My wife and I have tentative plans to visit a friend in Melbourne next year. Our vague and fuzzy itinerary may be to spend 5-7 days with the friend; then rent a car and drive north along the coast and spend another week somewhere.
Should we stay in Sydney? What’s Cairns like? What sights should we make sure to see? Is the Great Barrier Reef worth seeing (if so, how?) Our schedule is very open – what time of year would be best?
Thanks Aussies, and any other knowledgeable Dopers.
Melbourne to Cairns along the coast is 43 hours of driving. If you want to see both Victoria AND Far North Queensland, you probably ought to fly.
Do you like visiting cities, beaches, country towns? What activities do you want to do? Snorkeling the GBR can be life-changing and amazing, but if you get seasick and don’t care for snorkeling, that’s probably not the best use of your time/money.
Melbourne can get quite cool and rainy in the (southern hemisphere) winter (max 50-60dg F) which is fine if you want to hang out in awesome cafes (a must!) but less fine if you want to, say, bushwalk (hike) the Brisbane Ranges (densest wild koala population in the country) or swim at the beach.
If you’re just going to Melbourne, the beaches nearby are OK, but in general, IMHO, the best beaches are from the central coast of NSW (Newcastle area) to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The most famous, like Bondi in Sydney, tend to be too crowded for me.
So, yeah, reply with more detail and we’ll all be more help 
It’s been almost 20 years since I was in Australia, but I really liked Sydney. See the opera house, maybe catch a performance there. Just explore the city. I was only in Cairns for a day, but spent about 5 days out on Fitzroy Island off the coast and snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef. It’s definitely worth a visit while you can, since I recently read an article saying global warming has probably gone to far to save it.
Caveat: I spent several months in Australia a little over a decade ago so it’s likely some things have changed or I may incorrectly remember…I’m happy for any corrections those with more recent info can add.
With that amount of time you’ll probably wnat to pick one city or the other. The quickest route from Melbourne to Sydney is at least a 9 hour drive (according to Google) and that is all inland. If you follow the coast it will take longer. Driving to Cairns is over 30 hours (Google says 34) also an inland route. Definitely look into flying between cities instead. I imagine the cost for rental car and gas for Melbourne–>Cairns rivals the cost of flying and you’ll spend a fraction of the time travelling. I would look into multi-city tickets where you fly into MEL, then fly to SYD or CNS and then fly home from there. Maybe there is a train to Sydney as well? Sydney has excellent public transportation options so once you’re there you wouldn’t need the car anyway. In Cairns the public transportation options weren’t as great but it’s small and quite walkable (you’d need cabs for the airport, though) and some attractions might offer shuttles.
The best way to see the Great Barrier Reef is to get out on a boat and do some snorkeling or diving. I did a 2 night live-aboard trip that included meals, a bunk, and all the snorkeling I could handle. There were also SCUBA divers on board and I think the same outfit offered longer trips. There is also good rafting in the jungle near Cairns.
There is plenty of stuff to do in Sydney to fill up a week: museums, the Quay, the bridge, Opera House, Botanical Gardens, beaches (Bondi, Manly, more), etc. Also within reach of Sydney are the Blue Mountains (probably doable as a day trip) and the Hunter Valley wine region (probably want to spend a night).
If you’re into the idea of a coastal drive the Great Ocean Road would be a good day trip while you are in MEL.
Off to a good start!
A long drive is not necessarily a deal-breaker; the journey is more important than the destination, since we’re just there to see the scenery. We will have a week at a timeshare at our end point; we just need to pick where that endpoint is.
Interests: pretty much all of the above. My wife and I are not very much hang-out-on-the-beach-in-swimwear people, but snorkeling does sound quite appealing. Definitely want to see the wildlife and natural wonders, and awesome cafes sounds…awesome.
Keep it coming. Thanks!
What is your idea of perfect holiday weather? Australia can offer it all (ok … so only very small sections have snow … but it is there!).
As you are visiting Melbourne to see friends, I would suggest you check out the weather range and pick the time of year that suits you. Summer in Melbourne is dry HOT (40degC - 110F?) from Jan-March … winter is cool (but not freezing!) from Jun-Aug. Perhaps also ask what your friends might be sharing with you around Melbourne - you might be able to tick off some of the “Australian” things such as seeing wildlife at a sanctuary, visiting wineries, beaches, markets, cool restaurants/cafes whilst you are in Melbourne and then look for other activities elsewhere.
I love driving holidays so have no issue with long days in a car. Driving and looking at the massive changes in scenery are fantastic along the coast, but as others have pointed out, it might be better to fly north from Melbourne (to Sydney or Brisbane) and then drive from there so you get to see some of the bigger differences. Like most large cities, Sydney and Melbourne are best experienced without a car for a few days. In Sydney staying right in the centre is worth it!
I live in Melbourne, don’t like Sydney very much. It’s a big place so trying to go from Melbourne to Qld by car will get boring really quick. If you go inland the view after the first hour will be a loop tape.
My suggestion, see what you can in Melbourne and the surrounds while you’re there. Best coffee in the world at many cafes and some serious restaurants. If you come mid year, get to an AFL game. Aussie rules footy is…unique. Get to a big game, have 100,000 feral fucktards screaming in an arena.
Then, get a plane to Cairns. Suggestions from there are to do the skyrail to Kuranda and get the old steam train back. How they built the skyrail through the rain forest is just amazing.
Get out on the reef and do some snorkelling. Wavelength is the most credible experience IMO, they sail out of Port Douglas.
Take a drive up through the daintree Rainforest to cape tribulation. There’s fuck all there but the drive is so worth it, driving through a full on rain forest you go around a bend and suddenly there’s ocean on your right. The drive from Cairns to Port Douglas is brilliant for the last 20km, the drive through the Daintree is a religious experience.
While you’re in the area, I’d call in at hartley’s Creek Crocodile farm, between Cairns and Port Douglas. I went up there earlier this year and you do a boat tour around the man made lagoon. Once we’re seated on the boat and it starts moving off, the guide stands up and starts talking. “You’ll notice we don’t have any life jackets on this boat. That’s because in this lagoon there are (I forget, lets say 300) salt water crocodiles. If this boat goes down, a life jacket isn’t going to save you, the only thing that will is swimming faster than the person beside you” One big bugger is over 5 metres long.:eek: