Our honeymoon to Australia in May 2007
We waited to take our honeymoon in order to be able to relax and figure out where we wanted to go, since planning a DW was enough stress at a time. Ultimately, planning the HM was just as much stress for me as the wedding. In fact, it may have been worse because we had so many stops and things we wanted to do and I research every single thing to death. This is also part of the reason why I wanted to go to Fiji for the HM (relax and no thinking required!) but DH wanted to go to Oz (Australia). So we compromised, we went to Oz. lol! We actually figured we had the time and resources and may not get that again, so we better go to Oz. We decided to take our honeymoon to Australia 6 months after our DW. We left on our 6 month anniversary (5/11). May is Autumn in Australia and also low-season. It did rain for half of our trip and it was not a good time to swim in the ocean (stingers still present).
Overall thoughts
I don’t sugar coat things and I appreciate honest reviews from other travelers. So, please take my review with a grain of salt, like other reviews. Here goes... Overall, we (hubby included, even though this was his "dream" place) was a bit disappointed in Australia. We are not picky people and have had the chance to travel to other countries before, so we are not naive and appreciate every country. For some reason, it appeared to us that Americans (maybe it was because we were tourists) were treated differently than other people/guests. People did not smile and were not very helpful (esp. in Sydney and Ayers Rock). We smiled and were very kind, as we know that sometimes we get stereotyped because of where we are from and who are President is (heck, we don’t like him either!). This probably started out our trip on a sour note, but we shrugged it off and kept our positive attitudes. It also seemed that what we pictured Australia to be like or look like in our heads was disappointing. There is no wildlife just walking around, not everyone wears khaki’s, nothing is cheaper in America, have no idea why the Opera House is one of the 7th wonders of the world (for peat sake have the seen the Eiffel Tower-that’s impressive!), and the Great Barrier Reef is not as clear or bright as the movies or TV. I could go on, but just read below for more details.
I purchased our tickets about a month before we left from Qantas Airlines (NOTE: there is no letter “u” in Qantas (i.e. Quantas), like most of us say/spell. My fellow Aussie knotties helped me out here). We purchased the Qantas Airpass, within two zones. This pass allowed us to also choose three ‘free’ internal flights within these zones. I suggest looking at www.seatguru.com for seat choices. We picked one of the only "2" seat rows in the way back. So glad we did (more room and no in/ups when needing to get up for bathroom breaks). Our choices were: Sydney, Ayers Rocks, Cairns (for Cape Tribulation and Palm Cove), and Brisbane (for Sunshine and Gold Coast). Total cost: $3,100
** My in depth reviews and pictures of hotels of each can be found on tripadvisor, under the same name “MauidAims”.**
First stop: Sydney
We spent 4 days in Sydney and it was long enough for us. We are not City people, so Sydney was like any other big city (say San Francisco). We stayed at the Four Seasons (Room #2114) in Circular Quay, also near the Rocks. Favorites in Sydney: the Royal Botanical Gardens for the fruit bats (loved them!) and the Taronga Zoo. Other things to do are: Opera House, Sydney Bridge ($169-$295 per person=$$), shopping, etc. ** Save your money and don’t do the Bridge climb (we didn’t). Go to the Pylon Bridge lookout for $9 and save yourself some $. You end up going almost the same height.
Next stop: Ayers Rock/ Uluru
We spent 2 days here. That was long enough! Uluru was amazing and so large. The area reminded me a bit of Sedona, AZ. Favorites: rode a camel ($95 pp), DH climbed Uluru (against my will), drove a car ($223) on the opposite side and other side of the car for the first time, I saw a wild dingo (only wild wildlife I saw), saw Aboriginal people, and did the Sounds of Silence dinner (highly recommend!! $292 total). Here we stayed at the Lost Camel Resort ($234 USD).
Next stop: Cairns for Cape Tribulation and Palm Cove
We flew into Cairns and traveled/drove up to Cape Tribulation (2 hours away) for 3 days (originally supposed to be 4 days, but had enough of the solitude) and 4 days in Palm Cove. This is where we spent the majority of time in Australia in one location. We got a Hybrid Toyota Prius and although ugly was the best car ever (to our surprise!). It was roomy, and so great on gas. We named it ‘little blue’ because it was such a great little car. In fact, we loved it so much, we got one in Brisbane. Car cost total with insurance (this is the kicker) $587.
