Australia travel tips

Hi everybody,

I'm off on a 20 days trip to Australia in October. I am going to spend
3 days in Sydney and I am trying to plan a 2-week itinerary.

What I was thinking about is: flying from Sydney to Alice Springs, see
Uluru, visit the Kakadu National Park and/or the Northern Peninsula
(Cape York) and spend some days diving in the northern part of the
reef.

Since the distances are huge I must choose what segments to drive and
what segments to fly based on the experience I will get -

Do you think Kakadu is more interesting than cape york or the
opposite?

Would you suggest to drive from Sydney to Alice and fly from there to
Darwin-Kakadu or viceversa? Is the panorama from Alice to Kakadu
interesting?

Or would you suggest driving from Alice to Cairns and the great
barrier?

Thanks

Alessandro

"Alessandro Cannarsi" wrote in message
m...
Hi everybody,

I'm off on a 20 days trip to Australia in October. I am going to spend
3 days in Sydney and I am trying to plan a 2-week itinerary.

What I was thinking about is: flying from Sydney to Alice Springs, see
Uluru, visit the Kakadu National Park and/or the Northern Peninsula
(Cape York) and spend some days diving in the northern part of the
reef.

Uluru is the best part of a day's drive from Alice Springs, you can fly
direct
to Uluru.

Kakadu is worth the effort to get there.

Cape York is not for novice drivers in Outback Australia, I'd suggest
you look at spending more time in Kakadu. You need a serious 4x4
with all the trimmings for living without a lot of other support - fuel,
water,
spares, camping equipment.

Since the distances are huge I must choose what segments to drive and
what segments to fly based on the experience I will get -

Do you think Kakadu is more interesting than cape york or the
opposite?

Would you suggest to drive from Sydney to Alice and fly from there to
Darwin-Kakadu or viceversa? Is the panorama from Alice to Kakadu
interesting?


Sydney to Alice Springs is a loooooong drive - at least 4 days to do
it safely.

Or would you suggest driving from Alice to Cairns and the great
barrier?


Thats another long drive, allow 3 to 4 days at least, but Kakadu is
on the way.

Thanks

Alessandro

On 18 Aug 2004 14:10:27 -0700, (Alessandro
Cannarsi) wrote:

Hi everybody,

I'm off on a 20 days trip to Australia in October. I am going to spend
3 days in Sydney and I am trying to plan a 2-week itinerary.

What I was thinking about is: flying from Sydney to Alice Springs, see
Uluru, visit the Kakadu National Park and/or the Northern Peninsula
(Cape York) and spend some days diving in the northern part of the
reef.

Since the distances are huge I must choose what segments to drive and
what segments to fly based on the experience I will get -

Do you think Kakadu is more interesting than cape york or the
opposite?

Would you suggest to drive from Sydney to Alice and fly from there to
Darwin-Kakadu or viceversa? Is the panorama from Alice to Kakadu
interesting?

Or would you suggest driving from Alice to Cairns and the great
barrier?

Thanks

Alessandro

In broad terms, spend a little more time around Sydney (Blue Mountains,
Broken bay etc) and a little less up north.

For the localities you've selected - fly everywhere and take bus, rail
or ferry trips locally. You have not really got a concept of the
distances and conditions involved in driving Sydney-Alice-Uluru, or
Alice-Cairns (now that would be an interesting drive, but not over a
week or two).

The only place I'd rent a car would be Cairns, to wander around the
north. Take day trips at each stop - Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury from
Sydney, Barossa Valley from Adelaide, Uluru from Alice etc.

Just a rough itinerary to play with over 20 days:
1 Sydney
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Adelaide
9 Alice
10 Uluru
11 Darwin
12 Kakadu
13
14 Cairns
15
16
17
18
19
20 depart

Cheers, Alan
--

Because of the distances and in some cases the road/weather conditions - fly
where you can and keep driving to the minimum.

SteveS

"Alan" wrote in message
...
On 18 Aug 2004 14:10:27 -0700, (Alessandro
Cannarsi) wrote:

Hi everybody,

I'm off on a 20 days trip to Australia in October. I am going to spend
3 days in Sydney and I am trying to plan a 2-week itinerary.

