Australia = Crazy Prices?

imme

Travel in Oz seems to be crazy high priced. Just looking at a bus trip from Brisbane to Cairns, weekday, results were around 325AUD with Greyhound, 250 with an alternative.

Can this be normal?

Is it possible to travel around/across Oz (overland pref) in any way reasonably?



This section of the travel threads seems to be more a home for posters making a new life in Oz, so I hope some travellers, people who've travelled to Oz see this.
Thanks.

catbear

I used this site to save money but it depends on if you can drive.
http://www.standbyrelocs.com/

jackbhoy

catbear wrote: »

I used this site to save money but it depends on if you can drive.
http://www.standbyrelocs.com/

I second this, it's by far the cheapest way to get around.

Australia is a pretty expensive place for tourists, especially with strength of AU$ these days so you can probably expect to be shocked when you try to book accommodation etc!!

Father Damo

Still alot cheaper than home. I remember years ago a train return from Dublin to Galway was something like 50 euro. I went to Newcastle a while back (which is also about 3 hours away from Sydney) and it was something like 9 dollars return.

aido79

I don't think $325 for a 1700km journey by bus is that much of a crazy price to be honest. How much do you think it should cost? With the Greyhound you can hop on and hop as much as you want so I think its actually good value.

padma

When I was in OZ a few years back I rang all the campervan companies and asked if they had any relocations from x to y. In this way I travelled from Sydney to Brisbane, had 10 days to do it. Brisbane to Cairns, Cairns to Darwin, Darwin to Broome, Broome to Perth. They gave us petrol money and it cost us a dollar a day, which had to be booked by credit card. Insurance was optional.

Twice in different companies someone was renting a camper for the same journey as us and they were charged 2/3 grand a go for the same amount of time. We got some very good 6 berth campers. Travellers driving clapped out converted hiaces we met on the road thought we were loaded until we informed them of this opportunity to travel OZ for free.

It's definitely the way to go, you can stop wherever you want and are given a lot of time. When you first ring them they try to give you an offer of 15 dollars a day etc, just ask them what other relocations have they going, you may have to stay an extra day or two in Darwin or wherever in order to get the dollar a day ones. Always ask if the petrol is paid for and how much they are allocating for it. If they say you have to pay the petrol yourself just ask have they other ones going with petrol expensed.

if the first fail try a different one like Apollo and Britz. I found wicked campers crap, but apollo and britz had so many good quality cvampers with showers and stuff in them.

Give it a shot!!

sonic.trip

padma wrote: »

When I was in OZ a few years back I rang all the campervan companies and asked if they had any relocations from x to y. In this way I travelled from Sydney to Brisbane, had 10 days to do it. Brisbane to Cairns, Cairns to Darwin, Darwin to Broome, Broome to Perth. They gave us petrol money and it cost us a dollar a day, which had to be booked by credit card. Insurance was optional.

Twice in different companies someone was renting a camper for the same journey as us and they were charged 2/3 grand a go for the same amount of time. We got some very good 6 berth campers. Travellers driving clapped out converted hiaces we met on the road thought we were loaded until we informed them of this opportunity to travel OZ for free.

It's definitely the way to go, you can stop wherever you want and are given a lot of time. When you first ring them they try to give you an offer of 15 dollars a day etc, just ask them what other relocations have they going, you may have to stay an extra day or two in Darwin or wherever in order to get the dollar a day ones. Always ask if the petrol is paid for and how much they are allocating for it. If they say you have to pay the petrol yourself just ask have they other ones going with petrol expensed.

if the first fail try a different one like Apollo and Britz. I found wicked campers crap, but apollo and britz had so many good quality cvampers with showers and stuff in them.

Give it a shot!!

I've heard of opportunites like this before I got to oz, I might put this into practice soon when I'm going travelling-cheers for the heads up!

YulVas

You could go to gumtree.com.au and look in the community-rideshare section. If you're lucky you'll find someone who's driving that way and wants someone to share petrol costs and/or driving. I'd advise meeting up before you embark on the long journey though, just in case you end up with some nut job

If you're looking to make stops along the way and enjoy the east coast then the bus ticket is great value, as was mentioned earlier you can hop on/hop off and check out different places en-route......