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monsterbunny posted:I'm planning a ~3 week trip in late Oct - mid November for strictly vacation. Here's the rough itinerary, but would love some recommendations/suggestions/confirmation that I'm doing it right. It's just me and my SO for the whole trip and meeting up with various friends throughout. We're also planning on driving as little as possible and avoiding car rentals. We prefer the more nature-based activities, so hikes, biking tours, etc over museums since we're from the NYC area. You might consider hiring bikes in the CBD and taking the bicycle path all the way up to MONA. It's a converted rail track and tbqh the scenery you'll see along it is going to be pretty "meh", but if you're into cycling might be more fun for you guys than taking the ferry. MONA tops most people's list of things to do in Hobart, personally while I find much of the art a bit precious, it's undeniably a pretty cool space and worth having a look at. It will probably eat up half your remaining day in Hobart if you're stopping and looking at everything though. I'm not saying you should skip MONA, but if people familiar with Hobart are asking about your trip, expect them to ask for an explanation as to why you did  For outdoorsey stuff, I think there's a tour operator that does downhill mountain bikes from Mt Wellington (have seen the van/trailer there a few times). You can also catch a city bus out to Fern Tree and climb it (doesn't take any special gear or skill), I did it last year in late Oct and the weather was quite nice. You'll need decent coats when you get to the top though, not sure how light you guys are packing. I have also heard really good things about the Bruny Island Wildlife Cruise from several local friends, haven't been myself yet. You might prefer not to do back-to-back tours though. If you are into whisky/wine/craft beer there are a number of places in the Hobart area you could check out, if you're dead set on not driving (not the worst idea considering tastings) there's a whisky tour operator. Bonarong Wildlife Sanctuary is supposed to be quite good if you're interested in local animals (devils, wallabies, etc)... it sounds like the rest of your trip will be pretty urban, so might be good to consider. I assume there's a way to get out there without hiring a car but could be wrong.
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Sep 7, 2016 10:38
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Pompous Rhombus posted:there's a whisky tour operator. Yep, they are pretty good too. http://www.drinktasmania.com.au
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Sep 7, 2016 11:57
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monsterbunny posted:Leg 2 - Melbourne Be aware that if you're going to Melbourne for Cup week, prices for everything (especially hotel rooms) will be sky high, and may even be booked out already. It's a great time though. In Sydney, for 3 days I'd recommend: - spend a day around the CBD for the usual sights (Bridge, Opera House, Botanic Gardens etc). Avoid Darling Harbour as it's a tourist trap and not that great imo. Get the public ferry to Manly Wharf (it's the very large green & gold boat) - it's not too expensive and Sydney is best appreciated from the water. Head for Bondi as well, it's super trendy these days so you can have an expensive coffee while lying on the beach. Note that the station called "Bondi Junction" is actually a couple of kilometres from the beach, so don't rely on getting there via train! November is probably still a bit cold for swimming though, unless you're European. Take the train a few stops from Central Station to Newtown, which is the main hipster area but has great bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants. Hire a car and take a day trip out to the Blue Mountains which are about 90-120 minutes drive west from the city centre. The bushland is very impressive and there are some great stone formations to check out. In Cairns - stay in Palm Cove or Port Douglas instead, as Cairns itself is a fairly boring city. Lots of places in Port Douglas can sell you on a minivan tour of the Daintree, it's pretty common to do as a day trip. It definitely takes the entire day though, I wouldn't try and combine that with another activity.
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Sep 7, 2016 16:14
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Thank you for the suggestions so far, glad to see so much Hobart love! Melbourne is definitely going to be the biggest money-eater for Cup Week  . Luckily we're staying with a friend but it's going to be such a culture shock seeing the alcohol prices, even considering that I'm from NYC!
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Sep 7, 2016 18:30
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Yea 1 day for Daintree is ambitious. We started the morning in Cairns and drove to Daintree early. Saw most of what we wanted to see and did a hike, but was thankful to be spending that night in Port Douglas instead of making the drive all the way back to Cairns.
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Sep 7, 2016 22:06
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Gotta fly to Melbourne for a Thursday morning appointment at the end of the month, my partner and I figured we might as well make a little holiday of it. We're gonna get in late Wednesday night and stay at a place in St Kilda, head to appointment in the morning, then do stuff around the city Thursday afternoon/evening, and spend the night at the same place. Friday + Saturday I thought we'd hire a car and do the Great Ocean Road (hopefully not still all flood-y). Warrnambool seems like a logical place to look for overnight accommodation, unless anyone else has other recommendations? Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Sep 17, 2016 |
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Sep 17, 2016 02:16
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Ethics_Gradient posted:Gotta fly to Melbourne for a Thursday morning appointment at the end of the month, my partner and I figured we might as well make a little holiday of it. You may want to check that with the recent weather (floods/rain) road sections of GOR are actually open before you leave.
