3 Week Holiday in Oz in Queensland Area

livinsane

Hi, myself and my partner are planning to visit Australia for the first time in November. We are planning to take a month altogether but spend one week in Thailand en route.

After reading a bit, I think the area that will suit us best is the North East area. We are both into fishing, and marine life in general. Taking boat tours to islands etc will be right up our alley. The places that have stood out so far are:

Cairns
Whitsundays
Hervey Bay/Fraser Island

Nothing too strange, very popular places.

Three questions really:

1. If anyone has experience of fishing trips in this area, any suggestions on locations/charter companies would be great.

2. Any suggestions for inland destinations in that stretch of country? I see a lot of national parks on the map.

3. Is it worth travelling to Brisbane or even Sydney. Would the coast road from Cairns - Sydney in three weeks be stretching to far? As much as we love the sea, I would like to travel inland from time to time if there was something worthwhile to visit.

Google maps is giving an estimated 2700kms for the coast rd from Cairns to Sydney. Biggest tour I've done so far was about 2300kms around California and to Las Vegas and back in three weeks and we had plenty time everywhere.

Thanks for any info.

....forgot to mention that I love zoos. I will visit any along the way. I see Australia Zoo in Beerwah so will be putting that in the plan but please suggest any other zoos/aquariums/animal type things.

Tigerandahalf

You only have 3 weeks in Oz. It's a massive place and you could spend months travelling around it. I think your best thing to do is to fly into Cairns. Cairns should have nice weather at that time. 3 weeks would get you down to Sydney but you wouldn't want to be wasting time either in any place. It's just about doable especially if you want to see the big places like the Whitsunday Islands and Fraser Island. They are amazing places so definitely do them. However they will take up about 5 days between them.
What way do you hope to travel? Bus or car or campervan?
Australia is a beautiful place and is well worth seeing. It will be quite expensive though, so try to do your own cooking en route be it in a camper or a hostel.
Some people will say to avoid south of Brisbane towards Sydney but there are some lovely places to see there as well, like the pier in Port Macquarie (watch the surfers in the evening) Kiama and 7 Mile Beach.
Lakes Entrance is below Sydney. We did a bit of fishing on the lake there! Caught a few flathead there myself.

livinsane

Thank you for that. We are not decided on transport yet. Like the idea of getting a camper but will probably mix and match. I'd like to take some public transport too, nice to not have to always have one person driving.

I wouldn't be mind if we missed out on Sydney but just trying to decide on where we should fly home from. Will almost certainly fly into Cairns. I suppose if we booked a flight from Sydney and found ourselves tight on time, we could always get an internal flight.

loueeeeeez

If you are coming to Oz you should def try to see Sydney. I'd advise fly to Cairns, hire a campervan from Cairns to Brissy and then get a cheap flight to Sydney for 2 days, you'll see plenty in 2 days, even less if needs be. check out jetstar they have cheap flights! Enjoy! doing the east coast next week for 4 weeks!

livinsane

loueeeeeez wrote: »

If you are coming to Oz you should def try to see Sydney. I'd advise fly to Cairns, hire a campervan from Cairns to Brissy and then get a cheap flight to Sydney for 2 days, you'll see plenty in 2 days, even less if needs be. check out jetstar they have cheap flights! Enjoy! doing the east coast next week for 4 weeks!

Sounds like a good plan. Have a savage time!

Kenny_D

I'm heading to oz in april for a month and booked a 3 week tour with peterpans from sydney to cairns. The itinerary is on their website and it might give you a few ideas as it includes cairns, whitsundays, fraser etc:

http://www.peterpans.com.au/backpacking-holidays-australia/sydney-cairns-19-day-east-coast-package

Planning on spending an extra 2-3 days in cairns at the end and then have an internal flight booked with JetStar to get back to sydney for a few days before heading home.

Enjoy the trip

livinsane

Kenny_D wrote: »

I'm heading to oz in april for a month and booked a 3 week tour with peterpans from sydney to cairns. The itinerary is on their website and it might give you a few ideas as it includes cairns, whitsundays, fraser etc:

http://www.peterpans.com.au/backpacking-holidays-australia/sydney-cairns-19-day-east-coast-package

Planning on spending an extra 2-3 days in cairns at the end and then have an internal flight booked with JetStar to get back to sydney for a few days before heading home.

Enjoy the trip

Thanks Kenny_D. I have to totally rethink going in November now from what I've heard regarding humidity and rain at that time of year. A friend of mine who lived in the Cairns area described it as unbearable! September might be a better option. Have a great time.

Tigerandahalf

November should not be a problem in Cairns. Darwin would be getting humid at that stage but you're not going there. If you go in September the weather may not be great as you go down south. I think November is a very good time to go, if you are starting in Cairns. No guarantee that weather will be warm in Sydney in November. Even December can be mixed but it should be nice and warm anyway.
You said you might mix it up regards the camper and the bus. The camper is good and you have great freedom in where to go and stop off. I really think it's the way to go. Driving there is v easy. Only disadvantage about the camper is that you wouldn't be getting use out of it while you are on Fraser Island or the Whitsundays.
Don't try to fit too much in. Give yourself those lazy days where you can lay on the beach or drink a coffee watching people go by.
Enjoy it anyway.

livinsane

Thanks, I think a camper will be on the cards definitely. Its most peoples Australian fantasy I think! Im confused about when to go now. Im not looking for perfect weather but high humidity will ruin the holiday. Nov would be the most suitable month for us work wise.

Jimoslimos

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Only disadvantage about the camper is that you wouldn't be getting use out of it while you are on Fraser Island or the Whitsundays.

He could look into a 4wd camper or what we had, a 4wd with a rooftop tent. Would also allow you to bring it on to Fraser and do your own thing - if you didn't want to go as a group. Bit more cramped than a camper though!

I wouldn't worry too much about humidity either, given that you'll be travelling from Thailand I'd imagine you'll be well acclimatised (even though it wouldn't be peak rainy season there).