Suggestions for an O/S Australia day weekend trip?

[Mal]

Been looking, and not having much luck this year. A friend and myself want to head o/s over the Australia Day weekend (eg 23rd Jan, return 26 Jan). Their preference is a island type area, although other places should be ok.

Have tried most of my usual haunts and closeish islands etc, and nothing is really working out well from Brisbane - either horrible flight times (ala Jetstar to DPS), no flights on those dates etc, or fares that are not really that appealing (eg $1600 to SIN).

They don't really want to fly through SYD etc, so that reduces choices. It might be ok if the fare or location was good. A possibility is ZQN using Air NZ which seems to price out fairly well, but havn't seen too many other options.

Any suggestions? I still need about 25 sc's to renew Plat, so Qantas SC's are a bonus!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Well it is not OS...but I am heady up to Cairns for the AD Weekend plus a few extra days for a spot of snorkelling on the reef, some whitewater raft....and lazy walks on the beaches.

Now I know that it is stinger and wet season.......but both are ok...and accommodation is freely available at good rates anywhere from Port Douglas down to Mision Beach.

AD is not far away now...so perhaps worth a thought.

 

[bambbbam2]

I think QF just announced cheap fares from bne/syd/mel to akl/chc.. not sure how cheap or what the dates are...?

 

[Evan]

BNE-NAN (Fiji) on FJ, under 800. (Can also get on QF code share but some more $ i think)
I did see some fares to MNL cheap on Royal Brunei, but i could not get them to price out in the usual search engines.
BNE-POM maybe, QF about 700

Not a lot else i can think of thats cheap at this time.

E

 

[markis10]

JQ have SIN-DRW for around $558 all in, leaving a bit of room for some connecting QF DRW-BNE flights.

Air Asia can do KL for around 1K if you can leave Thursday with a flight to Langkawi return for an extra $100 odd, that would have you in Langkawi Thursday night out Monday afternoon. That gives you 3 solid days by the pool drinking some of the cheapest alcohol in the world if that is your poison!

 

[Cheesy]

Well I think this is a perfect topic for me to make my first post. And sorry Mal if I overtake it with my background story!

To answer your question first, I have been going to CNX (Chiang Mai, Thailand) for Australia Day every year for the last 6 years. I originally went there as part of an Asian Study Tour with uni, where an OzDay party was thrown for us by a German restauranter. He does a mean BBQ, and now I'm in charge of all other festivities including decorating his restaurant/bar up with green and gold balloons and Aussie flags, organising my own outfit of green/gold & red/white/blue and let's not forget the OzRock playlist from my iPod blaring over the speakers from 6pm until the early hours of the morning. Not sure about cheap flights to get there at the moment (unless you fly TR or AK/FD), but a return flight on TG(J) from BKK should cost you around A$220, or the cheap option is FD BKK-CNX for next to nothing. If you want to come up and join us or want more information, let me know. I currently have a group a of 5 coming up to join me, and hopefully we can round up some more of the ex-pats in the region as well.

Now to my story ... caught the travel bug after my initial study tour with uni as mentioned above, and have forked out the cash to currently be QPNB until work starts flying me around a bit more and I don't have to continue being a SFSC (see, I'm learning the lingo!). Currently on my 6 week Eurasian Escapade (currently posting from SIN), with flights as follows ... PER-SIN-LHR-MAN-LHR-BKK-CNX-BKK-HKG-NRT//KIX-HKG-PER ... all flights are with QF(Y) with the exception of LHR-MAN-LHR being BA, BKK-CNX-BKK on TG(J), BKK-HKG RJ(J), HKG-KIX/NRT-HKG CX. Points upgrades to J have been requested for SIN-LHR and LHR-BKK, so hopefully my 14 hour flights won't be too painful. At least I'm making use of the QP!

Thanks to everyone on the forums for making my hours at work fade away recently. I've certainly found a new forum to add to my favourites list!

Cheers!
Cheesy

 

[Mal]

O/S is looking less and less likely based on airfares and accommodation. Jetstar BNE-DRW-DPS and return just screams "stay away"!. ZQN isn't acceptable to friend, and NAN has been done recently, so no quick returns.

Langkawi sounds interesting (as does CNX), but don't think it will happen over Australia Day weekend.

Latest thought is Cairns (even though I've done that place to death!), so working on that. My personal pref would probably be Darwin (Even though it's hot/stormy and Rainy) - there is something about off-season in Darwin that I like!

 

[oz_mark]

JQ have SIN-DRW for around $558 all in, leaving a bit of room for some connecting QF DRW-BNE flights.

