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Torquay Hotel:
Stayed here for one night in April 2024
- Pros:
- 1) The location is perfect to start / end the Great Ocean Road.
- 2) The tariff is cheap.
- 3) The place is easy to find and there is parking available right in front of the hotel.
- 4) The room and bathroom were clean
- 5) The wifi was free with good connectivity and speed.
- 6) There is a very good front end restaurant.
- 7) The place is quiet at night with good sleep quality.
- Cons:
- 1) Front desk is not 24/7
- 2) It took a very long time for the hot water to start working.
- Southern Ocean Motor Inn, Port Campbell:
We stayed here for one night in April 2024.
- Pros:
- 1) The location is perfect to start/end a Great Ocean Road driving trip.
- 2) The place is at a quiet end of the town with great sleep quality.
- 3) The room was spacious.
- 4) The room and bathroom were clean.
- 5) It is a very short walk to the town centre with good eating options.
- 6) There is plenty of parking available.
- 7) The wifi was free with good speed and connectivity.
- Cons:
- 1) The place is a bit pricey for what it offers.
- 2) The front desk is not 24/7.
- Sky Rider Motor Inn, Katoomba: We stayed here for one night in April 2024.
- Pros:
- 1) The location is great for visiting the Blue Mountains. The place is within a few minutes drive from all the major lookouts.
- 2) The room and bathroom were clean.
- 3) The wifi was free with good speed and connectivity.
- 4) The staff was friendly and helpful.
- 5) The place is very quiet and the sleep quality was great.
- Cons:
- 1) The location is bad if you do not have a transport. The place is very far from the Katoomba town centre.
- 2) The room was on the smaller side.
- 3) The tariff was a bit on the higher side.
- 4) The front desk is not staffed 24/7
- The Great Southern Hotel, Sydney:
Stayed here for one night in April 2024.
- Pros:
- 1) The location is excellent. It is in the historic centre close to China town. There is a light rail station right in front.
- 2) There are plenty of eating/shopping options nearby.
- 3) The room and bathroom were clean.
- 4) The room size was adequate.
- 5) The place is quiet with great sleep quality.
- 6) The wifi was free with good speed and connectivity.
- 7) The tariff is reasonable.
- 8) The front desk is staffed 24/7.
- 9) The staff was courteous and helpful.
- Cons:
- 1) The on-site laundry facility is poor. There is just one washer and drier. Completely inadequate for a hotel of this size.
- Outback Hotel and Lodge, Ayers Rock:
Stayed here for one night in April 2024.
- Pros:
- 1) This is one of the cheapest options in town.
- 2) The on-site eating options are great. They have great vegetarian choices.
- 3) The room was clean.
- 4) The public toilet facility was good and clean as well.
- 5) The front desk is staffed 24/7.
- 6) The location is perfect to enjoy the sunrise/sunset at Uluru.
- 7) The wifi is free with good speed and connectivity.
- 8) The place was easy to book on-line.
- 9) The place is quiet at night and the sleep quality was great.
- Cons:
- 1) The tariff is atrociously high. This was the costliest accommodation on our trip and the price did not include a private toilet. It was not very obvious from the description on the website.
- Reef Palms Motel Apartment, Cairns.:
Stayed here for two nights in May 2024.
- Pros:
- 1) The place is a short taxi ride away from the airport and the harbour.
- 2) The rooms are big and clean.
- 3) The bathroom was spacious as well with all modern amenities.
- 4) The front desk staff was courteous and helpful.
- 5) There is laundry facility inside the premises.
- 6) The place is quiet at night and the sleep quality was good.
- 7) The wifi was free with good speed and connectivity.
- 8) The hotel has a (paid) shuttle service to the airport.
- 9) The tariff is cheap.
- Cons:
- 1) The front desk is not staffed 24/7.
- 2) The staff is limited and the rooms get cleaned only every 4 days.
- 3) The place is far from the main tourist area and restaurants. But there are good bus services.
- 4) There aren't many eating/shopping options next to the hotel.
- Ibis Styles, Kingsgate, Melbourne:
Stayed here for one night in May 2024.
- Pros:
- 1) The biggest plus (for us, Tamilians) is that there is a Saravana Bhavan bang next door. If you don't know what that is, this point is not for you.
- 2) The hotel is within a short walk to the Southern Cross train station.
- 3) The front desk staff was courteous and helpful.
- 4) The front desk operates 24/7.
- 5) The wifi was free with good speed and connectivity.
- 6) The room and bathroom were clean.
- 7) Tariff is cheap.
- 8) The place is quiet at night and the sleep quality was great.
- Cons:
- 1) The hotel is at one end of the historic centre. So far from all the main attractions and restaurants.
- 2) As with all Ibis hotels, the rooms are tiny.
We rented a car with Bargain Car Rentals in Melbourne for our Great Ocean Road trip, with Alamo in Sydney for our Blue Mountains trip and with Dollar in Uluru. The rental process was much slower compared to the US. The cost of rental was astronomically high. Both in Syney and Melbourne, the pick up and drop off was off-site which made finding the drop-off place a bit challenging. The car in Uluru had limited kilometers. But we did get cars in great condition everywhere and the make and model we had reserved.
