goingau

we have now booked flights to validate visa's, flight will land in sydney first thoughts were to take a direct flight up to brisbane to visit friends.
we will want a car to explore areas for living in the future, so have been costing that up.
suddenly realised that instead of flying up we could save all or half of that cost (theres five of us) by driving the distance (9hrs i believe) to brisbane and flying on the return. we want drop hire car at either place with no problems.
we could break it up with an overnight stop.

so what to visit in between ????

Alfresco

http://goo.gl/maps/YyTCI

I have only been as far south from Brisbane as Ballina. Byron bay is pretty.

I'm sure others will some experience and advise on places further south.

Good luck!

goingau

byron is where we have relatives too

big_matt

We've done that drive a few times but I can't remember the names of all the places. I'd highly recommend Lennox Head (a smaller, quieter, nicer, version of Byron Bay) and avoiding Kempsie.

The drive is definately worth it. Some wonderful places.

KJCherokee

There are two ways to drive from Sydney to Brisbane - the coast road (Pacific Highway) or the inland road (New England Highway). The Pacific is continually being upgraded and bypasses most of the towns (with the major exception of Coffs Harbour): the New England still goes through the centre of most towns along the way.

The non-stop (except for food, toilets, etc!) trip will be closer to 12 hours rather than 9 - 950km at 100-110kph plus the slowdowns for towns, roadworks, slow traffic. Both routes are about the same distance. With 5 in the car you'll need an overnight stop! - Armidale on the New England, Port Maquarie or Coffs (or somewhere between the two) on the Pacific.

Things to do en route? depends on what you like. More interesting scenery on the New England but not many significant tourist attractions. The Pacific is a boring drive (think of the M1 but much longer - and significant amounts that are single carriageway) and you have to detour off the highway to get to most of the touristy bits. There's a pretty good motorcycle museum at Nabiac, 140km north of Newcastle.

Be aware that if you hire a car in Sydney and drop it off in Brisbane you will be charged a relocation fee - you could drive it back: that way you could try both routes!

goingau

thanks KJCherokee and big_matt, even including the relocation fee its cheaper than flying. i dhould have said it's three young childern and two adults.
we doing a 24hr flight, so are looking at breaking the trip up, maybe a stop every 2-3hrs

how about, https://maps.google.com.au/maps?sadd...mra=ls&t=m&z=8

sydney,Bulahdelah,kempsey bypass,Sapphire Beach,lennox head?

Mike at Taree

Hi, just joined this forum and I live on the Mid North Coast of NSW. The coastal route, Pacific Highway, is actually very pretty with nice forests, mountains and rivers and all lovely, lush and green at the moment, but not much to do on the road itself. It's going to take you 10 to 11 hours to drive from Sydney to Brisbane so you might want to extend your stops to every three hours, but there are picnic and toilet areas on the highway itself at convenient locations.

My pick would be (Google Map them)

Stop at Heatherbrae just north of Newcastle for a pie and a drink then push on, not much happening until you get to the "Mid North Coast".

Have a look at Taree (turn Left)- pretty river city surrounded by nice Pennine sized hills with an undeserved reputation for being Bogan (google that term, sort of like "Chav" ). I love the place. Or the little seaside village of Old Bar (turn right) where I live. Nice surf beach, fish and chips etc. Both are 10 mins off the hwy.

Coffs Harbour is a bit of a rat race to get through, so you might want to stop off just after there at Woolgoolga, currently on the hwy, again a stunning beach and wee village.

Further North Brunswick Heads is a nice quiet picturesque town. Avoid Byron Bay, it's full of parking meters and over-commercialised compared to a few years ago and too far off the hwy.

You will encounter several very major roadworks on the way which will slow you down, be great next year when they are all done. However adhere to speed limits posted as the cops can get a bit savage.

Have a good trip, Aussie road rules are basically the same as UK but none of them know how to negotiate a roundabout properly

And when you indicate left or right You'll wash your windscreen for the first few times, steering wheel sticks are opposite

Edit: I see you have rellies at Byron, by all means visit as you'll get a park at their place which is more than you'll do in town . lol.

