Budget Camps and Stops Australia

Camping Around Tasmania

Cool Camping Australia: East Coast

Camping Around Northern Territory

1000 Great Places Travel with Kids in Australia

Back Roads Australia (DK Eyewitness Travel Back Roads)

Travel Australia

Explore Australia by Caravan and Motorhome

West Coast Australia Footprint Handbook (Footprint Handbooks)

Pet Accommodation on Australia’s East Coast

Explore Australia 2012

To the Top End: Our Trip Across Australia

Complete Caravan Chef

Holiday in South Australia

Holiday in Western Australia: Free and Low-cost Stops

Great Gift Ideas For Anyone Who Loves Camping and Travelling Australia

 Australia’s favourite holiday park provider, BIG4 Holiday Parks, is adding a sweetener for those planning a spring getaway by offering a ‘Stay 4, Pay 3’ promotion during the months of September, October AND November.

 Holiday-makers can extend their long weekend by an extra day for free, at more than 40 participating BIG4 Parks located at some of Australia’s top tourist spots. Families and individuals may choose to follow the sun to warm Airlie Beach in Queensland, take in the breathtaking views of the Flinders Ranges at Port Augusta in South Australia, or enjoy a quiet weekend in quaint Queenscliff in Victoria – the options are endless.

 BIG4 Holiday Parks participating in the ‘Stay 4, Pay 3’ promotion include:

• BIG4 Narooma Easts Holiday Park, Narooma NSW
• BIG4 Moruya Heads Easts Dolphin Beach Holiday Park, Moruya Heads NSW
• BIG4 South Durras Holiday Park, South Durras NSW
• BIG4 Nambucca Beach Holiday Park, Nambucca NSW
• BIG4 Bathurst Panorama Holiday Park, Bathurst NSW
• BIG4 Valley Vineyard Tourist Park, Cessnock NSW
• Twofold Bay Beach Resort, Eden NSW
• BIG4 Lake Macquarie Monterey Tourist Park, Lake Macquarie NSW
• BIG4 Lakeside Holiday Park, Mulwala NSW
• BIG4 Saltwater @ Yamba Holiday Park, Yamba NSW
• BIG4 Beachfront Holiday Resort, Tuncurry NSW
• BIG4 Bungalow Park, Burrill Lake NSW
• Easts Beach Holiday Park Kiama, Kiama NSW
• BIG4 Broulee Beach Holiday Park, Broulee
• BIG4 Point Vernon Holiday Park, Hervey Bay QLD
• BIG4 Tweed Billabong Holiday Park, Tweed Heads QLD
• BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort, Airlie Beach QLD
• BIG4 Beachcomber Coconut Caravan Village, Mission Beach QLD
• BIG4 Port Douglas Glengarry Holiday Park, Port Douglas QLD
• BIG4 Brisbane Gateway Resort, Brisbane QLD
• Discovery Holiday Parks – Robe, Robe SA
• Port Augusta BIG4 Holiday Park, Port Augusta SA
• BIG4 Porepunkah Holiday Park, Porepunkah VIC
• BIG4 Parkgate Resort, Halls Gap VIC
• BIG4 Castlemaine Gardens Holiday Park, Castlemaine VIC
• BIG4 Beacon Resort, Queenscliff VIC
• BIG4 Port Fairy, Port Fairy VIC
• BIG4 Badger Creek Holiday Park, Healesville VIC
• BIG4 Swan Hill, Swan Hill VIC
• BIG4 Riverside Swan Hill VIC
• BIG4 Whiters Holiday Village, Lakes Entrance VIC
• A Shady River Holiday Park, Echuca-Moama VIC
• Ashley Gardens BIG4 Holiday Village, Braybrook VIC
• Geelong Riverview Tourist Park, Geelong VIC
• Golden River Holiday Park, Mildura VIC
• Boathaven Holiday Park, Wodonga VIC
• BIG4 Inverloch Holiday Park, Inverloch VIC
• BIG4 Waters Edge Holiday Park, Lakes Entrance VIC
• BIG4 Wye River Holiday Park, Wye River VIC
• BIG4 Phillip Island Caravan Park, Phillip Island VIC
• BIG4 Plantation Caravan Park, Carnarvon WA
• BIG4 Albany Gardens Holiday Resort, Albany WA
• Woodman Point Holiday Park, Fremantle WA
• Perth Vineyards Holiday Park, Swan Valley WA

BIG4 Holiday Parks’ General Manager of Marketing, Kari Hunter, says the promotion falls at a perfect time, giving people the opportunity to take a well deserved short break before their summer holidays come around in the lead up to the warmer months.

