South Asia Fun Tour
August 16,2021

[18 day RV tour in southeast Australia]

by Bin Xu

Days: 18 days

Time: January

With whom: parents and children

Play: free travel, self driving, luxury, photography, humanities, ocean road

The author went to these places

City Hotel

Sydney

Melbourne

Great Ocean Road

Great Ocean Road

Adelaide

Kangaroo Island

Magic rock

murray

Canberra

Martin Plaza Medina Hotel Apartment

Sydney Opera House

Hyde Park

Royal Botanic Gardens

Darling Harbour

Sydney Tower

Queen Victoria Building

Recommended accommodation

ADINA Serviced Apartments Sydney Martin place in Sydney: ¥ 743 from now on >

Break free on Clarence Sydney ¥ 566, book now >

Launch more hotels

Published on February 16, 2014 18:25

brief introduction

A family of 7 (6 large and 1 small), 18 days car drive tour in southeast Australia, more than 3000 kilometers.

The cost is about 140000 yuan, less than 20000 yuan per capita

Air ticket: 57000 yuan

Visa fee: 1065 * 7 = 7455 yuan

Line (car rental, fuel): 32000 yuan

Eating (supermarket food): 8000 yuan

Stay (camp, City Hotel): 20000 yuan

Others (tickets, helicopter): 10000 yuan

Self help tour is to do homework. Time limited holiday self-help travel, homework before the trip is particularly important! The sufficient degree of homework preparation is directly proportional to the degree of enjoying yourself! Plus drag family, casual travel is not reliable. To have a good time, it is necessary to make full preparations before the trip and make a detailed plan for the trip!

First of all, read all kinds of travel notes to understand how others plan their itinerary, what factors they have considered and what precautions they have. In this way, you can start to feel some strange destinations, so you can start to design your own itinerary, and have a targeted in-depth understanding of the scenic spots, hotels, camps, routes, etc. in your itinerary, so as to gradually improve your itinerary plan.

Before departure, it's better to make a general itinerary, including all kinds of important information, such as flight number / departure time, hotel and address, camp address and telephone number, so as to check and navigate at any time on the way.

Google maps is a good tool to mark routes and scenic spots on the map one by one, which is clear at a glance, and can be adjusted at any time, and can be shared with your family.

Tips in Australia

[air ticket]

After the price comparison, the last choice is Ctrip: Malaysia Airlines connecting via Kuala Lumpur. About 8500 yuan for adults.

[visa]

How to prepare visa materials is everywhere on the Internet. I don't want to say much. Anyway, the Australian Embassy hopes that the materials you prepare will be as detailed as the property disclosure. The cost per capita is 1065 yuan.

[transportation]

Through the website http://www.britz.com.au/ Book the RV directly. There are 2-6 people to choose from. Britz's RV is relatively old. The facilities in the RV are not very good, such as the water is not very smooth, and the refrigerator door is not closed tightly. It is suggested that you consider the slightly expensive Maui RV.

Considering that there are more than 6 people, we can't rent only a 6-person RV. At the same time, for the sake of safety and comfort, we decided to rent a fully functional 4-person RV + a car.

Due to the lack of cars in Australia, most highways have only one lane in one direction, and overtaking is prohibited. There is an overtaking lane / overtaking lane every few kilometers or more. If you want to overtake, go straight. If you want to let go, go into the left lane.

Australia is vast and sparsely populated, and gas stations beside highways are rare, even if they are second only to A-class highways. It's best to fill up the gas station near the town. Once you miss the gas station, it may cause great trouble. It is suggested to form a good habit of "filling half a tank with oil". When the tank is only about half full, fill it up in the nearest town.

[accommodation]

In addition to the convenience of travel in Sydney Hotel, all live in the camp. Considering the comfort, the campsites all choose: 1 cabin (with kitchen, shower and toilet, which can accommodate 2-4 people) + 1 powered site (parking RV, which can accommodate 2-4 people).

Note: hotels and campsites in Australia are required to check out at 10am. Don't think it's 12:00 in China.