Public transport was easiest to use in Sydney. You do not need any special card for payment. Any WIFI enabled International Credit card would do. You simply tap the card on entry and exit and you will get billed automatically. That system worked well for all modes of transport. We never had to wait for a long time for our buses or trains.
Public transport needs a bit of getting used to in Melbourne. The transport in the core area is free. Most attractions are inside this core area. Some (like the Botanic Gardens and MCG) are outside the free zone. You do not need any special cards in the free zone. But once you are out of it, you will need a special card which you can buy in any convinience store. The card costs AUD 6, which you cannot get it back. The money you put in it can be gotten back when yu leave the country (but it involves a lengthy procedure). We never had to wait for a long time for our buses or trains.
Buses are easy to use in Cairns. You can pay in cash to the driver. We never had to wait for a long time for our buses.
Australia is a heaven for vegans and vegetarians. Every restaurant had at least a few vegan or vegetarian dishes. Most have a dedicated vegan menu card. Even internal flights served vegetarian food. All the food we tasted were quite delicious.
- Great Ocean Road
Technically, this runs between Torquay and Allansford. But if you drive till Port Cambell, you would have seen almost all of the important bits. Overnighting in Torquay and Port Cambell will give you plenty of time to see all the viewpoints in between. The view points are not on the main route and involve small detours and it is easy to miss them if you do not have a checklist and a good map.
- Blue Mountains
Katoomba is a good base to explore the mountains. It is centrally located within a few minutes drive to most of the important points. Our pick would be Mount Banks (involes a bit of off-roading), Gavotte's Leap, Evan's Lookout, Katoomba Falls, Echo Point, Three Sisters and Lincoln's Rock. Parking is difficult to find at the Echo Point. Most are paid parking (you have to pay at the electronic meter).
- Sydney
- Harbour: Must See. Campbell Cove and Mrs Macquaries Point are the two best view points. The former is better for the Opera House pictures and the latter for the Harbour Bridge.
- Royal Botanic Gardens: Should See. (1 hr). But you will end up seeing it if you vist the Mrs Macquaries Point.
- Art Gallery of New South Wales: Must See mainly for its 19th c Australian paintings. 1 hr. Do not miss the Golden Fleece and On the Wallaby Track.
- St Mary's Cathedral: Should See. 30 mins.
- Anzac Memorial: Must See. 30 mins.
- Queen Victoria Building: Must See. Come early to beat the crowd.
- Bondi Beach: Must See. Direct Bus (133) takes you there from the city centre.
- State Library of New South Wales: Must See. 30 mins.
- Melbourne
- National Gallery of Victoria: Must see. Don't miss the Pioneer and the Shearing the Rams. 1 hr.
- St Paul's Cathedral: Must See. 30 mins.
- St Patrick's Cathedral: Must See. 30 mins.
- Royal Exhibition Building: Must See. You can only see it from the outside.
- Melbourne Museum: Should See (Must if you have kids or into dinosaurs). 30 mins to an hour.
- Botanic Gardens: Should See. 30 mins to an hour.
- Shrine of Remembrance: Must See. View of the city from here is fantastic.
- State Library of Victoria: Must See. 30 mins to an hour. The view of the central room from the top floors are stunning.
- Flinders Street Train Station: Must See. You can only see it from outside.
- Other notable Victorian-era buildings: Town Hall, Princess Theatre, Old Treasury Building, Forum Theatre.
- The Great Barrier Reef: Of course, a Must See. The best way to see it would be to take a day-long cruise We took the one offered by Reef Magic and we highly recommend them. Most tour companies have built a dedicated Pontoon, a large bobbing contraption semi-anchored near a reef. The tour boats drop you on this for the day. There are several activities available like simply going downstairs and view the fishes swimming around, glass-bottomed boat tours, semi-submarine tours, helicopter tours (costs extra), snorkelling (guided one costs extra), helmet diving (costs extra) and regular diving (costs extra). Food and beverages are included in the trip cost. If you are prone to sea-sickness, the entire journey would be an ordeal. There is no solid ground between the start and finish. We are both extremely motion-sick and do not know swimming. Yet, we would say it is an absolute must-see.
- Cairns: Do not miss walking along the 3 km long Esplanade.
- Uluru: Must See. The quickest way to see it is to fly to Ayers Rock. That involves taking a very expensive 3 hour flight in from Sydney, renting a car and rushing to see the Kata Tjuta and the catching the sunset, overnighting at the super-expensive Ayers Rock Resort Complex and rushing to see the sunrise before taking another expensive flight out. This leg costed us about USD 2000. But was well worth it. Watching the sun set on Uluru was priceless. A cheaper option would be to fly into Alice Springs, but that is a half a day drive away from Uluru and hence will add two more days to the trip.
TRIP ITINERARY