Suggestions for a three and half week self drive trip visiting Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with a side flight to Alice Springs for three days. Flying out of US and open to where one would suggest we fly in to Australia to start our trip. Hope to leave the end of October.
In addition, suggestions for a consecutive two week self drive itinerary of both the North and South islands of New Zealand, flying out of Auckland.
Self drive? Are you planning on driving to these cities or planning on flying to each and renting cars in each?
My first thought is fly to Melbourne and work your way north to Cairns. It is a 5 hour flight from Cairns to Auckland. The distance from Melbourne to Cairns is about 2800 kms (about 32 hrs of driving) so you really don't want to have to backtrack.
We recently did a 3 week roadtrip around some of the NI of NZ and last year did a 3 week roadtrip around some of the SI. If you share what you hope to see in NZ I may be able to give you some suggestions.
The route you would likely prefer is the coastal route. This is 3600km, 40 hours driving just wheels turning.
My suggestion would be to fly into Melbourne and out of Sydney or visa versa. This gives you maximum options for flights and cheaper prices.
Depending on what time of year this trip is, the Red Centre and Cairns could be extremely hot, humid, stinger season of cyclone season. This will impact whether to go earlier or later to these regions.
The only road trip I would suggest would be the coastal route from Melbourne to Sydney. The others would be time wasting. Best to fly and do loop trips from each city to areas of interest.
Also if it is just Uluru that you are interested in, better to fly into AYQ. Ayers Rock is 500km from Alice Springs and the journey is 5 hours each way.
Also best to stay either in Port Douglas or Cairns Northern Beaches again, depending on what interests you
I wouldn’t recommend driving from Brisbane to Cairns. The Bruce Highway that runs up the coast is known for its poor safety rating, much of it being a single lane each way undivided, and is frequented by large trucks, caravans and frustrated drivers trying to overtake. It also isn’t particularly scenic unless you have significant extra time to, for example, visit some of the national parks or coral islands. The concept of flying between Sydney, Cairns and Uluṟu is not a bad one, and then hiring a car to do day trips outside of the cities if desired. It will be hot in Queensland by November.
I really appreciate all of your advice. Given this advice it sounds like our best bet for the three weeks in Australia is to fly into Sydney drive to Melbourne fly to Ayer’s Rock then fly onto Cairns fly to Brisbane and then fly into Auckland, New Zealand for two weeks.
I didn’t think stinger season in Cairns started in late December and January?
Stinger season starts in November, so perhaps do your trip in reverse, starting in Cairns. It will also be a little less humid.
Flying in geographical order doesn't make much difference, so if you have to backtrack for logistics, so be it.
Thanks again. Our arrival date will be 21 October. Probably a question no one really can answer but if we fly into Cairns is that early enough to miss the jelly fish/stingers?
Also, I didn’t really respond regarding the second part of our trip to one of the posters. I really haven’t spent enough time on the itinerary for New Zealand to know where to go. I had planned to fly into Auckland but not sure if that’s where I need to fly into from Australia. Also, what is the preferred place to fly out of Australia to New Zealand. Is it cheaper to fly out of Sydney for instance? We have two weeks to explore NZ. I had thought we would drive the NI for one week and then drive the SI the second. Any thoughts, I am all ears. Thanks.
There are fairly frequent flights to Auckland from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and they aren’t very expensive, usually in the range of $300-400(AUD), one way economy. Sydney perhaps may be cheaper, but the difference probably isn’t that much in the scheme of things, so I’d choose the most convenient. I’m not sure if there are direct flights from Cairns but they are likely to be less frequent and more expensive.
Thanks for the input.
Initially I thought you may have been planning a big roadtrip. If that's not the case then it doesn't matter much which order you travel.
Stinger season is from late October typically, just wear a stinger suit in the water. Cyclones can hit the North from November onwards. So maybe go north early in the trip.
There are direct flights from Cairns to Auckland (Qantas and maybe Air NZ) but a lot more choice from Sydney or Melbourne.
As I said we did 3 weeks NZ NI this year and 3 weeks SI last year and we have previous NZ trips.
A lot to see on both islands.
Our SI trip was focused specifically on the Southern Alps and Fiordland. We flew in and out of Christchurch. Do the Alps and Fjords interest you? The scenery was to die for. Just extraordinary!
Our NI trip was more of a mixture. We flew in and out of Auckland (from Melbourne) and did a sort of figure 8 heading south then back through Auckland and then headed north as far as the Bay of Islands.
Without knowing your interests it is hard to advise what to do with such a tight schedule.
I did post some pretty crappy trip reports on both little adventures so that might provide some inspiration.
I was definitely planning to drive a big road trip. I thought driving the coast from Cairns to Melbourne would be the best way to visit Australia. The responses I received from my original post have given me second thoughts. I had planned to spend three weeks, maybe three and half in Australia then two weeks in New Zealand. Never having visited and not properly appreciating the size and distances involved have me rethinking how to visit. We love driving new countries. Just grabbing a rental and going but we would like to visit the areas I have already mentioned in other posts above and it appears it may be more practical to drive some and fly some between the cities. Thanks.
A guess a stinger suit being a wet suit. I appreciate your response.
The stinger suit is made of different materials than a normal wetsuit so the tentacles of the jellyfish don't grip the suit.
If you did want to do some roadtripping then maybe look at Melbourne Sydney via the coast or Sydney Brisbane.
Makes sense given the distance between Cairns and Brisbane. Appreciate your input.
"We love driving new countries. Just grabbing a rental and going"
Glad you're coming to appreciate the distances - and please, please don't just grab and rental and go. Make sure you're prepared - check your spare tyre (and know how to change it), have adequate water, and a good map (for when you're out of mobile range) and don't rely purely on Google for driving directions. There are plenty of stories of tourists who didn't prepare, didn't stick to main roads, and came to grief.
Lord Meek's suggestion of Sydney-Melbourne or Sydney-Brisbane are the best and safest options as you're staying close to towns and on good roads, and mostly within mobile coverage.
Thanks again. Sound advice.