“The extra night allows another whole day of quality time together seeing the local sights and attractions, adding more value to a weekend away from home. The added incentive is a great motivation for everyone to treat themselves to a longer break than usual, something the average Australian doesn’t seem to do enough of,” Kari says.

 BIG4 Holiday Parks offers an impressive range of accommodation styles and facilities that are perfect for all groups. Those travelling light or in bigger groups can relax in luxury style cabins with private decks and spacious bedrooms. For caravanners or campers pitching tents, a spacious grassy powered site or convenient ensuite site will ensure a great night sleep is guaranteed under the stars.

For more information about BIG4 Holiday Parks around Australia, please visit BIG4.com.au

Melbourne has an amazing range of attractions for all ages like the Federation Square. Melbourne River Cruises, Eureka Skydeck 88, Melbourne Zoo, Royal Exhibition Buildings, National Wool Museum, Captain Cook’s Cottage and many more including these attractions.
www.visitmelbourne.com

Melbourne Museum – Explore and Discover

The Melbourne Museum always has an extroadinary list of exhibitions, a Discovery Centre, an IMAX theatre and an Education Centre for students and teachers.
Melbourne Museum houses a permanent collection in eight galleries, including one just for kids. The museum is located in Carlton Gardens, opposite the historic Royal Exhibition Building.  www.museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum

Crown Casino Melbourne – The Entertainment Centre

The Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex is an absolutely amazing building, I have been to an awards ceremony night it was a spectacular night, walking through the ‘Crown’ is just an amazing experience I highly recommend it to everyone. The ‘Crown’ is located on the south bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne.

The complex includes luxury hotel accommodation, the Palladium Room is Melbourne’s grandest ballroom, the Promanade Room, River Room, Garden Room, Conderence Hall and much more.

The Crown Casino is the largest casino in the southern hemisphere, has a license for 350 table games and 2,500 poker machines. If you want to play online
casinos visit the best online casino poker review website www.casino.org/australia/

The Crown Entertainment Complex includes several nightclubs, a Village Cinema complex and multiple restaurants, food courts and a variety of shops. The Water features have to be seen to be believed, they are featured both inside and outside the Crown casino complex.  www.crowncasino.com.au

Melbourne Aquarium

Melbourne Aquarium is a Southern Ocean and Antarctic aquarium and It is located on the banks of the Yarra River. See aquatic creatures from many different worlds.

Get up close to giant stingrays, sharks and hundreds of amazing fish.

Go to Antarctica with Australia’s only King and Gentoo penguins in their icy new home, viewing areas let you Watch them swim from underwaterand you can walk beside them as they frolick on the snow covered ice.

Then experience the Weird & Wonderful and most beautiful and bizarre marine species, including spiky lionfish, dangerous stonefish, huge crabs, and stunning sea-dragons.

Enjoy the amazing journey from River to Reef and experience a wild jungle with extraordinary freshwater animals, that include sharks, sawfish and Australia’s largest freshwater fish the Murray Cod. Also explore beautiful billabongs and lagoons, rocky reefs, a spectacular floor to ceiling Coral and sea-jellies.

Experience Sharks Alive and be surrounded by 360 degree views of ferocious sharks, massive stingrays, turtles and hundreds of schooling fish in the 2.2 million litre oceanarium.
www.melbourneaquarium.com.au

See Melbourne Discount Card

Free entry to over 35 top Melbourne attractions  and things to do for one low price!

