East Coast Route: 2 Weeks (ex/Gold Coast)

bringitdown

Hi

Planning on doing some of the east coast as a vacation (based in KL so not so far away for a short trip!). Anyway the catch is the cheapest flights bring us to Gold Coast airport and we do want to spend approx 4 days in Sydney.

I know we have Fraser Island and all of Queensland to the north but is the enough merit between Sydney and Gold Coast to just explore between the two?

Any route suggestions would be very welcome - open to bus, train, car rental, internal flights: camping, hostels and self catering to keep the budget down.

hussey

bringitdown wrote: »

Hi

Planning on doing some of the east coast as a vacation (based in KL so not so far away for a short trip!). Anyway the catch is the cheapest flights bring us to Gold Coast airport and we do want to spend approx 4 days in Sydney.

I know we have Fraser Island and all of Queensland to the north but is the enough merit between Sydney and Gold Coast to just explore between the two?

Any route suggestions would be very welcome - open to bus, train, car rental, internal flights: camping, hostels and self catering to keep the budget down.

I would personally spend more time along Queensland coast than NSW.
as you mentioned Fraser Island is a MUST and so is Whitsundays island (sailing is great), magnetic island, and obviously the great barrier reef.

Sydney to Gold coast - places :
Byron, Surfers, main tourist towns, others (port macquaire etc) maybe a bit too quiet.

Route I would suggest - fly into to brisbane (1 day), Rainbow beach/Noosa (fraser) (3 days?) , head towards Airlie beach for whitsundays (long drive 12hrs, a night bus might be a good option), Whitsundays (3/4days), townsville (magnietic island) (2days) or head to mission beach, spend rest of time in cairns and fly out of here.

here is a bus ticket you can get http://greyhound.com.au/
might be worth while to check out time and departure dates etc

bringitdown

Well looking like this route due to flights and my G/F really wanting to include Sydney.

Brisbane -> Byron Bay -> Coffs Harbour -> Port MacQuarrie -> Hunter Valley -> Sydney -> Katoomba -> Sydney -> Brisbane (via overnight XPT).

Nimbin and Myall Lakes as side trips on the drive.

Anything else I should not miss along the way?

hussey

bringitdown wrote: »

Well looking like this route due to flights and my G/F really wanting to include Sydney.

Brisbane -> Byron Bay -> Coffs Harbour -> Port MacQuarrie -> Hunter Valley -> Sydney -> Katoomba -> Sydney -> Brisbane (via overnight XPT).

Nimbin and Myall Lakes as side trips on the drive.

Anything else I should not miss along the way?

Coffs Harbour -> Port MacQuarrie

they are nice, but I would spend a day doing both, as only 2hrs drive away
so could do morning in Coffs and arvo + night in Port M

Port M is a bit like a retirement village, nice but not a whole lot going on.
In my opinion :pac:

You can also see south west rocks in between them, if you are into diving, it is a great dive site.

JWAD

bringitdown wrote: »

Well looking like this route due to flights and my G/F really wanting to include Sydney.

Brisbane -> Byron Bay -> Coffs Harbour -> Port MacQuarrie -> Hunter Valley -> Sydney -> Katoomba -> Sydney -> Brisbane (via overnight XPT).

Nimbin and Myall Lakes as side trips on the drive.

Anything else I should not miss along the way?

Forget Nimbin. That monstrosity of a tip should be levelled. What a way to ruin a rainforest. Unless you're into drugs. Its a junky heaven.

If you hit Byron, take at least a week out and relax there. Enjoy where it is. Head to Uki and walk Mt Warning. Go for a beer and a bite at the Rails, the Northern or the Beach Hotel. Check out Byron markets (first sunday every month).

Actually you should have started your trip in Darwin and based yourself there for some amazing trips around the Top End. I'll never understand why people ignore NT. Its about as Aussie as it gets.

JWAD

just thought of another place you could visit. Ain't cheap but its defo worth it.
Its a rainforest resort called O'Reillys. I've stayed there three times for long weekends. Absolutely beaut place. Loads of great walks and tours. All sorts of wildlife to be seen in a free environment. And the brekkie........wow!
Get a chalet (not a room). Quaint and in a beautiful rainforest area of Lamington National Park in the Green Mountains which is situated across the NSW/QLD border.
You'd never forget it.
Their website is here: http://www.oreillys.com.au/

You just drive off the highway at Beaudesert (beginning of Gold Coast) and head up..up...up.

tywy

Mt Warning is defo worth doing, I really enjoyed it. There's a lovely YHA Hostel in Murwillumbah, the guy who runs it is really helpful!

Noosa is really nice, explore the national park there. There are a couple of really nice quiet beaches.

Port Macquarie - not worth it imho, we just stayed the night and then left.

Port Stephens is nice near Anna Bay - we stayed in Melaluca Backpackers there, it was really nice. If you have more money and don't want to stay in dorms, the cabins there are lovely too. They even have a pet kangaroo!

Also, if you're renting a car, I'd recommend Apollo Car Rentals. We booked one of their 'Cheapa Cars'. It cost us less than $30 a day for a Toyota Camry. The cars are between 2 and 4 years old but ours was perfect. Much better value than renting a brand new car.

JWAD

tywy wrote: »

Mt Warning is defo worth doing, I really enjoyed it. There's a lovely YHA Hostel in Murwillumbah, the guy who runs it is really helpful!

Murwillumbah is where my old golf club is.

A beer in the Uki pub after a day at Mt Warning is just brilliant. Lovely setting.