What a shock! The family is coming... fun! It wasn't a shock of course, but yes, my family, that means my parents and my sister, visited me last year (2024) from September to October.
We had an unforgettable 4 weeks together, saw so much, made some amazing memories and still got to relax.
Maybe you're currently on your working holiday visa in Australia, haven't seen your family for a long time and are thinking about meeting up down under?
To make sure you have a great time with your loved ones, we're starting this travel series here with a little intro blog that will hopefully help you with your preparations and planning.
BOXIO - COOL PLUS | Passive cool box with ice packs
How do I start planning?
Don't panic! Like many a project, it may be extremely overwhelming to organize at first, but you can do it. And I'll help you!
So let's try to list everything you should consider when planning and then work through it from top to bottom.
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How much time do you have available and when?
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What type of travel/holiday are you?
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What do you want to see in that time and how?
1. How much time do you have available and when?
Yes, how much time do you have? That's where it starts and it shouldn't be too difficult to answer. The flight from Europe to Australia is at least 24 hours long. So I would say that to make the effort and, above all, the money for the flights worthwhile, you should have at least 2 weeks, but preferably 3-4. The longer the better, I would say, but of course it depends on your personal situation.
In the end, anything is possible! As already mentioned, my parents were there for 4 weeks and we traveled from Cairns to Sydney by car. My best friend, on the other hand, joined us halfway, i.e. after 2 weeks in Brisbane, and stayed for a total of 3 weeks. Another friend was in Australia for 2 weeks at the beginning of this year and flew from Sydney to Melbourne and then to Brisbane. As I said, anything is possible and you will definitely have a great time, no matter how long you end up staying.
One more thing about "when" to plan your family vacation. The seasons in Australia are more or less the reverse of ours in Europe. That means spring is from September to November, summer from December to February, fall from March to May and winter from June to August. However, as the country is huge, the seasons vary greatly from place to place. For example, Cairns in winter is pleasantly warm at 20 to 30 degrees and it rains little, whereas Melbourne in winter is very similar to the "Cologne winter": lots of rain, gray and really cold (down to 0 degrees). So find out beforehand what the average weather is like in the region you want to visit. Of course, you will get a recommendation for each location in the following blogs.
2. What type of traveler/holidaymaker are you?
Yes, good question, next question... Maybe this is easy for you to answer, maybe not. If not, I'll give you a few examples that might help you figure out what type of traveler you are.
Type 1: Camping is my life
Are you an experienced camper and life in a van or motorhome really turns you on? Living in a small space with several people is also no problem and going without a shower or your own toilet for a few days is easy for you. Then traveling in a motorhome or van is definitely an option for you. I recommend checking out the websites of Maui, Travellers Autobarn, Britz and Jucy.
Type 2: Hotel and all-inclusive is the dream
Does the very idea of camping give you the creeps? Do you need a certain standard? Don't panic! You too can see and experience a lot in Australia. Maybe you won't be able to get as far away as the campers who can set up camp virtually anywhere, but you can still take day trips and explore the country and the cities. You can definitely find and book all the hotelsvia Booking.com and Trivago.
Type 3: It should be something in between
You don't have to go hardcore camping, but you don't want it to be just a hotel either? No worries, because in Australia there are also lots of motels and simple self-catering hotels, many AirBnBs, vacation apartments and hostels to book. We usedAirBnB and Booking.comto book.
BOXIO SANITARY | Mobile bathroom
3. What do you want to see and how?
And here you can think about whether you want to stay longer in one place or see as much as possible in the time you have Do you want to go on a complete road trip or would you rather just see the big cities and the surrounding area? Again, anything is possible..
If you want to see as much as possible, I recommend renting a car if you're not already considering a van or motorhome. That way you can plan your own route independently and go where and when you want.
Are you more focused on the big cities and want to do nothing more often? Then it might be enough if you only rent a car for a few days in between and go on excursions with organized tours.
Even if you're super keen to see as much as possible, sometimes less is more. What do I mean by that? By that I mean that if you just stress from event to event, you might enjoy and absorb it less than if you just have more time in one place. Of course, this also depends entirely on your personality, but still..
How did we do it?
Yes, we actually did it pretty much in the order I listed above. We quickly realized that we had 4 weeks and we wanted to see as much as possible. For me, camping wouldn't have been a problem in itself, but the idea of living in a motorhome for 4 weeks in a confined space was a bit, well, I'll say less ideal. Especially as my best friend would be joining us after 2 weeks and, apart from everything else, I also had a big car.
So it was clear to us: 4 weeks, see a lot by car and stay in motels and AirBnBs. I then used this information to start making a rough plan. In other words, we knew that my family would be landing in Cairns and would have to get over the jet lag first. So Cairns was one of our longer stops with a 4-day stay. From then on, I thought about and researched what was worth seeing and where we wanted to stop. It's important to say that a lot of our plans came together while we were traveling. To be honest, apart from the first AirBnB, we hadn't booked anything else, but I only booked it from Cairns for the first 2 weeks and over time for the last 2 weeks. Depending on the time you are traveling, I would be careful with this, because in the high season (December to January) it is rather difficult to impossible to book at such short notice. In September and October, however, it was fortunately possible to be a bit spontaneous. I have included our route here, which we traveled during the 4 weeks. This just gives you an idea of how many stops you can make. We saw a lot, but always had a few longer stops in between to catch our breath, so we didn't have to change our accommodation every day.
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Day 1-5: Cairns
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Day 5-6: Mission Beach
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Day 6-8: Townsville (Magnetic Island)
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Day 8-10: Airlie Beach (Whitsunday Islands)
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Day 10-12: Agnes Water
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Day 12-13: Rainbow Beach
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Day 13-14: K'Gari (Fraser Island)
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Day 15-18: Sunshine Coast
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Day 18-21: Byron Bay (short stop at the Gold Coast on the way)
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Day 21-23: Coffs Harbour
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Day 23-25: Port Macquarie
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Day 25-30: Sydney
This gives you an idea of how you could divide up your 4 weeks, for example. In the following blogs I will then introduce you to the individual places in more detail. I'm already excited because this way I can relive the wonderful time with the family in full hehe. I hope all this has helped you and you have found some clarity. Have fun and see you on the next blog.
Cheers
Jesko
