Sydney, Opera House, Bridge (walk?), New Town very cool area, Manly Beach, North Curl Curl, Bondi Beach, just buses to go back into town very crowded. Botanic Gardens
Brisbane, West Bank interesting cultural park, Fortitude Valley with great restaurants and bars
Australia Zoo, Steve Irwin’s zoo (started by his parents in 1970, Steve and his wife Terri took over in 1992), lots of care for the animals, roaming around free or on huge plots regarding their natural habitat.
You can book trips for the whole east coast in one go, it’s a day-to-day booking with transfers, (multi-)day trips and hostels wherever necessary from wherever you are to wherever you want to finish the trip.
Sunshine Coast, funny names, Bokarina, Mooloolaba, lovely to just grab a bottle of wine and enjoy the beach, especially by sunset, even though it is on the east side of Australia. Also try the local honey-beer: BeezKneez. Noosa is really beautiful as well, rent a BBQ-boat, buy some food for it and go on the Noosa-river for a ride and BBQ.
Goldcoast, Surfer’s Paradise, have a picknick at The Spit, great views from the Q1 tower, trip to O’Reilly’s via Mount Tambourin, do the tree top walk.
Byron Bay (stay at Arts Factory Backpackers, very cool), do a trip to Nimbin (via Night Cap Nat.Park and the Minyon Falls), go to Cocomangoes or Cheeky Monkey for a drink, see the sunrise at the lighthouse,
From Hervey Bay: Fraser Island, 4WD tour, Lake Wabby, Shipwreck Maheno, one of the designated campsites Beaches Base Camp, Champagne Pools, Views of the ocean from Indian Head, Eli Creek,Colored Sands, Lake Basin, Lake MacKenzie the most beautiful of the island,
From Airlie Beach a trip to Whitsundays, sailing and scuba diving, Whitehaven Beach Party once a year in August/September. In Airlie Mass and Mama Africa cool bars.
Cairns, Cape Tribulation via Daintree rainforest, bars in Cairns: Rhino Bar, Woolshed and Calipso
Outback: long vast stretches of seeing nothing but red dust and the odd shrub next to the long, long highway. You frantically wave at the few other travelers in cars you see on the empty road. You overtake some extra-long ‘road trains’ (triple trailer trucks). Then after six hours of driving, you see a town looming at the horizon. You hope there is a supermarket where you can stock up on water and food, and that the petrol station has not run out of petrol yet. There is something meditative about driving the outback of Australia. Just zone out, let your mind go on blank and enjoy the peace and quiet of the deserted stretches of land around you.
It is recommended to buy a car if you’re going to be out on the roads for quite a while, and sell it again before you leave. Give yourself some time to be able to sell the car again for a reasonable price.
Find official info on buying a car in Australia, very easy, just register it in your name within 2 weeks after buying it, and de-register it again when you sell. Registration must be done in the state where the car is from / was registered upon first admission on the streets. You need an registration address in the state where the car is from (also from a hotel or hostel is fine, just as long as you have a credit card receipt and brochure of the hotel) and a postal address where you can receive mail (use the address of a friend or trusted company) in case you receive mail about the car that you need to reply to. In registration is a roadworthy check called REGO, this is an annual check that a car must have. A car with a REGO of several months is better than one with little time, since you have to have the car checked, fixed etc to get another year of REGO again. I used a car for 5 months, bought it for AU$1930 and sold it again for AU$1700, I could not have rented a car for 5 months for just AU$230! When going for a short time, and you won’t have time to sell the car again, there are several rental companies where you can rent a car or van for a while. Make sure you get insurance in case something happens to the car.
What kind of car? A van is great for sleeping in, but you can also sleep in the back of a station wagon. One little tried and tested trick: it is more comfortable to sleep with your head at the end of the car, and your feet against the front seats. You would think the other way around is nicer, but no, this way around gives your feet a bit of dangling space and you won’t have your head resting over the edge of the backseat.
Other necessities to have when traveling with a car:
Have a tent too, in case the car is too hot to sleep in.
Some (air) mattresses and sleeping bags. As a pillow you can always use a towel or some clothes
Spare petrol canister
Some cutlery, a few plates or plastic containers to put your food in, some cups or mugs for drinks, a bottle and can opener.
When driving in the outback, definitely make sure you have enough petrol (fill up at every station you see, you never know if the petrol station in the next town happens to be closed or out of petrol, and bring a jerrycan of 10 l of petrol) and water (there are 10 liter canisters with a little tap, making it easy to pour your water). And check the oil and liquids for the car regularly.
For food: cans of beans, corn, tomato, and other other veggies. With some bread or wraps this will get you filled up without the need for a fridge etc. Muesli bars and some fruit is a great idea too for a meal. If you want to, you can bring a small gas stove for one pot meals, but at several camping grounds and picnic areas there are free stoves to have a BBQ (‘throw it on the barby, mate!’) to have a hot meal every once in a while.
