Expert: Stephen Tanenbaum - 10/8/2006

Question
Dear Steve

I am a Singaporean and plan to take a 13 days vacation with my family and friends (6 adults & 2 children)in December to Australia. We plan to drive from Sydney to Brisbane and back.
Could you assist us in aswering below questions ;

1. What are the attractions or town I should visit on this stretch? How many days would we take for this trip (in a very relaxing drive)?

2. Where should we stay each night and could I get chalets type accomodation with 2-3 rooms at family budget price? (to and from Syd-Brisbane).

3. Intend to bring my children to Movie, Dream & sea world theme parks. How can I get tickets at budget prices?

4. What type of vehicle I should hire and how to get a good price for the hire? What would be the estimated cost?

5. Any thing that I did not mention that I should be aware of?

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards
Paul Soong  

Answer
Hi Paul:

Our marvelous TWO MONTH visit to AU included a drive from Syndney to Brisbane BUT we travelled just two adults. Also, there are at least two routes:
See:  http://www.atn.com.au/maps/index.html which covers the two routes.

So let me toss out some general tidbits gleaned from our trip and a bit of current research:

The total drive is easy and at liesure is takes ten hours to cover 1030KM. As I recall we did this over three days.

The drive from Sydney to the Gold Coast is very pleasing with many sights and small towns. The driving distance from Sydney to the start of the Gold Coast at Port  Macquarie is 420KM and driving time is six hours. I read online that: "From Port Macquarie to the northern end of the Gold Coast is at least a couple of days drive along the Pacific Highway. If you want to stop and take in the many sights one should allow a WEEK for this route."

The distance from Port Macquaire to Brisbane is another 610KM.

Another local expert describes the trip like this:
The drive from Sydney to Brisbane is approximately 1100 kilometres.This drive should  be broken into 3 legs;
Sydney-Hunter Valley approximately 200 kilometres
Hunter Valley - Coff's Harbour approximately 400 kilometres
Coff's Harbour-Gold Coast approximately 400 kilometres

So total round trip distance to Brisbane from Sydney is 2060KM estimated conservitavely at six hours driving for each 400KM or total driving time of about 30 hours. Yes, this varies with the above 10 hours one way estimate. It is all a matter of rate of travel, number of fun or other stops etc.

Best town  to visit for teens (and fun for adults as well), they call it a hippie alternative lifestyle town on the beach, is BYRON BAY about 140KM south of Brisbane. Lots of cheap food, sun, fun and young people.

Both Coffs Harbor and Hunters Valley (mostly wineries) are pleasant and interesting stops.

Coffs Harbor has a super beach with monumental break wall that one can actually walk on so wild ocean on your right and swimmers on your left. See: http://www.visitcoffsharbour.com/coffsharbour/beach.html

Port Macquarie is another FUN stop: see:http://www.portmacquarieinfo.com.au/tours1.asp

We rented a campervan and so we did not use motel/hotels.

I would use the internet for reservations, to find best bargains.

SUPER $$$$ TIP IF YOU CAN DO IT: Over the years we have enjoyed super savings using a TWO FOR ONE coupon book, usually several hundred pages, called ENTERTAINMENT. See: www.entertainment.com

GOOD AND MAYBE BAD NEWS: In addition to scores of Editions covering major U.S. cities Entertainment also published some Inter'l editions. They have been reducing these. As of 2006 they still issued Canadian and Aussie books. The U.S. Entertainment site does NOT seem to include the Aussie books. Do they exist?  Seems they do. Found info on them on these two Aussie sites:
http://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/entertainment_books/entertainment_book


http://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/contact_us

As I recall they offered both Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbaine books. You may find a web site that offers the contents of each book as they do here. If available these books save big time on fast food, restaurants, sight seeing attractions ex. Sydney Harbor Matilda Rocket boat excursion ONE FREE, also the Aquarium etc. A few uses usually pays for the books. You may have to make a call to track it down. For family of four I guess two books would work. Or get one Sydney and one Gold coast and/or Brisbane. Each books should pay for itself. But does also depend on how much time you spend in each area. Books have huge section on hotel/lodging discounts which we also used. These cover the entire east coast and are the same in each book.

Since there are great beaches around Sydney an Sydney option is the nearby Blue Moutains with its caverns, scenery and wineries. We enjoyed spending about 4 days exploring the area.

Your other questions about vehicles and lodging are beyond my scope for specific answers. We did a Ford Transit High Top van and used RV Cameper Parks. There is no more FUN, money saving way to travel down under. We rented a larger 4-6 person small motorhome in Alice Springs (due to flood we had to take the larger vehicle). WE also spent SIX WEEKS in a 27ft Winnebago with queen BR in Alaska. Awesome. See Patty in our high top rental in New Zealand.http://cheaptravel.net/vacations/newzealand/newzealand_van.html

Kitchen area becomes queen bed. Not sure if there is another bed above the fron cab section. You will likely need larger vehicle.

You will have to research current availability/cost etc. Can say the RV parks are cheap,plentiful and total FUN.

Hope this helps. Have a wonderful trip.

Steve Tanenbaum