Australia - tour or on our own

We visited Australia on our own in October 2024. We rented a car. My husband had previously driven in Scotland, so he was comfortable driving on the left. I am the travel planner, and I planned the whole trip myself. 3 weeks in Australia and 3 weeks in New Zealand. For planning purposes, I used Lonely Planet's guidebook for both Australia and NZ, and read various travel blogs. IMO it's very easy to travel independently in Australia.

My husband went to school near Melbourne decades ago. And he has relatives who live near Melbourne, and whom we visited. So at the beginning of our trip, we spent a lot of time in and around Melbourne. FYI, even though my husband has relatives there, I didn't need assistance from them planning our trip. I planned all of it, which is easy to do.

So, in addition to Melbourne, we visited Phillips Island to see the penguin parade, did a driving tour of the Great Ocean Road (a big highlight of our trip), visited the gold mining towns of Ballarat and Bendigo. We then flew to Sydney, where we picked up another rental car and drove to the Blue Mountains for 2 nights. Then returned the car to Sydney and spent 4 nights in Sydney before flying to NZ. Sydney is amazing - another highlight. We enjoyed every place we visited.

We didn't visit Uluru so can't make any suggestions there.

Australia is very easy to DIY. First get your ETA by downloading the app on your phone. It is valid for 3 months from payment within a year of travel, so no excuse not to get it before paying for deposits or airfares.

You can get a guidebook but the best up to date guides are the one published on line by the official tourist authorities. Australia.com Visitvictoria.com visitnsw.com queensland.com northernterritory.com Youtube is also a wealth of travel information from travel blogs to official travel guides.

Once here car rental is straightforward and there are plenty of small or large day tours which you can use if driving is not your thing. Most people travel between destinations by air and public transport in the big cities is good, cheap and efficient. Other transport, e.g. rail between cities, not so much.
Australia is not a cheap destination but a bit of planning will give you best bang for your buck

Other insights include:
No need to tip in Australia, anyone, anywhere, anytime.
No need to bring cash, "tap&go" is accepted almost universally, so credit or debit cards are the way and if you want a little cash, there are ATMs everywhere.
Australia is a very large country, so time of year is a big factor. May is a great time for Uluru & Queensland. Sydney is mildish and Melbourne will be cool to cold. for weather information the Bureau of Meteorology is a good resource. www.bom.gov.au

I was previously looking for a tour in Australia to compliment a cruise I was taking around New Zealand. What I discovered was that tours in Australia were fairly expensive compared to tours one might take in Europe. Keep that pricing in mind while choosing your travel method.

The other challenge is to find a tour that focuses on the region or regions you are interested in.

Inspiring Vacations is an Australian based tour company that I traveled with in Japan and was pleased. You may want to check them out. Another Australian tour company is AAT Kings.

My solution, due to Budget constraints, was 5 days in Sydney independently, 14 day New Zealand Cruise, 3 days in Brisbane independently, 8 day cruise along east coast of Australia, Great Barrier Reef.

Australia is huge, flying from Sydney on the east coast to Perth on the west coast is a 5 hour flight, about the same as flying across the USA.

We have visited Australia twice and did a cruise OVER THE TOP from Perth over the north top with a stop in Bali, Indonesia, ending in Sydney. It was a great way to see places widely separated from each other.

The second trip we flew down to Melbourne and did most of it on our own, only taking a day tour of the city. Then we did a tour of the wine region nearby one day and then did a tour with one overnight that did The Great Ocean Highway and Philip Island.

Yes, you could rent a car or take group tours that cover broad areas.

If you want to explore north of Sydney, that is Brisbane and Cairns, there would be lots of driving involved. If you consider driving, suggest making out your trip on Mapquest to see how long such a trip would be.

If travelling to Uluru, try to avoid Alice Springs, except as a quick stop off point, due to the out of control crime and general lawlessness. Uluru is OK, but now visitors are not allowed to climb it there is little point going there. Better off flying over it for a better view. Kakadu National Park is more scenic. There is a train journey (if that is your jam) called the Ghan. It leaves Adelaide, or Alice Springs, via Katherine and there are lovely day trips offered., (Trip can be done either way. Australia is quite cheap as you almost get double the money with US dollars.

Speaking about the cost of visiting Australia, we didn't think it was all that expensive. The most expensive item for us, of course, were our airline tickets from Boston to Melbourne. Because of the long flights, we also flew Premium Economy, which we have never done before.

Both my husband and I agree we were surprised at how reasonable the hotel rates were. I keep a spreadsheet of all our trip expenses. For hotels, the rates ranged from $113 USD per night to $237 USD per night. The most expensive hotel was The Grace Hotel in Sydney at $237 per night. Next up was the Kurrara Historic Guest House in Katoomba (the Blue Mountains) at $184 per night. Our hotel in Melbourne, The Savoy on Little Collins, was $172 per night. Keep in mind that Australia has lots of motels that are very reasonable. They are very, very nice, too. Many of the ones we stayed at had recently been remodeled and updated, and some of the rooms were huge. They also provide laundry services. Perhaps the rates were low to reasonable because we were there during the shoulder season (October); you will also be there during the shoulder season. I also made our hotel reservations well in advance, such as 8 - 9 months in advance. I don't know if that makes a difference in cost.

This past May and June we traveled through Italy, and many of our accommodations were a lot more expensive than our accommodations in Australia.

We are going to Australia for a month this January/February. We are traveling independently. I also have become used to traveling with RS guidebooks, though I supplement them quite a bit. I have gotten LOTS of help on the forum from a handful of forum folks that live in Australia or have visited often. You could find a lot of info by searching the forum. My biggest difficulty was narrowing down our itinerary with so many great options in a HUGE country. In addition to the forum, I've found the Lonely Planet guidebook very helpful. Make sure to look at the newer editions which I found infinitely more helpful than ones that were a few years old. I'm also using Fodor's. I usually quite like Eyewitness Travel guides and I am using it for planning, but for Australia, I am finding less helpful than I have for other countries.

I am renting cars through Bargain car rentals which is well reviewed with great pricing. We are using Jetstar between some of the cities.

This was pre-Covid for my solo trip. I had 3 weeks and it was Australian winter (July in the US). I found independent planning very easy with so many Internet resources and there's no language "barrier".
Can you be more specific as to your interests? Uluru and learning more about the aboriginal history and culture was a lifetime dream for me. (BTW it wasn't legal to climb Uluru when I was there, although people still did.)
I started in Melbourne (from LAX)- Sydney- Blue Mtns as an overnight- train both ways- Cairns-Uluru-Sydney for the flight home.
The best advice I received, as you have, is how huge Australia is. It's so tempting to want to see everything!

Do you want a Rick Steves-like tour? Mondumo is a New Zealand-based company run by Colin Mairs who is also a Rick Steves guide. They have tours of Australia in addition to New Zealand. Their Australia guide (David Willett) is also a Rick Steves guide.
https://mondumo.com/

I took Mondumo’s New Zealand tour last year and thought it was excellent. It was operated just like a RS tour.

Thank you for all the info-and for responding so quickly! Lots of great ideas and starting points. I appreciate the suggestions.