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Ever been to Australia?

jjeanhiltonjjeanhilton member
Second Anniversary 10 Comments
in Honeymoon Discussions
Hi everyone,

FI and I are getting married September 1st of next year :) and we have reached the part of planning where we are discussing the honeymoon, woo hoo!

I have some questions for all of you that have been to Australia, on a honeymoon or otherwise:

Quick facts:
Our budget is $5,000 (including flights..) and we would be flying out of Logan airport in Boston MA. We have 2 weeks off directly following the wedding for this trip. I would love adventure. (Zip lining, safari, etc.) FI wants a few days to veg on a beach. I have always wanted to visit Australia but the flight time is daunting for a one week trip. With two weeks off though, it seems reasonable.

Questions:
Has anyone ever done an all inclusive tour? If so, do you have the link to a website that I can check out? Ideally I would love to fly into a major city, and spend a couples of nights before moving on. I have heard about all inclusive trips where you spend 4 days on a beach, fly to the rainforest and do more hiking/adventure things, fly to other side of the country and do more exploring there.. that would be ideal for us. FI loves snorkling and we definitly want to see the great barrier reef. (Is this reasonable to expect in our budget?)

So any information on travel agencies or packages is quite helpful :) I'm not sure where to start and defeinlty trust the experience of others on this site than other internet reviews.
 
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Re: Ever been to Australia?

  • MrsNerraw13MrsNerraw13 member
    100 Comments
    I have been, Just got back from a month long trip there in Nov, Feel free to PM me or email me at Snilwar23@gmail.com.
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  • Jells2dot0Jells2dot0 mod
    Moderator Ninth Anniversary 5000 Comments 500 Love Its
    I was just there for my DW and HM in August. I spent ALOT of money, but I will say that my airfare was around $1500/person before I added on some upgrades. So, that doesn't leave much in the way of budget for hotels. BUT, I've seen it done for less and it will be winter in Sydney and Melbourne. Look up Islandsinthesun.com and use their find an agent tool. They have agents listed that are experts in the area.

     







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  • jsquared62009jsquared62009 member
    Fourth Anniversary 100 Comments 5 Love Its First Answer
    Like pp have said, the flights can be super pricey depending on when you get them/where you're flying from. That'll be the biggest part of your budget for sure.

     If you want to fly into a main city and stay for a few days I'd do Sydney. My favorites were the Opera House, the royal gardens, and Darling Harbor. You can also get day tours into the Blue Mountains from there.

    Then for your rainforest/beach part I'd fly up to Cairns. You can find beach resorts just north of there so FI could get his beach fix in. Out of Cairns you can get whitewater rafting trips (we went with Raging Thunder on the Tully River the extreme trip). You can also skydive (not sure of a company...we did it in Byron Bay). Snorkeling/Scubadiving the reef (we went with Passions of Paradise). We also went on a day trip up into the Daintree/Cape Tribulation area but I forgot the tour company's name...there's lots of them if you search around online. Also you can visit Rainforestation and feed kangaroos, hold a koala, and see an Aboriginal dance.

    Again you would definitely have to plan it all out with your budget as the adventure stuff adds up fast, but if you pick the things most important to you it can work! GL!
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  • jjeanhiltonjjeanhilton member
    Second Anniversary 10 Comments
    Cairns sounds fantastic!

    I'm going to start looking at some flights to see where we stand.

    Maybe I can sneak our tax return money into this trip.... certainly would be worth it to me!!

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  • FMIL12FMIL12 member
    Fourth Anniversary 10 Comments 5 Love Its
    We chose Port Douglas over Cairns and loved it!
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  • Jells2dot0Jells2dot0 mod
    Moderator Ninth Anniversary 5000 Comments 500 Love Its
    edited December 2012
    It's funny because I really did not like Cairns at all. It was way too touristy and busy for me. However, given your budget and wanting to see the Reef, I think Cairns is your best option for that. The Reef, IMHO, is a must see. We had an amazing time snorkeling the various parts of it (we stayed at the very southern and northern tips.)

     







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  • melisrodismelisrodis
    100 Comments
    Quadruple Cairns.  You can also use Cairns as a base to get to a lot of places -- rafting and ziplining for sure as well as the Reef.  Daintree Rainforest is beautiful.  I wouldn't plan on spending long in Cairns itself, but if you fly into and out of it, you can get to some amazing adventure trips -- rainforest, mountains as well as beaches.  I would plan to fly in and out of Sydney, spend a night or two in Sydney -- Bondi Beach, etc -- and then head up to Cairns as quickly as possible.  

    But really, for this trip, I think you want more like 8-12k and two weeks.  5k is a possibility with a lot of work and research - but you'd get better bang for your buck going to southeast asia...



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