Australia and New Zealand DIY Itinerary Suggestions

[paddles]

Hi everyone! I've been off the boards for a while since I don't have a new trip planned for 2016 (long story - looking for a new job and may be moving, so it was hard to commit to a vacation this year).

Last December, my family and I (2 adults and 3 kids) had a fabulous 3 week vacation to Australia and New Zealand, and I did all the planning. Having done several ABDs, I've figured out how best to balance cultural/museum type of activities with fun things for the kids (and let's face it, it's pretty fun for adults too!).

I've enclosed the itinerary from that trip. We had to make a few tweaks (given weather and fatigue), but we mostly stuck to it. As you can see....I'm a crazy Type A personality and I created this document for my family so I didn't have to keep explaining what we were doing each day (Adventure Guides have WAY more patience than me!).

Here's the rough itinerary (although the pdf has much more detail):
New Zealand - Rotorua, Auckland and Wellington (all North Island) with some "Lord of the Rings" activities
Australia - Melbourne, Uluru, Port Douglas (Great Barrier Reef) and Sydney (including an Opera on NYE and fireworks from the Opera house...amazing!)

We stayed in 5 star hotels and had some amazing meals (although lunch was usually sandwiches or fast food).

I know it can be a pain to plan everything yourself, so I'm hoping the itinerary is a good guide. Even with all that we did over 3 full weeks, we came out slightly under than if we had only done an ABD.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like any details about the guides we used, etc.

EllinK asked for the details, so I thought it might be nice to share with everyone.

G'day!
Paddles

 

[paddles]

I also wanted to add that I'm not too crazy about the current Australia itinerary. Although I've not done an Australia ABD, here are some thoughts having just traveled there:
- too much free time in Sydney. They really should add back surfing or playing at Bondi or Manly Beach on one of the mornings. And curious why they don't visit the Blue Mountains...I thought that was really fabulous.

- Uluru is a lot better - my kids LOVED the camel ride

- Gold Coast looks nice, but not sure why they chose that instead of Melbourne or NZ?

- I think they should really add in ~5 days of New Zealand. If they tighten up the other days and drop the Gold Coast, then it may only add a few days to the trip. I know that may seem long, but it's such a far way to fly and NZ is truly magnificent!

 

[disneyphx]

Fabulous itinerary - thanks for sharing!

 

[EllinK]

Paddles,
Thanks so much for sharing!! I'm sure I will have questions once I dive into your itinerary but my first one -- what was your approximate cost pp?

 

[paddles]

The approximate cost was $8,600 per person and this included ALL flights (to/from US, and all internal flights within ANZ), hotels, meals, private guides, entry fees, etc. for 3 full weeks.

However, this doesn't include the New Years Eve Opera or Midnight Gala (which added approx. $600 pp) or souvenirs.

 

[tgeorge]

This is awesome! Thank you for sharing. Melbourne is a MUST for me. Love that your itinerary has it. I just may have to use the Paddles trip ;-)

 

[EllinK]

The approximate cost was $8,600 per person and this included ALL flights (to/from US, and all internal flights within ANZ), hotels, meals, private guides, entry fees, etc. for 3 full weeks.

However, this doesn't include the New Years Eve Opera or Midnight Gala (which added approx. $600 pp) or souvenirs.

Wow! This is quite the dream trip for that price.