[eat]

Because there are fully functional RV and cabin with kitchen in the camp at night, they can eat three meals a day by themselves. They don't go to restaurants, and they are relatively used to eating. They don't hurt their stomach. To this end, every day along the way into the supermarket to purchase once, for the morning, middle and evening meals to prepare rich ingredients.

The most famous local supermarkets are Coles and Woolworth. Every time the shopping ticket must be kept, many gas stations show supermarket ticket can discount gas. There are no drinks in the supermarket. The drinks are all in the special shop next to the supermarket.

Breakfast is usually milk, cereal, bread, avocado, eggs, bacon.

Every day at noon in the middle of the rest place, in the RV with the food prepared the day before to make a rich fast lunch.

Dinner is the most important main meal of the day, and it is also the most abundant. Generally, it is a local steak and mutton, which tastes great.

As we are all Chinese stomachs, we like to eat rice, but there are no rice cookers in the RV / camp, so we decided to take the old rice cookers with us before going out. It turns out that this is the wisest decision of this trip. It's a pleasure for everyone to have hot rice every day.

It's hard to find domestic vegetables in Australian supermarkets, and they are extremely expensive. If you are ready to fry a dish, you must have 4 bundles, that is more than 50 RMB.

[play]

Families are welcome to travel in Australia. Many of the fees include family tickets. Family refers to a couple + two children under the age of 16.

[recommended items] wiring board, power bank, charging cable, car charger, rice cooker, chopsticks, fresh-keeping bags, garbage bags, washing powder, nail clippers and high-power sunscreen

Walkie talkie, telescope, flashlight

[socket] there are few sockets with two eyes in Australia. Basically, they are all three eye sockets. Like the domestic models in China, the voltage is also 220 v. Since most of the charging sockets of mobile phones / cameras are two eye sockets, you must bring a wiring board, which has multiple two eye sockets, otherwise you will be crazy【 [calling card]

After leaving the Customs at the airport, go directly to the output counter and buy a SIM card, similar to the China travel card in China. A $30 card valid for 15 days and a $60 card valid for 30 days will be deducted by $2 a day, including 1) unlimited calls in Australia, which is enough for you to talk with your Australian friends on the phone; 2) The 3G traffic is 500m every day, which is enough for you to navigate with Google maps and use personal hot spots to join your family in microblogging and wechat. The extra traffic can also watch the Spring Festival Gala in the camp at night, ha.

Itinerary

[from Beijing via Kuala Lumpur (mh361) to Melbourne (mh129) on January 25, 2014]

Take a taxi to the airport at 10:00 p.m. on January 24. The plane was nearly an hour late, but fortunately enough time was left for the connecting flight. It takes about 6 hours to fly to Kuala Lumpur. There is still more than 1 hour to transfer to Melbourne. After another 8 hours, we will arrive in Melbourne at 9:00 p.m. local time.

Due to the late arrival on that day, I went directly to rent a car the next day, so I didn't book a hotel in Melbourne. Instead, I reserved the Best Western Airport Motel & Convention Centre (33, ardlie street, Attwood, Melbourne Vic 3049, Tel: 03 9333 2200) near the airport. Call the hotel when you arrive. A few minutes later, the hotel will send a car to pick it up. The owner of the hotel is Chinese and employs some international students for summer internship, so the airport pick-up and hotel front desk are all Chinese speaking students.

[pick up the car and see penguin on January 26, 2014]

In the 18 day round trip, the next day 1 / 26 is the most interesting story. The plot is tortuous, which gives us a bad impression. We think it indicates that the trip is not smooth. Fortunately, all of them are in danger, and the next 16 days are all smooth.

As 1 / 27 is a holiday in Australia, all the car rental companies have a holiday and are unable to pick up the car, so they have to pick up the car on 1 / 26 the next day. The next day, we called a big taxi, which was enough to hold seven people and four suitcases, and put five people who were not drivers into the Queen Victoria Market. Our two drivers continued to go to the car rental company.

