[Arcam_boy]

Hello.

I'm keen on going to Australia possibly in 2014 as I've vowed not to go on holiday next year and have a nice year without having to pay £400 a month off a holiday.

My wifes been to Australia before but I have never been. As I feel it may possibly be a once in a very long time / lifetime holiday I'd like to explore as much as possible and would like to go for 3/4 weeks.

We've already enquired before with Freedom Australia for a two week trip which took in Sydney/Perth/Great Barrier Reef and one or two other places I can't remember off the top of my head. It also included a 3 day stop off in Tokyo on the way and all internal flights and very nice 4/5 star accommodation throughout. However this come to around £9k for the two of us

I've recently been looking at flights and they all seem to be coming in at around £1000 - £1300 each return from London to Sydney. We would then obviously need accommodation whilst in Australia and travel to get around.

Is there anyway we could do it a lot cheaper than the £9k quote or should I just get a bank loan out and go for it. I know we could knock Tokyo on the head and save around £1000 but if I'm going to spend £8k then I might as well make it a holiday of a lifetime and also visit Tokyo, somewhere we really want to go, whilst over that side of the world.

Is it possible to do such a trip (3/4 weeks in Australia visiting all the big cities/beaches with flights and accommodation, not doing Japan) for £5k max?

Many thanks
Mark

[A406 north circ]

Is this an all inclusive package holiday you've been checking? £9000 seems really expensive, as it normally is if it was with a tour operator. I think you could easily do a month in Australia for a lot less than that, even with a stopover in Japan. Personally, I would not do a stopover there as Japan is very expensive, have you thought about maybe Bangkok or Singapore instead?

You will need to factor in what time of the year you'll be travelling, as the airline tickets to Australia varies a lot depending on when you decide to travel. As for accomodation think about a budget per night.

[CDphobe]

I suspect that you COULD do the trip for your budget, but I very much doubt you'd be staying in 4 or 5 star hotels. As A406 says, Japan will be expensive and the two locations he mentions are typical stops. You could also look at Dubai, Abu Dhabi or HK if you're just looking to break the journey.

One thing to bear in mind is that, while a package may be more expensive you may like to know that the back-up is available should anything go wrong while you're there. Financial protection is something many people don't think is relevant for a £500 break to Spain (I beg to differ), but you may want the peace of mind it provides when you'll be looking at several different hotels, plus several flights while half way around the world.

Another thought for Oz, if you don't need to see so wide a range of places but want to see more of what the country is like, is to hire a camper van instead. Mind you, they're not exactly 5* either!

[domtheone]

Originally Posted by Arcam_boy

Is it possible to do such a trip (3/4 weeks in Australia visiting all the big cities/beaches with flights and accommodation, not doing Japan) for £5k max?

Many thanks
Mark

I recently visited Sydney (great place) and a few surrounding (eg Blue Mountains) areas back in Apr/May. Spent 12 days there and spent a good £1600 ish. In that i got 3 nights accommodation free (mate paid) and spent the rest of the time in a YH! What i saved on accommodation i spent on things like climbing the harbour bridge/skydiving.

Granted, Sydney may be expensive by Aussie standards but it was still mind blowing how expensive most things were. I'm guessing you could get by on that amount of cash but don't expect to be living it up too much.

It's quite a long time away still so you could hope that our governments ease off in trashing our currency to hell which would help a lot (i calculated out there that if the £ was above $2 to the £ (less than 1.5 now) then it would just be expensive but not eye wateringly so)). Chances of that are hundreds to one though lol since this country's currency is a basket case by and large.

[Arcam_boy]

I think I'll have to give freedom Australia a call and see what they can suggest.

I think this is what we enquired about last time

Australian Highlights - Freedom Australia

And then with the flights and stop off in Tokyo it bumped it up to around £9k.

If we were a little more adventurous I'd fancy a camper or self drive but its a little risky I think, being on the other side of the world and not really knowing what were doing!

I guess if we really want to go then were going to have to save like mad and probably take a little loan out on top to make it worth while

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by domtheone

Sydney may be expensive by Aussie standards but it was still mind blowing how expensive most things were.

My sister lives in Sydney so we had no accommodation costs which made our holiday costs at Christmas five years ago very reasonable.

One of the problems with visiting Australia at the moment is that their dollar is far stronger against the pound than it was a few years ago and whereas we found things fairly cheap due to the great exchange rate my sister who is over here at the moment is now saying how cheap England is compared to back home

[imightbewrong]

It was quite a while back but we did Sydney/Brisbane/Fraiser Island/Cairns/New Zealand (sourth island) over three weeks about six years ago at Christmas. We spent about £4k all in, although you have to allow for inflation That was with flights we booked ourselves and the odd hotel, but mostly camping and youth hostels, but plenty of things like barrier reef diving, 4x4 driving across fraiser island, glacier heli-hiking, bungee jumping etc.