Mike at Taree

One thing, once you are in Brisbane, if you are going to cross the river at the Gateway Bridge on the M1 it's a toll bridge with cameras and number plate recoginition. Locals have a transponder linked to their account but as a visitor you have 72 hours IIRC to phone 133331 - from any local or payphone or mobile if you have roaming. Pay the three bux or whatever on MC or Visa so the hire co. doesn't get hit and penalise you.

big_matt

My sister in law used to live in Taree, and I'd say it's both (a) a pretty river city, and (b) full of bogans. It may have changed by now - last time I visited was about 7 years ago.

Nothing wrong with a bogan either.

Great advice btw, and welcome to the forum.

Mike at Taree

Haha - you need to distinguish between Bogans and Hicks - important difference. Morayfield QLD, Browns Plains Brisbane, the Jasmine Allen Estate in the Bill are Bogan. Taree is unashamedly Hick

Not too many BMWs or Mercs around here but since moving here from QLD I've had nothing but welcome and friendly people. However I did have to ditch my man bag pretty quick smart

It actually irritates me that when I walk round the corner into Old Bar village I have to say "g'day" to everyone and at the supermarkets instead of "How are you"- "good" I have to expand it to "good, thanks, and how are you today?".

Grump.

Well that's hick

Mike at Taree

To OP, me again, hit me with a shovel

Considering the longer trip due to the massive bypass building that's happening on the Pacific hwy on at the moment I'd look at breaking the journey overnight and would thoroughly recommend Nambucca Heads, North of Port Macquarie. Right on the hwy and five from the beach.

Nice motel right next door to the RSL Club - family friendly - (Returned Services League, equivalent to British Legion) and have a nice dinner overlooking the river.

There's an excellent hotel motel booking service called Wotif you can Google and book / pay.

[IMG][/IMG]

paddyo

I can echo the Nambucca Heads stop off. We did that and stayed at Big 4 there. Have done the Sydney-Brisbane 4 times now, our overnight stops have been Woolgoolga, Port MacQuarie, Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Heads. Avoid Woolgoolga, pretty dull, but the others are ok, Coffs is hit and miss!

With All Due Respect...

I agree with Bruns over Byron - unless maybe you're never planning on going to Byron ever again and want to tick it off your list.

Also, Buladelah... Erm, I worked on the ground testing for the highway cutting there years ago. Nothing to write home about, but there is a nice little place with a lovely beach close by called, erm, damn it my mind's gone blank! I stayed at Tea Gardens (which is nicer than Buladelah), but it wasn't there, although it was very close. I'll post if it springs to mind.

I liked Yamba years ago too, for what it's worth. Oh, and I'm not mad for Coffs itself, but the foothills up in to and around Dorrigo is a nice drive.

goingau

thanks all for the suggestions, i'm looking at them now. the places i had picked were roughly about 2hrs apart.
Personally i dont mind driving with longer gaps, we just need to keep the childern happy (are we there yet,are we there yet)

are the road works in any one particular place? or all along highway

Mike at Taree

The Buladelah bypass has just opened, so that's a bonus for you. North of there there's a bit of work South of Port Macquarie, then the pretty major Kempsey Bypass where they are building the longest bridge in the Southern Hemisphere over wetlands around the town.

Further North after you pass through Coffs Harbour (not yet bypassed) you'll hit the Woolgoolga bypass project that's quite extensive.

There's the Devil's Pulpit upgrade North of Grafton.

The thing that will hold you up is that many kilometres of normally 100kph or 110kph hwy is down to 80 and 60 speed limits with occasional stops for flag men or temporary traffic lights.

Probably add an hour to your trip. It's also annoying that often you will go for kilometres with "roadworks 80 kph" signs and there's nobody doing anything, with machinery parked over the weekend or maybe a couple of surveyors doing stuff.

Always the way

Another thing, on the single carriageway sections of the Pacific Highway there are regular overtaking lanes signed well in advance, so if you get stuck behind a horse float or a slow truck, plan in advance then when you get to the lane, where the road gets an extra lane in your direction it's "Keep left unless overtaking" and you can floor it.

Edit: in the UK being a small country they just built the motorways from scratch through green fields. Here the existing highways get upgraded a bit at a time. Imagine the M1 had never been built, with the A1 being gradually turned into a motorway over 40 years one village at a time and that's what you have here, more or less.