My friend and I are going to Australia in about a month for 10 days. The tenitive plan is to hit Melbourne, Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef. Does anyone have suggestions about particular places, events, nightlife, etc, that you think are 'musts' along the east coast of Australia?
Also, do we need any particular special visas for our trip? Or will our normal passports do the job? I don't want to be like Lemoncello who evidently can't go and run a half marathon in China.
You will need a visa, I think it's called an ETA, but you can do it all online before you go. Search on Australia visa wizard.
Also, it's a big country so you should plan on flying between destinations so you don't lose travel days.
Australia is a fantastic destination and you will have a great time.
I'd leave the visa issue to the last possible minute - perhaps the day before. You should be Ok
the whole outback is pretty much the same... some thousand-odd miles of the same stuff. maybe worth seeing, but there's no need to drive through it all.
sydney is kind of like they're version of new york, i.e. place where it's crowded and everyone seems to be in a hurry, but probably has lots of cool stuff.
i think the best parts of australia are the more natural parts, not the big cities, though, so make sure to hit up those, and maybe the smaller towns, too.
it might be too late but i have heard new zeeland is also cool, almost like all the cool stuff in australia condensed into a smaller space.
have fun, i am jealous of being able to go there right now.
I believe you should apply for an ETA visa. You can do this all online, but you will need info from your passport. Processing is not long with these (a few seconds it says on the website).
Australia has the ten most venomous spiders and the eleven most venomous snakes in the world. Or is it the eleven most venomous spiders and the ten most venomous snakes? Then there's the crocodiles, stonefish, box jellyfish....
what have I missed out?
go to cairns if you're going to the GBR. i went diving there last november. also, check out the "uncle brian's rainforest and waterfalls" tour. it's a full day but is probably the most fun single day i've had on a trip.
careful they have aids.
OP, i think you can get the visa online instantly. (i'm australian so i've obviously never had to do it but my american friend tod me this was how he did it).
As far as your destinations, what are you looking to see? I'd say that's an ok itinerary, but to be honest i might skip melbourne if i only had 10 days.
Sydney is great, to me it's got everything and I don't think a first time visit to aus is complete wihtout a stop there. Definitely hit up the beach for a day or two (coogee, bondi and manly are the most touristy ones....there are more further north and south of the city but it will be easy to get to any of those three). After that, there's a ton of stuff to do, anything you can find in any other major city you can find there. Of course you've got all the usual tourist traps (sydney opera house, harbour bridge, centrepoint tower, aquarium, zoo) as well.
when you say 'great barrier reef' are you headed to cairns? If so, definitely try to make it up to the daintree rainforest and spend a night there if you can. (cape tribulation is a little village in there, there are plenty of buses going up there and you can do croc watching tours, sea kayaking, etc). defnitely go out for a day scuba diving - you can do this without being certified if you go with a guide, and it's only about 100 bucks for the day.
Other things to try off the top of my head - fish and chips, a night at the pub getting blind, nightclubs, i actually don't get into cricket much so i don't know if there're any on yet but go to a match if you get the chance (you've actually jsut missed the footy season), surfing.
have fun, i've been gone for 3 years and i'd love to go back for a visit
If you only have 10 days, limit yourself to Cairns and Sydney.
Saying you want to do Sydney, GBR, and Melbourne in 10 days, is like taking a trip to the US and saying you want to do New York, the FLA Keys, and Chicago in 10 days.
As other posters have said, it's a huge country with many cool places. Cairns and Sydney are definitely highlights, though.
I'd be on the lookout for wildlife that can kill you.
Box Jellyfish
Irukandji Jellyfish
Saltwater Crocodile
Blue Ring Octopus
Stonefish
Red Back Spider
Brown Snake
Tiger Snake
Great White Shark
Certain funnel web spiders
And of course the Dingo might eat your baby!
From Wikipedia, the breeded of a blue ring octopus:
A male mates with a female by grabbing her mantle, which sometimes completely obscures the female's vision, then transferring sperm packets by inserting his hectocotylus into her mantle cavity over and over again. Mating continues until the female has had enough, and in at least one species the female has to remove the over-enthusiastic male by force. Males will attempt copulation with members of their own species regardless of sex or size, however interactions between males are most often shorter in duration and end with the mounting octopus withdrawing the hectocotylus without packet insertion or struggle.
Most important of all:
Fosters in not Australian for beer. It is Australian for piss.
Don't expect to see any stellar runners there. Mottram is done.
Watch the movie "Wolf Creek" and don't do any of the things the 3 of them did.
I spent 3 weeks in Australia in '08. We hit up Kuranda/Atherton Tablelands/Cairns, Green Island (Great Barrier Reef), Uluru (Ayers Rock), and Sydney.
Agree with the previous posters that you should limit yourself to 2 areas of the continent. To do 3 would be like "drive-by" tourism. Don't just get notches on your belt. Immerse yourself in the place and smell the roses. This country is frickin' awesome and you will miss out if you have to rush it.
If I had 10 days only, I'd spend 3 days in Potts Point area of Sydney, 3 days at Cedar Park Rainforest resort near Kuranda (outside of Cairns), 1 day in downtown Carins, and 2 days on Green Island. Or if you're rich, spend even more time on Green Island and do lots of SCUBA diving. Just be sure to wear a good wetsuit because the box jellies are a problem in Australia's summer.
Don't miss the Cedar Park Rainforest resort. Get a rental car in Cairns so you can drive there. With the car, you can day-trip from the Cedar Park Rainforest resort to anywhere in the Atherton Tableland region. Granite Gorge, Lake Eacham, Kuranda, etc. This was probably my favorite part of the trip along with Green Island.
Skip Uluru.
Oh, and if you go to Cedar Park Rainforest resort, be prepared for the best food you've ever eaten in your entire life. Hands down.
stuck with match.com wrote:
Don't expect to see any stellar runners there. Mottram is done.
Ya, that Gregson fellow won't amount to much...
went to adelaide and cairns in january and had a great time. we got our visas at the airport.
i snorkeled in a stinger suit and was fine. the only sting i had while there was the price of beer...$17.00+ for a 6-pack and the exchange rate was pretty much 1:1.