Along long stretches of highway , you’ll find so called ’24 hour parking lots’ where you can camp for free, or for a small donation to the site. The facilities are usually just a bush toilet, there is no running water, so also no shower. Tip: buy a box (or 2) of baby wipes or the likes, so you can at least freshen yourself up a bit between showers.
Don’t go off the highway if you don’t have a 4WD. There are great places to see in the rural outback, but if you happen to get stuck in an off road part, there could possibly be no other car in sight for a day or 2. Be prepared for this kind of emergencies, maybe let somebody know what your route is, let them know your estimated time of arrival, so they know when something could have happened to you.
Even though there is not much traffic on the highways in the outback, you have to be careful when overtaking the so called road trains. That are trucks that have 3 trailers connected, so they’ll take a much longer time than usual to overtake.
There is no radio and cell phone reception in the outback between towns, so you better come prepared with music (either CD’s for the slit in the console or some device on which you and your companions can listen to the music together) or you’ll depend on the singing qualities of your fellow travelers.
To see in the outback:
Devils Marbles, amazing rock formations in the shape of boulders
Aileron, Wycliffe Well the UFO capital of Australia
Alice Springs – Uluru, the monolith formerly know as Ayer’s Rock (don’t walk on it, Uluru is a sacred place for the aboriginals, so it’s a bit disrespectful. You also don’t walk over the altar in the Vatican, enter the mosque in Mecca with your shoes on or sit in the lap of a Buddha statue), don’t forget to see the rock by sunset, the changing colors as the sun goes down are an amazing view. Kata Tjuta, also known as The Olga’s, where you can choose between a longer or shorter hike. Kings Canyon, Rim Walk is amazing, about 6 km, a steep start, but the rim itself is very easy to walk around on. Just take your time and you may even see some wildlife there.
Daly Waters, is a very small town, but a great stop on your way north towards Darwin. It has a fun old pub, and has a camping ground next door for just AU$5 per night
Katherine Gorge, nice views of the gorge, walk itself is okay.
Darwin: trip to Kakadu, driving through, guide telling about the aboriginal paintings at Ubirr
Litchfield N.P., very interesting with the magnetic termite mounts (tops go north to south, probably just so the termites have the least sunlight coming in the mount), lakes, beware of crocodiles. Beautiful at Wangi Falls, Buley Rockholes and Florence Falls.
Broome, once a month staircase to the moon phenomenon, looks like it when the full moon is above the water with a reflection in the waves.
Exmouth, Ningaloo Reef, Cape Range National Park, great to camp there, and snorkel straight from your tent.
Carnavon, Rocky Pool, great picnic area, about a 50 km drive, first 4 km bit bumpy, but rest is fine. Blowholes to been seen at the coast too.
Shark Bay, Monkey Mia dolphin feeding, people may go there with huge expectations on feeding the dolphins and feel disappointed. Base line: don’t expect too much, you’ll just be giving a wild dolphin some fish. I thought it was pretty cool.
Hemilton Telegraph Station, stromatolites
Perth, botanic gardens, river, skyline with lettering
Along the highway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs is Coober Pedy, opal mining, lots of interesting underground buildings, like churches and houses. There is even an underground camping (Riba’s Underground Camping), if you dare. Bit of a tomb kind of place, but very cool for pictures with the light / air shafts. When you sign up for the opal mine tour, the first night on the camping is for free. Visit Faye’s underground house too, carved out by three women in the 60’s without machinery. Also underground church. Warning signs for the mine holes everywhere, be careful.
The Breakaways Reserve, Mad Max (the new one too?) and Salute of the Jugger have been filmed here. Very interesting mountains and rocks.
Adelaide, lovely botanic garden. Wine valley, Jacob’s Creek
Barossa Valley, Whispering Wall at Lyndoch. Wine estates and vineyards at Nuriootpa
Melbourne lots of museums, parks and night life. Drive the Great Ocean Road, lots of different things to see, twelve apostles (when I was there, there were about 7 and a half left, but who knows if nature created some new ones). Tower Hill, volcanic crater. Bay of Island, London Bridge, Arch, Loch Ard Gorge, beautiful gorge in the coast line. Melba Gully, little rainforest, nice walk.
Phillip Island, seals at The Nobbies, See the little penguins at 19.00h at Penguin Parade, very cute tiny penguins getting to land for the night.
Wilsons Promontery National Park, beautiful park with camping ground.
Camping in Merimbula, during the week daily pancake breakfast, on Friday evening bbq. Nice pool and jacuzzi. Nice beach.
Port MacQuarie, koala hospital
Dorrigo National Park, beautiful walk, just beware of leeches when it’s wet weather, put mosquito spray on your legs, or wear long pants and tuck them in your socks.
Working on a working holiday visa in Australia
Eat and drink: an Ozzie BBQ
