Travel Australia
Information
First and foremost
you should get a book on Australian Travel and
read it. Lonely Planet has a wonderful line of
books on travel all over the world. There are
books on every region of Australia. You can
purchase these books at Amazon http://www.amazon.com or Barnes and Noble http://www.bn.com . Or check out http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ .
Low budget
travel
Low budget travel
or backpacking is part of Australian culture.
Nearly every town, no matter how small, has a
hostel or backpackers with dorms, doubles, and
singles. You can usually get a dorm bed anywhere
from $AUS12 to 20 a night. The resource that we
used most is a free magazine that you can pick up
at most backpackers called TNT Magazine,
there website is http://www.tntmagazine.com/au/ .Two other free magazines are Aussie
Backpacker at http://www.aussiebackpacker.com.au and The Word Australia at http://www.thewordaustralia.com.au . While we were in Australia we
usually just called Trans Info in South East
Queensland at 13 12 30 or (07) 3215 5000 or at http://www.transinfo.qld.gov.au/
for both transportation and accomodation
information. I never used the Backpackers
Ultimate Guide but I also hear it is good http://www.bugaustralia.com/
. Backpackers essentials is another service at http://www.backpackeressentials.com.au/
. Or you could try http://www.backpackerstravel.net.au/aussie_index.htm
.
Maps
The best source that I used for
maps online is Where Is Online http://www.whereis.com.au/
. It is somewhat the same as Yahoo! maps in the
United States. It will give you directions from
two points, let you zoom in or out, and pan
north, south, east or west.
You can find a map of the Gold
Coast at http://www.wotson.com.au/seqldmap.html
.
Buses, Trains, Taxis and
Rental Cars
Most larger cities such as
Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, and
Sydney have city buses. They are not free to
students the way they are in Champaign, however
there is a "Uni" discount to university
student when you show your university
identification card.
Long distance travel can be done
inexpensively by coach bus also. McCafferty's ( http://www.mccaffertys.com.au/
) and Greyhound ( http://www.greyhound.com.au/
) are the buses that we used most. Tickets from
Surfer's Paradise to Byron Bay were about $AUS50
for a trip that lasts a few hours and is 100km.
The coaches are comfortable and baggage can be
stored underneath the coach. When we traveled
north of Surfers we even got open return tickets,
and you can decide up to the day when you want to
head back home.
Trains are a great way to travel.
The Southeast Queensland line runs from the
Southern part of the Gold Coast up to the
Sunshine Coast through Brisbane. For a clickable
Rail Map of all lines in Australia see http://www.railpage.org.au/railmaps/
.
Taxis are somewhat expensive, but
if you are in a hurry or there is no other means
of travel then they are the way to go in most
cities the number is 131 008. However you can
usually catch them right on the corner in bigger
cities. Besides if you call you start with a fare
of $AUS2 right off the bat.
Rental Cars have fliers all over,
you can get them where ever you pick up fliers
for tours. They may say $24 a day, but that
usually isn't true unless you get an automatic
without air conditioning for at least 7 days with
no insurance. I would recommend upgrading because
small Australian cars don't do well in the
Mountains. I know from an experience of nearly
ruining a rental car in the Springbrook
Mountains. So you are most likely going to pay
$50 a day after getting a car that has more than
a rubberband for a motor and proper insurance.
Airfare
and Frequent Flier Miles
STA Travel at http://www.statravel.com/ and http://www.statravel.com.au/index.php?flash=1&detect=1 and Qantas Airlines at http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/home/qualifier-region-au would most likely be the way to go if
you are traveling by air. However Australia has a
number of airlines just type 'Australian
Airlines' into Yahoo! or go here http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=Australian+Airlines . However since you have to fly to
Australia you should think about frequent flier
miles. It is nearly 9,000 miles to Australia and
9,000 miles back. That's 18,000 miles and it only
takes 25,000 to get a free flight. Qantas is a
partner with American Airlines. If you get a
frequent flier number with both and make sure you
tell Qantas to credit your American frequent
flier number then get the AAdvantage credit card,
you should be pretty close to a free flight when
you get home. Just something to consider.
Accomodation
Check out Jasons
at http://www.jasons.com.au for accomodations of any kind
throughout Australia. VIP backpackers have a nice
site at http://www.backpackers.com.au/ . The
Youth Hostel Association has a site at http://www.yha.org.au/
. Hostel Australia has a site at http://www.hostelaustralia.com/
. Itchy Feet is another good site at http://www.itchy-feet.com.au/
. Or try Where to Stay Australia http://www.wheretostay.com.au/
.
While we were in Australia we
usually just called Trans Info in South East
Queensland at 13 12 30 or (07) 3215 5000 or at http://www.transinfo.qld.gov.au/
for both transportation and accomodation
information.
If you are looking in the Gold
Coast try http://www.holidaygold.com/
, http://www.gold-coast-accommodation.info/
, or http://www.holidaycity.com/goldcoasthotels/
.
Tours
We went on the Adventure Tours
Northern Territory trip. I would suggest this
trip to anyone. However Adventure Tour offers
numerous tours that are very exciting check them
out at http://www.adventuretours.com.au/
.
The green OZ experience bus is
all over the east coast of Australia. I think we
saw it at nearly every place we traveled to in
Queensland and New South Wales. Check out OZ
Experience at http://www.ozexperience.com/
. There are other services like OZ Experience but
OZ probably will stop everywhere you want. What
many people do is start buy a 6 month ticket and
start at Cairns and travel to Sydney or vice
versa. With an open ticket you can get off the
bus for as long as you like - two months even -
at any stop. Then when you are ready you can get
back on the bus and go to the next point of
interest.
Backpacker Tours is another
company. I cannot recommend this tour but I did
see there buses check them out at http://www.backpackertours.com.au/
.
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