Air Asia can do KL for around 1K if you can leave Thursday with a flight to Langkawi return for an extra $100 odd, that would have you in Langkawi Thursday night out Monday afternoon. That gives you 3 solid days by the pool drinking some of the cheapest alcohol in the world if that is your poison!

I have to admit to being seriously surprised at how cheap alcohol was in Langkawi.

 

[kpc]

Langkawi sounds interesting (as does CNX), but don't think it will happen over Australia Day weekend.

Having been to Langkawi last month, I would highly recommend it if you can get there

 

[albatross710]

Bookings have been slow on Daydream Is and Hamilton Is. They have been advertising low(er) cost deals. Maybe an alternative to Cairns.

 

[Mal]

Bookings have been slow on Daydream Is and Hamilton Is. They have been advertising low(er) cost deals. Maybe an alternative to Cairns.

well they would meet the "O/S" part of my plans

Accom looks to be cheap, but airfares aren't that great that I can find.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

Actually, from this thread, I'm learning where to go *later* (ie nice places that are good, but not so good on the Australia day weekend when everyone else wants to travel, and school holidays fares are in play)

 

[oz_mark]

Actually, from this thread, I'm learning where to go *later* (ie nice places that are good, but not so good on the Australia day weekend when everyone else wants to travel, and school holidays fares are in play)

...and Chinese New Year falls on that weekend!

 

[Mrmaxwell]

Why does $400 return on JQ to Bali scream 'stay away'?

This seems like a great AD O/S getaway for the money...

Edit: *Travel after Feb 3 my bad

 

[oz_mark]

I think its more the 3am transit in DRW that is screaming stay away!

 

[Mal]

Why does $400 return on JQ to Bali scream 'stay away'

It isn't the fare - it's the horrible Darwin stopovers (particularly coming back):

Brisbane - Darwin^ BNE DRW 12:35 16:10 320 JQ81 Daily
Darwin - Depasar^ DRW DPS 19:30 19:55 320 JQ81 Daily

Denpasar - Darwin^ DPS DRW 23:35 03:00 320 JQ82 Daily
Darwin - Brisbane^ DRW BNE 06:00 10:20 320 JQ82 Daily

Plus, they use the A320 on this route, whereas I'd prefer the A330.

 

[albatross710]

Jetstar have return to Whitsunday's on that Australia Day weekend for $89. Up on THursday, Back on Tuesday.

 

[munitalP]

MAL, if I wasn't doing a RTW a few days later, I would be thinking about Jakarta myself. The airfares are cheap, even FF J's are cheap! (EX Mel) - there are some very nice places south west of Jakarta - reasonably easy to get to and importantly - CHEAP!

Mr!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

You could always just go to Darwin for 3 days - it's almost like leaving the country as it's a bit of a multicultural melting pot.

Saturday you could visit the Parap Markets where a fruit shake and a laksa is a must. Locals go there mainly to eat but there are some good quality handicrafts to buy there as well for visitors to the NT.

In the afternoon you could visit the NT Museum and Art Gallery at Bullocky Point (admission is free) before having a cappuccino at the Cornucopia Cafe (on-site) overlooking the sea.

Dinner could be either at the Trailer Boat club which takes advantage of the great sunsets, Pee Wees at the Point or even Hanuman (next to Darwin Entertainment Centre in town) for excellent Indian, Thai or Nonya cuisine.

Sunday why not drive down to Litchfield National Park for the day. It's only a short 1 hour 15 mins down the road and you can go swimming at Buley Rockhole and Florence Falls (park admission is free) which is great.

Monday you could do a day tour by air (20 min flight from Darwin) to the Tiwi Islands for a cultural experience or drive to the Territory Wildlife Park 45 mins out of Darwin stopping off for a dip at the Berry Springs Nature Reserve on the way back or even the Kakadu Winery which contrary to its name is not at Kakadu but Yarrawonga (about 30 mins from Darwin's CBD).

There's even the Darwin Aviation Museum at Winnellie on the RAAF Base side of the airport on the Stuart Highway which is home to Australia's only B52 Bomber.

The general consensus from people visiting Darwin from down south is that "it's been great, it's just so relaxing". Anyway you'll just have to find out for yourselves.

All the best whatever destination you decide on.

Cheers

OBB

 

[Evan]

Nice tips OBB, makes me want to take a visit some weekend myself now !
E

 

[markis10]

I would have thought Darwin for Australia day would look like this:

Friday - Get drunk and wet
Saturday - Think about going out, get wet, get drunk
Sunday - Think aboout not going out, get wet, get drunk
Monday - Dry off, go home

Actually the suggestions made are very good, I would suggest it is much fairer to visit Darwin in the Dry, I enjoy my visits there for work on a regular basis.