Expert: Ian Smith - 6/16/2003

Question
Hi,
My wife, son and I are coming to Australia in about 5 weeks time and we are hiring cars in Perth, Brisbane and Sydney.  Could you please tell me is it easy to get lost driving on Australias roads and if so would buying a good road map help.  If we need a good road map, could you please recommend one, that I could buy before we get to Australia.
Many thanks.
Neil

Answer
The only places where you are llikely to get lost is in the major cities, just like other countries.  Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne are the only three where you might have problems, the others you would have to try hard to get lost and, even if you do, it's pretty easy to regain your position, unlike Italy where I just came from!
Depends on where you go whether you need a top class map or not and you will find the information centres usually can provide you with some free of charge than will more than adequately suffice.
If you wish to look at places to go that you may not have thought of, you might try my site on "virtualtourist" (get there via Google) and click on "members", then type in "iandsmith" and that should lead you to my site.  Once there, click above my picture to get into all the sites.
Hope you have a lovely trip and, if you're in Newcastle, let me know and we'll have a cup of tea together.
Cheers, Ian