oz miller man

spent 5 years exploring this stretch of coast, camping and surfing.....In my mind its the most beautiful stretch of coast (along with south NSW) in Australia....but you have to get off the highway and make the 40-60 minute drive to the sea, its mostly national park so only basic accommodation but easy access on 2wd sealed road.

first stop seal rocks, blues beach or boomerang. 2 hours north of Newcastle.

next up Taree is nice, by brother in law is from there....Old bar is better

or drive the extra hour to Crowdy bay near port Mac.....head off the m1 to Laurieton then Diamond head

Kempsy is a dump yes but crescent heads is a great spot and even better is the secret little gem of point plomer in the national park close by....get a cabin right on the beach and be surrounded by wildlife.

Bellingen about an hour before Coffs and not far from Nambuca and a better spot IMO......quaint country town, great pub.

Avoid Grafton but again some great coastal NP....Wooli, Mini Waters
or keep going and try Brooms head or Yamba.

I would say try Byron....I loved living there, but it is one of those places you love or hate....and the time of year you come can make all the difference...much better in winter.

so there you have it......lots of ideas including my 3 favourite spots on the NSW coast....Diamond Head, Plomer and mini waters

Kapri

This made me laugh. We arrived in Sydney today and picked up the hire car. Lets just say we have a very clean windscreen and have pissed off a lot of drivers with our lack of indication!

old.sparkles

made me giggle too.

When I bought my car, I managed to get a ford with the wipers and indicators the right way round

goingau

just like the M25

yep i guess i'll do that too, i do that over here (my car v's OH's car)

roaringmouse

I disagree - having the indicator on the right hand side is the right side, and easier to use too. Old British cars often had their indicator on the right, I remember my first car (a Mini) having it on that side.

Currently in the UK, driving a Vauxhall, and although I've got used to it being on the other side, I'm still not comfortable with it.

KJCherokee

I drive a Jeep with the indicator on the left, my wife has an Astra (made in Belgium) with the indicator on the right. Makes for interesting driving when we swap cars.

carolinephillips

Welcome to Sydney!!

After nearly 5 years I STILL do that if I'm not thinking.

Mike at Taree

At least I've stopped fishing for the non existent clutch with the left foot.

goingau

has anyone used eastcoast car rentals lately, used them last visit and they were fine. just wondering if anyones had a newer expirence.

Mike at Taree

NOOOOOOO

Before retiring last year I worked for Hutchison Vodafone in Brisbane messaging centre. One of our tasks, apart from directory assistance for Voaafone, was to run messaging services for literally thousands of companies, Government departments, local councils, you name it.

In other words after-hours you would ring Bloggs and Sons because your fridge has shat itself, and we pick up the call. Imagine call centre with 70 people with headphones on and yours truly in his pod.

Bloggs has shut down for the night and has patched its phones over, so the call comes in to me with a customised Bloggs screen with a script displayed :

"Hi welcome to Bloggs, Mike speaking, is your call regarding plumbing, electrical or home maintenance"? And so it goes, I type the message in the text area with name and phone number of caller, then I hit F8 F12 whatever and the text is transmitted to the Bloggs guy carrying the pager after hours, gets the message to respond.

"Hello, East Coast Car Rentals Mike speaking, can I ask what airport or location you are calling about?"

Bring up "name list" of locations, F5 F6 and take message to send a pager message to that duty pager (Brisbane airport, Sydney etc) for the location.
Take msg and F12

East Coast was always the ultimate world of pain - oh no.


We are be waitin here five hour no car come us
We have called you six times and no response yet
Just arrived from Italy and no car, 11 O'clock at night and stranded, no car.
Car broken down and stuck four days in Ballarat wtf happening.

Not trying to organise a secondary boycott but East Coast still makes me have nightmares in my retirement

goingau

i'm glad i asked

back to looking around i guess. eurocar more expensive to book though uk site then go through webjet site.

at one point i had thought to just buy one and drive it up, but OH stopped me on that

paddyo

Have you tried Thrifty car rentals?

Mike at Taree

I've gone thrifty in the past, excellent service and good vehicles. When we moved here from Bribie Island last year, rather then flog my own car going back and forth checking rentals etc we hired a thrifty Hyundai Accent (new model, about the size of a Corolla or Focus) and it only had about 100 on the clock and cost far less than equivalent Budget or Avis. Very pleased but note they only work office hours so you'll need to plan your pickup and return times to avoid late fees etc.

Edit: Booking site. They are right at the Airport, probably run a courtesy minibus from the terminals I'd guess.

goingau

just having a look now, there website keeps crashing. if anyone else is booking a hire car, check the end totals as quotes don't always include taxes or fees

any car suggestions for two adults three little (horrors) children.

PennyA

Rented through them once and had no problems! Only for 4 days though