[domtheone]

Originally Posted by Wore Nowt

My sister lives in Sydney so we had no accommodation costs which made our holiday costs at Christmas five years ago very reasonable.

One of the problems with visiting Australia at the moment is that their dollar is far stronger against the pound than it was a few years ago and whereas we found things fairly cheap due to the great exchange rate my sister who is over here at the moment is now saying how cheap England is compared to back home

Yup. Just as it's crazy expensive for us, the flip side is it's incredibly cheap for an Aussie coming to England.

When you figure the average wage in Aus is around £40k at current exchange rates, no wonder it's cheap for them.

Friend of mine who was over in Eng last Nov was loving our prices.

As Gordon Brown famously said, a strong country has a strong currency. Pity he couldn't practice what he preached.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by domtheone

As Gordon Brown famously said, a strong country has a strong currency. Pity he couldn't practice what he preached.

Maybe he was talking about Australia

[DJT75]

Backpack and hostels/cheap hotels is the way to go, after all you want to be out and about seeing stuff so the time spent in hotels is going to be minimal.

Get the cheapest return flights you can, buy a couple of internal flights and use coaches for the rest.

With just 3/4 weeks I wouldn't go crazy trying to visit all the big cities, they're just cities after all. The best area I found was from Darwin right through the Northern Territory to Alice Springs. That's proper Oz and the bit worth seeing IMO. Did that part in a camper van and stopped overnight at roadhouses. By all means think about Cairns for the reef, Sydney for the sights, but I wouldn't go mad travelling over to Perth for the sake of it, unless you were wanting to see other areas of the west - Perth is absolutely miles from anywhere), or Melbourne & Adelaide in the south (although I did like Adelaide a lot, and the wine regions).

I flew to Darwin, via Indonsia. Spent a couple of nights there exploring national parks and a few other sights. Then 2 weeks travelling down to Alice Springs in a camper van stopping anywhere of interest or before it got dark. Spent a couple of nights around the centre Alice and Ayers Rock resort. Overnight bus down to Adelaide, spent a good few days around there. Flew up to Cairns, a week or so up there, then buses down the east coast topping over in loads of places for a few weeks including a trip to Frazier Island, eventually arrived in Sydney. Spent a week around Sydney before flying back to Adelaide to work for a bit, and then a stopover in Melbourne before leaving for New Zealand.

I reckon with some decent planning you could do that in 4 weeks and still visit loads of the way out places in the outback - you just couldn't hang around anywhere too long. This was 1995 and I was only 20, so I spent too much time enjoying the good life and hence hung around places far longer than I needed to. So I think it took 3 months to do the above for me. I'd like to have got over to the west coast but it just seemed a million miles away at the time

[huntere]

As others have said, Australia across the board is eye watering expensive.
Its ridiculous. Me and Mrs went our the other night for a take away. Had two glasses of wine each waiting for a takeaway curry.No change out of $80 or nearly 50 quid these days. This is not unusual. 6 quid a pint is norm.

4-5* hotel in major centres will cost you 150GBP a night and upwards.
I recently stayed in Ibis in Brisbane CBD at $270 a night and it was awful.

Say 20 nights at that and thats 3K. Add two airfares with internals say 2000 each. So already we're up to 7000 without breaking sweat or going to Tokyo.

Im afraid to say there is no cheap way of doing Aus these days.
Try rough guide or lonely planet guides for alternatives. Dont worry about DIY trips - lots of Brits here do it all the time. We're a pretty friendly bunch.

Also remember the size of the place. You simply cannot "do" Australia in 3-4 weeks. Why not take two bites at it?
As you can see, its not the UK-Aus airfares that are the deal breaker.

Also if you want to see coral and other stuff I'd skip GBR. MOst of the easily accessible ex Cairns are dead. If in Perth think about Ningaloo - just became world heritage and knock spots off GBR.

Good luck.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by huntere

Had two glasses of wine each waiting for a takeaway curry.No change out of $80 or nearly 50 quid these days.

That's the strength of the Aussie dollar for you as when I was there 4.5 years ago $80 was about £35 and I have no doubt that prices have crept up since then too

[Arcam_boy]

Maybe I'll keep saving for another year or two yet to at least make it worth our while going. It sounds like it'll be expensive holiday and the wife has put her foot down about camping/hostels!

Think we'll knock Tokyo on the head though to save a grand or so!