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Sep 20, 2016 04:50
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RKD posted:You may want to check that with the recent weather (floods/rain) road sections of GOR are actually open before you leave. Yeah, have been watching that. It doesn't matter because we need to go regardless (for a 20 minute fingerprinting session at the Japanese consulate, because  ), I just added an extra two days on for the GOR because if I'm buying two RT's to Melbourne, we might as well get some enjoyment out of it.Wound up booking a night at a hostel in Warrnambool, I guess we can always take the highway there and shoot billiards with backpackers or something.
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Sep 20, 2016 07:38
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What are some of the local carriers that are fairly reliable for coverage in TAS/MEL/SYD/CAIRN? It looks like I can buy either a Vodafone or Optus from the Sydney airport.
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Oct 7, 2016 16:37
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Someone recommended Optus to me when I was in the country and that's what I ended up going with. Had good enough coverage all over Cairns / Port Douglas, and then throughout our road trip from Brisbane --> Sydney. Can't give any details for anything south of there though.
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Oct 7, 2016 19:46
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monsterbunny posted:What are some of the local carriers that are fairly reliable for coverage in TAS/MEL/SYD/CAIRN? It looks like I can buy either a Vodafone or Optus from the Sydney airport. Telstra is the best for Tasmania, if you can't get that then Optus would be your next bet, but don't expect wonderful coverage in the countryside. Vodafone is supposed to be basically worthless here.
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Oct 7, 2016 22:44
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Yeah of those choices Optus is better, Optus in Tas is way better than it used to be but not as good as Telstra. Vodafone is useless in Tas and on a lot of the QLD coast, in cairns it's prob fine but in the surrounding areas I bet you're SOL.
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Oct 7, 2016 22:48
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tbh, all carriers are fine, it's not like America here. Optus and Telstra have good networks and all the smaller carriers use Optus infrastructure. Vodafone had an embarrassing episode a few years back with coverage and lost a lot of customers but it's said they improved. The only troubles you'll have is when you get far out of town. if you are spending a lot of your time out bush; go with Telstra.
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Oct 12, 2016 21:56
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i bought a vodafone card last time i was in australia and coverage was complete poo poo. like i'd be in a 500 people town in the backcountry of queensland and there wouldnt be a single antenna. i threw away like $20 by tossing my vodafone sim card and getting a telstra one in the middle of my holidays and had no troubles afterwards
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Oct 17, 2016 12:50
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Does anyone have experience with long-term medical coverage in Australia? I am applying for a Visa from Canada to reunite with my wife who is working in Melbourne currently and one of the requirements is to be covered by Comprehensive Medical Coverage prior to entering the country. Does anyone know of any good companies/recommend a provider? And those of you who are living on similar Visas requiring the same caveat, how comprehensive does coverage have to be? I understand that at the very least hospital and doctor visits should be covered but do extras like dental and vision need to be also part of the plan?
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Dec 16, 2016 16:22
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Tasky posted:Does anyone have experience with long-term medical coverage in Australia? Whar sort of visa are you applying for? I'm with Medibank but haven't used it, so can't comment on how good it is. Not sure about vision being standard, dental is definitely extra, but they wouldn't be required for a visa. My partner is with Bupa (working holiday) and the one time we had to use it they were worthless. Wouldn't pay out unless we got a doctor's note saying it wasn't a pre-existing condition (it wasn't, and she indicated she had none when she signed up for it), and wouldn't say whether they'd cover THAT doctor's visit (to get the note).
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Dec 16, 2016 22:52
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I'm on allianz, it's been ok I guess. Pain in the rear end sometimes but I imagine every insurance company will be. I think it worked out to a bit over $1000 a year for coverage, had to purchase coverage for length of visa up front.
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Dec 17, 2016 02:06
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I can't speak for the visa requirements part of it, but my health cover is with HCF and they've been excellent value for money and the times I've had to make a claim their customer service has been fantastic.
