Also, this looks amazing. Anyone know anyone who has tried it out? http://www.ccy.com.au/

They let you take a boat out on your own after a half-day training session. You can go explore wherever you want and always have radio communication with the charter company (have to check in at least two times a day). You can go to different islands, beaches, coves, and to the different resorts (just have to pay the docking fee).

I'm going to look into it. The pricing seems pretty reasonable. Not sure if they will let you do it with only 2 people. Maybe only having two people wouldn't be a problem with one of the power catamarans.

mavsfan4ever said:

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3. What would you say is the big selling point on Australia? I've always wanted to go and know most people love it. I know the beaches are great, but I'm having a hard time convincing my wife we should fly 20 hours to go to great beaches when we could take a much shorter flight to Europe and get great beaches as well. She is not much of a hiker/camper, so I'm wondering if she will feel like the travel time/$ to Australia was not worth it compared to Europe.

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Selling points for Australia are that you've got a friendly population who all speak English and are reasonably well educated. Make no mistake, they're closer to England than America but there are plenty of colourful folks to meet in Australia.

The beaches are great. It's funny, at my local beach, my neighbours complain about how crowded it is when there are like 50 people on the sand and 50 people in the water. Most Aussies are looking for a beach with literally nobody else on it.

As far as the flight time, I'll be honest, it's brutal in Economy Class if you're a full size guy. I'm 6'3" 290lbs. During the 12 years I've lived in Sydney, I've made about 45 round-trips between The USA and Australia. That means I've made the flights ranging from 14-17 hours, approximately 90 times. And of those, probably 20 were in Business Class, the other 70 were in Economy including the most recent one - six days ago.

Things are much easier today than what they used to be. You can now do a nonstop from Dallas or Houston to Sydney. Those flights are about 17 hours but, totally worth it to avoid dealing with LAX or SFO. If you're really that concerned about the length of the flight, you could stop off in Hawaii. That's only about 10 hours from Sydney.

As far as comparing the travel time to going to Europe, you've really got to look at the delta between the two. So, traveling from Dallas to Sydney is 17 hours nonstop. You can't fly to a European beach nonstop from Dallas. You can go to Madrid, Rome, London, Frankfurt, etc. but you've still got to make a 10 hour flight to Europe and then a connection to get to Ibiza or Crete or wherever. So, Australia isn't really that much further. The travel time delta is maybe 3-4 hours. Now obviously if you wind up taking the cheapest flight through LAX, those calculations go out the window in exchange for saving a few $$$.

Also, the long-haul international aircraft are much more comfortable than your regular cattle car domestic US flight.

mavsfan4ever said:

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Thanks man, great info. The beaches and the golf course looks great. A few more questions:

1. Did you stay at a resort or did you rent a house/condo? Where do you get the golf cart from? Are the resorts larger type places with pools/bars on the beach, or do you just take a cooler to the beach? It looks like the Reef View Hotel and some of the other hotels/clubs are all on the same website, so I guess they are all somewhat related.

We stayed at a resort called The Beach Club, which is how we got the golf cart. But i'm positive most hotels/airBnBs have access to them. It's the primary mode of transportation around the island so they shouldn't be hard to come by. And yea, our resort had the pool/bar setup. But you could always buy a six pack at the local market and plop down where you want. And yea, most of (if not the entire) island is owned by the same company. In fact, that's part of the appeal. No matter where you are on the island, you can charge your purchases back to your room.

2. If we do Hamilton Island, or some other island, for 3-5 days, any recommendation on what other area we should try to visit? I've had someone recommend the Gold Coast area and someone recommend the Melbourne area. If we have 10 days total, should we stick to one spot before we go to the island/reef for 3-5 days? Or would y'all recommend trying to hit two different spots before going to the island/reef? The Broome/Kimberly area looks really cool (beach and outback), but that's probably too long of a flight for the amount of time we have.

We didn't get a chance to island hop. Our time in Australia consisted of Hamilton Island, Sydney, and Tasmania. So not much help outside of that.

3. What would you say is the big selling point on Australia? I've always wanted to go and know most people love it. I know the beaches are great, but I'm having a hard time convincing my wife we should fly 20 hours to go to great beaches when we could take a much shorter flight to Europe and get great beaches as well. She is not much of a hiker/camper, so I'm wondering if she will feel like the travel time/$ to Australia was not worth it compared to Europe.

The guy above me said everything i would! But yea, the travel investment can be pretty brutal. My best advice...go to a doctor and get some good travel medication!

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A couple questions:
First, we're going to be in Sydney for my wife's work the end of this month. I need to get my workouts in, figured it'd be awesome to swim at the bondi pool. Is it doable water temp wise this time of year? I know it's open, but some people are crazy.

Also, I saw I can rent a road bike and they'll deliver it to my hotel. Is Sydney bike friendly?

