Don't know where to start

We are thinking of going to Australia for a 6 week holiday in about 18
months time, there will be 6 of us, four adults two teenagers...
We need to work out some basic prices to see if it's possible, we know we
can get flights to Sydney (from England) for around £600, this isn't a
problem, but most sites I've been on are quoting hotel prices at £100 per
person, per night!! - this is obviously out of the question and we were
thinking of renting a motorhome to get around, with maybe the odd few nights
staying in a motel or something similar..I've read about 'flag'? motels at
around £12 per night, which sound ideal but I can't find much info about
them, are they widespread?...our idea is to stay in Sydney for a week, then
make our way up to Cairns, how far is this and about how long would it take
in a motorhome?Are there many motels/places along the way?
How much is fuel?(diesel)...I can't seem to find any information (apart from
ridiculously priced packages)...we would also like to visit Alice Springs,
but looking at the map, it would require an internal flight and we don't
know if we could fly back to Britain from there or if we would have to get
back to Sydney?
Has anyone got any info?

TIA

Cheap country motels are around $AUD40 - $50 per night. More by the coast,
particularly in Dec - Feb.

Lots of youth hostels also rent double rooms, cheaper and more fun than
motels?

Also, look out for holiday cabins (NPWS in NSW and QLD) but in school
holidays book way ahead (prefrably 1 year).

Not many people go the motothome route from what I see, but I'm a local and
probably wouldn't see. Don't fancy driving 2,960 kms in an Australian summer
to Cairns with 6 people in a motorhome. You might have to rent two cars -
would be cheaper if you are not sleeping in the motorhome.




"Phil L" wrote in message
...
We are thinking of going to Australia for a 6 week holiday in about 18
months time, there will be 6 of us, four adults two teenagers...
We need to work out some basic prices to see if it's possible, we know we
can get flights to Sydney (from England) for around £600, this isn't a
problem, but most sites I've been on are quoting hotel prices at £100 per
person, per night!! - this is obviously out of the question and we were
thinking of renting a motorhome to get around, with maybe the odd few
nights
staying in a motel or something similar..I've read about 'flag'? motels at
around £12 per night, which sound ideal but I can't find much info about
them, are they widespread?...our idea is to stay in Sydney for a week,
then
make our way up to Cairns, how far is this and about how long would it
take
in a motorhome?Are there many motels/places along the way?
How much is fuel?(diesel)...I can't seem to find any information (apart
from
ridiculously priced packages)...we would also like to visit Alice Springs,
but looking at the map, it would require an internal flight and we don't
know if we could fly back to Britain from there or if we would have to get
back to Sydney?
Has anyone got any info?

TIA

"Phil L" wrote in message
...
We are thinking of going to Australia for a 6 week holiday in about 18
months time, there will be 6 of us, four adults two teenagers...
We need to work out some basic prices to see if it's possible, we know we
can get flights to Sydney (from England) for around £600, this isn't a
problem, but most sites I've been on are quoting hotel prices at £100 per
person, per night!! - this is obviously out of the question and we were
thinking of renting a motorhome to get around, with maybe the odd few
nights
staying in a motel or something similar..I've read about 'flag'? motels at
around £12 per night, which sound ideal but I can't find much info about
them, are they widespread?...our idea is to stay in Sydney for a week,
then
make our way up to Cairns, how far is this and about how long would it
take
in a motorhome?Are there many motels/places along the way?
How much is fuel?(diesel)...I can't seem to find any information (apart
from
ridiculously priced packages)...we would also like to visit Alice Springs,
but looking at the map, it would require an internal flight and we don't
know if we could fly back to Britain from there or if we would have to get
back to Sydney?
Has anyone got any info?

TIA



Yup u would have to fly back to sydney. hostles for about $18 to $30 a night
just about every where


http://www.poms.co.uk/mainframe.htm

Phil L wrote:
We are thinking of going to Australia for a 6 week holiday ... ...,
but most sites I've been on are quoting hotel prices at £100 per
person, per night!!

Ups, sounds like you prefer a luxurious lifestyle. ;-)

I'm pretty sure, that your (English?) travel agent wouldn't earn much
offering hotel rooms for 80 - 100 A$/night. But you'll certainly find
many clean and nice motel rooms at this rate if you do a little research
and esepcially check websites from the hotels.

... thinking of renting a motorhome to get around,

Even rental cars are quite expensive, but you certainly pay a lot more
if you rent a motorhome. Consider that you also need to fill up water,
dump waste, use electricity ..., i.e. you have to go to campgrounds
which results in extra costs. Now check costs again with hotel rates,
lower costs for gasoline, ... and remember that a night in a fluffy
motel bed may be more enjoyable then living in a motorhome for 6 weeks.

However, Motorhomes certainly are great to travel to remote regions,
especially if you can't find any motel or have to expect a crowded
season and everything is booked out.