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Dec 17, 2016 05:09
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Awesome, thanks for the advice all! [quote="Pompous Rhombus" post="467463614"] Whar sort of visa are you applying for? I'm with Medibank but haven't used it, so can't comment on how good it is. Not sure about vision being standard, dental is definitely extra, but they wouldn't be required for a visa. I'm applying for Subclass 461 Spousal sponsorship of New Zealander. I've heard most people on similar have used medibank as well. Their premiums seem a bit steep, so it's nice to get a few other options given here 
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Dec 20, 2016 04:19
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Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Jan 16, 2017 01:12
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e: whoops
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Jan 16, 2017 01:14
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Phonechat: I live in Brisbane. I have never ever had an issue with optus in the city. However, last year I went to Imbil, a small town north of Brisbane. We had no reception, but telstra did. IIRC the telstra setup was temporary, to allow media coverage of the dirt rally I was there for. It was very close to the major town of Gympie and only an hour from major areas of the sunshine coast. When I went to Kosciusko, which is the ski resort location in Australia, reception was patchy but Optus was far far better than Telstra. On the mountain peak itself Optus was 4 bars 4g and Tesltra was 0. This was in summer tho aka the place was empty https://www.google.com.au/maps/plac...76!4d148.263588 Thats Mt Kosciusko so you can see where it is. Don't zoom out and think it's close, thats a 4 hour drive to Canberra. https://www.google.com.au/maps/plac...45!4d152.683333 Thats Imbil so you can see proximity to things. Seriously 0 reception that close to civilisation. In the cities and on the highways to major cities, there will be practically 0 difference between carriers. If you go a little bit outside that, it varies widly from carrier to carrier. If you are coming to Australia, you need to look at coverage maps to decide on carriers if you plan on being outside built up areas. Honestly I am surprised that Imbil had no reception because I've gone to bumfuck nowhere to go mountain climbing and gotten 4g the whole time, but that just goes to show how important double checking coverage is. underage at the vape shop fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 14:08
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Does anyone know if the age limit increase for the working holiday visa is still likely to happen any time soon or at all?
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Feb 19, 2017 14:02
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When would be the best time of year to visit Australia for someone looking to spend say 3 weeks between Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, and maybe The Great Ocean Road? From some googling it looks like September would be a good time, but it's hard to tell since each location has a different climate.
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Apr 13, 2017 14:03
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Basically yeah that's an enormous amount of Territory and best time is rather subjective if you aim to snorkel on the reef you should probably be doing it not in winter but Cairns is pretty warm year round. One issue is big chunks of the reef may be dead before summer and not very interesting.
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Apr 14, 2017 12:04
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Kommando posted:Basically yeah that's an enormous amount of Territory and best time is rather subjective if you aim to snorkel on the reef you should probably be doing it not in winter but Cairns is pretty warm year round. Went to Cairns/the reef in August (winter for Australia, right?) and it was still warm enough and fun.
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Apr 14, 2017 19:42
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I'd say September-October. Melbourne's likely to be a bit chilly (depending on your definition), but it won't be ludicrously hot elsewhere.
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Apr 30, 2017 08:04
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Hey friends, I'm going to Melbourne for a week or so, and I have very few solid plans so far. Is there anything super cool that I should go out of my way to see/do/eat/drink? Open to pretty much all suggestions. I want to go see things like Abbortsford Convent, the Botanic Gardens, visit the Penguins at St Kilda, walk around art galleries and stuff, as well as eat my entire body weight in food, etc, etc.
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May 22, 2017 23:00
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There's a high concentration of talented tattoo artists in Melbourne, so if that's your thing look into that Personally, I always enjoy the museum and art galleries when I visit there. There's some really impressive street art worth walking around and taking in too.
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May 23, 2017 03:28
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My wife and I have the first two weeks of April 2018 available for a vacation, and we're thinking of going to Australia. We'd like to see as much as we can along the east coast in that time, maybe starting at Sydney and ending at Cairns? Maybe even starting at Melbourne if we have time? We generally do touristy things in cities but usually prefer doing stuff outdoors, especially hiking, snorkeling, and anything involving animals. Seeing the Great Barrier Reef while it still exists is definitely a priority. Seeing Uluru would be great but it's probably beyond our budget in terms of both time and money. Question: Would this be a good time of year for us to visit? I'm a little concerned because there was a big cyclone near Cairns in late March/early April this year, but I don't know if that's common. Also, the second annual report of mass coral bleaching came out in April this year, but I don't know if the bleaching happens more during that time of year or if that's just when the report happened to come out. Thanks for the help.
