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Australia Trip Report 2015
- Thread starter Cousin Orville
- Start date
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Thanks! Neither. Besides the ferry, we just used taxi's a few times going out to Darling Harbour and back. Everything else was within walking distance to our hotel. I'm not familiar with the Sunday Fun Day pass. I honestly didn't do a lot of research on Sydney before this trip. The attractions and restaurants we went to were all based off of advice here on the forums and tripadvisor.
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
It's a long flight. There's no getting around that.
I'll do my best to keep putting up some good pictures for now!
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
It's definitely a conundrum. While direct flights are preferable because of less on/off of the planes, and less overall travel time, the LONG stretch on one plane gets really old. I'm kind of looking forward to a stopover in Iceland on my way to London. 5 1/2 hours is the longest stretch, from Boston to Reykjavik.
Sayhello
TXTransplant
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2012
I was adamantly against booking any trip that required something other than a direct flight. Until I had the 11 hour flight home. Ugh...after about 8 hours, my hips and back hurt so badly that it felt like torture. I experienced the same pain on the flight to Frankfurt, but at 8 hours in, we only had about 30 or 40 minutes left on the flight. Coming home, we still had over two hours to go when the pain kicked in, and I was miserable. We are booked on the Amalfi Coast trip next year. I specifically scoped out flights to see which would be the shortest...looks like it's only about 8-8.5 hours from Newark to Rome. Gives me a good reason to leave early and spend a few pre-days in Rome
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
In regards to Australia and long flights, one option is to stop over in Hawaii or even LA and Hawaii. I seriously considered spending pre days in Hawaii and maybe going to Aulani but didn't have the time.
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Prenight 4 - Sydney to Cairns
Today is largely a travel day. Our afternoon flight wasn't until 1:30, so we had some time to walk around and get breakfast. I'm a collector of Starbucks city mugs and we had not made it there yet, so off we went. There's an easy Starbucks by Circular Quay which is by the Hyatt, so it was maybe a 15 min walk and we were there. Gavin always gets a blueberry muffin no matter what Starbucks in the world we're at. For better or worse, there's only one city in Australia we're visiting that has Starbucks so only one mug to bring back home. China had 5 - my bag was getting a little heavy from mugs by the end of the trip.
After breakfast we walked back through The Rocks on the way back to the hotel. There's a cool 3 sided statue in The Rocks dedicated to the original "settlers" of Australia 200+ years ago - the soldier, the prison, and the free pioneers. That's Gavin posing in the soldier side of the statue.
Our flight was uneventful flying Qantas from Sydney to Cairns. It's about a 2.5 hr flight north. Once we got off the plane we could tell Cairns was much warmer than Sydney. Our driver was there to greet us at baggage claim as usual with his ABD sign. This means we didn't have to mess with our luggage for the next 12 days!
The hotel is actually in Palm Cove which is a small beachside resort community 30 min north of Cairns. The hotel is very tropical in style with an open air design. It's similar to hotels in Hawaii or the hotel in Hoi An, Vietnam on that ABD. I would say the Pullman Sea Temple Resort is older and not as luxurious as the hotel in Hoi An or similar hotels in Hawaii, but it was fine. Palm Cove itself is lovely and I take it the town is conveniently located to all the activities we're doing Queensland. The next day we took a small (Non ABD) group tour and stopped at a number of the hotels in Palm Cove and Port Douglas further north. I though our hotel seemed to be the nicest we stopped at. The rooms are like little apartments with a living and dining room with a washer and dryer. We had a nice view that overlooked the pool.
We walked out to the beach were you can easily walk into the small town 5 min away. There are lots of signs warning you to beware of crocs and jellyfish when swimming. Still there were a few people swimming and lots swimming up at Port Douglas the next day. No thanks. I think I'll pass. Maybe they all know something I don't, but getting stung by a jellyfish is not on my "must-do" list. The little down of Palm Cove is nice and compact. There's only a couple of blocks of restaurants all sitting beach front. It seemed pretty easy to find a place to eat. But Gavin and I headed back to the resort to eat at the hotel restaurant. We were tired, wanted to be closer to the room and it had good trip advisor review. We both had local fish. Tasty. Not stunning, but it was very good.
Gavin went off to bed while I finished some laundry. There was a wedding that was partying below us much of the evening. They were having a great time. Looked like a nice place for a wedding reception.
Tomorrow begins the official ABD Day 1 in the evening. During the day we had arranged a tour up to the rain forrest. Until then....
The WiFi is becoming increasingly spotty, so it might be a couple of days before I post anymore photos after today. We'll see.
