where_to

My husband & I are 35 & are planning our 1st trip to Australia (either Oct or late Nov of this year)---whichever month is better in the places we plan to visit. We will have about 18 nights (would like 3 in Fiji)
Here's what we love: wildlife & beautiful landscapes/scenery.
We would love to spend roughly 4 nights in Sydney, 5 nights Cairns/Port Douglas, 2-3 nights in Tasmania and were considering the Kangaroo Islands and/or Ayers Rock + Melbourne, please help with itinerary. Would like to self-tour & rent a car.

ksb04

Either month would be a lovely time in Australia, with November being slightly warmer. It's fairly hot in Australia during those months, particularly up north.

Another option over renting a car, would be to rent a campervan so you can save on accommodation.
http://www.campertravel.com.au
There are lots of different companies to choose from.

Kathy

johbot

That's an ambitious plan for one month. Personally, I would skip the Cairns / Pt Douglas part for this trip and concentrate on the southern states. Spend a few days more in Tassie, it is well worth it.
The coast road from Syd to Melb is worthwhile for great scenery, especially Croajingalong National Park.
And I am a big fan of KI.
Sep / Oct / Nov is spring, of course and an excellent time for wildflowers. Now the wildflowers of the east are not as spectacular as those of the west, they are still beautiful and worth checking out - from the Alpine areas to the flat palins of Western NSW.
I think that you need to take your time with a few good places and save the rest for another visit.

where_to

well i would really love to go to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef, Cape Trib & Daintree so I would be giving up alot by not heading north. So i think 5 nights Cairns area, 2 nights Lizard Island, 4 nights Sydney, 3 nights Melbourne & 3 nights Tasmania. Will i see alot of wildlife with these destinations? Lizard Is is for relaxing purely. Can I drive Great Ocean Road without having to go to Adelaine or is it best to take the entire trip?

lizF

With you time frame I would stick to Sydney and surrounds, Cairns/Port Douglas and perhaps a trip to the S.E of Queensland. You do not have time to include Melbourne, Tasmania or Kangaroo Island in my opinion and with help from people on this forum who live in the areas you are going to you can see all the wild life that you want to in the places mentioned above. Make sure that you give yourself time perhaps to see Hinchinbrook Island and stay there for a few days. There are dugong habitats just near there and the island itself is the most diverse of all the islands off the coast of Queensland.

fuzzylogic

I think it's time to address the "will I see a lot of wildlife" question.

First - Australia is not Africa (assuming some of you have been there).

A National Park here is not the same as the Serengeti or the Mara or the Kruger.

There are some places where you are more likely to see "wildlife" than others. But it's not guaranteed.

Assume also you are talking kangaroos, koalas, maybe emus, maybe penguins.

You'll almost certainly see roos or wallabies at some point if you go walking, or stay in a rural campsite or travel a rural road. Ditto emus.

Chances are increased if you go to WA.

You will be lucky to just 'come across' a koala.

The beauty of Australia is less in the big hyped stuff than in all the other creatures, and the flora.

But I'm not well placed to give you the geographical co-ordinates for where exactly you might see a frilly necked lizard.

Loads of birds though - as a first timer you will love those common as muck loriquets and the sulphur crested cockatoo.

pat_woolford

where to go - I would definitely include Far North Queensland - October and November are two of the best months of year to visit. They're after the SE trade winds of winter and before the wet season and make for calmer reef and island conditions. Days will be warm in October, getting hotter in November, when you'll start to get a taste of tropical weather when its warm enough to enjoy outside evening dining. Also about the best time for wildlife, its spring, everything's breeding after winter.

Much of Australia's native animals are nocturnal and you'd do well to use one of the many local wildlife guides, both in Daintree and Atherton Tableland areas. They're also experts at spotting bird life, the variety here in FNQ is immense, which is why it attracts birders from all over the world, particularly in November.

check www.bnbnq.com.au - here you'll find B&B type accommodation in Daintree, Cape Tribulation and Atherton Tableland with wildlife, some with platypus, on site.

where_to

Thanks Pat. That website is great! Wow, I didn't realize there is really a ton to see. Is 5 nights enough? Would you recommend staying in Cairns the entire time or splitting it up?

Thanks everyone for your help so far. I realize I will have to narrow it down. Fuzzy, I would love to see the koalas, roos and other animals but I realize entirely that I am not in Africa. I was in the Serengeti last year & I expect nothing to compare (from the animal perspective).

bobbieharv

My husband and I did a self-tour trip that covered many of the places you mentioned. Our three very favorites were Cape Trib, Kangaroo Island, and Tasmania. Here's a link to my trip report - feel free to ask more questions if you like. I planned the whole trip by obsessively reading this forum, and then ran into a frequent poster "Liz F" in Tasmania! It was a thrill.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34757850

ps if the link doesn't work just do a search for "bobbieharv" and you'll find my trip report.

where_to

thanks bobbi - how long were you there for in total and how many nights in each place?

bobbieharv

We were there for about a month, spending roughly three nights in each place I think. We find we need to move on after 3, but that less than 3 is sometimes not enough. So after 3 in Sydney we flew up to Cairns and drove up to Cape Trib. I can't recommend the rain forest area highly enough, especially at the time you're going there. It's the one place I would go back to. (we found our b&b in cape trib on that website pat recommended, by the way)

Then we drove back to the Cairns area, where we stayed in Palm Cove for our aborted plane trip out to Lizard and replacement snorkel trip.

