An dream becomes an Australian reality!
altermood
Obsessed with Australia and everything Australian (especially the wildlife)
Jan 3, 2008
based on 6 votes
I have wanted to go to Australia for awhile and finally did...after months and months of planning and researching.
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Explore locations featured in this Traveler List:
Brisbane, Fraser Island, Beerwah, Cairns, Palm Cove, Kuranda, Great Barrier Reef, Port Douglas, Sydney, New South Wales, Blacktown
- Category: Perfect week or more
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Traveler type: Culture, Sightseeing, Shopping, Active/Outdoors, Never been before, Beachgoers
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Appeals to: Couples/romantics, Singles, Large groups, Budget travelers, Active/adventure, Tourists, Pet owners
- Seasons: Spring
- Tags:
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| This was actually my favourite city...a welcoming surprise. Plus it's right between the gold coast and the sunshine coast. |
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2. Kangaroo Point Holiday Apartments
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Ave price:
$99
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| Despite some bad reviews that I had read after booking a two-bedroom apartment for my partner, best friend and I, this place turned out to be our favourite accommodation in Australia. They have two buildings, on older one and a new one, which they call 4.5 star. We stayed in the new one and it was awesome! If you don't have a car, it's not too convenient, but if you rent a car, there's even parking...and the city centre is only about a mile up the road...plus the cricket ground is right across the street and there's an amazing place to eat down the street called the chalk hotel. We had breakfast and lunch there twice. |
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3. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
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| If you want to see some Australian wildlife, you have to go here. I believe it's one of the oldest animal sanctuaries in the country. They had a LOT of koalas and a lot of kangaroos that you could roam around with and feed..but be prepared to swat flies because there's a lot. You could take the mirimar cruise up the river from the city centre, but we actually opted to drive there. It was only about a 20 minute drive. |
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| This place is great...lots of restaurants and stores and a nice flower-covered arched pathway. They have a man-made swimming lagoon (which was actually being renovated when we were there) and lots of birds. When we were eating outside at one of the restaurants, there was an ibis that jumped up on someone's table while they were eating. They are very aggressive, but I don't think they are known to attack people or anything..they are just looking for food. |
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| a trip to fraser island is a must. It's mostly recommended to stay at least one night there, as it is a three and a half hour drive from Brisbane, but it can be done on a day trip. We opted for a day trip, with adventure tours. It was a long (about 14 hours) day, but well worth it. Since the island is actually about 75 miles or long, the day trip only takes you to the bottom part. Find a tour that stops at Lake Mackenzie, as it is the nicest, clearest, freshest lake to swim in and you might see wild dingos on the beach (we saw one and it was the highlight for me!). |
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| Steve Irwin's zoo is world famous and well worth a visit. Honestly, I enjoyed the lone pine koala sanctuary and featherdale wildlife park (outside of Sydney) better, but here they really try to teach people about animal conservation and that's really nice. we saw Terri Irwin when we were there, too! |
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| Though it's a small city, there is so much life here! Down on the esplanade, there's tons of restaurants, souvenir shops, ice cream places, tourist stores and people. They have a huge swimming lagoon (because you can't actually swim in the ocean here, due to stingers, etc...). The night markets are fun to go to...though it's very touristy. Just don't get suckered into getting a massage by anyone because they work it like a factory and will try to sell you herbal patches and convince you that you need them. (I was a sucker and bought two!). |
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8. Koala Court Holiday Apartments Cairns
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| The apartments were very roomy and tropical, but not that nice. What made up for it, though, was the owners and the managers, who were so helpful with anything, from helping you decide what tours to go on to letting you check your email on their computer in the office. There was parking (you should rent a car if you stay here because it's a little ways from the main area) and nice grounds. I would recommend this place! |