Your ‘See Melbourne’ & Beyond Attractions Pass will give you the chance to discover everything that Melbourne and its surrounding regions has to offer. The pass comes with a full colour travel guide so you can plan your itinerary easily. The pass is valid for 12 months.  www.seemelbournecard.com

There is no reason why you can’t have a great holiday when working with a limited budget. You may wish to stay in a 5-star hotel but in reality you will probably be staying in a tent, cabin, motel, backpackers, homestead, which my family has done plenty of times and we had many wonderful holidays.

Plan your holiday within your budget so it can be relaxing and you are not stressing about what you are spending. You can still get out and see all the sights, enjoy being with family and friends and meet new people. There are many free activities that you can enjoy. Don’t forget to take plenty of photos or videos so you can create memories to look back on in the years ahead.

Depending on your budget, it may be possible to treat yourselves to something special that you have always wanted to do. This could be hot air ballooning, abseiling, swimming with dolphins, scuba diving, playing golf, visiting gardens or art galleries, seeing the whales, going on a flight, seeing Uluru (Ayers Rock), or experiencing one of thousands of other things you can do.

Remember that the little extras can quickly add up. Consider taxi fares, restaurant meals, takeaway food, drinks, fuel for your vehicle or car rental, tips, entry prices for attractions, souvenirs and any medications you may need. Allow for all these things in your budget. Plan ahead, budget and you will have a great holiday.

If you are planning your holiday months or even a year ahead, be smart and start saving now. Put away as much as you can into a separate account or somewhere else so you won’t be tempted to spend it.

Even if you are on a budget you can have a great time and holiday, there are many activities you can do for free.

Look out for them, sometimes they can be the highlight of your holiday. Happy Travelling!

For those readers who are self disciplined, rewards credit cards can be used to their advantage. When such individuals are shopping for a new credit card, they should get one that rewards them for utilizing it. Then, they would be wise to use it for absolutely everything that they possibly can, while paying off the balance every month. Ten helpful tips for using rewards credit cards follow below.

1. Reward Cards Only Reward People for Not Carrying a Balance

Because rewards credit cards typically come with higher interest rates than credit cards without rewards, the only way to efficiently and effectively utilize them to your advantage is to pay them off in full every month. If you carry the balance month in and month out, you’ll end up more in interest charges than you make in rewards cash and prizes. By paying off the bill every month, you make the reward card work for you, instead of the other way around.

2. Higher Levels of Spending Give Greater Rewards

Most credit cards feature the clause “rewards up to” some percent, which in reality translates to them usually paying lower rewards than the stated up to percentage rate. Only once you hit a higher volume of spending per month will the full percentage actually kick in.

3. Be Aware of What the Rewards Cost

There is always a cost in points to get a reward and sometimes these turn out to be not so rewarding. For example, if a you are required to spend more than $10,000 in a single year in order to attain a $50 gift card, then the reward is hardly worth the effort required in terms of managing your account. And there’s always the likelihood that in that $10,000 spend are various useless items, which are nothing more than a waste of money.

4. Frequent Flyer Rewards Require Many Significant Dollar Purchases

Frequent flyer schemes are terrific reward programs, but mostly only for those who actually charge large dollar amounts frequently on their credit cards. For someone who doesn’t use their credit card frequently, you could be waiting a long time before you reach the qualifying level for a single free flight reward. If you only charge things occasionally you are better served to find a credit card that rewards for lower spending levels with cash back or shopping vouchers.

5. Filling Stations Give Extra Generous Reward Points

Fuel reward credit cards have grown massively in popularity as a result of the higher price of fuel. These cards can prove to be inordinately generous – many of them even offer five percent cash back on every purchase! This typically covers any purchase made inside of their convenience stores, as well.

6. Rewards Cards with Annual Fees are Not Rewarding

There is little point to a rewards credit card that features an annual fee, especially a hefty one! Anyone who is made to pay a $30 membership fee per year will likely need to spend fully $3,000 before being able to achieve a reward. The only case where annual fee reward cards still make sense are when eiher double frequent flyer miles or double points are on offer.