What I was thinking about is: flying from Sydney to Alice Springs, see
Uluru, visit the Kakadu National Park and/or the Northern Peninsula
(Cape York) and spend some days diving in the northern part of the
reef.

Since the distances are huge I must choose what segments to drive and
what segments to fly based on the experience I will get -

Do you think Kakadu is more interesting than cape york or the
opposite?

Would you suggest to drive from Sydney to Alice and fly from there to
Darwin-Kakadu or viceversa? Is the panorama from Alice to Kakadu
interesting?

Or would you suggest driving from Alice to Cairns and the great
barrier?

Thanks

Alessandro

In broad terms, spend a little more time around Sydney (Blue Mountains,
Broken bay etc) and a little less up north.

For the localities you've selected - fly everywhere and take bus, rail
or ferry trips locally. You have not really got a concept of the
distances and conditions involved in driving Sydney-Alice-Uluru, or
Alice-Cairns (now that would be an interesting drive, but not over a
week or two).

The only place I'd rent a car would be Cairns, to wander around the
north. Take day trips at each stop - Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury from
Sydney, Barossa Valley from Adelaide, Uluru from Alice etc.

Just a rough itinerary to play with over 20 days:
1 Sydney
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Adelaide
9 Alice
10 Uluru
11 Darwin
12 Kakadu
13
14 Cairns
15
16
17
18
19
20 depart

Cheers, Alan
--

Whats the attraction with Sydney???
Blue Mountains I guess but not much more.
I reckon one or two days tops there, and spend the extra time in the centre
or in Kakadu.

Alan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan"
Newsgroups: rec.travel.australia+nz
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2004 8:02 AM
Subject: Australia travel tips


snip
Just a rough itinerary to play with over 20 days:
1 Sydney
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Adelaide
9 Alice
10 Uluru
11 Darwin
12 Kakadu
13
14 Cairns
15
16
17
18
19
20 depart

Cheers, Alan
--

In article ,
says...
Whats the attraction with Sydney???

The iconic harbour, with the bridge (and bridge climb), the opera house,
the great expanses of bush-covered shores, the beaches...

Taronga Park Zoo is world class, and one of the few places where a
tourist may see a more or less complete collection of Australian fauna.
Tourists can see kangaroos anywhere, but platypodes are "tuff".

Blue Mountains I guess but not much more.

Jenolan Caves are worth a look as well.

I reckon one or two days tops there, and spend the extra time in the centre
or in Kakadu.

Problem is that for an international tourist, seeing the outback means
that they either spend a lot of money on airfares, or they spend a lot
of time driving for days and days to tick a few boxes.

Australia's a big place, and realistically, most of it is miles and
miles of nothing much. It's not like Europe, where you'll drive for a
day and go through three countries with any number of chateaux,
galleries, museums, battlefields, cathedrals, historic places and so on.
Even the USA's most sparsely populated areas are veritable hives of
activity compared to your typical slice of remote Australia. Hell, just
about anywhere on earth bar the Sahara and Antarctica is more crowded
than the outback.

Entirely up to the tourist, of course, but I suspect that very few would
have a proper appreciation of just how much time and money they'll spend
on travel within Australia.

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 18:30:22 +0800, "Alan G. McCall"
wrote:

Whats the attraction with Sydney???
Blue Mountains I guess but not much more.
I reckon one or two days tops there, and spend the extra time in the centre
or in Kakadu.

Alan

Hi Alan

I suspect the only point we'll agree on here is how you spell your name.
You hit a nerve, after a few similar comments by others.

Last year I spent some time in almost all of the major cities of the
Western world. Each had it's own unique attractions, and each was well
worth the visit. And, as an Aussie, I'll admit my bias up front even
though I live 900km from Sydney.

Sydney was right up there with the best of them. For scenery - that
magnificent harbour is unbeatable, food, shopping, activities, people,
and just simply the differences between it and the other great cities,
you would be mad to miss it or hurry it. And no, it doesn't have the
antiquity of Rome, Aquilaea, Pompeii, Mycenae or Athens; it doesn't have
the Prado or the Getty or the Louvre; it doesn't have the history of
Versailles or Edinburgh or Trier or Bath; it doesn't have the theatres
of Broadway or the cafe's of Paris. I saw all those, and many others -
you would find it hard to name a major western city we didn't visit. In
twenty countries over five months.

