Hello lovely Rick Steves community,
I need help! I’m driving myself mad with research…
My husband and I have booked flights for October to Sydney and out of Brisbane, via Sydney, home. We have a total of 13 nights in Australia.
We are excited to visit Australia for the scenery, national parks, coastline, as well as the cafe, boutique shopping etc. culture. We are in our mid 40’s.
We are thinking:
3 or 4 nights Sydney (depending on the rest of the trip)
2 nights Hunter Valley (not negotiable - my husband is mad about wine and wants to visit)
2 nights Port Stephens (Nelson Bay / Shoal Bay… is it worth visiting?)
This is where we are stuck….
Option 1 - we carry on up the coast, spend the night somewhere in between, and head to Byron Bay (open to ideas as alternatives… Yamba?) for a couple of nights. End off in Brisbane for 2 nights,
Option 2 - we drop off the car at Newcastle Airport and fly up to Queensland, and head to Noosa (which has always interested me). Perhaps spend four nights there, to enjoy both the coast and the country… Then end off with 1 or 2 nights in Brisbane, depending on how many nights we spend in Sydney.
What we are questioning ourselves on is how many nights in Sydney, in Brisbane, is Byron worth it, or Noosa better. Should we keep or cut Port Stephens to save time. It’s boggling my brain!
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance