Australia

Australia is huge; it's about the same size as the continental US! It was very difficult for us to narrow down which areas we were going to focus on. We were there for 20 nights in total so we split that up into 5 nights each in Melbourne, Tasmania, Cairns, and Sydney.

Australia was awesome to visit and experience it's very diverse areas. In general it was very easy to get around since it's an English speaking country and public transportation is very good in the major cities. We stayed in some great Airbnbs, although the hosts tended to not be as engaged as much as our New Zealand airbnb hosts and left us more to ourselves, which is also nice in a different way. This seems to be consistent with our interactions with Aussies overall; everyone we talked to was friendly but they just seemed a little less interested in talking with us than the Kiwis were.

Link to all Australia pictures

Overview of our trip

To get to each of our locations we flew domestically with Virgin Australia and had good experiences. They always served either a snack or a meal, depending on the flight length. They also had some beverages for free and others for purchase. Their baggage policy was reasonable, although we had to check our roller bags since they were heavier than 7kg but we always were able to check it for free. We booked all of these domestic flights with points.

My favorite thing we did in Australia was scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef. That was just awesome. Matt would say that his favorite thing was going fishing in Cairns. And we both agree that our next favorite thing was seeing the different animals in the wild. Australia has so many unique animals to see.

Melbourne

We spent four nights in the city of Melbourne and then one along the Great Ocean Road. If I were doing it over again I would spend only three nights in the city and two along the Great Ocean Road, but that's probably because I'm not a huge city girl. In the city my favorite thing we did was walk around Victoria's Market. That was really cool so I'd definitely recommend that. We also checked out St. Kilda's beach which I really enjoyed since I love beaches. 

While staying in Melbourne we stayed in the Central Business District which turned out to be a good thing since there is a free tram that runs all around most hours every day. We took advantage of this and it helped us keep our transportation costs low.

Driving the Great Ocean Road is a must in my opinion. It's an absolutely amazing drive and there are lots of stops you can make for short or long walks to different scenic locations. The Twelve Apostles area was very beautiful. The highlight in my opinion was stopping at the Kennett River Holiday Park and seeing the wild koalas up in the trees. It was so cool! We stayed in a teepee along the route but I don't necessarily recommend doing that.

Tasmania

We flew in/out of Hobart so we spent our first two nights there and also our last. While in Hobart we tried to snorkel at Tinderbox but we couldn't find any equipment to rent so couldn't end up doing it, but it looked really cool and had an underwater trail. That same day we also went to Hastings to check out the thermal pool and the cave. The thermal pool was a bit disappointing since it wasn't very warm. It also included a walk to potentially see platypuses but we didn't see any. The cave was really cool though. It had a lot of rock formations and the tour guide was good.

Then we drove up to Cradle Mountain and stayed in that area for two nights. Cradle Mountain area was beautiful with lots of cool walks you can do, short or long and varying difficulty levels as well. While we were up there we also checked out the Tasmanian Devil Reserve and got to catch the last tour of the day which was the feeding one. This was really interesting and I was glad to learn more about them, as well as see some other animals including quolls, wallabies, and a wombat. Also if you're up in that area and driving at night you should be able to see a ton of wildlife on the road, but just be sure to drive really slowly so you don't hit them! We saw several devils, possums, and wallabies just driving on the country roads at night. 

While up in that area we also walked around Leven Canyon which was pretty. We also drove around and checked out House of Anvers for chocolates and Ashgrove Tasmanian Farm for some cheese. We tried to find some platypuses under the bridge in Latrobe since we had read you could often find some there but we didn't see any. We also toured the Marakoopa Cave which was cool, but not my favorite of the ones we've visited recently. We ended the day by driving up to Burnie to check out the Little Penguins. This was really cool and completely free since volunteers put it on each night. It's very informal; you just go up there and they have guides to point out the penguins and tell you about them. We got to see some chicks and some older ones who were molting.

On our drive back to Hobart we attempted to go to Wineglass Bay but we didn't realize that you culdn't just park right next to it but that it was quite a hike from the car park so we didn't leave ourselves enough time. I wish we would have prioritized this, but you can't do everything.

That was our time in Tasmania. This was the coldest part of Australia that we visited during our trip and it was generally in the 70s with some scattered showers on some days.

Cairns

Cairns was a nice compact city so it was easy to walk from place to place if you could survive the weather; it was definitely the hottest place we've been so far and very humid. It also seemed like a big party city which we didn't expect beforehand but it seemed to be the big thing to do. It's a great place to spend St. Patrick's day, even though we didn't partake in the festivities since we were exhausted from scuba diving.

The afternoon we landed in Cairns we weren't really sure what to do she we went to the lagoon which turned out to be a good place to spend a couple of hours. It's a huge pool right along the water with lots of shaded areas and places to sit. On our first full day in Cairns we did a day tour with Barefoot Tours. This was really fun and it was nice to get out of Cairns and see all of the natural beauty just outside of the city because I don't think we would've done that if not for this tour. They took us to several nice waterfalls and lakes. The other thing I really liked about them is that the guide took lots of pictures of us throughout the day that they then posted and let us download for free.

