louie

Afternoon all.

We're currently enjoying life in our caravan just north of Cairns, where it is currently warm and sunny if a bit windy. Making plans to head south down the coast at a very leisurely place as we're not big fans of humidity. Normally we don't plan too far ahead but as it's likely that our proposed trip back to the UK at Christmas will get cancelled, we need to think about where to aim for at Christmas. Already (and I appreciate that it is hardly a surprise), most caravan parks within a couple of days drive of Brisbane seem to be fully booked.

Not having been around coastal Queensland after the end of August before, we're not quite sure when and how far north it gets uncomfortably hot and sticky. Again I appreciate "uncomfortably" varies from person to person. Some people even this far north say Christmas is fine, others say not.

I'm interested in people's opinions of where it starts getting not so pleasant and when e.g Rockhampton is sticky from mid-December, Brisbane is lovely until mid-January, avoid Noosa at Christmas or whatever.

Thanks :-)

Kooky.

Those who live up there will have better information on where is good but we spent Christmas a few years ago in Port Douglas, and it poured down almost every day. We knew to expect it but were meeting The Niece, who had backpacked up the coast from Sydney, and it wasn't great for her.

We also spent part of our wedding/honeymoon trip many years ago based in Palm Cove, with similar weather for half of January.

I'd be tempted to go south of Brisbane. I worked a conference a couple of years back at Alexandra Headland, small town kind of place, quite liked it, stayed at an OK park - not that I've stayed at any others to compare - had some decent cafes and restaurants.

Pollyana

Wet season, cyclone season, can be an "interesting" time t be in the Far Nrth.......

themerlin

FNQ is designed for winter
Wet weather and lots of nasty things in the Ocean.

Beoz

If I do Queenland, and I avoid it at all costs because it's one of the most over rated places on the planet, I do it in winter. At all other times it's too wet and too humid and the beaches, except for a few around Noosa, and generally nothing special.

Hope this helps.

Kooky.

Good point on the nasty things - Palm Cove beach was closed the whole time we were there, early Jan.

davey6693

A couple of years ago we did Cairns for New Year followed by Brisbane the week after. My general gauge for as hot as I like to go used to be the weather in Florida in June (went there quite a bit from our base in Canada) which is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea but just fine for me.

Over Christmas and New year I found Cairns to be more uncomfortable than Florida was, and too much. Brisbane was a few degrees cooler and just about right. It’s where I live now and I’m really enjoying it. Even down here though it can easily be a top of 30-34 and overnight lows in the low 20s.

If you want cooler than that I’d consider NSW south of maybe Coffs Harbour.

paulry

Nambucca Heads is a good place, we were there a week or so ago. Some fantastic walks, amazing beaches and views and a very good Indian restaurant there too. But in peak summer the further south down the NSW coast you can go the better. A favourite of ours on the NSW south coast is Eden. Some great caravan parks there. The one we stayed at people could pick plentiful fresh mussels at low tide.

moneypenny20

Everyone feels humidity and temperatures differently. QLD/NSW border area has the perfect climate for me but others hate it. I imagine you'll be hard pressed to find a park with available space over christmas on the GC but I could be wrong, last time I was in a caravan I was 13 but since our 'bubble' is getting bigger, people will be booking with fingers crossed.

Beoz

Just did a quick check and there is plenty of Gold Coast accommodation available for Xmas. Either the tackiness of the place has reached the masses or the Queensland border fiasco is really starting to bite.

louie

Thanks for all your comments. We're still near Cairns (Port Douglas at the mo), still expecting the trip to the UK to be cancelled and still hoping to get far enough south to be comfortable at Christmas. We have hit a snag though in that our caravan needs some work (water ingress issues) and finding someone to do it is proving almost impossible. All the caravan repair places are too busy this year to help for about 1,000km in any direction! Maybe a place in Bundaberg otherwise it's Brisbane area.

Anyway, really it is humidity I struggle with. We coped OK, just about, with mid 40's in Longreach and surrounds a few years ago. But humidity just sucks the energy out of you. On the other hand, maybe we just suck it up and stay north as at least finding somewhere to stay at Christmas/New Year/early Jan is not so difficult. We've checked out probably 100 caravan parks in the south of Queensland/north NSW (including Alexandra Headland, Gold Coast and Noosa areas) without any success whatsoever! I presume that you weren't looking at caravan parks Beoz? If you were, perhaps you could PM me details of any with availability.

How about inland? Would Warwick or Toowoomba be nice in Dec/Jan?

I hear those of you who say to go further south, but we've "done" south of Sydney, but not yet between Brisbane and Sydney on the coast and are planning to do that between Christmas and next June, so don't want to go that far south yet.

moneypenny20

I wouldn't want to be in Warwick or Toowoomba any time really but certainly not in Dec/Jan. Way too hot, unless you have really good aircon in the caravan. Beoz may or may not have actually checked, he has a weird issue with QLD so any excuse to make a sarcy comment about the State, he'll take it.

paulry

I hear Gold Coast is infested with crime, drug and bogan problems.

BadgeIsBack

Most of QLD is humid and sticky in high summer.
You get around it by staying indoors in the heat in AC during the worst - and getting up sooner and going to bed later - in that AC.

You also learn to use the beach, pool, and take advantage of onshore breezes.

paulry

Also you need to watch out for sand flies around some of the beaches. Get bitten by them and you'll know all about it!