I could go on - but I'm showing off here to make the point that Sydney
is right up there as a major tourist city. I re-visited it with fresh
eyes after that trip. It's a great city.

To see this country, you need to see more than the outback, the rock,
the reef and Kakadu. You need to see the cities, where most of the
people are, in one of the most urbanised countries in the world. And
Sydney is also the most cosmopolitan of them all, a melting pot of
western and eastern cuisines and all the cultures of the world.

I'll stop before this becomes a book.


Cheers, Alan
--

In article ,
says...
Whats the attraction with Sydney???

The iconic harbour, with the bridge (and bridge climb), the opera house,
the great expanses of bush-covered shores, the beaches...

Taronga Park Zoo is world class, and one of the few places where a
tourist may see a more or less complete collection of Australian fauna.
Tourists can see kangaroos anywhere, but platypodes are "tuff".

Blue Mountains I guess but not much more.

Jenolan Caves are worth a look as well.

I reckon one or two days tops there, and spend the extra time in the centre
or in Kakadu.

Problem is that for an international tourist, seeing the outback means
that they either spend a lot of money on airfares, or they spend a lot
of time driving for days and days to tick a few boxes.

Australia's a big place, and realistically, most of it is miles and
miles of nothing much. It's not like Europe, where you'll drive for a
day and go through three countries with any number of chateaux,
galleries, museums, battlefields, cathedrals, historic places and so on.
Even the USA's most sparsely populated areas are veritable hives of
activity compared to your typical slice of remote Australia. Hell, just
about anywhere on earth bar the Sahara and Antarctica is more crowded
than the outback.

Entirely up to the tourist, of course, but I suspect that very few would
have a proper appreciation of just how much time and money they'll spend
on travel within Australia.

Because of the distances and in some cases the road/weather conditions - fly
where you can and keep driving to the minimum.

SteveS

"Alan" wrote in message
...
On 18 Aug 2004 14:10:27 -0700, (Alessandro
Cannarsi) wrote:

Hi everybody,

I'm off on a 20 days trip to Australia in October. I am going to spend
3 days in Sydney and I am trying to plan a 2-week itinerary.

What I was thinking about is: flying from Sydney to Alice Springs, see
Uluru, visit the Kakadu National Park and/or the Northern Peninsula
(Cape York) and spend some days diving in the northern part of the
reef.

Since the distances are huge I must choose what segments to drive and
what segments to fly based on the experience I will get -

Do you think Kakadu is more interesting than cape york or the
opposite?

Would you suggest to drive from Sydney to Alice and fly from there to
Darwin-Kakadu or viceversa? Is the panorama from Alice to Kakadu
interesting?

Or would you suggest driving from Alice to Cairns and the great
barrier?

Thanks

Alessandro

In broad terms, spend a little more time around Sydney (Blue Mountains,
Broken bay etc) and a little less up north.

For the localities you've selected - fly everywhere and take bus, rail
or ferry trips locally. You have not really got a concept of the
distances and conditions involved in driving Sydney-Alice-Uluru, or
Alice-Cairns (now that would be an interesting drive, but not over a
week or two).

The only place I'd rent a car would be Cairns, to wander around the
north. Take day trips at each stop - Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury from
Sydney, Barossa Valley from Adelaide, Uluru from Alice etc.

Just a rough itinerary to play with over 20 days:
1 Sydney
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Adelaide
9 Alice
10 Uluru
11 Darwin
12 Kakadu
13
14 Cairns
15
16
17
18
19
20 depart

Cheers, Alan
--

Whats the attraction with Sydney???
Blue Mountains I guess but not much more.
I reckon one or two days tops there, and spend the extra time in the centre
or in Kakadu.

Alan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan"
Newsgroups: rec.travel.australia+nz
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2004 8:02 AM
Subject: Australia travel tips


snip
Just a rough itinerary to play with over 20 days:
1 Sydney
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Adelaide
9 Alice
10 Uluru
11 Darwin
12 Kakadu
13
14 Cairns
15
16
17
18
19
20 depart

Cheers, Alan
--