7. Understand That Rewards Have Limits

Most cards feature maximum earnings on their reward programs for a year – this really matters and is something you need to be aware of. For a fuel reward credit card that pays a generous five percent cash back but then cuts it off after $300 in purchases, the rewards potential is significantly limited.

8. Use Reward Credit Cards to Pay Bills

A faster way to build up rewards is to use your card to pay off any outstanding household bills or business expenses. Using a rewards card in this manner can quickly generate substantial amounts of rewards in a relatively short amount of time.

9. Understanding the Difference Between Pleasure Points and Cash Back

Points that credit cards give members to use for the purchase of shopping, travel, or restaurants are not cash back – these could be called pleasure points. The most important thing in choosing a rewards card to earn such ‘pleasure points’ lies in getting one that offers rewards you will actually use. Earning points for a particular chain of shops isn’t much good when they don’t have any stores anywhere near where you live.

10. Never Let Rewards Expire Unused

As silly as this sounds, it happens all of the time. Most rewards credit cards come with some fine print about expiration dates. They keep this quiet in the hope that you will simply not redeem your points before the deadline arrives. Find out what this expiration date is, be it a year or two years, and then mark your calendar!

David is the co-founder and travel writer for FrequentFlyerCreditCards.com.au where you can compare credit cards for frequent flyers from airlines such as Qantas and read more free tips like this blog post.

—————————————————————————

Start planning your road trip adventure.

www.travel-australia-planning-guide.com/road-trip-planner.html

********************

!. The total distance is about 20,000km around Australia. 

CORRECT including Central Australia and Tasmania

2. At 100km/h it will take you 200 hours or eight and a half days of continuous driving   

WRONG  Not possible to drive 100km/h everywhere

3. You will want to stop and look at things so allow about five hours driving per day  

YOUR KIDDING Not allowing for any sight seeing/rest days. Driving every day is not a holiday.

 4. It will take you 40 days. 

The world record is 25 days – 2 men driving virtually non stop

5. I would allow an extra two weeks for stops and diversions making about eight weeks for the journey.  

Eight weeks is the absolute minimum to drive around half of the mainland and you would not be seeing much along the way – 3 or 4 months or more  is the recommended length of time.

************************

Planning to Drive around Australia is not to be taken lightly, I have heard of a basic trip being done in 4 months, usually the suggested time is at least 6 months, even better is 8 to 12 months. To actually enjoy the trip  extra days need to be included so you not driving everyday, as it is easy to stay in many places for a week or two.  Some travellers drive for 2 years and are still going. Australia is HUGE!!

If you are planning to travel interstate, some of the states have school holidays at the same time and some of the others may overlap one week.

Autumn Holidays – SA and ACT have same holidays 16th April to 1st May, Victoria and NSW have same holidays 9th April to 24th April. WA, QLD, NT and TAS overlap one week with the above states or territories.

Winter Holidays – SA, WA, ACT have same holidays 9th July to 24th July, VIC and NSW have same holidays 2nd July to 17th July and they overlap one week. QLD has 2 weeks holiday same time as NT does. TAS holidays don’t match any other states or territories.

Spring Holidays – SA, WA, ACT have same holidays 1st October to 16th October, NSW, VIC have same holidays 24th September to 9th October. QLD overlaps one week with NSW & VIC. NT holidays overlap with NSW, VIC, SA, WA, ACT. TAS holidays don’t match other states or territories.

South Australia
School Starts Monday 31st January 2011
Autumn Holidays Saturday 16th April to Sunday 1st May
Winter Holidays Saturday 9th July to Sunday 24th July
Spring Holidays Saturday 1st October to Sunday 16th October
Summer Holidays start Saturday 17th December

Tasmania
School starts in the North and North West, Tuesday 15th February 2011
School starts in the South, Wednesday 16th February 2011
Easter break Friday, 22nd April to Sunday 1st May
Winter Holidays Saturday 4th June to Sunday 18th June
Spring Holidays Saturday 3rd September to Sunday 18th September
Summer Holidays Friday 21st December