I've read about 'flag'? motels at around £12 per night, ...

Wow, from 5-star-hotels to £12-hotels ... :-)

... but I can't find much info about them, are they widespread?

Check http://www.choicehotels.com.au/. You can directly book on their
website. Flag hotels offer a pretty good and reliable standard. You
can also have a look at http://www.bestwestern.com.au/, but their
hotels are generally a little more expensive (and not necessesarily
better).

...our idea is to stay in Sydney for a week, then make our way up to
Cairns, how far is this and about how long would it take in a
motorhome?

Just an idea:

Arrive in Sydney, stay there for 4 days.
First day to arrive, sleep and get rid of jetlag,
second and third day to do some sightseeing.
(Go to the harbour bridge, see Opera House and walk along The Rocks,
take the ferry to Darling Harbour and have a nice dinner at the scenic
place, ...) On the fourth day you take a flight to Brisbane in the
afternoon. If booked in time, flights can be pretty cheap. Check rates
at http://www.virginblue.com.au. No need to rent a car while in Sydney.

In Brisbane rent a car (just a regular fullsize-car, no motorhome).
For a couple of days (a week or two?) drive north, enjoy Whitsundays and
Great Barrier Reef, see turtles at Bundaberg, have a 4WD-excursion to
Fraser Island (very nice motel in Hervey Bay: http://tinyurl.com/6gsoa
) ... After some days you arrive in Cairns, where you drop of your car
(one way rental! Check prices at http://www.thrifty.com.au/). And
don't miss Cairn's Aquarium.

From Cairns take another flight to Ayers Rock (don't fly to Alice
Springs, because you have to drive a looong way through some rather
boring landscape). Check prices at Qantas http://www.qantas.com.au/
There are a couple of hotels near Ayers Rock NP but it makes sense to
book ahead as they might get booked out soon. Have a look at
http://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/.

While at Ayers Rock, try to visit The Olgas and Kings Canyon. Both are
close to the Ayers Rock Hotels (just book 2 or 3 nights) and well worth
a visit.

Next take a flight to Adeleaide (my favourite Australian city :-) ).
A nice, clean and relaxing place to spend the rest of your holiday until
you take your flight back home. Adelaide has a very good wine museum
http://www.wineaustralia.com.au and if you have some time left, you
can visit the Barossa Valley where you can find outstanding wineries as
Penfolds, Rosemount, ... IIRC, some hotels offer bus tours but you also
can rent a car for two days. It's only two hours drive to get there.

If you prefer kangaroos instead of wine, go to Kangaroo Island. (Watch
for drop bears!) http://www.tourkangarooisland.com.au/

I can't seem to find any information (apart from ridiculously priced
packages)...

On our first tour we booked a package from Gebeco
http://www.gebeco.de, because they had a good deal cobining rental car
and motel vouchers. But travelling through Australia is so easy that you
can set up your personal (and even more flexbible) package yourself. You
just need to do a lot of research, i.e. start with the given websites.
I also could recommend the book "In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson.
Gives you some good ideas about travelling in Australia.

Just make 100% sure you have a hotel for your first and last night. It's
no fun to look for accomodation if you are totaly exhausted from the
long flight. (BTW, Sydney International Airport has a visitors
information desk with very friendly staff and they are very helpful with
accomodation. To book ahead, you could contact them by e-mail. Or have
a look at their website http://www.visitnsw.com.au/.

Well, as I said: Just an idea. :-)


Bego

--
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we.
They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country
and our people, and neither do we."
- George W. Bush, 5.8.2004

Bego Mario Garde wrote:
[deleted]
While at Ayers Rock, try to visit The Olgas and Kings Canyon. Both are
close to the Ayers Rock Hotels (just book 2 or 3 nights) and well worth
a visit.

"close" by Australian standards! In reality 305 km (one way!) for
Kings Canyon! (The Olgas are 43 km (one way).)

Bego Mario Garde wrote:
[deleted]
While at Ayers Rock, try to visit The Olgas and Kings Canyon. Both are
close to the Ayers Rock Hotels (just book 2 or 3 nights) and well worth
a visit.

"close" by Australian standards! In reality 305 km (one way!) for
Kings Canyon! (The Olgas are 43 km (one way).)

Frank Slootweg wrote:
While at Ayers Rock, try to visit The Olgas and Kings Canyon. Both are
close to the Ayers Rock Hotels ...

"close" by Australian standards!

:-)

In reality 305 km (one way!) for Kings Canyon!

Ups, I didn't remember, that it was _that_ far.
Just talked to my wife and she agreed, that it took us quite a while to
get to ayers Rock. Probably I was just too excited that day ... :-)

(The Olgas are 43 km (one way).)

