How much time in Australia?

"Downunder" wrote in message ...
If you are working as well, three months is way too short a time frame. If
you have three months and need to work to get enough $ to do things, you
maybe better saving more first?

Well, I already had my working visa, and if I don't use it pretty
soon, I won't be able to use it at all...
Also, I have to go back to Norway sooner or later, and "have to" enter
Australia in the next 30 days or so.
Don't know for how long my ticket back home is valid, but it could be
I have to return in the end of March, which doesn't give me too much
time, as I also hoped to go to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia (...)

I really need to do some planning, find out what I really want to see,
and try to take it from there. Would LOVE to go to Melbourne in
January to catch the Australian Open...

You can travel cheaply by bus (you can buy tickets by the kilometre (ie
2,00km ticket, 10,000km ticket which allows unlimited stops and travel in
any direction) and stay in cheap hostels etc, leaving money for special
tours, diving, etc.

Yeah, going by bus is great. Don't do any diving, so don't have to
spend money on _that_ at least

Thanks to everyone for comments

"Downunder" wrote in message ...
If you are working as well, three months is way too short a time frame. If
you have three months and need to work to get enough $ to do things, you
maybe better saving more first?

Well, I already had my working visa, and if I don't use it pretty
soon, I won't be able to use it at all...
Also, I have to go back to Norway sooner or later, and "have to" enter
Australia in the next 30 days or so.
Don't know for how long my ticket back home is valid, but it could be
I have to return in the end of March, which doesn't give me too much
time, as I also hoped to go to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia (...)

I really need to do some planning, find out what I really want to see,
and try to take it from there. Would LOVE to go to Melbourne in
January to catch the Australian Open...

You can travel cheaply by bus (you can buy tickets by the kilometre (ie
2,00km ticket, 10,000km ticket which allows unlimited stops and travel in
any direction) and stay in cheap hostels etc, leaving money for special
tours, diving, etc.

Yeah, going by bus is great. Don't do any diving, so don't have to
spend money on _that_ at least

Thanks to everyone for comments

Jacob,

Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!

Research!!

A useful site to start:
http://www.csu.edu.au/australia/

Good Luck!!


"Jacob Stepaschko" wrote in message
m...
Well, me again...

Trying to find the cheapest airfare, and think I've found it. Will be
cheaper if I only stay three months, but is that really _enough_ to do
Australia? If I plan to work some places, and see Melbourne, Sydney,
Canberra, Gold Coast and all the touristy-thingys?
Or will 6 months be better.
I don't know an awful lot about the country, I must admit, but most
people I've talked to, have spent at leats 4-5 months there...

Any thoughts?

Jacob,

Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!

Research!!

A useful site to start:
http://www.csu.edu.au/australia/

Good Luck!!


"Jacob Stepaschko" wrote in message
m...
Well, me again...

Trying to find the cheapest airfare, and think I've found it. Will be
cheaper if I only stay three months, but is that really _enough_ to do
Australia? If I plan to work some places, and see Melbourne, Sydney,
Canberra, Gold Coast and all the touristy-thingys?
Or will 6 months be better.
I don't know an awful lot about the country, I must admit, but most
people I've talked to, have spent at leats 4-5 months there...

Any thoughts?

Jacob Stepaschko wrote:

Trying to find the cheapest airfare, and think I've found it. Will be
cheaper if I only stay three months, but is that really _enough_ to do
Australia?

No way!! Unless you are the type of traveller who sez "If today is
Tuesday, this must be France, because on Wednesday I will see
Germany......."

If I plan to work some places, and see Melbourne, Sydney,
Canberra, Gold Coast and all the touristy-thingys?
Or will 6 months be better.

Yes, but still not enough time.

I don't know an awful lot about the country, I must admit, but most
people I've talked to, have spent at leats 4-5 months there...

Any thoughts?

After living there and working there for a year, and after "travelling" in
OZ again with my wife, now it is time to see a "tiny" part with my boys
who are old enough to travel and see "beyond McDonalds". I can only say
that a year or 2 are still not enough.

Mind you, there are life's constraints - money. responsibilities, etc..

All the best with what time you have to travel in OZ!

Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

That's not to say you can't travel on a shoestring (I try to) but finding
yourself in Threeways for a month because you are hitching will mean you
will have spent a lot of time on nothing.

