there seem to be a lot of things to do. Maybe not the Big Banana – which sounded like a typical tourist place – but the other stuff.

Is Coffs Harbour like Emerald or similar? - You have probably already been there.

Cheers

It's well over 20 years since I went to Australia, but at that time I had been made redundant so had some spare money and the kids no longer needed mum around all the time so I took a 3.5 month trip, 3 days in Bangkok, 3 days in Singapore then on to Sydney where I spent a few days before picking up a tour with Australia Pacific up to Cairns, stopping off at various places like the Great Barrier Reef.

I spent a few days in Cairns then got the Greyhound down to Townsville where I stayed with relatives for a couple of weeks. I then picked up the Greyhound again (flexible ticket) and went south, stopping off at Ayers Rock, Kalgoorlie, Cober Pedy, Adelaide and Perth. Another cousin picked me up from Perth and took me to Bunbury where I stayed with him and his family for a couple of weeks before returning to Perth to see an ex neighbour for a while before flying back via HongKong where I stayed for 5 days.

It was a fantastic trip and I thoroughly enjoyed it all but I think my favourite places were Adelaide and Perth.

I think I would also plump for Adelaide, it's much more laid back than Sydney and Melbourne and I liked it's closeness to the Flinders Range and the Outback. I took a 4 day 4W drive tour of the area including Coober Pedy and loved the chit chat with the locals and the endless scenery, fascinating, though going to the loo in the bush wasn't one of the highlights.

I found Darwin far to hot and humid though I did like Brisbane and as yet I haven't been to Western Australia.

I loved Adelaide, even though I was feeling a bit sore having fallen off a camel a few days before I got there. I arrived at the Adelaide Hilton, covered in red dust, and thought they might say "Sorry madam, the back-packers' hostel is down the road."

I haven't been further north than Cairns and doubt I will get round to doing that now

Incidentally what did you think of Coober Pedy Judith? It was only there over-night and the following day but it was quite an experience. Most of the hotels were full as it was some sort of holiday but I'd eventualy managed to book a room. I was dropped off at the bus station in the dark, left my main bag there and got a taxi to the hotel which appeared closed. I knocked and rang, no answer! Whilst sitting on the step pondering my next move three young men came by and could see I wasn't in the best of moods. They were from a bank in Adelaide, staying with the manager of the local bank for a weekend of golf so they insisted I went with them. We were sitting in the living room having a beer when their host walked in. I introduced myself as a whinging pom, they let me have a bed for the night and said they would probably be out when I got up in the morning and to help myself to breakfast. They had indeed gone when I got up, so I ate, cleared up the kitchen, left them a note and departed. My kids would have had a fit if they'd known but I usually trust my instincts about people and have never been wrong yet.

That's the sort of experience that makes memories of a holiday Aslemma.

Coober Pedy is an interesting? place, like yourself it was just for one night though we arrived in the afternoon and the heat was horrendous. We had a room in an underground hotel which proved a welcome haven of coolness. I couldn't imagine living there, the heat, the barren landscape and most likely the lonliness. We talked to people from all over the world who had ended up there searching for the elusive opal.
As much as I am somewhat of a loner the place certainly didn't appeal to me.

In the late afternoon early evening we went to an area about 40miles out of town called the Breakaways, we weren't allowed to go off the beaten track as the area was sacred to the Aboriginal People but the scenery was lovely and the temperature had cooled down a little and there was a real sense of peace as we stood looking at the view drinking a glass of wine..

Sorry for misinformation, it was Rubyvale we stopped, marked on Google Maps as Goldfields.
We only passed through Emerald on our way up to Charters Towers so can't give any info on it.
Never saw Coffs Harbour. The nearest we got was Tweed Heads to the North and Newcastle to the South.

My memory let me down as well. It was at Kalgoorlie I found myself without a hotel. At Coober Pedy I stayed at the Opal Inn. It was also where I realised that the Australians have a somewhat strange vocabulary. Being Sunday morning I had stopped outside a little church to hear the singing when someone came out and invited me in. All was well until the pastor, having asked if anyone wanted prayers to be said for a friend or family member, earnestly prayed that "our beloved sister Alice may be saved from this terrible wog which is going around." It was apparently a term they used for non-specific flu symptoms but as you can no doubt guess I nearly choked.

@PARKY45 Ah all right - No worries
Wow! Many responses this time - slowly getting to a nice collection of the best cities in Oz
Has anyone ever been to Broken Hill in NSW? Is it a nice place or just a good town to pass trough?

Looking at the map, I'd say pass through. If you're travelling through to Sydney or Adelaide you can pass through to Canberra on the way. OH's cousin went there on a Ulysses Club meeting a couple of years ago and said there was quite a bit going on. Some decent accommodation there as well, compared to Broken Hill. Family stayed in a mining town a few years back and everything they touched was covered in coal dust.

Don't take me at my word, but I believe 'em.

Aslemma wrote:

All was well until the pastor, having asked if anyone wanted prayers to be said for a friend or family member, earnestly prayed that "our beloved sister Alice may be saved from this terrible wog which is going around." It was apparently a term they used for non-specific flu symptoms but as you can no doubt guess I nearly choked. :rofl

I have been in stitches at this - my colleagues thought I was having a funny turn!

Alright. Yes, I think it's not the best place to spend a longer period of time when you are on holidays