Did the Aussie trip two years ago. We went with another couple flying BA/Qantas because they suited our schedule. Stopped for 3 nights in Hong Kong before flying into Melbourne for 6 days. Flew to Sydney - we were on the side of the plane that gave the clearest view of the Bridge and Opera House - magical. Did a trip to the Blue Mountains which I would recommend before we picked up a car and drove nearly 2000 miles up the East Coast to Cairns. This was an organised route with pre-arranged accommodation as we didn't want the hassle of having to find somewhere at the end of every day. The trip took 11 days and was great fun. Spent 3 days at Cairns, visiting among other things the Great Barrier Reef, before flying onto Uluru (Ayers Rock). We then left our friends at Alice Springs because they had to get back to the UK for work and they flew home after 4 nights in Singapore. We flew back to Sydney for a couple of nights before going onto Hawaii for 2 nights and then San Francisco. In all we were away for nearly 6 weeks and had the most fantastic time. It was so good that the four of us are planning our next trip to Oz for next year when we hope to visit Perth and surrounding area.
I think that everyone should have the chance to visit Australia. Until you get there you cannot truly appreciate the vastness of the place.
6 weeks- I'd love to have that amount of travelling time at one go
4 nights on Fraser Island just off the Sunshine Coast, 4 nights in Sdney staying near Pyrmont Bridge and about 5 minutes from Darling Harbour, then the highlight or one of them was Heron Island.
That place is an absolute must if you're wanting to see the Great Barrier Reef, swim with sharks and totally chill out.
I've posted a couple of photos of Fraser Island with more to follow of Heron Island.
Another of the highlights of the trip was the feeding the dolphins in Tin Can Bay, on Cooloola Beach area. The dolphins come in at about 7 0'clock every morning to be fed. Basically, MAGIC.
We've travelled there with B.A. ( once was quiet enough), Qantas, Malaysian, and now we go with Emirates. It's a great boon leaving from Glasgow and not having the dreaded trek to Manchester or London to start your journey.
We've done it direct,and with stopovers, our stopovers, usually three days have been in K.L, Penang, Lankawi, Kutching in Borneo, Hongkong and Singapore.
Whatever we do we always get jet lag, my wife worse than me and it's always much worse on the return home, I think the buzz of getting there seems to lessen it a lot going out..
Cant wait for our next visit when hopefully we'll get to Alice, the Rock and Darwin. It's a wonderfull country, my biggest regret in life is that I was'nt one of the £10 Poms
Alan
Then they found out my father had a record.
I still hate him, more so now that I've seen what I missed out on.
did days out to gold coast, sunshine coast, Steve Irvine's zoo........
then flew Quantas business class to Sydney, stayed 7 nights on the 28th floor of the Shangri-La with huge panoramic window view of the bridge and harbour...did Manley, Bondi, blue mountains, river trip, tourist bus...
Flew back with Singapore (two hour stopover at Changi) business class...
All in all the trip of a lifetime!!
ATB,J.
We are in Oz at the moment - 8th visit. First time for Bi-Centenary in 1988 and at different times over the years. Have been here for 8 - 12 weeks for the last 5 years and have done different things. AAT Kings tour from Sydney to Cairns which took 2 weeks visiting different Islands and places on the way then did our own things. Same again from Sydney to Melbourne and back. All the way up the West coast on a coach tour. Having done these things we became confident and now DIY, this year stayed in YHA in Sydney, Melbourne and Ballarat. With relatives for 4 days in Adelaide then upto Brisbane - 4 weeks in an apartment in Surfers Paradise, a few days in YHA in Brisbane then have not decided about the rest. Booked internal flights with Jetstar before we left UK and got good deals on all or flights e.g. buy one get one free. Flew into Sydney from Heathrow with a stop over of 5 months in Mumbai then we fly out of Brisbane via Melbourne and Singapore to Heathrow. Came with BA and Qantas and have nothing detrimental to say about them - got the special meals we ordered, checked in on line 24 hours before departure and got the seats we wanted and the cabin crew on both flights could not be faulted. Flown with Emirates, Singapore Airlines etc and have never had a bad journey.
That's some holiday
each time,have stopped in Hong Kong ,Singapore,Joburg,Capetown,Perth, Cairns,Brisbane,Sydney
and Melbourne where we have family in Frankston and Mornington,next time stopping in Mumbai for
Goa and cruise from Sydney to Auckland New Zealand and maybe Capetown once more as its a fab
place
Ann
PS forgot to mention Bangkok great place,did a river cruise on New Years Eve something special
before boarding The Rhapsody of the Seas for 18 night cruise around Australia and New Zealand, ending
up in Sydney for 4 nights and 2 nights Hong Kong for our flight home
annx
Amazingly, we visited Oz again in November. I had seen an extremely reasonable cruise with Royal Caribbean which sailed out of Freemantle (Perth), round the south coast of Oz, Tasmania and South Island, New Zealand. This was a complete bonus as I had actually been looking for a Panama Canal cruise for April this year - but that's a different story
Hubby and I absolutely love Australia and if only we were 40 years younger I might have even thought of settling there. We have found the people just so friendly - it almost gets to a point where you daren't stop to get your bearings because someone will come and offer their help
Rosalyn
going again this coming Sept/Oct for our 3rd trip down under
Alan
Hi Fiona, I have just booked for Hong kong (4 days), Australia - sydney (6 days) - Alice Springs to Ayers Rock( 3 day camping) - Melbourne ( 2 days) then drive to Adelaide - Singapore (4 days) then home :-( all booked through my local Travel agent and I got a big reduction because I used British Airways then Quantas (as they are part of British Airways) on other routes, and I paid less then some people I have spoke to for just flying to Australia and back home.
I went 4 years ago for about 2 weeks, just stayed around Syndey mainly. Went to the toronga Zoo, bridge walk and just living Sydney life!
Phil wrote:I went 4 years ago for about 2 weeks, just stayed around Syndey mainly. Went to the toronga Zoo, bridge walk and just living Sydney life!
I had the best time ever! :)
It's a pity the Media Gallery is no more, I lost a lot of links to the videos I'd made in the thread of my visit to OZ,
I've put them on You Tube and I had to change all the music behind every video because of You Tube's copyright policy....this resulted in a loss of definition.
This might cheer you up Phil.
http://youtu.be/wL9A38Eyju0
You can find all my vids and my tale of OZ on my little site ( until BT force me to move it because they are closing down the free webspace I had with my account)
It's reminded me that I must get around to spending some time on expanding and updating the site, and finding another host.
http://www.sanji-uk.co.uk
Sanji
Sanji,
We love everything about Oz and deeply regret chickening out in the 60s, when wev had the chance to emigrate there
The one thing we dont enjoy is the Exchage Rate, our first visit it was 2 Aus$ to the £, and the best we managed was 2.50 to the £ a few years ago, today it's about 1.46 or so, which makes what once was a great value for money visit, into a pretty expensive one, especially when one adds on the vastly incressed air fares with our goverments punitive taxes on them.
Alan
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