I beg to differ. Spending "time" at # Ways NT is a perfect way to understand
the isolation and perhaps dreariness that "city dwellers' experienced when
moving to the outback. You will truely understand the outback mindset after
spending a month at 3-Ways. However, that does not mean it is for nothing!!

Aboriginal people lived for millennia in the country surrounding 3-Ways and
never thought negatively about it.

Travel is a mid set. If your mind set is cities, then stay in the cities near
you and in YOUR country...

OTOH, if you are not looking for one-upmanship and "bragging rights", then by
all means, go to outback Australia.

I have this "attitude" because I am still ticked off at getting a 3 day visa to
visit Saigon in June, 1971. I stayed with UN soldiers (Canadian) and saw lots
of stuff that never got into the news. And why am i ticked off? because i met
some travellers in HK who told me you could only get a 3 day visa. Alas, I
listened to them and lost out because at that time Canadians could have a 14
day visa. Bummer! I lost out on some very "interesting" travel opportunities
that the Canadian soldiers told me about. Yes, I seem to have bragging rights
for travelling in Saigon "during the war", but I really would have liked to
have been there longer and seem more outside that city.

Go for the longest time you can - and then reflect on those experiences for the
rest of your life.

Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

That's not to say you can't travel on a shoestring (I try to) but finding
yourself in Threeways for a month because you are hitching will mean you
will have spent a lot of time on nothing.

I beg to differ. Spending "time" at # Ways NT is a perfect way to understand
the isolation and perhaps dreariness that "city dwellers' experienced when
moving to the outback. You will truely understand the outback mindset after
spending a month at 3-Ways. However, that does not mean it is for nothing!!

Aboriginal people lived for millennia in the country surrounding 3-Ways and
never thought negatively about it.

Travel is a mid set. If your mind set is cities, then stay in the cities near
you and in YOUR country...

OTOH, if you are not looking for one-upmanship and "bragging rights", then by
all means, go to outback Australia.

I have this "attitude" because I am still ticked off at getting a 3 day visa to
visit Saigon in June, 1971. I stayed with UN soldiers (Canadian) and saw lots
of stuff that never got into the news. And why am i ticked off? because i met
some travellers in HK who told me you could only get a 3 day visa. Alas, I
listened to them and lost out because at that time Canadians could have a 14
day visa. Bummer! I lost out on some very "interesting" travel opportunities
that the Canadian soldiers told me about. Yes, I seem to have bragging rights
for travelling in Saigon "during the war", but I really would have liked to
have been there longer and seem more outside that city.

Go for the longest time you can - and then reflect on those experiences for the
rest of your life.

Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

That's not to say you can't travel on a shoestring (I try to) but finding
yourself in Threeways for a month because you are hitching will mean you
will have spent a lot of time on nothing.

I beg to differ. Spending "time" at # Ways NT is a perfect way to understand
the isolation and perhaps dreariness that "city dwellers' experienced when
moving to the outback. You will truely understand the outback mindset after
spending a month at 3-Ways. However, that does not mean it is for nothing!!

Aboriginal people lived for millennia in the country surrounding 3-Ways and
never thought negatively about it.

Travel is a mid set. If your mind set is cities, then stay in the cities near
you and in YOUR country...

OTOH, if you are not looking for one-upmanship and "bragging rights", then by
all means, go to outback Australia.

I have this "attitude" because I am still ticked off at getting a 3 day visa to
visit Saigon in June, 1971. I stayed with UN soldiers (Canadian) and saw lots
of stuff that never got into the news. And why am i ticked off? because i met
some travellers in HK who told me you could only get a 3 day visa. Alas, I
listened to them and lost out because at that time Canadians could have a 14
day visa. Bummer! I lost out on some very "interesting" travel opportunities
that the Canadian soldiers told me about. Yes, I seem to have bragging rights
for travelling in Saigon "during the war", but I really would have liked to
have been there longer and seem more outside that city.

Go for the longest time you can - and then reflect on those experiences for the
rest of your life.

Have you looked at Freedom Air rates on the web

Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!

Of course. I am stupid, but not _that_ stupid

The country is just too big to do in one time, so for now I'll go to
Sydney or Melbourne and do the East Coast. Perth would be cheaper, but
it's so far away from everything else, even if many regard thw west
coast to be better...
Still don't know for how loing I will stay, probably 4-6 months. As
some people say, you can stay _years_ and it's still not enough. So
just have to make the best of it...