footwearguy

Hey, Im landing in Sydney on 12th July and after a short stay in Sydney plan on traveling clockwise round Oz (Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Cairns etc) Can anyone tell e what the cheapest way is, ie rent a car, camper van, train or bus, also how much is a sat nav system and do they have decent coverage. Thanks guys I look forward to the journey

quoll

Gee how long are you staying? That is one heck of a trip! Many folk doing that trip would buy a 4x4 plus caravan and take 6+months to do it. You can do it by bus - that isnt too bad an idea because you can sleep on the bus and save yourself a few nights accommodation but that would restrict you to major cities and not allow for much mobility with sight seeing. You wouldnt be able to do it all by train because some of the places you would want to go arent on a rail line. You may be able to buy a second hand camper van when you arrive and then sell it when you go. Sometimes you see those things advertised in The Gumtree.

Never use satnav - its not like you can really get lost except in the middle of the occasional city.

BTW dont forget to visit Canberra on your way around - you cant miss the national capital!

innojuk

Personally I would go the other way round but not sure it makes much difference.

Greyhound run coaches from all the cities and are pretty reasonable when you consider the distances you are covering. But be prepared for some long journeys, 20 + hours or more on a coach is not the most fun you will ever have. Not sure about going from Perth to Cairns by this method and if there is a direct route I would expect it totake 50+ hours. Cairns to Adelaide is 56 hours and the only stops are meal breaks.

Some of the local airline companies some times have special deals where you can get so many internal flights for a fixed price and you just choose your destinations. They work a bit like a round the world ticket where you can't come back on yourself, i.e. Sydney to Melbourne then Melbourne to Brisbane wouldn't be possible. Also Perth wouldn't be included in any of the package deals.

I would recommend picking up a Lonley Planet guide to Aus (i found it invaluable when I did it) and if you have a Trailfinders near you go and see one of their agents. They will be clued up on any offers out there and will be able to give you really good advice about routes etc.

The Wayward Bus (if it's still operating, Google it) runs various routes and is a bit more interesting than the Greyhounds. Takes about three days from Melbourne to Adelaide but you have to find your own accommodation en-route.

Backpackers Hostels are plentiful and reasonable.

Goolge internal flights in Australia and have a look at the prices on offer for city to city.

Take a good camera and make the most of every opportunity along the way.

It's a big country and there is a hell of a lot to see.

Bello

just buy a car when you land and a tent plus bring loads of cash!

Thats what i did and did a similar trip to yours, soooooooooooooooooo much fun!!
I did melbourne-cairns-uluru-darwin-longreach/outback queensland-brisabne

Edited to say, don't worry about the sat nav, a wise man once said 'you can't get lost when you don't know where you're going'

Johnsyweb

Hi Footwearguy,

You're in for an exciting trip. Thribble and I did something similar (but in reverse) two-and-a-helf years ago and a had a great time. When we did the maths, it was cheaper to buy a car than to rent one, even with servicing and ended up buying a car from Travellers['] Auto Barn. If you do this, then be sure to stop every 5,000km or so for a safety check. We found that having a car meant that we could go where we wanted when we wanted, pick up some souvenirs (at wineries) along the way
and allowed us to see parts of this big beautiful land that we would never have seen by 'plane, train or bus.

For accommodation, the YHA hostels are pretty good over here. We took out our membership in the UK before heading out here. Outside the big cities, there are road houses and budget motels, but these tend to be more expensive.

I'm not sure about satellite navigational systems. We didn't bother with anything like that; after all there aren't too many wrong turns you can take when you drive across the Nullarbor! All you need as a road atlas, Lonely Planet, a personal music player full of tunes (unless you like "both types" of music in the outback) and plenty of water!

If you're at all interested in our traveller's tales, you can read them in this PDF.

Enjoy your trip!


--paj

quoll

Just thinking about which way round to go - depending on your time frame you will want to take the direction which avoids the northern parts during the wet season.

footwearguy

Thanks alot, Ive just bought a lonely planet guide and it looks very handy. Decided to book a few flights from vigin blue as I got them cheap. I cant wait for the trip and thanks so much for all the advise