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| This was a cool experience. First you have dinner (there was a buffet, but some people were very pushy) and they are constantly offering you beer and wine (all included!). The staff were very nice. Then you pick up flashlights (they call them "torches") and go off into the zoo to see the nocturnal animals. Along the walkway, we actually came across a death adder snake (which is highly poisonous) just slithering along (not part of the zoo!) and the snake handler picked it up and took it somewhere else out of the zoo. Some of the stupid pushy tourists were crowding around it trying to get a picture, not worried that it was highly venomous...very annoying. We saw the koalas and got close to them, the crocs, and then had a campfire with the kangaroos, while eating homemade damper bread (which was very good). Once again, the flash happy tourists were being annoying taking pictures of the kangaroos in the dark with their flashes. The poor things were being blinded! At the end of the tour, we had a sing-along and then were ushered to the exit, through the souvenir shop of course...One of the guys was holding a wombat and we got to pat it, which was another highlight for me! I was dying to get up close to a wombat! This tour was very good...but be warned about the pushy people that seem to flock to this one! |
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10. Bandicoot Bicycle Tours
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| Dave is the owner and he took us out to experience the atherton tablelands on a bike! It was a great day out and HIGHLY recommended! See my review under bandicoot bicycle tours... |
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| A great village in the rainforest....so many stores and things to do. Most people take the scenic railway one way and then the cableway the other but we opted to just drive there. It was a winding road but I think it was our preferred way to go. You have to visit the butterfly sanctuary! |
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We did a day tour with "passions of paradise" and highly recommend them. They are one of the most highly rated reef tours. You will go to two place, Michaelmas Cay, where you can ease your way into snorkeling if you are a little unsure with it, and then to one of the reefs out in the ocean. They have dives, too. The crew are very nice and accommodating. |
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| On our last morning, we decided to take a drive up to Port Douglas. Everyone says that they prefer it over Cairns, but I personally prefer Cairns. It's a lot less touristy here, though, which a lot of people like better. It is very nice...though the drive through the winding coastline is a little scary, though very scenic. |
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ahhhhh.... Sydney.... beautiful Sydney. A big city with lots of stuff to do and right on the water. I live in New York, so a big city is a big city...though it's a lot cleaner and a lot easier to escape to the country... |
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| This is a must-do. You can catch a ferry at circular quay to Manly. The cruise is about 30-40 minutes and goes right by the opera house and bridge (great pics from here!) and along port jackson. When you get near the open sea, the ferry rocks a little as the water gets rough, but not enough to get seasick. Manly itself is great, with lots of shops and restaurants and two beaches, one in the harbour, the other (the main one) on the open ocean side. Oceanworld Manly is a great aquarium. I got to do a shark dive there, where they actually take you in the shark aquarium with the grey nurse sharks, stingrays and turtles for 30 minutes. It was probably one of the highlights of my life! Plus, the staff there are very friendly (very good for the kids!) and knowledgeable |
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16. Quarantine Station Ghost Tour
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| scary...bizarre..we did it on halloween which added to the strangeness. |
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| Very nice. We did a tour with tours-r-us. It took us to scenic world and we rode the cableway and railway down the steepest incline! There's a rainforest to walk around on the bottom. Then on the way back, we stopped at featherdale wildlife park (the best place to see kangaroos!), then the driver dropped us off at the ferry, where we sailed back into the city down the parramatta river. A good day out! |
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18. Featherdale Wildlife Park
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| I loved this park! It was actually my favourite of all the animal places that we went to! Feeding the roos and wallabies there was the most fun! They had a lot of koalas, even the guy that worked there who greeted us, was holding a baby wallaby. We got to see some of the animals that we hadn't yet seen in the other parks, like the tasmanian devil, flying foxes.... my partner even got to pet a kookaburra! |
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| a beautiful beach, right next to bondi. We started here, where the sculptures by the sea exhibit was going on. there's a pathway that goes all the way from bondi beach to coogee beach. It's a highly-recommended walk by most people. We only got to do part of it, though... |
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| People say it's overrated, but I personally LOVED it! |
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| We stayed in an apartment near darling harbour. This is a great place, with great restaurants and attractions. |
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