Australia

[Mum233]

can I have recommendations for holidays to Australia please with two children? Do holiday parks (like a haven sort of thing!) exist? Or is another form of accommodation better? Where are good places to go with 8 and 9 year old? We have been saving for years to go. Savings likely to take a nose dive due to heating crisis! But it would be nice to have it to look forward too!

Do you have an idea of where you want to go ?

It wasn't until I went to Australia I realised quite how huge it is. If you superimpose a map of Australia over Europe, there are a similar size, so you need to decide where you want to visit (assuming you are going for a normal 3 or 4 weeks and not a holiday lasting several months.
So Darwin is not only many hours from Tasmania (ditto Perth, and the East Coast cities being hours away from each other) , but it is a totally different climate.

Australian here. This country is huge. The experiences range from luxury beach to extreme remote outback & tropical. So look around online & decide how long you have & what kind of experience you want before booking. Also consider time of year depending on where you go (e.g. do winter 'dry season' in the far north.)

Yes, there are holiday parks. No idea if they're like yours. The gold coast has a couple (not my fave place). Big4 is one of the main camping/cabin parks brand with activities etc. They're more expensive, but will give you an idea, anyway. I wouldn't come all this way to plonk in one spot, though.

Some of my favourite places are Tassie, Melbourne & great ocean road, far north QLD from cairns to port Douglas/ Daintree. A popular route is Sydney to cairns via camper, but you'll see mainly beach. Road tripping is the absolute best way to experience different places. You'll be surprised how much the landscape changes in a few minutes drive.

If you want a less touristy experience you can go inland to the smaller towns & national parks. If QLD scenic rim is lovely or inland from cairns.

Also check school holidays. They differs slightly between states & makes a massive difference to cost & crowds.

Australia is kind of large, I'm not being facetious but if you are going on a standard two week holiday it's a bloody long way with travel days each end and jet lag.

Do you want to go in our summer their winter or vice versa?

I haven't taken our kids to see family yet, we are aiming to meet halfway instead. Easier on everyone.

Cairns/FNQ. Rent an airbnb. Plenty to keep you and kids entertained for a few weeks.
The major cities are very expensive and all a bit samey after a while..don't get me wrong, they're nice enough, but you come to Australia for the nature/wildlife/rainforest if you're coming from Europe.

So it depends how long you have. I’m going to imagine you’re coming for 3 weeks. I would do the following;

1-4 Arrive Sydney. Recovery day, walk to opera house, botanic gardens, chill and enjoy being somewhere new. visit the Rocks, do a walking tour. Hyde park barracks is an excellent way of finding out the history in a child friendly and interesting way. Do an open top bus tour. Do the Bondi to Coogee walk (about an hour and a half).

Day 5 -9 fly to Cairns and pick up a car. Drive to Port Douglas. Stay in Port Douglas. Go to Cape Tribulation. Do an organised tour. Sky rail to Karunda, Hartley’s Animal Park. enjoy the rainforest and beaches. Do a Great Barrier Reef trip.

Day 10 -13 fly to Darwin. Trip to Kakadu, organised couple of days there.

Day 14 -16 fly to Uluru, see Uluru, organised tour, see it in the morning and evening. Lots of organised short tours there.

Day 17- 20 Fly to Brisbane/Gold Coast. Couple of days, go to Australia Zoo, the Glasshouse Mountains, theme parks. alternatively, fly back to Sydney and have a couple of days there - Taronga Zoo, go to a sports event, walk over the bridge, Maritime Museum.

Fly back from either Brisbane or Sydney.

I would recommend going in April\May or September/October.

if you go in December/Jan the top end (Queensland/NT is boiling and humid and you also can’t swim in the sea). July/August it’s pretty cool in Sydney but fine with a coat. Normally dry (although wet this year!)

Oh and for the love of god book your internal flights with Virgin Australia and not Qantas or you’ll spend your whole time waiting for a flight.

That actually sounds fab. I’m Australian and haven’t even been to most of those places (apart from Sydney).

Also agree about the time of year. If you come in the height of summer there’s a chance the heat will really restrict what you can do.

@Ozgirl75 thats a fabulous itinerary. Covers a lot of iconic Australia (although I have great fondness for Melbourne). The timing is just right. Port Douglas is a fabulous place to stay in FNQ, much nicer than Cairns. Or choose Palm Cove for picture postcard tropical prettiness (but not as good a base).

Yes I also like Melbourne a lot but I just figure Sydney ticks off more of those iconic Australian sights if you’re limited for time.
I also love the Great Ocean Road and that whole area but for 3 weeks there’s a lot to see!

Some great suggestions from people who clearly know the country (I lived there for a good long while as well). A few other points to add...

