Saturday, November 2, 2013

Visiting Australia from Canada, need advice!!?

best camping places south east qld
 on Holiday Accommodation for Western Downs Queensland, Australia
best camping places south east qld image



Greek_Gise


Heyy if there are any Aussie's who are reading this... me and my best friend who live in Toronto are DYING to come to Australia! We have absolutely no family or anything there, no place to stay. I just want some advice as to where a good site is to search hostiles or cheap places to stay? We have noo idea where to look, and it's very expensive getting there and we really dont have that much money so we're on a budget! Any advice as to where is the best to stay? I hear Queensland is a must, but I of course want to visit Sydney too. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! If we go for a month, how much money we're looking at? Thanks!!


Answer
Hey There - you should definately come! :)

OK, so the cheapest places to stay would be a hostel - especially if you are only staying for one month and want to move around!
www.hostelworld.com and www.hostelbookers.com are both really good sites, easy to use, lots of variety and you can book and pay a deposit online. I would also look into www.yha.com.au - youth hostels australia - if you are planning on travelling to other countries too, then they are part of the international HIH group of hostels, and so you get discounts if you get a membership, plus lots of discounts and a travel mag too. It is only worth it if you are going to be dedicated to finding YHA hostels (they are all over australia, but they may not be the first one you come across and if you are totally exhausted and been travelling all day, the first hostel you find will be veyr temping :) anyway, just another thing to look into.

Actually, if you weanted to do something really cool, id look into doing a surf safari, they have lots that leave from Sydney, and you travel by bus camping with your group up the east coast and they teach you to surf and take you to off-the-beaten-track surf beaches, it is an absolutely awesome way to travel up the coast, and you get to meet a great bunch of people too. there are a number of companies that run Sydney to Bryon Bay surf camps (they are about $500 and are usually 4/5 days)), and there are lots of busses from byron to Brisbane. I just did a quick search and found this one that starts in Brisbane, does a quick tour down the gold coast to Byron Bay, where you meet up with a surf school. Its seems really reasonably priced too! http://www.ozexperience.com/index.php/travel/passes_eastcoast/surf_pass_brisbane_or_byron_bay_to_sydney/

cheap flights within australia - your best place to search is www.webjet.com.au it searches all of our airlines, budget included. Be aware that buses in Asutralia are quite expensive (especially with rising fuels costs) and so if you are only here for a month, it might be better off taking the much quicker and only a little bit more expensive option to fly places.

So - where to go:
Brisbane is a whole lot of fun, sunshine, beaches. The gold coast (about an hour or so, south of brisbane) is infamous for its nightlife and definately worth a visit!
Byron Bay - Surf town on the NSW/QLD border, used to be a very hippy place, but lately it is getting more commercial, although high up in the mountoians there are lots of small hippy communities still surviving. Nimbin is where people usually go.
Sydney - Is a must (and not just cause thats where im from) from the beautiful harbour, to the beaches, to the nightlife! it has it all. Definaterly come to sydney, see the sights!
Melbourne - cultral and shopping capital of Oz - if you want the cafe life, this is where to go. great shopping, beautiful sceneic drives very close to melb - the great ocean road is so beautiful if you get a chance!
Perth - lovely city on the river, however it is on the other side of australia, and if you are only here for a month, you may want to miss it out in favour of doing something like ayer rock (sorry WA)
Ayers Rock - Uluru - you must try and get out here. You can do a backpacker trip out to there http://www.ozbackpackertours.com.au/tours/tao.cgi?md=search&ct=tours&city=Alice%20Springs&state=Northern%20Territory has some good tours. I believe that contiki also does tours www.contiki.com.au. You cant come all the way to Asutralia and just experience the beach culture, you have to get a good feel for the outback too!

Meals - you can probably survive on about $30 a day if you arte going to supermarkets and able to cook meals at your hostel. A dinner at a restaurant will cost you about $20 - $50 each. Beer ranges greatly in price - in the popular city establishments you are looking at up to $10 a schooner, but the outback and anywhere between the capital cities is heaps cheaper.
Accomodation: hostels are about $30 a night. somtimes it might be worth looking up the price of a cheap motel, like formula one motels, where sometimes they are as cheap as $50 a room (major cities up around $100 - but you get your own bathroom and much more privacy than a backpackers)

Anyway, hope that helps! So, all up I'd budget for $200 for accomodation and tours. Remeber you dont pay accomodation when you are on tours, so it is only your food you have to worry about. some days you may just go to the beach and nothing else, that will be a cheap day, other things will blow your budget - like if you decide to climb the sydney harbour bridge (about $150-200 each but totally worth it). also another insider tip, at the theatre under the Sydney Opera House sometimes has australian comics playing there, the tickets are usually only about $40 each, but more than seeing a funny show you get to say that you went ot a show at the Opera house! :)

Id say that if you paid for your airfares, and a couple of tours before you go, you should only need $6000 each to be able to do everything you want to do for a month.




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