Has anyone been to Australia?

[kuhltiffany]

DH is turning 60 this year, we just paid the mortgage off, so this is the year we start checking things off the “bucket list”.

First is Australia . Mid-July to mid-August, Brisbane to Cairns. Has anyone been? Any advice welcome!

Also is booking dot com a good spot to book hotels?

 

[kittyab]

DH is turning 60 this year, we just paid the mortgage off, so this is the year we start checking things off the “bucket list”.

First is Australia . Mid-July to mid-August, Brisbane to Cairns. Has anyone been? Any advice welcome!

Also is booking dot com a good spot to book hotels?

be careful of booking.com they are bad for hidden fees etc.

 

[ccudmore]

I spent time in Australia last year and loved it (although I love New Zealand even more!)

Keep in mind that you're going there in the middle of their winter, which isn't cold but it's not hot beach weather every day.

For hotel bookings, I prefer finding the hotels through a 3rd party search engine but then booking through the hotel directly. If you need to make any types of changes later, you have to contact the company (like booking.com) which sometimes involves long waits with call centres. If you book with the hotel directly you can just call the hotel front desk and they can generally help. The hotel front desk cannot make any changes to booking make through a 3rd party web site.

As for advice in Aussie, we spent out time in New South Wales and Victoria so can't offer a lot of advice for where you're going. I fell in love with Melbourne. Sydney could take it or leave it.

 

[CanucksRock]

I went way back in 2010. Was a bucket list trip and we spent 6 weeks there. (I couldn’t take vacation for a year and a half to save up my vacation time)

We did Cairns, Perth, and an 18 day cruise from Perth to Sydney so lots of stops between including New Zealand. It was an amazing trip! (We even won a 7 day Caribbean cruise playing bingo on the cruise) Perth was my least favourite, but my cousin lives where so we spent 2 weeks. We did do some cool activities from there like going to an island with Penguins and a few days in Margaret River. Cairns was my favourite part. It’s so long ago I can’t recall what I used for booking. Nowadays if I book third party I usually use Expedia. I’ve never had issues with them with hotel bookings.

 

[Woodview]

To phone Australia ( Brisbane area anyway )

Dial international ( 1) Then 0061 then the area code then the Hotel number

It is winter time in June ,July & August

 

[Woodview]

If in Brisbane Area Look up Boat Tours to Lady Musgrave Island

 

[Lesverts]

Weather wise. You'd be in Queensland. The weather won't actually be much different to Ottawa at the same time. Nights will be cooler.
If you were in Victoria or NSW the weather would be a lot cooler. I was in Melbourne in November and nights were chilly going into summer.

I do recommend Melbourne. Has a Vancouver-type vibe. Really great place. Was there for 6 nights and could have easily spent 2 weeks.

Brisbane has a reputation of being a bit of a boring place. Edmonton of Australia kinda deal. There is plenty to do around Brisbane and further north with the various UNESCO nature sites.

I also second the recommendation of using aggregate websites to look for and pick your hotels but book directly with them. You get better booking conditions. And by some weird circumstance the hotel is overbooked. It is the 3rd party websites that got bumped. Had a friend recently experience this in Vegas.

For tours and day trips. I have used Viator when I was in NZ/Aus and were very good. Getyourguide is another one that I know people that highly recommend it.

Australia is a semi-cashless society like us. Using card is safe. Also be aware that Australian business hours are significantly different to ours. Coffee shops close around 12 to 2. Shops close by 5 or 6 in a lot of places. There is late night shopping on special days. Also given your age, you'll get a chuckle out of seeing K-Mart and maybe Woolworths.

Also don't ask anyone where a drug store is. You get some weird looks.

Forgot to add. If you are a sports fan. go see an AFL game. So much fun. I had no idea what was going on but damn it was entertaining.

 

[aussiecookfamily]

Australian here - you have picked a great time of year to visit Queensland. How are you planning to get around Queensland? Best option is driving (although our roads leave a lot to be desired, most of the trip from Brisbane to Cairns will be just two lanes - one in each direction, so give yourself plenty of time and just aim for short drives each day), there is also a good rail service (Queensland Rail) but it only services the major centers. You can fly but you will miss a lot in between. Make sure to add the Whitsundays to your itinerary, Airlie Beach is a lovely coastal town and the islands off there are spectacular. As others have mentioned Brisbane is pretty ho-hum (and I live there) but the beaches just north known as the Sunshine Coast are beautiful and will be full of what we call "grey nomads" that is retired Australians who live down south and want to escape the winter cold. Check out Airbnb for accommodation options particularly when you are in the beach communities, there are lots of Australians with holiday homes who let them out through this platform. Happy to answer any specific questions you might have.

 

[kuhltiffany]

We’re planning on renting a car, and taking our time driving in between. Hopefully the driving on the opposite side of the road isn’t too confusing!

 

[CanucksRock]

We’re planning on renting a car, and taking our time driving in between. Hopefully the driving on the opposite side of the road isn’t too confusing!

I had a car for 2 weeks (in Perth) and I only drove on wrong side once ..and that was in a parking lot. You adjust very quickly.

 

[aussiecookfamily]

We’re planning on renting a car, and taking our time driving in between. Hopefully the driving on the opposite side of the road isn’t too confusing!

We just managed to drive from LA to Orlando on the "wrong side of the road" - so you should be fine. The biggest problem is turning on the windscreen wipers every time you want to indicate a turn!

 

[chirona]

I have been to Australia but the area I went to was Melbourne and Sydney. I have to say I lived Melbourne and if you can fit that in. I really felt I could live there.

 

[pmcpmc]

DH is turning 60 this year, we just paid the mortgage off, so this is the year we start checking things off the “bucket list”.

First is Australia . Mid-July to mid-August, Brisbane to Cairns. Has anyone been? Any advice welcome!

Also is booking dot com a good spot to book hotels?

Took a trip to Australia in July a number of years ago .loved Cairns for our trip out to the Great Barrier Reef where I took a helicopter ride from the reef site and my daughter went scuba diving with a big blue fish. Weather was perfect and no jelly fish at that time of Year.