RV is available through the website http://www.britz.com.au/ Direct booking, 2-6 people's RV to choose from. As we arrived in britz ahead of time, we had to wait half an hour to pick up the car, so the waiters gave us free chairs and tents. Britz's RV is relatively old, and the facilities in the RV are not very good, such as the water is not very smooth, the refrigerator door is not closed tightly, etc. Suggestion: let's consider the slightly expensive Maui RV.

It's really not easy to drive a huge RV with a right-hand drive and a left-hand drive. The RV almost occupies the whole lane. You always feel that if you want to collide with the opposite car, the car will naturally drift to the left. You have to consciously control the car to the right, otherwise it will occupy the left lane. Fortunately, they are all old drivers with more than 10 years of driving experience, and they soon get used to it. We need to pay special attention to the two situations of turning corners and just getting on the road every morning.

Cars, for convenience, are also reserved through britz. This is a mistake. Britz doesn't have a car, it just provides an intermediary booking service. The car is actually owned by Europcar. Although I have prepaid britz's car expenses through the Internet, Europcar still needs my credit card to pay $1 for vehicle safety. Unfortunately, Europcar does not accept UnionPay credit card, and I only have visa credit card with UnionPay logo. After many times of communication with britz and Europcar, there was no solution, so in the end, it had to be cancelled and replaced by other car rental companies. Unfortunately, it happened to be a long weekend at that time (1 / 26 is a Sunday, while 1 / 27 is a holiday in Australia). All the car rental companies nearby had no cars to rent. Finally, when I came to Avis, the first female receptionist said that she didn't have a car. Later, another male receptionist said that he had a car, but the price for sitting on the floor was more than 1400 Australian dollars. Normally, it should be less than 1000 Australian dollars. There was no choice but to accept the humiliation clause. Suggestion: if you want to rent a car, you can book Avis, Hertz, budget and other international brands directly through the network. Don't book the car of local brand car rental company. You may not accept the credit card with UnionPay logo.

Campsites. I heard there are many campsites in Australia. Just make a reservation by phone at any time. It's more than 4 p.m. after picking up the RV and car, please call to make a reservation. As a result, all the campsites around the destination were full of fully booked, and the reason was the long weekend. No matter what, drive to Phillip Island as planned to see the world's smallest Penguin homing in penguin paradise. After watching it, Google maps will take a look at the nearest camp and try your luck there. Luck is good, and there is the last powered site, which is $90. After the storm, there was no more camp. Every day, we made a phone reservation for the camp that night after lunch.

Suggestion: in case of holidays / long weekends, be sure to make all kinds of preparations in advance, including car, hotel, camp, supermarket, etc. Different from China, the more weekends / holidays overseas, the earlier scenic spots / shopping malls / car rental companies leave work.

[2014 / 1 / 27 koala @ Phillip Island]

From Phillip Island, drive through Melbourne to Dayang Road, enjoy the ups and downs of bell Blvd, the beautiful beaches of bell beach and angelasea beach, and come to bimbi Park Camping under koalas (90 manna gum Dr, Cape Otway Vic 3233, 03 5237 9246, bimbipark. Com. AU).

The camp is specially recommended by friends, mainly because koalas can be seen everywhere on eucalyptus trees around the camp. If so, in 16 days in Australia, this is the only place to watch koalas in the wild. Except for koala, there is nothing to recommend in this camp. There is basically no grass in the grassland. All services are charged and the price is high, such as bathing for 1 Australian dollar and 3 minutes.

[2014 / 1 / 28 twelve disciples of Dayang road]

From bimbi, continue along Dayang Road, through the famous twelve disciples, beautiful town Port Campbell, and the camping place port fair caravan parks (111 Griffith st, port fair Vic 3284, 03 5568 1060, portfairycaravanparks. Com).

It is highly recommended that the camp, surrounding environment 5: 2 minutes from the beach; Camp facilities 4: good public facilities, free bath; Price service 3: a little expensive.

Although the helicopter of the twelve disciples scenic spot is more expensive (145 Australian dollars per capita), it is recommended to have a completely different view of the twelve disciples.