Today is largely a travel day. Our afternoon flight wasn't until 1:30, so we had some time to walk around and get breakfast. I'm a collector of Starbucks city mugs and we had not made it there yet, so off we went. There's an easy Starbucks by Circular Quay which is by the Hyatt, so it was maybe a 15 min walk and we were there. Gavin always gets a blueberry muffin no matter what Starbucks in the world we're at. For better or worse, there's only one city in Australia we're visiting that has Starbucks so only one mug to bring back home. China had 5 - my bag was getting a little heavy from mugs by the end of the trip.
After breakfast we walked back through The Rocks on the way back to the hotel. There's a cool 3 sided statue in The Rocks dedicated to the original "settlers" of Australia 200+ years ago - the soldier, the prison, and the free pioneers. That's Gavin posing in the soldier side of the statue.
Our flight was uneventful flying Qantas from Sydney to Cairns. It's about a 2.5 hr flight north. Once we got off the plane we could tell Cairns was much warmer than Sydney. Our driver was there to greet us at baggage claim as usual with his ABD sign. This means we didn't have to mess with our luggage for the next 12 days!
The hotel is actually in Palm Cove which is a small beachside resort community 30 min north of Cairns. The hotel is very tropical in style with an open air design. It's similar to hotels in Hawaii or the hotel in Hoi An, Vietnam on that ABD. I would say the Pullman Sea Temple Resort is older and not as luxurious as the hotel in Hoi An or similar hotels in Hawaii, but it was fine. Palm Cove itself is lovely and I take it the town is conveniently located to all the activities we're doing Queensland. The next day we took a small (Non ABD) group tour and stopped at a number of the hotels in Palm Cove and Port Douglas further north. I though our hotel seemed to be the nicest we stopped at. The rooms are like little apartments with a living and dining room with a washer and dryer. We had a nice view that overlooked the pool.
We walked out to the beach were you can easily walk into the small town 5 min away. There are lots of signs warning you to beware of crocs and jellyfish when swimming. Still there were a few people swimming and lots swimming up at Port Douglas the next day. No thanks. I think I'll pass. Maybe they all know something I don't, but getting stung by a jellyfish is not on my "must-do" list. The little down of Palm Cove is nice and compact. There's only a couple of blocks of restaurants all sitting beach front. It seemed pretty easy to find a place to eat. But Gavin and I headed back to the resort to eat at the hotel restaurant. We were tired, wanted to be closer to the room and it had good trip advisor review. We both had local fish. Tasty. Not stunning, but it was very good.
Gavin went off to bed while I finished some laundry. There was a wedding that was partying below us much of the evening. They were having a great time. Looked like a nice place for a wedding reception.
Tomorrow begins the official ABD Day 1 in the evening. During the day we had arranged a tour up to the rain forrest. Until then....
The WiFi is becoming increasingly spotty, so it might be a couple of days before I post anymore photos after today. We'll see.
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
I collect the Starbucks city mugs as well--so good to know I need to get one in Sydney (we booked this trip for June 2016)!
*WDW*Groupie*
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
I also collect Starbucks mugs. Though I wasn't crazy about the Sydney one, I bought it anyway. Sounds like I might need an additional bag for mugs on our China ABD next year lol!
Enjoy every minute of your adventure! You are going to love the Great Barrier Reef. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me. Another fantastic moment was star gazing in Uluru. If you have the time I also advise to walk to one of the viewing areas to watch the sky change colors over Ayers Rock (unfortunately the sun doesn't set behind the rock).
Enjoy every minute of your adventure! You are going to love the Great Barrier Reef. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me. Another fantastic moment was star gazing in Uluru. If you have the time I also advise to walk to one of the viewing areas to watch the sky change colors over Ayers Rock (unfortunately the sun doesn't set behind the rock).
*WDW*Groupie*
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
The direct portion of our flight was 15 hours. I can honestly say I was dreading it, but it wasn't that bad. Two movies, a meal and some sleeping. Coming back was a bit harder because we left in the morning so it was difficult to sleep just a few hours after waking up! It didn't help that some of the good movies were ones I'd already seen. Thankfully I had a long book loaded on my iPad and that occupied a large portion of my time. I also walk a lot up and down the aisles and talk to the flight attendants.
Quite a few families on our trip either stopped in Hawaii on the way there or were stopping on the way home. Hawaii is approx. a 9 hour flight from Sydney. We were at Aulani last year and dd needed to get back home for another 2 week riding competition, so we flew direct (15 hours + another 5 hours). I joke that the 13 hour flight to Bejing next year will be a breeze.
If you want to visit Australia, I wouldn't let the distance get in the way of stopping you. It is such an AMAZING place to visit. The ABD surpasses all expectations; they cover a lot of ground and you will feel like you have seen a lot of the country. I can't say enough good things about it.
