Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ATTRACTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
When talking about what to do in Australia, you're really talking about what you're going to do outdoors.
Australians love to get outdoors, and with such a beautiful and diverse countryside, you will too. Like
everything else in this country, tours are expensive and there are few ways to lower the costs. While I never
regret the money I spend seeing the country or diving the Great Barrier Reef, I've severely underestimated
this part of my budget.
Most outdoor activities in Australia take up a whole day, though larger trips into the outback generally
last at least one night.
Multiday activities are expensive, generally costing $300-400 USD. Day trips will cost $100-170 USD.
For example, a one-day trip to the Great Barrier Reef can cost $170 USD, while two nights sailing the
Whitsunday Islands can cost upward of $400. A three-day trip to Uluru from Alice Springs is around $355.
(These prices reflect the average among companies aimed at budget travelers. Luxury and more all-inclusive
tours cost more.)
Buying tours together can also help save you money. In Australia, it's cheaper to go to a hostel tour desk
or places like Tribal Tours (tribaltravel.com.au) and book your activities in one package. You can expect to
get around 10 percent off the tours.
The VIP and Nomad Mad cards discussed in Part One provide discounts on tours of up to 30 percent.
These cards are essential if you're traveling in Australia, because tours there simply cost so much these days.
They are double what I paid during my original trip to Australia in 2007.
Australia is a young country, and because of that, it lacks a lot of the sort of historical sites that you see
in Europe and other parts of the world. Most of the activities you do will be ones that focus on nature as
opposed to visiting ruins or exploring castles. There are few museums outside the large cities. Most of the
museums are history or art museums, and admission fees are around $15 USD.
There is no single tourist card for Australia. Iventure (iventure card.com) offers a tourist card for Sydney,
Melbourne, Queensland, and Tasmania. Two-day passes begin at $155 USD and cover all the museums and
major attractions in each area. They only save you money though if you do at least half of the attractions
and excursions included in the pass, which will mean that you'll be extremely busy during your visit.
How Much Money Do You Need?
On a very tight budget, I think a traveler could get by in Australia on $50 USD per day, but it would be
really tough. It would entail couch-surfing and cooking just about every day, limiting your nights out, and
spending most of your money on transportation and a few activities. While not impossible, it could be done
if you were very frugal.
For example, if you did Melbourne to Cairns, which is the popular east coast route that most travelers
take, your approximate costs for one month would be $810 USD for hostels (average price of $27 USD per
night), $700 USD for food (mixing cooking and eating out), $1,000 USD for tours, and $500 USD for your
Greyhound bus ticket. That works out to $100 USD per day. If you couch-surfed for ten nights and bought
all your own food (at a cost of $80 USD per week or $440 USD for one month), you could lower your
budget to $82 USD per day. But I think you can do it on less.
Realistically, I think if you were to budget $65 USD per day, you would be able to travel around the
country without compromising too much luxury. You'd still have plenty of money for the tours and activities