Finally, wed like to take a 4-5 day trip to another city and would like for it to involve wine. I'm thinking Adelaide and doing barossa and possibly Clare valley. Any other suggestions?

htxag09 said:

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A couple questions:
First, we're going to be in Sydney for my wife's work the end of this month. I need to get my workouts in, figured it'd be awesome to swim at the bondi pool. Is it doable water temp wise this time of year? I know it's open, but some people are crazy.

Also, I saw I can rent a road bike and they'll deliver it to my hotel. Is Sydney bike friendly?

Finally, wed like to take a 4-5 day trip to another city and would like for it to involve wine. I'm thinking Adelaide and doing barossa and possibly Clare valley. Any other suggestions?

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For your workout, check out F45. If you're in Manly, you can join me at the gym.

For your wine tour, check out the Coonawarra region in South Australia. They produce the only reds that can compete with California.

For your swim at Bondi, check out the Bondi Polar Bears.

As far as cycling, get it done before 6am. Also check out a comedian called Isaac Butterfield. He and I are on the same wavelength with respect to cyclists.

Also, what are the dates you're going to be in Sydney?

Thanks, I'll check some of that out.

Land August 28, fly out September 6. Trying to finalize any trips within that time frame.

In Melbourne and Sydney for a week in October if anyone has recommendations.

We are leaving October 11th and are doing Sydney for 3 nights (first 2 nights and the last night) and Hamilton island for 5 nights. We just got certified for scuba, so really looking forward to Hamilton island.

Any restaurant recommendations for lunch or dinner in Sydney? We have tix to a comedy show at the opera house one night so may try to eat around there that night, but are generally open to go wherever. A friend of ours recommended Farmhouse. We also found a restaurant off of Manly beach (the Boathouse) that we will likely try for lunch one day. But we haven't made any reservations yet.

Visit Yarra Valley outside of Melbourne for some really scenic wineries

Bump

We're 16 days out from starting our trek. 5nts in sydney, 4nts in adelaide, 5nts in melbourne. Still have a few reservations to make and things to boo, but i think we're just about settled.

hbc07 said:

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We're 16 days out from starting our trek. 5nts in sydney, 4nts in adelaide, 5nts in melbourne. Still have a few reservations to make and things to boo, but i think we're just about settled.

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In Melbourne, try Chloe's for dinner. It's an old restaurant that serves pretty good kangaroo...





The Meat & Wine Company along the Yarra was excellent the first couple of times and less so the last time I was in Melbourne. I would still give it a shot. Lygon Street is known for Italian. Melbourne also has a thriving Chinatown. The best food for lunch was in some of the arcades (pedestrian alleys) that run to the northeast from Flinders Street.

Will look into it. So far we have the following planned:

Sydney: The boat house, sydney creative department, koi dessert bar. Had reservations at NOMAD, but it burned down...
Adelaide: ... still need to plan...
Melbourne: dinner by heston; lune croissanterie; chin chin. possibly din tai fung; lui bar; cookie; underbar; Hanoi Hannah Vol 2.

Bookmarked. I'll be bouncing around Eastern Australia/N.Z./French Poly. for the next 5 months.

Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions in this thread. We just got back earlier this week from our trip to Sydney and Hamilton Island and had a great time. Just wish we had more time. We did Sydney for 2 nights, Hamilton Island for 5 nights and then Sydney for 1 night before flying back. I've included the details on our trip below, in case they will help anyone else out who is thinking of making a trip to these locations. Feel free to ask any questions. Thanks again!

Flight: took Quantas; going there, we had economy seats but had a row where I did not have a seat in front of me. I'm not sure if we paid extra for this or not, but it was worth it so that I could stretch my legs out. There was no one else on our row, so my wife could lay down. The economy section was fairly empty, so everyone had room to stretch out and/or lay down. Coming back, we had an economy exit row seat, so we both could stretch out. Again, I'm not sure if we paid extra for this or not, but it was worth it. If you don't have international miles, I think the economy exit rows are much better value than paying outrageous prices for business class seats. I can't really sleep on planes, but at least I was pretty comfortable for the flights.

Sydney Day 1: we stayed near the Harbor. We got in early in the morning, so we could not check in to our room yet. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and then headed to Bondi beach. Weather was chilly, so we didn't get in the water. But we walked on the beach some, went to a beach bar, etc. Then we did some of the walk along the coast from Bondi to Coogee. We were very tired, so we didn't make it very far. Stopped at the Bondi Iceberg club to check out the view and have a drink. It was a cool walk with great views (probably would have done more if we weren't so tired). Went to dinner at Restaurant Hubert, which had a cool somewhat 1950s atmosphere to it. Then went to Opera Bar and then a comedy show at the Opera House. The Opera Bar area was really cool. We had heard people talk about it, but we were thinking it was just a bar in the Opera House. Instead, it's a cool outside setup with multiple bars and food vendors on the water near the Opera House. The comedy show wasn't very good, but we were basically dozing off during it from lack of sleep.

