If you're in Perth, make sure you drop by the Caversham Wildlife Park. Good for a half-day of animal lovin' ... things like touching wombats and koalas, feeding kangaroos, milking cows, etc. awesome stuff, although public transport is a bit lousy

Story about my trip there is published on the IMasTravel in conjunction with Yahoo! travel site ... click picture if you're interested.

http://www.sydneymelbournetouring.com.au/

Drive from Sydney to Melbourne (coastal road) -- is this gooding? The website seems to say 7 days needed but I'm thinking of only doing it in maybe 3 days (or 4 days max).

I'm planning to cover Sydney & Melbourne only in a ~10 days trip.

my wife and i - 2 drivers only I guess. given the compressed timeline, is it still worth doing i.e. generally get to see some nice sights visit some nice places?

Anyone done the Sydney - Melbourne drive (coastal route)? I'm doing about 12 days in total, thinking a few days Sydney, maybe 3 days drive down to Melbourne, then the rest in Melbourne before flying back.

Thing is the Internetz seems to say the drive is nice, must do, etc but I have conflicting info from friends n family some saying it's good others saying it sucks and is boring and there's nothing to do and see ... ?

I was thinking of taking a 3 day road trip actually to see the sights. me and my waifu kind of sort of quite enjoy road trips but only scared that the trip itself isn't as good as advertised lol. total 12 day trip, do I really need that much time to cover sydney + melb?

Hmmm so what I can take away from your post is that the Sydney - Melbourne coastal trip is probably overrated, but I might as well do it since 12 days for sydney/melb alone would be too long ... ?

Harro guyz and galz, any comment on this itinerary?



I'm thinking of renting car from airport on day 1 and back to airport on day 7 but machiam quite 'wasted' eh especially since many days don't really need it. Any suggestions?

This post has been edited by deodorant: Oct 6 2014, 11:09 AM

Ok, will check it out, thanks!


I'm flying SG -> Sydney and Melb -> SG (transit KL both legs) on MAS for rm1.3k per person.

Reporting back from 1wk sydney 1wk melbourne, just wanna give some comment on renting car / driving in Aussie (as as tourist).

Both cities I took Apex special at aud44/aud43 per day respectively (hyundai elantra, unlimited miles, zero excess). Apex seems good, fuss free, zero excess at these rates really can't be matched by the bigger rental companies I think.

http://www.apexrentacar.com.au/

Now ... car rental is cheap but parking and toll damn pain lol. The eTag which provided with apex they charge aud3.30 service fee for every day you cross any toll. Then many hotels don't come with free parking; Sydney still manageable cos we AirBnb an apartment with one free parking spot (but we had 2 cars) but in Melb, Crown Towers was aud16 a day and citadines right in the heart of CBD was aud30 a day

Sydney three days we went CBD we tried to somewhat reduce parking costs by using:
1. Flat rate full day parking for aquarium ticket url=http://www.sydneyaquarium.com.au/visitor-info/cheap-parking/

2. Book a bay for few hours at Opera House ($24 for 5 hours)
https://www.wilsonparking.com.au/sydneyoperahouse/

... then 3rd day we google wrongly, thought one place got sunday flat rate but ended up hourly rate lol ... that one really facepalm 3 hours $55

If anyone is interested, posting 1st day of trip report of last year's sydney trip. If you wanna read the full lengthy text then you can click this blogwh0re link otherwise read on!

Day 0: Business Class overnight flight from Singapore to Sydney --> Posted previously on blog
Day 1: CBD, Sea Life Aquarium, Madame Tussaud's and the Sydney Tower Eye --> Read Below
Day 1: Dinner at Sepia, Sydney's best Restaurant --> Posted previously on blog
Day 2: Daytrip North: Fruit picking, Terrigal, The Entrance and Watson's Bay
Day 3: Daytrip South: Hyam's Beach, Dolphin Watch Cruising from Jervis Bay and the Kiama Blowhole
Day 4: Sydney Opera House and The Rocks
Day 5: Bondi Beach, Sydney Fish Market, Paddy's Markets and Chinatown
Day 6: Daytrip West: The Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves
Day 7: End of visit: Jetstar Flight to Melbourne.

OK

After landing we go pick up car. This one is Apex Car Rental, I think quite Ok, Hyundai Elantra AUD 43/day for unlimited km zero excess. Boot very big, can fit 2 big suitcase and 2 hand carry.



Parking machiam mahal gila. If u drive in sydney and u no make proper plans for parking, surely sh*tbrix price one.



Lucky since today is visit Aquarium, got flat rate parking at these parking spots nearby:

In CBD got 5 common ticketing attractions for tourists:

- Sea Life Aquarium
- Manly Sea Life Sanctuary
- Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
- Wild Life Sydney Zoo
- The Sydney Tower Eye

If buy ticket to 1 place is expensive. If buy 5 combo then is cheap. I buy 3 only - aquarium, madame tussaud and sydney tower eye. I think AUD70/pax, around there.

The Aquarium is quite nice. But I guess nothing really that spectacular if compare to KLCC Aquaria. Actually I like aquariums so I like visiting other country aquariums, but KLCC Aquaria very world standard liao.




After Aquarium we go wax museum. Standard lor, go and pose and take photo with all the fake celebrities. I think that madame tussaud dunno how to color Asian skin properly, example below jackie chan skin tone a bit off ...

After that we walk (around 800m) to Sydney Tower Eye. The entrance quite tricky to find (for us, at least). Turns out it is actually inside shopping mall called Westfield Sydney. So not only did we get lost, we oso got sidetrack along the way so many times including at the nearby mall queen victoria building. Cos mall mah, my wife stop and see a lot of things, lol.

Tower eye observation deck not that high, only 250m (tokyo skytree is 350m and 450m). But becos sydney the building beside all so short, so still quite nice view also.



After that late liao then we go eat dinner at Sepia. If u got watch masterchef australia maybe u will recognize this dessert.



After finish dinner then take care and go to the rental house liao. we use stayz.com (same like airbnb) to find a two bedroom apartment (share total 6 ppl with my waifu family), can't remember exact price i think about AUD200/night, so consider quite Ok liao.

http://www.stayz.com.au/accommodation/nsw/...ey/coogee/67986

This apartment is very near beach (but we not beach kaki so didn't really go beach anyway LOL). The main downside is, even tho got 6 ppl stay but only give 1 carpark. other car have to park outside at those "Limited to 1 hour parking" roadside so damn leceh.

Anyway, for accommodation very hard to give recommendations cos everyone has different number of people and luxury/budget requirements.

OK end of story for day1, if you all interested then i'll further update some more once i finish writing day2 onwards.

Huh where got few days. Isn't it immediate? I apply Aussie visa twice via website both times oso immediate.

Just sharing for anyone who interested.

Day 2 Sydney Trip Write-Up: Daytrip North: Fruit picking, Terrigal, The Entrance and Watson's Bay

Just sharing for anyone who's interested: Daytrip South: Hyam's Beach, Dolphin Watch Cruising from Jervis Bay and the Kiama Blowhole

I visited http://www.featherdale.com.au/ last year (as part of blue mountains tour). It's ... oklah. You can feed the kangaroos but the park itself gila full of tourists.


stayz.com
airbnb.com

wenzhenzhen can consider those one day tour if you don't *need* to drive. Pricing very reasonable one.

Is it cheaper to buy online? I just bought my combo tickets at the attraction counter itself (specifically, for me I bought at the aquarium, i think combo with wax museum and tower eye).


Yes