Well, that's quite a distance -- at least for Holland.
You could miss Beatrix's castle and end up in Rotterdam ... ;-)

OK, Frank, "close" by Australian standards.

Bego
--
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we.
They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country
and our people, and neither do we."
- George W. Bush, 5.8.2004

Bego Mario Garde wrote:
Frank Slootweg wrote:
While at Ayers Rock, try to visit The Olgas and Kings Canyon. Both are
close to the Ayers Rock Hotels ...

"close" by Australian standards!

:-)

In reality 305 km (one way!) for Kings Canyon!

Ups, I didn't remember, that it was _that_ far.
Just talked to my wife and she agreed, that it took us quite a while to
get to ayers Rock. Probably I was just too excited that day ... :-)

:-)

(The Olgas are 43 km (one way).)

Well, that's quite a distance -- at least for Holland.
You could miss Beatrix's castle and end up in Rotterdam ... ;-)

OK, Frank, "close" by Australian standards.

Well, the main reason I responded is that you advised them to fly to
Ayers Rock, but didn't mention car-rental, etc.. It would be a bummer if
they would have to walk 305/48 km! :-)

As to Oz versus Dutch distances: We have driven 'around the world'
(i.e. (over) 40,000 km) in Australia, so we are somewhat aware of the
distances! :-)

Bego Mario Garde wrote:
Frank Slootweg wrote:
While at Ayers Rock, try to visit The Olgas and Kings Canyon. Both are
close to the Ayers Rock Hotels ...

"close" by Australian standards!

:-)

In reality 305 km (one way!) for Kings Canyon!

Ups, I didn't remember, that it was _that_ far.
Just talked to my wife and she agreed, that it took us quite a while to
get to ayers Rock. Probably I was just too excited that day ... :-)

:-)

(The Olgas are 43 km (one way).)

Well, that's quite a distance -- at least for Holland.
You could miss Beatrix's castle and end up in Rotterdam ... ;-)

OK, Frank, "close" by Australian standards.

Well, the main reason I responded is that you advised them to fly to
Ayers Rock, but didn't mention car-rental, etc.. It would be a bummer if
they would have to walk 305/48 km! :-)

As to Oz versus Dutch distances: We have driven 'around the world'
(i.e. (over) 40,000 km) in Australia, so we are somewhat aware of the
distances! :-)

Phil, there are a number of resources on the Internet that you could try.

Each of the States has its own motoring organization e.g.

http://www.racq.com.au is the URL for the Royal Automobile Club of
Queensland
http://www.nrma.com.au is the URL for the National Roads and Motoroists
Association (New South Wales)
http://www.raa.com.au is the URL for South Australia
http://www.racv.com.au is the URL for Victoria

May I suggest you use these sites as a starting point. The motoring clubs
sell booklets on accommodation for each type you may be interested in e.g.
"hotels/motels" or "Caravan parks and camping sites".

There are a few web sites that claim to be "accommodation guides" but we
haven't had a great deal of success with them.

e.g. We decided to drive from Brisbane (capital of Queensland) to Cooktown
(on the East Coast north of Cairns) but to take as many out-of-the-way
tracks as we could find.

Scoured the Internet to book each night but finished up getting URLs from
all sorts of places like newspapers, travel books, Internet, Motoring Clubs
etc. etc.

Every night bar one (15 in total) was pre booked via e-mail.

5900 kms in total, running a Land Rover Discovery Td5. Fuel used (diesel)
622.2 litres, totol fuel cost $603.60 (you can take a guess what that is in
Pounds) Average fuel consumption 10.57 l/100kms. Cost of Accommodation for
15 nights for two people $1004.50 with some meals included in that figure.
Most meals most places were "extra" but some were included as "breakfast".

If you would like to see some photos
http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/rwanddem/index.html


Ross

"Phil L" wrote in message
...
We are thinking of going to Australia for a 6 week holiday in about 18
months time, there will be 6 of us, four adults two teenagers...
We need to work out some basic prices to see if it's possible, we know we
can get flights to Sydney (from England) for around £600, this isn't a
problem, but most sites I've been on are quoting hotel prices at £100 per
person, per night!! - this is obviously out of the question and we were
thinking of renting a motorhome to get around, with maybe the odd few
nights
staying in a motel or something similar..I've read about 'flag'? motels at
around £12 per night, which sound ideal but I can't find much info about
them, are they widespread?...our idea is to stay in Sydney for a week,
then
make our way up to Cairns, how far is this and about how long would it
take
in a motorhome?Are there many motels/places along the way?
How much is fuel?(diesel)...I can't seem to find any information (apart
from
ridiculously priced packages)...we would also like to visit Alice Springs,
but looking at the map, it would require an internal flight and we don't
know if we could fly back to Britain from there or if we would have to get
back to Sydney?
Has anyone got any info?

TIA