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Jun 5, 2017 08:54
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The Great Barrier Reef is dying because Queensland is terrible and keep pumping poo poo into the water, the sooner you go the more likely you are to experience one of nature's greatest wonders; coral bleaching isn't really a seasonal thing, it's more based on water temperatures. So while there tends to be more bleaching in summer, it's also based on that year's currents and stuff... April is very much after summer, anyway. April is a good time to go. April tends to be the end of monsoon/cyclone season, so you MIGHT end up in one but there's no guarantees. The fun thing about global warming in Australia is it's loving poo poo up at a huge rate and you can never know what's going to happen completely out of season next! HookShot fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Jun 5, 2017 |
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Jun 5, 2017 18:38
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Based on what you guys like to do, definitely spend a good chunk of time up north in the Cairns area. It's a great jumping off point for a lot of outdoorsy stuff. Get a rental car and drive up north to Port Douglas and check out Mossman Gorge and Daintree National Park (oldest rainforest in the world). My wife and I spent about 5 days up there and then flew back to Brisbane. From there we rented a car and drove down the coast to Sydney, spending one night in Byron Bay and another in Newcastle along the way. You can probably do it in just one night but we stopped along the way for exploring. When you're down in Sydney, again grab a rental car and drive west to Blue Mountains National Park. You can do most of Sydney in 2-3 days. khysanth fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Jun 12, 2017 |
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Jun 5, 2017 19:53
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In Melbourne are there any cheap two person hostels/hotels that are close to the CBD or just outside the city?
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Jun 11, 2017 06:55
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How many of those 2-3 days are sitting in Sydney traffic?
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Jun 11, 2017 23:21
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HookShot posted:The Great Barrier Reef is dying because Queensland is terrible and keep pumping poo poo into the water, the sooner you go the more likely you are to experience one of nature's greatest wonders; coral bleaching isn't really a seasonal thing, it's more based on water temperatures. So while there tends to be more bleaching in summer, it's also based on that year's currents and stuff... April is very much after summer, anyway. Thanks. I've been looking at award flights I can get with Chase UR points provided I accumulate enough, so hopefully I'll find something reasonable for our dates and we'll be on our way next I didn't see many airport options for the award flights, though. Do people often fly both into and out of Sydney and take domestic flights to, for example, Cairns and back?
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Jun 14, 2017 08:37
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Yeah, the airport in Cairns is fairly small iirc and won't take many international flights. Fly to Brisbane or Sydney and get a domestic flight from there. Also don't stay in Cairns itself, stay in Port Douglas or (if you can afford the resorts) Palm Cove. Most of the decent reef tours will include a hotel pickup from anywhere in those three towns.
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Jun 14, 2017 09:29
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webmeister posted:Yeah, the airport in Cairns is fairly small iirc and won't take many international flights. Fly to Brisbane or Sydney and get a domestic flight from there. Definitely seconding that you should avoid the town of Cairns itself. The drive from Cairns > Port Douglas is spectacular (but there's not many places to stop). Port Douglas is nice, a bit upmarket. Palm Cove is a bit more quiet/chilled out. North of Port Douglas you get very secluded houses that can be spectacular if you want privacy. E.g. Mossman gorge area. The actual town of Mossman has nothing though it's just one street so you'll likely need to drive down to Port Douglas if you wanted restaurants etc. Sydney is a tough airport to get reward flights to/from I find. The other major cities are often easier and any on the east coast will fly to Cairns (Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne).
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Jun 21, 2017 11:17
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I also thought Cape Tribulation was lovely, and the Bloomfield Track which links Cooktown and Cape Trib was spectacular but you do need a 4WD. It's not tricky driving just a lot of parts are very steep and there are some running creeks etc.
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Jun 25, 2017 15:38
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Can I post about New Zealand here? It's basically Australia, right? I was planning on doing a short working holiday visa thing there (~3 months) to do a little travel, make enough money to keep myself afloat, and see a lot of sheep. My big worry though is: can I find work (and how long does it take to find it)? I saw some of the posts on the first page said you should expect not to find work, is that the case for certain jobs or just all around? I have a masters in computer science, but I wanted to do some outdoor work and then quickly regret it. Hopefully with sheep or kiwi because New Zealand. I took a look at a few sites and it seems like there's quite a few places hiring, but I don't want to get there and discover all the jobs are already booked. Should I be worried or can I be sure I'll find something? Same questions for Australia.
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Jul 19, 2017 02:46
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"Hi, people from Australia. Can you all tell me what life is like in a completely different country that's a three hour flight from yours?"
HookShot fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 03:31
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