【2014/1/29 Mt. Gambier】

After leaving port fair, continue along Dayang Road, pass the famous lighthouse Nelson lighthouse, and come to the first big 4 camp near the beautiful town Mt. Gambier, big 4 Blue Lake Holiday Park (Bay Road, Mount Gambier, 5290, 08, 8725, 9856).

The camp is highly recommended, surrounding environment 5: close to the dreamlike blue lake; Camp facilities 4: beautiful camp, perfect public facilities, free bath; Price service 4: reasonable price: 123 yuan for cabin (with kitchen, bath and toilet) + 40 yuan for powered site.

[2014 / 1 / 30 new year's Eve dinner @ robe]

Leave the dreamy blue lake and go to Beach port, which is rich in lobster, and Big4 robe Long Beach Holiday Park (70-80 Esplanade, robe SA 5276, Australia, 08 8768 2237, Big4. Com. AU).

The camp is highly recommended, surrounding environment 4: close to the beach; Camp facilities 4: beautiful camp, perfect public facilities, free bath; Price service 3: Cabin (with kitchen, bath and toilet) 149 yuan + powered site 40 yuan.

The whole family prepares new year's Eve dinner.

[Adelaide, Adelaide, January 31, 2014]

Leave robe and head for Adelaide. In a small town called Meningie, I took a break to feed seabirds. Before entering Adelaide, I passed through a piece of saline alkali land, presenting a completely different geographical appearance, opening a driving experience in saline alkali land for several consecutive days. In the evening, enter the camp Big4 Adelaide shores holiday parks (1 Military Road, West Beach SA 5024, 08 8355 7320, adelaideshores. Com. AU)

This is the only camp that we stayed for three nights in this RV trip. It has a large area, with more than 400 powered sites, more than 100 cabins, and is full. Because I didn't book a cabin, I had to buy a RV and a tent. Fortunately, the temperature in these days is about 40 degrees.

Recommend the camp, surrounding environment 4: close to the beach, close to Adelaide; Camp facilities 4: beautiful camp, perfect public facilities, free bath; Price service 4: Powered site $85.

【2014/2/1 Adelaide Big4】

The local temperature reached 40 degrees, so I stayed at the camp and watched the Spring Festival Gala with my iPad.

[Kangaroo Island, February 2, 2014]

Although the temperature is still 41 degrees, we have to know that there are tigers in the mountains and prefer Kangaroo Island.

Originally planned to participate in the Kangaroo Island one-day tour group, car pick-up car to send, a look at the price to give up, or drive to it. I drove more than 100 kilometers to the wharf. Fortunately, I arrived 5 minutes ahead of time, caught up with the 10am ferry, and ferried to Kangaroo Island with people and cars.

It takes more than 2 hours to drive all the way from the ferry to such scenic spots as magic rocks, arches, admirals arch and Cape Du Couedic. Since we haven't seen the shadow of kangaroo, everyone expects kangaroo to appear on Kangaroo Island. Unfortunately, we haven't seen the shadow of live kangaroo. On both sides of the road, there are one dead kangaroo after another. Everyone joked that "there seems to be no live kangaroo in Australia, but there are some dead kangaroos.". History tells us that miracles often happen when you are about to give up. On the way back to the ferry after visiting the scenic spot, I first found a lonely kangaroo on the side of the road, so I stopped and snapped like a lover. History tells us that miracles often appear one after another. Just as everyone was immersed in the joy of "finally seeing the live kangaroo", a group of kangaroos appeared in the grass a little far away from the road, so they stopped to scream and take photos again.

Later, it was found that kangaroos only came out when the sun was setting in the West due to the hot weather until the next morning.

[York Peninsula, February 3, 2014]

With the joy of seeing kangaroos, I left Adelaide and went to the port town Pt Victoria on the York Peninsula. Along the way, I saw a completely different scenery. On both sides of the road are endless golden grasslands, occasionally some cattle and sheep.

Originally, I planned to stay at the camp in York Peninsula at night, but in order to reduce the distance I have to catch up with in the next few days, I decided to open more today, so I chose Blanchetown riverside Holiday Park (Sanders street, Blanchetown SA 5357, 08 8540 5070, Blanchetown riverside. Com. Au} 200 km away. After checking in, we found that the whole camp was just our family, which monopolized the whole camp and gave us an independent kitchen and two independent shower / toilet.