North Qld / NT is hot and humid all year round. I'm guessing the reference to not swimming in the sea is because of the stingers (really nasty jellyfish that have killed people)

If you are in Sydney a trip to a beach is a must. Everyone knows Bondi but in my view the ones north of the harbour are better. If you are in the City jump on a ferry to Manly (fabulous views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House) and go to the beach and shark aquarium

It's tough with an 8 and 9 year old but a visit to a wine region is great fun. The Hunter Valley 100 miles north of Sydney and the Barossa Valley an hour or so west of Adelaide are the two best known. Margaret River near Perth produces the best quality wine in Oz in my opinion and there are other regions in Victoria and NSW

I am sure you will have a ball although don't expect places like Sydney to be cheap

Where are you flying into?
That makes a huge difference on where you will go.
How long is the holiday?
How old are the kids?

Sydney isn’t cheap but honestly for attractions it’s not too bad. Hyde Park Barracks is about $35 for a family of 4. The most expensive one is the aquarium which to be honest I would give a miss, it’s not that exciting and the cost is eye watering. Taronga is worth the money, it’s a full day out with the shows and there’s a high wires course there now too.
The maritime museum is great, you can clamber all over boats and submarines and a replica of the Endeavour (Captain Cook’s ship) plus there’s a museum to walk around. Very good value.

I wouldn’t bother with Madame Tausauds but the wildlife world in darling harbour is very nice too.

There’s a group of museums called the Living Museums and they’re really good and pretty cheap.

The Australian Museum is our Natural History and if you’ve been to the NH I wouldn’t bother with it, it’s ok but not amazing.

The museum of contemporary art in the rocks and also the domain art gallery are very good, and free.

The Rocks has a market on Sunday which is nice to walk around, the whole of the Rocks is nice for a stroll. I’ve never done a walking tour but I’ve heard they’re fun.

@ManAboutTown I agree Manly is a nice spot - sadly the shark aquarium is now closed.
The other thing that’s fun in Manly is a tour of the Quarantine Station - you can do a “kids” ghost tour on a Friday or Saturday night.

Ozgirl’s itinerary is fab but I disagree with her recommending Virgin, we only fly Qantas as we get lounge access and priority boarding and apart from their truly shit call centre “customer service” around COVID we have never had a problem with the actual flights. We have done six international flights with them so far this year and are currently at the airport waiting for one of many domestic flights with no problems. Jetstar (budget airline arm of Qantas) are absolutely fine once you get on the plane but they do cancel a lot at the moment and the check in experience can be grim.

I can only comment on the tiny bit of Australia I did see with kids that age, which was the area between Perth and Margaret River. It was brilliant.

we stayed at Farm Stays and the whole thing was fabulous. And not mad expensive either.

@Ozgirl75 - oh sad to hear that but it's a few years since I went there. I think going up to Palm Beach is nice but it's a bugger to get to - my favourite up north was Bungan because it doesn't have a road down to it so is much quieter than the others. The be honest any of the ones right up that way are good - Newport, Avalon, Bilgola

What sort of holiday experiences are you into, usually? Australia is not really a fly-and-flop by the beach sort of place, you’ll get the best out of it (since you’re going that far) by moving around. Also, being on a tight budget will have an effect, it’s an expensive place, though domestic flights are reasonable. I lived there for years and went all over except NT. Some of my favourite places that might be doable per a couple of weeks:

• Victoria: love Melbourne (where I lived), lots to do in the vicinity, including going up to the High Country (northeast of the state). Great Ocean Road to west, beaches to the east (Wilson’s Prom). Also love the Yarra Ranges NP. Lots of wine touring opps.
• Tasmania: amazing place if you like hiking and beautiful scenery and wildlife. Hobart is another cool city, not just because of MONA (take the boat there). Bay of Fires, Cradle Mountain, rafting in Franklin-Gordon.
• QLD: far north rainforests and islands and Great Barrier Reef also amazing and unique.

My ideal itinerary would be some combination of those three. I wasn’t a fan of Sydney as a place to live but I don’t deny that the harbour is spectacular and the ferry to Manly a must. There are some great north NSW coast towns, beyond Byron. There’s little point doing Adelaide and Melbourne. Same with WA, though it’s spectacular too. I wasn’t especially interested in Uluru or the Red centre, personally.

Brilliant plan OzGirl!

If you are in Sydney with children who are happy in the water my number one recommendation would be to go snorkelling at Shelly Beach. Its sheltered, shallow and has a remarkable variety of brightly coloured fish, rays and other wildlife.
Every time I've gone I've seen something new and when you're not in the water the beach is great too

I live in Manly, I have loads of advice! But would be good to know how long you’re here for, what type of holiday you’re thinking and what city you’re thinking of?

I agree @miked99 , I learnt to dive there and it was amazing!