Australia is a HUGE country with everything from jungles teaming with wildlife to the dusty baron outback. The incredible diversity paired with dramatic mountains and some of the best beaches in the world makes for an epic road trip!  Being budget travellers, we decided to take the cheapest flight we could find into OZ, which landed us in the Gold Coast; if you are planning on doing the East Coast road trip, we recommend splashing a little extra cash and starting your trip in either Caines or Sydney to prevent any back tracking. 

 

Despite all our research, nothing could quite prepare us for the sheer size of Australia and the distances you have to cover each day. There is literally nothing in between each main town/city with usually a 4 hour drive between them, especially in Queensland, so make sure you have plenty of food and water on board in case you break down! Due to the long distances, we stopped heading north when we reached Airlie Beach where you can do trips to the Great Barrier Reef (though prices are extortionate). From Airlie Beach we started heading south down the East Coast making our way to Sydney which is an awesome trip.

 

Unfortunately, the rumours are true about Australia being extremely expensive! We tried to cut as many costs as possible by sleeping in the back of a car, staying at free camp sites and cooking our own food - check out our top tips for saving money in Australia. However, we still ended up spending a mighty sum. 

 

The East Coast road trip is one of the best, and there’s such a variety of what you can see and do along the way its difficult to suggest an itinerary, but we have listed our ‘Top 4 Beaches’ and our ‘Top 6 Free Favourite Places’ that we were lucky enough to explore on our way.