Australia at Easter

[starlittletwinkletwinkle]

Thinking of going to Australia for two weeks at Easter. To visit my brother.

It will be me, dh, and our 19 year old son (we will pay for him).

Flights are looking £1600-£2000 each for economy. Hotels are looking like £200-250 a night for something nice.

We are thinking about doing Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns. Internal flights look to be about £200 a leg.

Has anyone got any advice on a similar budget? Is it worth it?
Dbro is willing to meet us in Thailand if we want instead.

If your main reason for travelling is to visit your brother, then I’d agree to meet him in Thailand.
For starters, it will be only a fraction of the price of your trip to Oz, which looks like it will turn out to be ££££.
Secondly, it can take about 1 day to adjust for each 1hr time zone difference- so for Australia that would be 11 days to adjust! I've never found jetlag lasts that long, but if this is the case, then nearly all of your trip will be spent feeling jet-lagged.
Thailand in itself is a great location.

I would not pay a huge amount for 2 weeks in Oz. Go in our summer! Can you not stay with your brother? It’s a long way for 2 weeks and not much time to stay in each area. Thailand looks cheaper! Best prices for flights is usually 11 months. You’ve allow 4 for a popular time. Same issue with hotels. I would look again for later in the year when Brisbane and Cairns would still have lovely weather.

I've always dreamt of making it out to Oz, but I think you're right. I've left it too late already (!). Although even flights to Thailand are £1000+.

Unfortunately my brother has a one bed flat, so not much space for visiting family.

What about a package holiday? You don’t have to book separately.

If you plan ahead, maybe you could rent a house in Australia?

Wow those flights are very expensive. We paid £1200 each at Xmas 2019.

Can anyone tell me what the weather is like in cairns and Brisbane in August please??😊

You've left it far too late, especially at one of the busiest times of year (and school holidays!) and when there's several years of pent-up demand and people with carried forward Covid travel/hotel credits that they need to use before they expire.

I'd go to Thailand instead. Or Bali. And plan to visit Australia for Easter 2024 (although you'd be better trying to avoid school holidays if you can).

I'm in Australia for 3 weeks just before Easter (I fly back on Good Friday) and I booked it 350 days ahead when flights became available. And even then some of the better value (i.e. stunning but not extortionate) accommodation was already booked! You need to book early to get semi-reasonable prices and a decent choice. The demand for Australia is HUGE right now so you need to plan ahead. Hopefully prices will start to settle down a bit next year but there are no guarantees.

@Pinkybike
22-26C in Cairns. Little rain. However with temperatures ever increasing, my guess is that it could be hotter. Similar in Brisbane. Wherever we go, historic temp is wrong by between 2-5C.

TizerorFizz,
Thank you, we’re going over for three weeks in the summer holidays and I’m hoping it’s going to be warm enough to swim in the sea.

I think Cairns is a year round destination. Unless anyone says the sea is freezing in August, I would think you would be ok. Personally 40 C in high summer wouldn’t fill
me with delight!

No me neither 🥵

We went to Cairns in August a few years ago and was roughly 26C and good weather. We could swim on Great Barrier Reef trips fine. Sea swimming temperature is fine but you need to check locally, there's all kinds of things like crocodiles to watch out for and warning signs. Closeby we saw a cassowary on the beach.

We stayed in a lovely Airbnb a bit out for Cairns and the locals there advised us not to swim in the nearest beach but it's a great season for Great Barrier Reef and I think we went we seastar who do small boat trips and swam, scuba and snorkel on that. Further over we stayed at Lumholtz Lodge which has tree kangaroos etc.

@Silkierabbit
we are staying in an Airbnb in Palm Cove, I’ve looked at Seastar for the GBR and it looks so good!
we are so looking forward to going, need to start saving up some serious spending money after Christmas!

Have a wonderful time Pinky its such a great place to visit with the Great Barrier Reef and all the wildlife, would love to go back.

I live in Australia and would question the Brisbane leg. Why is this on the agenda? Apologies upfront to anyone from Brisbane but I’ll happily give it a miss and if needing to go through/past on the way up to Cairns/Port Douglas it doesn’t add anything to the trip.

We are visiting friends in Brisbane, we’re actually staying a little out of the city. There seems to be a good amount of things to do there, we have 3 teenagers.

There seems to be a good amount of things to do there, we have 3 teenagers.

Such as? Not being goady but I make that trip every few years and am stumped.

My brother lives in Sydney as do some dear old friends and we have Melbourne friends too. I've never been for less than three weeks. You spend 4 ish days let lagged. Then you want to hang out/see people then you want a bit of a family holiday. Thailand will be cheaper and time zone easier to deal with

@HoppingPavlova
As far as I have got is whale watching, theme parks and Australia zoo.

Be careful with the Easter bank holidays - the Aussies take Easter quite seriously, loads of places shut - it can make the easter weekend quite dull - so I'd pick that one to spend with family

We're going at Easter too. I only booked a couple of weeks ago and our flights were 1.2k each with Malaysian (fingers crossed!) and a stopover in KL for 2 nights to help with the jetlag.

I am from Brisbane, I would not go there if I didn't have family there! Hit the Gold Coast instead.

It might still be stinger (jellyfish) season in Cairns at Easter. They have nets though so should only swim in those areas.

I disagree with 11 days to get over jetlag! Having done the return flight approx 20 times, I reckon it's three days tops if you plan to arrive in at bedtime.

I disagree with 11 days to get over jetlag!

I agree with your (and another poster's) disagree 🤔

It'll vary between individuals but three, four, maybe five days to be fully functional after the sort of journey being suggested.

I think most of us could cope with being dragged to a beach/restaurant/bar etc after just a day or two....