Travelling to Australia for a family vacation in Nov'2017

[ARK]

Hi
I am traveling with my family for a family vacation to Australia later this year. One of my child has severe food allergies.
We are flying Air Newzealand. Please share your experience flying Air Newzealand.
I have couple of questions
1. How do we travel from Geelong to Melbourne?
2. Please suggest any good local tour operators that can help us plan our trip.
3. Please suggest if there is any website to book resorts and beach homes in Great barrier reef and Gold coast.
4. Please suggest best place to stay in Sydney, which will be convenient for us to do day tours in sydney.
Thanks
ARK

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Welcome,

Which country are you from?

How do we travel from Geelong to Melbourne?

Rental car or public train https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/ would be the best two options.

Melbourne and Geelong are about 45-60 minutes by car depending on time of day.

 

[dk4]

1. How do we travel from Geelong to Melbourne?

Outside the major city centres, you will be best served by hiring a car to get around - Red Spot often has the best prices for car rentals from major airport locations.

2. Please suggest any good local tour operators that can help us plan our trip.

If you want formal organised tours, try D.I.Y. using the Viator website, it is part of Tripadvisor.

3. Please suggest if there is any website to book resorts and beach homes in Great barrier reef and Gold coast.

To stay in self-catering/self-contained holiday homes, use Airbnb or Stayz, (make sure you select the "entire place" option with Airbnb). Expedia would be one of the biggest online booking agents for hotels/resorts.

4. Please suggest best place to stay in Sydney, which will be convenient for us to do day tours in sydney.

Stay towards the north end of the city centre, the closer you can get to Circular Quay the more tourist orientated (but also expensive) it will become. Darling Harbour is another (touristy, but with some cheaper options) area to contemplate, just to the west of the city centre, but still easily accessible.

 

[ARK]

Thank you for the replies.
How can I travel from Geelong to melbourne airport using public transport. How much does it cost if I use a cab?

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF ARK!

Bus or train will be your cheapest option. Gull bus service cost $32/person with frequency every 2 hours. Train costs less but is close to 2 hours. Taxi can be $150+. Google has a few more options.

 

[straitman]

Thank you for the replies.
How can I travel from Geelong to melbourne airport using public transport. How much does it cost if I use a cab?

1. Yes
2. No idea re Taxi but Uber shows as $90 - $120

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Thank you for the replies.
How can I travel from Geelong to melbourne airport using public transport. How much does it cost if I use a cab?

For all such questions anywhere in the world I suggest you start with www.rome2rio.com to assess options re cost, schedules and time etc.


For example for your question see: https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Geelong/Melbourne-Airport-MEL

From that then click through on the preferred options if required for more detail.


I use www.rome2rio.com in planning all of my trips, and have done for many years in many countries. It often identifies options that I may otherwise have missed. It quickly allows me to assess what options are viable or are simply too hard (ie if without luggage I may be happy to have to take several public transport links, whereas with luggage it I may be ok to just pay more for easier transport etc) or slow to use.

 

[dk4]

Bus or train will be your cheapest option. Gull bus service cost $32/person with frequency every 2 hours...

Per Person, OR Per Family (not that we know how many people make up ARK's family)? IME Hire Car is nearly always the best value per family (rather than per person). And one should never underestimate the added flexibility it delivers outside the major CBDs!

 

[Monica932]

A lot of good answers here, so I will just suggest one thing - try going to the Australian Islands (for example Kangaroo Island), they are really amazing.

 

[Melburnian1]

If you want to save money, the best way from Geelong to Melbourne Airport is by frequent V/Line train from Geelong or numerous other local stations such as Waurn Ponds or South Geelong to Southern Cross, then change to a Craigieburn line train (operated by Metro trains from suburban platforms 11 or 12) to Broadmeadows, then change to a SmartBus (route 901) from right outside the station (20 metres from the train) with the bus running every 15 minutes.

You can use a myki smartcard for all these trips, and compared with using Skybus it is very cheap. Road traffic delays on the Tullamarine Freeway and CityLink mean that Skybus often fails to meet its advertised 20 minute journey time and can at times take more than 50 minutes for about 21 kilometres, which is unimpressive especially given travellers are paying top dollar.

If using the Public Transport Victoria journey planner, at the bottom deselect 'airport bus' as otherwise it will only show you the expensive, ripoff Skybus times from Southern Cross to Melbourne airport.

Geelong line timetables are shown at the PTV website but they are more nicely displayed at www.vline.com.au

Note that V/Line also has frequent road coaches along the Great Ocean Road and an extremely intensive rail and coach network elsewhere in Victoria, including road coaches up to historic Ballarat and trains to Warrnambool.

 

[Denali]

For the great barrier reef, what do you want to do?

Do you want to do a day cattle boat trip to snorkel or spend a few days, snorkeling, swimming, relaxing?

 

[get me outta here]

A " cattle boat"? :shock: That should fox the OP.

For the great barrier reef, what do you want to do?

Do you want to do a day cattle boat trip to snorkel or spend a few days, snorkeling, swimming, relaxing?

 

[BettyB]

Welcome

 

[harvyk]

Welcome ARK.

Perhaps a suggested itinerary and / or list of items which you'd actually like to do when you're here would help. (I'm a little curious about the trip to Geelong).