roobush

Hello!

We are a family of 3 (son age 4) moving to Melbourne in January 2011.

Can anyone please recommend whether it's best to sort out a Big 4 mobile home to stay in initially or a holiday rental?

If you've had good experiences with Big 4 campsites in Melbourne, which one would you recommend?

If you used a holiday rental apartment, which one would you recommend?

I've been looking at prices for holiday rentals and they're extortionate, but more central than the Big 4 caravan parks.

We'd have to live in it until we sort out a rental place to live in, so it would need to be affordable and comfortable for three of us to live in. Judging from what I've read on here, it can be very time consuming and difficult to find a decent family home rental and so we expect to be in it for at least a month or two...

thanks in advance!
roobush

itigo

We were in a holiday rental for exactly a month. It is expensive but we factored it in to our costs from the outset. We are not the natural camping type and I know we would have found it much more stressful trying to settle in a totally unfamiliar environment. Don't get me wrong, we will use Big4 etc. for holidays.

Wendy

I stayed in the Adelaide Big 4 Caravan park and whilst it was OK, I don't think I'd recommend it for longer than a couple of weeks. By that time I was ready for killing the kids and the OH

So I'd say if you're looking to stay somewhere for one or two months, I'd go for a holiday rental

Buzzy--Bee

Try www.moving-to-melbourne.co.uk. They have a lot of short term furnished rentals on their website.

BB

roobush

Hello

Wow, had a look on the moving to melbourne website, some of the holiday lets are $1000 a week! With the current exchange rate we'd be struggling to pay that for more than a few weeks...

Looks like it might be the Big 4 trailer park for us!

steve_kelly_and_boys

hi

where abouts are you heading for in melbourne

moocow

why do you need to be closer to the centre of town? life and jobs happen in the subusrbs as well.

i would go the big 4 route as you will meet other aussies more and get a chance to socialise with them. being a social lot as we are you will be able to pick up a lot of tips and information on what and how to do things. also your son should have some instant playmates. just dont book or try to extend a booking over the school holiday period.

JenniGee

We stayed in a Big4 & it was a 2-bedroomed villa, not a caravan. It was absolutely fine for 2 adults plus 2 teenagers. There was a pool & a games room & good point there about it giving you the opportunity to mix with other families

Wendy

Yes, I stayed in a villa too

Still wanted to kill the kids and OH after the fist week though (nothing new there though ). We did move over in the middle of winter though. We had an infestation of ants and I was getting dressed one day and this bloody great big cockroach jumped off my jacket and flew into my face It's funny now I look back at it, but at the time I didn't half scream

(here's the thread I did when we first got here, quite weird reading back after all this time! http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...arrived&page=2 )

KJCherokee

Which Adelaide Big 4 - there are at least 3 of them.

We stay at the Adelaide Shores one at West Beach every Christmas when we come down to see the kids and grandkids, and the facilities there for youngsters are first class. We bring our camper trailer so I don't know what the cabins are like, but the facilities are excellent and always clean. They even have a "Family" shower block as well as the usual Male/Female ones.

Don't try and get in over Christmas though - it's fully booked out fron 26th/27th with regulars who come every year. We have to pull out on the 27th. And it's not cheap - this year they are charging us $50/night for a powered camp site.

Wendy

We stayed at West Beach too.

Not saying it was really bad, we had a good time and our villa was right next to the beach which was great. But I don't think I'd do it that way again that's all. I would go for a holiday, but when you land here with all your worldy possesions and don't have anywhere else to go you are trapped there.

I don't know what I'd have done if we'd have had to stay there another week, I think I'd have cried

Wendy66

Send them an email when we were looking for short term accom we looked at Big4 sent them an email and asked for price reduction for 4 weeks, from memory they def offered us some off the total price I think it was 10%

Keep looking and searching, we eventually went with a relocation company and got a house that excepted dogs for 7 weeks till we brought our own house, the one we used was in Jimboomba, Qld but there are other ones in Melbourne etc. Some members on here have rentals as well if you search them out. Good luck