Planning a trip to Australia...help?

[Mickey Fliers]

Trying to plan a trip for the family (6 total) to Australia over Christmas. Anyone know where I should start? Where should I focus for a family vacation? Any ideas and insight would be a great help.

TIA!

 

[Mickey Fliers]

bump...anyone

 

[hniki234]

It really just depends on what you're wanting to see and how long you have to travel. We did a 2 week trip to Australia. In that time frame, we were able to fit in Cairns/Palm Cove/Daintree Rainforest area, Hamilton Island (and Great Barrier Reef), and Sydney. We're absolutely planning to go back and hit Uluru and a few other cities. All of those areas are family friendly, but Sydney may be a little more complicated to get around with young children. We walked a lot in Sydney.

Also, I'd check into what the weather will be for the areas you're looking at. Their seasons are reverse from us. We traveled in May (beginning of their winter). We wore shorts everywhere but Sydney (where we were comfortable in jeans and a light jacket). Personally, we don't like to travel when it's too hot.

If you're not using a travel agent, I highly recommend checking out tripadvisor.com. It's where I did my travel planning. If you're only hitting one place, Expedia vacations often has decent travel deals for hotels and flights. Just check the hotel reviews on Tripadvisor. We used Expedia to book a vacation to Prague, Czech Republic, and were very pleased with price and quality. Australia isn't a cheap place to visit, but it was a wonderful experience that we plan to repeat!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Mickey Fliers - I hope you end up having a great trip to Oz. I'd recommend that you head to the Global Neighbers>Other Lands section of the Dis. The Aussies and NZ Dissers hang out in the Aussie section of the boards. If you ask the question there, you'll find that we're fairly friendly (and don't bite much).

Also - Skier_Pete is writing a TR on his trip DownUnder. You'll find it posted on the Disneyland section of the Dis.

Hope this helps and hope to see you in the ANZAC section of the Dis.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

Thanks! We are thinking Cairns and Sydney. I know my husband would like to stop over in New Zealand as well. I will head over "other lands" DIS section.
Thanks for the tip!

 

[si-am]

Christmas will be "peak" season for travel to Australia, so be prepared for higher prices.

You will want at least 2 weeks since its such a long journey. And Cairns is pretty far from Sydney. Melbourne is really nice, too. Lots to do there!

 

[Mickey Fliers]

Christmas will be "peak" season for travel to Australia, so be prepared for higher prices.

You will want at least 2 weeks since its such a long journey. And Cairns is pretty far from Sydney. Melbourne is really nice, too. Lots to do there!

We will be coming from Japan, so not quite as far, but we do plan for two weeks. Hoping to grab some Jetstar flights when they open up.