Cape Tribulation is where the rainforest meets the reef. It was amazing how the ecosystem changed as we traveled towards Cape Trib from the airport. It was so quiet and the road was windy. We had to take a car ferry to cross the river. Saw wild pigs along the roadside. We stayed at the Coconut Beach Resort (#19) in Cape Trib, which was nice but very quiet. Very nice bathrooms with large bathtubs. They had no TV, which was fine except it rained and there was nothing else to do. Hence, the reason why we left early and headed to Palm Cove. Favorites: relaxed some, went diving and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef (boo) $500 total, went to the Bat House, went ziplining ($80pp), walked the Beach and drove around. ** for the divers** I must say that we were not impressed with the GBR. The visibility was about 15 feet, and not much sealife. I saw more snorkeling in 15 min snorkeling, as I opted out of the second dive for that reason (but still not great!). The crew (H20 Odyssey) said that vis is not really good on the GBR, especially on sunny days. I was surprised!! Needless to say, we looked forward to this part of our trip so much and were VERY disappointed with it, especially at what it cost to dive there. It was about $250 PER PERSON. Its costs to go out to the reef and then it costs to dive. We thought the cost to get out to the reef included the dives, but we were sorely mistaken and quiet shocked. It was too expensive IMO.
Palm Cove We left Coconut (www.peppers.com.au) early and lost our money there because they wanted a 72 hour notice. Here in the US, 24 hours is enough notice, but not there. So we sucked it up and figured we shouldn’t be unhappy and traveled back to Palm Cove. SO glad we did. It was our favorite part! The resort (Peppers Beach Club and Spa) was AMAZING and so friendly! They even had a bottle of chilled wine waiting for us because we were honeymooners (they were the only ones who acknowledged our HM!). The pool was amazing. It was white sand right into the water and had a swim up bar. The room was great too. Large and a Jacuzzi spa right on the patio (which we enjoyed!). We only got 1 day of real relaxation to enjoy the pool because the rain followed us. It was okay because we had a car and were close to things to do. We ended up going to the Cairns Zoo, going to Kuranda (www.kuranda.org), going to the waterfalls Favorites: the hotel, buying gifts in Cairns ($29pp), and holding a koala and feeding kangaroos.
….yes, it was a long 3 weeks!....
Next stop: Brisbane (Sunshine and Gold Coast)
We had 5 days here. We planned for 2 days in Mooloolaba (Sunshine Coast) to go to the Australia Zoo and spend the rest of the time in Brisbane before our flight. Brisbane hotels were all booked due to a Travel Tourism conference, so we headed to the Gold Coast. I am a HUGE HUGE fan of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, so I looked forward to going to this zoo soooo much. It was a nice zoo, but now what I expected (seeing a theme here?). The other zoos we went too were just as impressive. The thing I did like about this zoo, is that they had more wildlife encounters and walked the animals around so you could have more one on one experiences. We paid for encounters with the echidneas and wombats ($30 pp each animal). Very neat!
After several hours, we headed to the Gold Coast. We stayed at the Marriott ($379 total) To our surprise it was beautiful. The ocean was the blue we had imagined and the beach was pretty. This area was the cheapest in Australia and lots of shopping to be done here. It was a pleasant surprise. Favorites: the view of the beach, Minus 5 bar (a bar that is -5-made of ice inside)
I booked our hotels through www.asiarooms.com and www.wotif.com. Had good luck with both, although asiarooms seemed to have a no cancellation policy and it would be more difficult to get a hold of their customer service reps. Wotifs reps were great. Like I mentioned, DH and I would not go back and don’t recommend it to anyone. There was nothing great about Australia and nothing exotic. Save your $$ and go someplace else.
So you have heard it is expensive?! I have tried to include totals where I could. I just added up the total for our trip, including air, food, excursions….everything was $13, 000. Ouch! A lot of money to be disappointed and I did everything on a budget. Never again. After telling others about our experience, it appears that we are not the only ones who had the same thoughts about Australia. Where were they when were planning our trip?! J Oh well, live and learn and experience!