Then flew to Adelaide. Given your time frame I might go straight to Kangaroo Island if you want to see wildlife. I had a lot of questions on this board about whether to do the Great Ocean Road or KI and finally chose the latter - someone said the GOR is beautiful, but like Big Sur, which we have seen here in the States. Plus it's a lot of drive time on the road, whereas KI is small and very manageable in 2 or 3 days. If you stay at the KI Wilderness resort you can get up before breakfast one morning and drive right next door to see koala bears in the eucalyptus trees and kangaroos hopping around, and be the only ones there. Then you can drink coffe on your porch and say good morning to the wallabies who come to greet you.

Tasmania at that time of year is supposed to be really beautiful. We spent a whole week there, and then two in Melbourne.

Also decided to skip Ayers Rock because of not enough time, and I was afraid it would be too touristy.

Given that you, like us, love wildlife and scenery, I might do:

2 or 3 nights Sydney
2 nights Daintree area
2 nights Lizard
2 nights KI (you probably would have to stay one night in Adelaide given plane schedules)
4-5 nights Tasmania (there's a lot to do there in a lot of different places)
2 nights Melbourne

Given your 3 Fiji nights, you might have to sacrifice a night in Sydney and maybe one in Melbourne.

You can make all the plane reservations online (there's a site that has both Jetstar and Jet Blue so you can pick the cheapest) as well as car rental.

alextana

5 nights in Cairns is way to much, I would spend more time in Sydney.
Pt/Douglas 1 day, GBR 1 day, Daintree 1 day, that's plenty 1 extra day for whatever but 5 is to much.

themurrays

if you are going to drive between Sydney & Cairns area, allow 2-3 days each way-
October & November is stinger season in Cairns/PortDouglas so you should only swim in Pools or outer reef areas.
Humidity is very high as well at that time of the year and temperatures soar.
On this trip, I would not be including Cairns area...but Tassie is superb, Great Ocean Road is lovely, you do not have to go to Adelaide.

pat_woolford

the murrays - with all due respect, where_to isn't contemplating driving Sydney-Cairns and to try to do so in 2-3 days would be exhausting and pointless. Humidity is relatively low in October, starts to build up in November towards wet season. October is before stinger season in the north, it starts in November when stinger nets go out on beaches. And very unlikely to be humid on Tableland at that time.

where_to; you've had some good advice here from bobbieharv and LizF; for wildlife and scenery I'd be splitting your nights between Daintree or Cape Tribulation and Atherton Tableland. There's ample to choose from on the website I gave you, all hosts have local knowledge and will be able to put you on to wildlife guides in area.

themurrays

Pat- i predominant season is Nov to May but there is increasing numbers of people being stung in Sept & Oct- Irukandji specially....we have had English Friends who went to Cairns in early October and had the unfortune to be stung.In addition unless you are an Ozzie and used to our humidity levels, FNQ relative humidity that we may perseve as being low will be HIGH for visitors from other parts of the world.
To illustrate, we live in a place of high humidity (just below Brisbane ) and even we stuggle with it when we go to FNQ in October-November...
hope this helps our visitors

pat_woolford

the murrays - October is the least humid month of year in Cairns area - see www.reflections.com.au/Cairns/Weather/index.htm where you'll see the relative humidity is 66% with an avg daily high of 29C.

Our visitors don't all come from humidity-free climates, have you ever been to New York city in July/August?

October is usually a lovely month in FNQ, its after the SE trade winds of winter which can play havoc with a reef trip and well before any wet season build-up.

Hope this helps our visitors ....

RTR1944

I know this is an old thread but I'll take my chances. We, too, are planning a trip about the same time of year (August/September) but in 2008. It sounds like you have the same interests as we do when you say "I realize entirely that I am not in Africa. I was in the Serengeti last year & I expect nothing to compare (from the animal perspective)." We were also in the Serengeti in March 2006 and the Galapagos Islands this March. So, we tend to lean toward wildlife and areas unique to the area.

I good friend and a very seasoned traveler once said to me "If you can reproduce it in the United States, why would you go there?" We intend to see an opera at the Sydney Opera House and see the Great Barrier Reef because those areas are unique to Australia and can't be reproduced in the US.

Similarly, we are leaning toward Tasmania and Kangaroo Island because of their uniqueness. My question is: Are you still planning on going to Tasmania and Kangaroo Island and, if so, would you please write a trip report back to me and others after you come back?

Here's hoping you still are reading your old threads!