Sydney Day 2: woke up very early (which was a theme on the trip thanks to jet lag). Had breakfast at a cafe and then took a ferry to Manly beach. I think we preferred Manly Beach over Bondi Beach, but they are both nice. I took surf lessons at Manly beach, and my wife shopped around a bit. We then walked along the coast to the Boathouse Shelly Beach for some lunch (food and drinks were great). Then took the ferry back to Sydney and went to the Australian Beer Festival that was going on all weekend downtown. They had live music, etc. We went to dinner at an asian/malaysian restaurant and went to bed early. Wanted to experience the nightlife, but we were too exhausted from the jet lag.

Hamilton Island Day 3: 2 hour flight and arrived at the Island around 1 pm. We stayed at the Reef View Hotel, which is right across the street from the beach. We were on top floor, so the views from the balcony of the water/beach were great. We initially wanted The Beach Club rooms on the beach but they were already booked when we were making plans. But if we ever go back again, we may stay in the hotel again because of the views from the balcony (and it's still just a short walk or golf cart ride to the beach area). We rented a golf cart and just explored the island for most of the afternoon to get a good idea of where everything was. Drove up to the bar on top of the island for drinks/pictures. Had lunch at the fish and chips place at the marina (loved this place and went there a lot). Then had dinner at Coca Chu (asian restaurant), which was on the beach.

Hamilton Island Day 4: all day dive trip to the reef. Left at 9 am and returned around 5 pm. It was a 2 hour boat ride there and back. You go on a boat with divers and snorkelers. We had a great time, but were a little disappointed that we didn't see more fish and marine life. I think we just did dinner at the Marina Tavern this night.

Hamilton Island Day 5: went to breakfast at the wild life park and did the Koala cuddle. You only hold the koala for 1 minute each, but this was probably my wife's favorite part of the trip. We had a dinghy boat rented for the afternoon, but it was too windy so we had to reschedule the boat rental. We had lunch and then hung out at the beach/pool. You could snorkel at the beach and see some fish. We also saw some turtles and sting rays along the beach. The pool has a beach bar. Did dinner at the italian restaurant.

Hamilton Island Day 6: played golf at the Hamilton Island Golf Club. It was my favorite course that I've played. You take a 10 minute boat ride to a different island where the golf course is located. The golf course is the only thing on the island. I had the first tee time of the day, so had no one in front of me. The entire course is basically on the coast and most holes have dramatic elevation changes. So the water and mountains/hills are viewable from each hole. I'll post some of the pictures of the course in the golf photo thread. Had lunch (fish and chips) and then did a half day excursion in the afternoon that was 1 hour of snorkeling and then 1 hour of hanging out at Whitehaven beach. The snorkeling was pretty good here. I think we did dinner at the hotel restaurant and then went to Marina

Hamilton Island Day 7: rented a dingy boat for the morning. Fished some but didn't catch anything. We did have a big turtle follow our boat for a bit though, which was cool. Hung out at beach/pool all afternoon. Went to the Bommie Pier for drinks at sunset. Then did dinner at the Beach Club restaurant, which was really good.

Hamilton Island/Sydney Day 8: hung out at beach for a little bit in morning and then headed to airport. Arrived in Sydney around 3 pm. Stayed in Darling Harbor area. Hotel had a nice rooftop bar, so we went there and then went to Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay for dinner. This restaurant was a little off the beaten path, but it was very good (if you are a seafood fan). We went to a rum bar called Loco Plantation after dinner, which was a cool underground bar.

Sydney Day 9: walked to the Sydney Fish Market in the morning and had a ton of seafood for breakfast. Left for the airport around 11 am.


All in all, we really enjoyed the trip, and may try to go back to Australia at some point in the future. All the people that we met and talked with from Australia were very friendly and fun to hang out with. We wished we had another day or two at the island. If we ever go back, I think we'd try to do 6-7 nights at the island so that we could have a couple of days where we didn't really have anything planned.

If anyone is thinking of going in the future, feel free to ask me questions.

Manly Ferry, Shelley Beach, Bondi Beach, Opera Bar, sounds like you hit Sydney pretty hard.
Glad you enjoyed your trip.

Side note - after Muster 2019, we wound up going over to Opera Bar for quite a few overpriced drinks. I think we went over to Fortunes of War after that but... my memory is a little hazy.

Hell ya man, sounds like a great trip! Glad you enjoyed it!

HollywoodBQ said:

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Manly Ferry, Shelley Beach, Bondi Beach, Opera Bar, sounds like you hit Sydney pretty hard.
Glad you enjoyed your trip.

Side note - after Muster 2019, we wound up going over to Opera Bar for quite a few overpriced drinks. I think we went over to Fortunes of War after that but... my memory is a little hazy.

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Ha, we actually went to Fortunes of War for a drink after the beer festival. We passed by it on the way to the beer festival, and it was pretty rowdy with the whole place singing along to a Hank Williams song. It had died down quite a bit by the time we got around to going there on our way back to the hotel but was still pretty crowded.

M.C. Swag said:

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Hell ya man, sounds like a great trip! Glad you enjoyed it!

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