The other thing we did while in Cairns was easily my favorite thing in Australia; scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef. We choose to do the live aboard option which was 3 days and 2 nights. I really think this is the way to do it instead of a day trip, since you'd spend about 3 hours each way getting to/from the reef and doesn't leave much time for diving. We went through Pro Dive Cairns and had a great experience. We got our Open Water and Adventure Diver certifications. Most of the trainers were great, the food was decent, the accommodations were basic but clean. The diving was incredible.

Sydney

Sydney was a really fun city. The weather was quite warm while we were there- generally in the mid 80s. It rained on us a couple of times but each time it cleared out quickly. The public transportation was great. You get an Opal card and put some money on it and then you can ride the buses, ferries, and trains. We put about A$30 and used that the entire time and still had almost A$3 left on it. A couple of quick tips with that: On Sundays the max you can spend is A$2.50, so we tried to do several of our larger trips that day since it was essentially free after we capped at the max, and every other day was capped at A$15. And if you hop off a bus/train and right back on another one it's generally free since it's considered a transfer. 

Our first day there we rode the ferry to Cremona Point Wharf and walked along the coastline to Mosman wharf which was a gorgeous walk. It took you around the bays and along the beautiful old houses. Definitely recommend that! That night we went to a small Italian neighborhood, Haberfield, for dinner but it really wasn't much of anything and probably would've chosen to do something else if we had known better.

The next day we went to Bondi Beach which is a must even though we didn't get great beach weather that day. We decided to do the two hour coastal walk as well from Cogee Beach to Bondi Beach which had some good views of the different bays and also walked through a gorgeous old cemetery.

The next day we spent three hours each way on public transport to go check out the Three Sisters and Scenic World. I really liked getting out of the city for a day and it was really pretty, but it probably would've been prettier if we'd had better weather. It was so foggy we could hardly see anything most of the trip. Seeing the Three Sisters is definitely the coolest part and you could do that for free from the visitor's center. I'm not sure if we would do Scenic World again since it was a bit over-priced and we couldn't really see much. Looking back I think we should've taken the bus to the visitor center at Echo Point (since you've already capped out your daily transport max on the train), see the Three sisters and do the hike down the Devil's Staircase, and then either hike back up if you're motivated or pay the Scenic world fee of A$19 to ride the cable car back up. We paid A$39 to be able to ride all of the things as many times as we wanted but that wasn't really necessary. While there you can also walk over to Katoomba Falls waterfall and check that out.

Our last full day in Sydney we decided to go to Wild Life Zoo in Darling Harbour since we needed to see a kangaroo before we left. It was a nice little zoo and met our needs of seeing the quintessential Australian animals, but if you had more time I'd probably recommend just going to the bigger zoo and see more things.

Our last night we went to see Tosca at the Sydney Opera House and that was fantastic. I felt so adulty and fancy getting dressed up and going to the opera. The show was really good and really kept my attention even though it was all in Italian (they have English surtitles to let you know what's going on). And it was pretty reasonably priced! We spent A$45 per person on box seats on the side and had really good views except for one corner of the stage. We bought the tickets in advance just at the ticket office. But it was really cool and probably my favorite part about Sydney.

Budget

We spent $2,094 total while in Australia. This doesn't include any flights since all of our international flights were bought together and domestic ones were purchased with points. This is per person and in US dollars. There were three of us traveling together most of the time so most things were split equally three ways. Here is the breakdown:

Ground Transportation: $284. In Melbourne we mainly used public transportation (and used the free tram in the CBD as much as possible), and then we rented a car for 24 hours for the Great Ocean Road. We also rented a car in Tasmania which was the cheapest rental car we've had so far. In Cairns we walked everywhere and took cabs to/from the airport. In Sydney we took public transport.

Lodging: $432. We stayed at Airbnbs while in Melbourne and Tasmania. For two nights in Cairns we stayed at a hotel using Jack's points, two nights were spent on the live aboard boat, and the last night was spent in a hostel. In Sydney we stayed at the Marriott using points. 

Activities: $983. Most of this is from our scuba adventure which technically covers some lodging and food as well since those were included. 

Food: $234. We were able to save some money in this category in Sydney by eating in the executive lounge of our hotel, which included breakfasts and snacks in the evenings.

Miscellaneous: $161. This includes doing laundry in our hostel in Cairns, a charger for my garmin device that I needed, and some clothes that I bought while there (including a Merino wool sweater).

Summary

Australia is awesome to visit but make sure you budget a lot of time since there is a lot to see and things are pretty spread out. We never made it to the outback or Perth or Darwin. Even along the East Coast there was a lot we didn't get to that we would've liked to. But there are so many great things to see and do that it's hard to go wrong! Also, I don't think the creatures in Australia are as dangerous as people make them out to be. Apparently horses kill more people in Australia than anything else!