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Yeah, it's a great room. And it's nice to have a washer and dryer right there. The think I like most, is they have a nice balcony with a little sofa and coffee table. The weather has been very nice and it's nice to hang out there in the evenings.Wow! Your room looks huge! Maybe not fancy, but it looks nice! And is that Gavin's sea shell take for the day?
I'm with you. I wouldn't swim with those kinds of warnings! No way!
Sayhello
Yes, Gavin is definitely a collector of things. So, when on the beach, he hunts for sea shells.
Last edited:
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Yes there's one for Sydney and one for Australia if you collect the country mugs too. I just got the city mug, but I liked the Australian design so I bought that tumbler. They also had mugs for the Gold Coast and I think Brisbane for sale too, but I didn't get either of those since I wasn't visiting those cities.
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Yep. That's been my view of the China and SE Asia ABDs as well. The flights seem daunting when planing the trip, but they weren't that bad. I don't want to minimize them, and I can certainly see the appeal to break up the flight. However, the Asian ABD's have been well worth it, and the Australian ABD is shaping up to be just as great.
sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
I can imaging how nice it would be to have a washer/dryer right there & start the rest of your trip with all fresh clothes!
And I wonder where Gavin got that "collector" thing from?
Sayhello
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Day 1 - Cairns (Palm Cove)
Today's our first official ABD day! Again, our hotel is located in Palm Cove, a beach community 30min north of Cairns. And all our adventuring will be between the areas of Cairns, Palm Cove and Port Douglas. Today we don't meet up with our ABD group until 5:00pm so we scheduled a full day trip up to the Rain Forrest on our own. We'll visit the Mossman Gorge, have lunch in the rainforest, and take a cruise down the Daintree River. None of this is repeated on the ABD, so if you arrive in Palm Cove a day or so early, it's an option. Otherwise, I think you seem with ABD most of the highlights in this area.
We were picked up by our guide from Down Under Tours at 8:05 (much better than the 7am pickup from Cairns hotels). We picked up a couple of other passengers from Palm Cove and some from Pour Douglas. I think there were 15-20 in all. We stopped off for Tea and biscuits at the Mossman Gorge Welcome Center. They offered fresh honey and jam and were very good.
From there we took a "Dreamtime Walk-about" with a local Aboriginal guide. He was a wonderful guide, and was very engaging. He started by inviting us to walk around the fire as a welcoming custom. We followed him through the rainforest where he would show us how the Aborigines would gather food, communicate with one another from long distances away, make boomerangs, and avoid incredibly innocent looking but dangerous plants that when touched implant micro shards similar to fiberglass but with a massive painful rash that comes along with it. The mild hike was about an hour long.
We drove on to lunch which was in a local, very secluded resort in the rainforest. We had the local fish, Barramundi, but there were other options. It was a beautiful setting overlooking the rainforest and river below.
Our last major event was a cruise down the Daintree river looking for Crocs. We had another local guide that drove us down the river. He was your classic Crocodile Dundee guy. We saw 7-8 crocs which apparently is pretty good. He also pointed out many birds and lots of his favorites plants. This one.. that one.. that one over there... (Sorry, that's my bad Jungle Cruise joke). It really was a cool cruise and I highly recommend it.
From there we drove around a local sugar mill, which I pretty much fell asleep through. And then on to Port Douglas to a brief lookout point overlooking the beach and Cora Sea. Magnificent! We had about 20-30 minutes in Port Douglas to look around and shop. It's bigger than Palm Cove, but less interesting or picturesque IMO. And onward home.
It was a great tour and I recommend it. The one caveat is it's all day, which didn't mind us. But there's no time between when we got back and the welcome dinner. In fact the night before I texted our guides to let them know we might be a few minutes late from the estimated time we were to get back. She said that was totally fine. It ended up being about 10-15 min late which was not a problem at all.
And the ABD starts! We met our guides, Suzanne and Amber. Lovely guides. Very outgoing. The classic ABD guides you would want on your trip. Our group has 31 guests which I think is a good size. Dinner was ok. Certainly not bad. Not outstanding. The setting was much nicer than previous ABD intro dinners (thinking about China and Backstage Magic's generic, hotel small meeting rooms). The resort has a deck area off it's restaurant that you can see in my pictures on the right side. The torches are all lit. It was very tropical and beautiful. Dinner was family style with chicken, sausage and kangaroo.
Seems like a great group of travelers and great guides. We're off to an excellent start.