[huntere]

Originally Posted by Arcam_boy

Maybe I'll keep saving for another year or two yet to at least make it worth our while going. It sounds like it'll be expensive holiday and the wife has put her foot down about camping/hostels!

Think we'll knock Tokyo on the head though to save a grand or so!

Maybe not a bad plan and chances are the dollar will weaken by then - its way overvalued now.

[Geege]

I remember when I visited Australia in 2005, the rate of exchange was:

£1 = $2.70

Now in 2012:

£1 = $1.50

[domtheone]

Originally Posted by Geege

I remember when I visited Australia in 2005, the rate of exchange was:

£1 = $2.70

Now in 2012:

£1 = $1.50

One country going great guns, the other going to the dogs :-)

[huntere]

Originally Posted by domtheone

One country going great guns, the other going to the dogs :-)

To be precise, certain parts doing great guns. We hear every day about our "two speed" economy and have and have-nots.

[domtheone]

Originally Posted by huntere

To be precise, certain parts doing great guns. We hear every day about our "two speed" economy and have and have-nots.

Yep. Mining etc etc booming but tourism must be suffering big time.

[BT Bob]

We're planning going next year. Hoping to leave late May and stop a few days in Hong Kong. Then onto Sydney.

Fortunately, my brother lives in Sydney and we have a few friends dotted about who can accommodate us.

We're planning to coincide with the British & Irish Lions tour (friendly vs Barbarians in HK June 1st en route), and back early July, so around 6 weeks in total. Even with the huge saving on accommodation it's still going to be costly - unless the exchange rate picks up.

We're looking at Trailfinders who have some good deals, as well as the Flight Centre.

[KyleS1]

I was there for 4 months and did the whole thing in a campervan. Was ace, but doing it that way you do really need a big chunk of time there. Other than that, I would just pick a few places (Sydney, Ayres rock, Cairns maybe) and get some internal flights. So much quicker than any other means of transport there.

[primadonna]

I've been to Australia (Cairns, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne) several times and the first few times, we joined tours before realising that every tour company would bring you to the central location (a bus terminus place) where everyone from different tour groups will assemble and go for their respective tours. I would say a cheaper option is to go there and buy your own day tours to eliminate the cost of the middle man (the tour agency). We drove around ourselves for some days as well cause we hated being rushed around by tour groups. Can't advice on the cost of that though cause i really don't remember.

[BT Bob]

Well, flights booked. Out via Hong Kong in time for the Barbarians v B&I Lions match on June 1st. 5 days in HK - no hotel booked yet, still looking, but Holiday Inn Express looks reasonable at around £45 a night each including breakfast.

Then flying on to Sydney. Return flights will be the same, but without the stop-over in HK, obviously. We managed to get flights with Cathay Pacific for £933 each, which was £140 less than the next cheapest, which will pay for the Harbour Bridge Climb!!!!

We're now planning the rest of the time we'll spend there. One thing we have found that looks really good is the Virgin Australia Airpass - only available to non-residents, must be booked before you arrive in-country, minimum of 3 internal flights and booked on a non-Ausstralian credit card. It brings the flights down to at least 50% of the "normal" price, so well worth looking at.

So far on out "bucket-list": Uluru, Cairns/GBR (taking huntere's comments in mind), Melbourne, Tasmania, Australia Zoo and Sydney for the 2 Lions matches v Warratahs & Australia. We may not do all of these... all depends on costs at the time of booking.

One thing we're trying to do is to book and pay for something every month from now until we get there - spreading the cost as best we can. Also our friends and families are going to pay for some of these as Christmas & birthday presents, so that should help too.

[domtheone]

Originally Posted by BT Bob

We
which was £140 less than the next cheapest, which will pay for the Harbour Bridge Climb!!!!

That's about the price aye. Worth it though for a one off. Really cool experience.

[BT Bob]

Originally Posted by domtheone

That's about the price aye. Worth it though for a one off. Really cool experience.

Yes - can't wait. My daughter did it a few years ago and loved it. I'm a tad cynical about the "you can't take your own camera so have to buy the photo we take of you" clause, but I understand the need to avoid anyone dropping anything from that height

[domtheone]

Originally Posted by BT Bob

Yes - can't wait. My daughter did it a few years ago and loved it. I'm a tad cynical about the "you can't take your own camera so have to buy the photo we take of you" clause, but I understand the need to avoid anyone dropping anything from that height

Yes it is a shame. Can't take anything up there besides yourself and your clothing/equipment.

The photos cost a small fortune too. They really milk it big time.

Can't remember the exact cost but your looking at an easy £11-£12 per photo. Max i could have purchased was 4 but 2 were blurry (night-time) so it only cost me £23