Decisions, decisions, where to start? One of the main questions you will face in planning your trip to Australia is how exactly you plan to get around this vast country. There are a few options to consider depending on how much time you have in OZ and the all important bank balance. If you are limited on time, check out Skyscanner as we managed to get some pretty cheap internal flights. From the gold coast to Sydney only cost us £50 per person including luggage. Not to Shabby eh. The flight is only an hour long compared to the drive which takes 9.30hrs, saving you lots of time to spend exploring rather than driving.
'we wanted to have the freedom'
If you have the luxury of time then we suggest taking either the bus or doing a self drive road trip to save those pretty pennies. The STA 'Hop On Hop Off' bus pass was the first option we considered. Costing around £200 for the East Coast Pass. This is a great option if you are travelling solo or are wanting to meet loads of like minded travellers. The downside of this is not being able to stray away from the designated itinerary. The cost of hostels is also something else to consider as they don’t come cheap. For us we really wanted to have the freedom and be able to make our own way around Australia.
'Our jaws literally hit the floor'
Searching for a camper van is a mean feat in itself, after spending days trolling the internet including popular choices such as TravellerAutobarn and Juice we were shocked to find out how much one months hire would set us back during high season! £2000 - £3000 for a basic converted people carrier which includes a double bed, and if you are lucky a camping stove and sink. Our jaws literally hit the floor at the cost! If you are a rich man or are sharing with friends then this can become a lot more reasonable. Our vision of the wind blowing through our hair on the open road was fading quickly into the distance. There was just no way we would be able to afford this so we had to start considering any other options; Hitch hiking did pop up, but was quickly pushed out of our minds by my mums voice saying ‘’you should never get in a car with a stranger’’.
The fourth option to consider is hiring a car and staying in hostels. We managed to find a trusty steed in the form of a Nissan Micra, however we really didn’t want to fork out for hostels. We continued our search and came across Argus Car hire which compares a varierty of different car hire companies. This is where we found the answer to our problem, it almost glowed off the page. A Hydandi Tucson Sport Edition SUV; this was large enough for us to make our own make shift bed and basically live out of for one month. This SUV would only set us back £850 for one months hire, a lot cheaper than the popular camper vans. Once we had picked up the beauty we named Tyrone, we quickly drove to the nearest K Mart where we picked up some camping gear including; stove, camping chairs, tent, blankets, cooler, plates etc for $200 dollars. We stayed in the tent one night only, it was incredible hot and sweaty and we woke half way through the night to find us spooning a very hairy spider. Converting the back of the SUV was easy. Laying the back seats flat and pushing the front seats forward allowed us to create a sleeping area. We already had mosquito nets with us so we would wind down the windows and put these nets over the doors. This stopped any of the blood sucking mosquitos getting in and allowed us to keep cool by letting air vent through the car. At the end of your trip you can easily sell your camping gear via gumtree and hostels allowing you to get some pennies back.