Western Australia
School Starts Wednesday 2nd February 2011
Autumn Holidays Friday 22nd April to Sunday 8th May
Winter Holidays Saturday 9th July to Sunday 24th July
Spring Holidays Saturday 1st October to Sunday 16th October
Summer Holidays start Friday 16th December

Victoria
School Starts 1st February 2011
Autumn Holidays Saturday 9th April to Sunday 24th April
Winter Holidays Saturday 2nd July to Sunday17th July
Spring Holidays Saturday 24th September to Sunday 9th October
Summer Holidays start 23rd December

Australian Capital Territory
School starts Friday 4th February
Autumn Holidays Saturday 16th April to Sunday 1st May
Winter Holidays Saturday 9th July to Sunday 24th July
Spring Holidays Saturday 1st October to Sunday 16th October
Summer Holidays start Thursday 22nd December

Queensland
School starts Monday 24th January
Autumn Holidays Saturday 16th April to Sunday 24th April
Winter Holidays Saturday 25th June to Sunday 10th July
Spring Holidays Saturday 17th September
Summer Holidays start Saturday 10th December

New South Wales
School Starts Friday 28th January 2011
Autumn Holidays Saturday 9th April to Sunday 24th April
Winter Holidays Saturday 2nd July to Sunday 17th July
Spring Holidays Sunday 24th September to Sunday 9th October
Summer Holidays start Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Northern Territory
School starts Monday 24th January 2011 to Friday 1st April
Autumn Holidays Saturday 2nd April to Sunday 10th April
Winter Holidays Saturday 25th June to Sunday 24th July
Spring Holiday Saturday1st October to Sunday 9th October
Summer Holidays start 17th December

Public Holidays 2011
Monday 3 January – New Years Day
Wednesday 26 January – Australia Day
Friday 22 April – Good Friday
Saturday 23 April – Easter Saturday
Monday 25 April – Easter Monday
Monday 25 April – Anzac Day
Monday 13 June – Queen’s Birthday
Monday 26 December – Christmas Day
Tuesday 27 December – Boxing Day

This map shows Where the Barkly Highway crosses into Queensland to Mount Isa and then continue driving south through Charlieville to Dubbo.

South Australia Tourist Information
Eucla to Ceduna is 481 kms
Border Village is just over the state border and so is the Nullarbor National Park then you will travel through the small towns of Nundroo and Penong and stay a night or two at Ceduna, If you are looking for adventure Ceduna Adventure may have something to suit you.

If you are in a hurry you can drive inland from Ceduna to Port Augusta which is about 470 kms vis Kyancutta and Kimba.

Ceduna to Port Lincoln is a drive of 410 kms

After Ceduna is Streaky Bay and the start of the beautiful Eyre Peninsula, you will plenty of things to do in the Eyre peninsula area, nature attractions, beautiful beaches, scenery and adventure including the Great Australian Bight Marine Park

Port Lincoln to Port Augusta 278 kms – On your way to Port Augusta you will travel through Whyalla.

Port Augusta is a cross road between many towns, you can head north to Coober Pedy, Alice Springs and Darwin. east to Broken Hill, south to Adelaide and of course west to Perth. This driving trip from Eucla to Port Augusta vis the Eyre Peninsula can be as relaxing or adventurous as you want it to be. Use the weblinks to help you find accommodation, places to visit etc.

View Eucla to Port Augusta in a larger map

Plan and Prepare For Your Own Aussie Adventure

These online maps and travel planners will help you get visual look at your itinerary and a better perspective on where you are going.

Google Maps and video showing How to create a Map

Street-Directory Street, Business & Accommodation Directory – Australia & New Zealand Road Map

Drive There Trip Planner From The NRMA

Travel Planner From the RACQ

Route Planner From Tourism Vic – covers all of Oz

Swaggie Travel Planner

Travel Mate Map Maker

World Wide Planners

Planitonearth – Webjet’s free trip planning and budgeting tool

Round The World Trip Planner

Use these online maps and trip planning tools to plan and find out how to travel australia organise your next adventure holiday.

GET ALL the information you need for an unforgettable driving, camping and Travel Adventure In Australia!