If you have a chance, you can try this camp. There are few people. Just by the Murray River, there are groups of parrots in the trees and pelicans in the river. You must have been woken up by the birds in the morning. Surrounding environment 4: close to Murray River, like bird garden; Camp facilities 4: the camp is small, with complete public facilities and free bathing; Price service 4: because it is inland, the price is cheap. Powered site is only 32 Australian dollars, and cabin is 85 Australian dollars.

[2014 / 2 / 3 ~ 6 crossing the inland area of southeast Australia]

The three-day journey is 1500 km across the southeast inland area of Australia (Yorke Peninsula > Blanchetown > Renmark (winery) > Mildura > hay > wagawaga > Canberra > Jervis Bay (beach, abalone digging) > Kiama). Originally, he did not plan to go to Canberra, Canberra, Canberra, Canberra, Canberra, Canberra, Canberra, Canberra, So he changed his route temporarily and took a detour to Canberra.

The three-day trek that we thought would be very monotonous brought us one surprise after another.

Surprise one, the scenery along the way is changeable. There is a section of saline land style, like no man's land so desolate; There is an endless golden grassland similar to York Peninsula, like autumn; In the middle of saline alkali land and golden grassland, large vineyards often emerge, like a leaf oasis; The section from Canberra to Sydney is green again, like summer.

Surprise two, all the way to see a variety of animals. In addition to the common cattle and sheep, many ostriches were accidentally seen in the saline alkali area; In the camp in Canberra, kangaroos breaking into the camp at night and flocks of kangaroos eating grass beside the camp in the morning are seen.

Surprise 3: the east coast of abalone. After leaving Canberra and coming to the east coast of Australia, I found that the rocks on the beach were covered with abalone.

第一天入住营地Hay Big4 (4 Nailor Street, Hay NSW 2711, 02 6993 1875, haybig4.com.au‎)。

The next day, stay in campsite Canberra carotel Motel & Caravan Park (150 Aspinall street, Watson act 2602, 02 6241 1377, carotel. Com. AU). Recommended index 4, recommended reason: Kangaroo infestation. Because it is close to Canberra, the price is not cheap.

On the third day, stay in Big4 East Beach Holiday Park (Ocean Street, Kiama NSW 2533, Australia, 02 4232 2124, eastsbeach. Com. AU). Recommendation index 4, reason for recommendation: beside the beach, the camp is very large with complete facilities.

[March to Sydney from February 7 to September 2014]

We are officially heading for Sydney, the final destination of this trip, via Wollongong > Cole Dale Beach > Sydney.

Stay in Medina serviced apartments Martin Place (1 Hosking place, Sydney NSW 2000, 02 9224 6400). If you come to Sydney, you want to be closer to famous scenic spots, and you want to cook delicious meals by yourself, then this hotel is your choice. Located in downtown Sydney, the hotel is only 5-15 minutes' walk away from all scenic spots (such as Sydney Opera House, harbour bridge, botanical garden, governor's house, Hyde Park and Museum). After dinner, you can stroll to enjoy the magnificent night view of Sydney Opera House and harbour bridge.

Day 1 hiking route:

From the Hotel > Circular Quay > Sydney Opera House > Royal Botanical Gardens > government house > Hyde Park > back to the hotel.

Day 2 hiking route:

From Hotel > Hyde Park > Australian Museum > St Marys church > Art Gallery of New South Wales > Circular Quay > manly Island > Darling Harbor > Sydney Tower eye > Queen Victoria Building > back to the hotel.

If you have a child, don't miss Sydney's Sunday vote. As long as there is a child, the whole family (no matter how many people there are, no matter what status they are) can spend $2.50 each to buy a transport pass and take all ferries, cars, subways, etc. unlimited times a day. It was just a Sunday when we went to Manly Island, Darling Harbor and other places by ferry.

[return to Beijing on February 10, 2014]

Return to Beijing from Sydney via Kuala Lumpur.

  • Bin Xu
  • August 16,2021

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