Austrailia!

[lumination]

im travelling down the east coast from Cairns to Melbourne via the greyhound bus (i think unless you can suggest something better!). i dont know much about Oz,
what do i see/do. any really good places that i cant miss? helpyyyyy!

[jno]

er.... Sydney?

[redman41]

You could use the Train.........see Link below

http://www.railmaps.com.au/

[lumination]

thanks redman ill takea look.
and sydney was one of the places i had in mind lol

[Count-A-Strong]

You need a pen and paper to write down all the huge fiberglass animals you will see and their location. Look out for the giant lobster (I think it's between C and M)

[alexanderd]

Well where do I start? In Cairns you have to visit the barrier reef and take the sky rail up into the rain forest, travel down to brisbane, lots to see and do on the way, then on to Sydney, across to Melbourne, do the great ocean road trip(not to be missed) down to Philip Island for the penguin Parade. I went a few years back and did the trip from Melbourne to Cairns, how long are you going for?

[tamborine]

tell us when you're here

http://www.coastalwat...Name=Burleigh%20Heads

[lumination]

about 5 weeks. bare in mind im backpacking lol not that much money. where does the ocean rd start and end? and what exactly is it? just a long road?

[lesblue]

How long are you there for? My wife and I spent nearly four weeks in 2007, travelling from Cairns-Brisbane-Sydney via cheap internal flights, on the understanding that the bus journey can be a little boring.
From Cairns we visited the Great Barrier Reef, Whitsunday Islands, Karunda.
From Brisbane we saw Fraser Island, Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise (views from the top of Q1 are fantastic) and Australia Zoo.
From Sydney (and I would suggest you need slightly longer here than the other destinations to catch all the sights) you could take a trip into the Hunter Valley, the Blue Mountains or perhaps visit some of the beaches (Bondi is NOT the best IMO). If you are into Sport, both Brisbane and Sydney have numerous famous venues where you can catch top quality Rugby League or Aussie Rules Football. If you are going soon, you might even want to catch a day at The Ashes. Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney all have matches this Winter.
Whatever you choose to do, you will have a wonderful time in a wonderful country!!

[alexanderd]

The ocean road starts west of Mebourne and stretches for about 200 miles along the S coast to a whaling town called Warnambool ,at the time of year you are going the whales will be coming close to shore to give birth and you can see them quite easily(costs nothing). There are loads of coves and beaches along the road and also sights where the old ships were lost on the rocks. Google Ocean rd,My sister lives in Melbourne and I can tell you that food and accomodation are both cheap and easy to find. Enjoy

[lumination]

all quite helpful lesblue thank you. i heard if fraiser island. will find out a bit more about it i think i keep hearing it pop up. tamborine ill post a link on here if i remember! and wave like a loonely!

[alexanderd]

as Lesblu says internal flights are not that expensive and will miss the boring bits out, not that there are many

[lumination]

hmmm i may look into the internal flights. i just want to end up somewhere that not many people are though. but im looking forward to Oz! it does sound great

[tamborine]

Melbourne/Dandenong/Philip Island/march of the world's teeniest penguins.

http://goaustralia.ab...seeing/a/phillip1.htm

[sddsddean]

Assuming you are not a vegetarian, make sure you have some roast kangaroo. It is delicious! Much better than steak, but forget camel...I thought it was very tough.

If you get to Sydney and its in your budget (as you are backpacking), climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge is a great experience, but it costs about £75 for the 4 hour trip (1 1/s hrs of which is getting kitted out and 'trained'. You will love Sydney, we plan to go back. The Blue Mountains (which is actually a canyon) are spectacular. All sorts of excursions run there from Sydney.

[tamborine]

dont forget Mt. Tamborine, brisbane.

http://www.google.co....QwAw&biw=1045&bih=518

[Answerprancer]

Try to get in as much experience and a healthy balance of knowledge of the Aboriginal people as you can - maybe staying on a reservation with some.

[askyourgran]

We got a great deal with Travelbag, we had five internal flights thrown in, so our trip started in Western Australia Perth, we stayed in Freemantle. On to Sydney and then to Brisbane. We spent a week in each place, and stopped at Singapore for a few days before Australia and then Bangkok on the way back. We enjoyed each place we went to, at Sydney the Blue Mountains were interesting (no charge) and there are some lovely beaches. Brisbane is nice and I wished I could have gone up to Cairns and the Barrier Reef. It is a backpackers paradise. It's a lovely country. Plan your trip, we went in early November, (Springtime) It wasn't too hot then.

[lumination]

thank you all for your replies! im looking into a lot of that stuff to do now. any more suggestions keep em coming!

[ste v]

if you fancy driving you might get a good deal as most people drive from sydney/melbourne to the more remote areas like darwin or cairns so they end up with more campers than they need - wicked campers are cheap as are the camp sites you can stay in overnight - i satyed in about 30 and never came across a bad one ?