Today's our first official ABD day! Again, our hotel is located in Palm Cove, a beach community 30min north of Cairns. And all our adventuring will be between the areas of Cairns, Palm Cove and Port Douglas. Today we don't meet up with our ABD group until 5:00pm so we scheduled a full day trip up to the Rain Forrest on our own. We'll visit the Mossman Gorge, have lunch in the rainforest, and take a cruise down the Daintree River. None of this is repeated on the ABD, so if you arrive in Palm Cove a day or so early, it's an option. Otherwise, I think you seem with ABD most of the highlights in this area.
We were picked up by our guide from Down Under Tours at 8:05 (much better than the 7am pickup from Cairns hotels). We picked up a couple of other passengers from Palm Cove and some from Pour Douglas. I think there were 15-20 in all. We stopped off for Tea and biscuits at the Mossman Gorge Welcome Center. They offered fresh honey and jam and were very good.
From there we took a "Dreamtime Walk-about" with a local Aboriginal guide. He was a wonderful guide, and was very engaging. He started by inviting us to walk around the fire as a welcoming custom. We followed him through the rainforest where he would show us how the Aborigines would gather food, communicate with one another from long distances away, make boomerangs, and avoid incredibly innocent looking but dangerous plants that when touched implant micro shards similar to fiberglass but with a massive painful rash that comes along with it. The mild hike was about an hour long.
We drove on to lunch which was in a local, very secluded resort in the rainforest. We had the local fish, Barramundi, but there were other options. It was a beautiful setting overlooking the rainforest and river below.
Our last major event was a cruise down the Daintree river looking for Crocs. We had another local guide that drove us down the river. He was your classic Crocodile Dundee guy. We saw 7-8 crocs which apparently is pretty good. He also pointed out many birds and lots of his favorites plants. This one.. that one.. that one over there... (Sorry, that's my bad Jungle Cruise joke). It really was a cool cruise and I highly recommend it.
From there we drove around a local sugar mill, which I pretty much fell asleep through. And then on to Port Douglas to a brief lookout point overlooking the beach and Cora Sea. Magnificent! We had about 20-30 minutes in Port Douglas to look around and shop. It's bigger than Palm Cove, but less interesting or picturesque IMO. And onward home.
It was a great tour and I recommend it. The one caveat is it's all day, which didn't mind us. But there's no time between when we got back and the welcome dinner. In fact the night before I texted our guides to let them know we might be a few minutes late from the estimated time we were to get back. She said that was totally fine. It ended up being about 10-15 min late which was not a problem at all.
And the ABD starts! We met our guides, Suzanne and Amber. Lovely guides. Very outgoing. The classic ABD guides you would want on your trip. Our group has 31 guests which I think is a good size. Dinner was ok. Certainly not bad. Not outstanding. The setting was much nicer than previous ABD intro dinners (thinking about China and Backstage Magic's generic, hotel small meeting rooms). The resort has a deck area off it's restaurant that you can see in my pictures on the right side. The torches are all lit. It was very tropical and beautiful. Dinner was family style with chicken, sausage and kangaroo.
Seems like a great group of travelers and great guides. We're off to an excellent start.
Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Day 1 - Cairns (Palm Cove)
Our tour on our own before the ABD introduction dinner:
Here’s our morning view from the Palm Cove resort. In the upper lefthand corner is the beach and crocodile access.
We’re on way to the Mossman Gorge and Daintree Rainforest.
Before beginning our Dreamtime Walk", our Aborigine guide invited us to walk through the smoke as a welcoming ceremony
Our guide point out a (for now very small) highly dangerous plant. Stand Back!
We indicate ranking similar to military stripes - the more you have the higher your rank is.
Our lunch had beautiful views overlooking the rainforest and river.
Shifting gears, our cruise along the river searching for crocs has paid off! Here’s the first lazy guy we found.
Our guide, probably explaining why it’s important not to stick you hand too far outside the boat.
We’ve spotted some fellow cruisers. G’day!
Lazy, lazy, lazy…
Before heading back, we stopped off at a lookout point in Port Douglas. Beautiful beaches.
Our tour on our own before the ABD introduction dinner:
Here’s our morning view from the Palm Cove resort. In the upper lefthand corner is the beach and crocodile access.
We’re on way to the Mossman Gorge and Daintree Rainforest.
Before beginning our Dreamtime Walk", our Aborigine guide invited us to walk through the smoke as a welcoming ceremony
Our guide point out a (for now very small) highly dangerous plant. Stand Back!
We indicate ranking similar to military stripes - the more you have the higher your rank is.
Our lunch had beautiful views overlooking the rainforest and river.
Shifting gears, our cruise along the river searching for crocs has paid off! Here’s the first lazy guy we found.
Our guide, probably explaining why it’s important not to stick you hand too far outside the boat.
We’ve spotted some fellow cruisers. G’day!
Lazy, lazy, lazy…
Before heading back, we stopped off at a lookout point in Port Douglas. Beautiful beaches.
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