Viewing 35 posts - 1 through 35 (of 35 total)
  • Suggestions for places to visit in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore
  • cleetonator
    Full Member

    Calling on the STW hivemind for some holiday itinerary suggestions
    Mrs Cleetonator and I have just booked a 5 week long holiday over the christmas this year and are looking for ideas of things to do in all the legs of our journey.
    To start there’s a week in Hong Kong, followed by east coast Australia, hopefully driving from Cairns to Sydney over 3 weeks, and finally 5 days in Singapore.
    We’re both rather outdoorsy, enjoy photography and the Mrs is mental for any kind of cute animal…

    All suggestions welcomed for places to stop/eat/visit in any location

    BillOddie
    Full Member

    The zoos in singapore are ace, especially the night zoo.

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    Been a while since I went, enjoyed all these places.

    Reef (obv)

    http://www.missionbeachtourism.com/

    Homepage

    Blue Mountains

    Hunter Valley

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    cleetonator
    Full Member

    With the Mrs being crazy for animals, the brief itinerary we’ve pulled together felt like we were attempting to visit every zoo in the southern hemisphere. That said Singapore zoo is a possibility, along with Australia Zoo.
    Torn between snorkelling on the Reef or paying and going out on some scuba trips. I’d prefer diving, but Mrs C has never tried and isn’t convinced she’d enjoy it.

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    I’d prefer diving, but Mrs C has never tried and isn’t convinced she’d enjoy it.

    Almost every day trip will offer both.

    Andy_B
    Full Member

    Nelsons Bay area is worth stopping at around 3 hours north of Sydney. There will be plenty of dolphin watching boat trips but you will be a bit late for whale watching. There are great beaches as well but that box should be well and truly ticked by then.

    Katoomba / 3 sisters in the Blue Mountains.

    See what’s on at the Opera House, eat Thai food, Sydney Aquarium is good.

    beanum
    Full Member

    There was a Singapore thread on here a while ago, it helped me plan where to go when I was there.
    It’s worth spending the extortionate prices at the Marina Bay SkyBar for the night view of Singapore..:-)

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    My trip to Fraiser Island still sticks in my mind 17 years later. It’s a massive lump of sand and a big rock in the ocean you get to by ferry. There are hotels there but we camped. Huge fresh water lakes in the interior, if you climb the rock you could see tiger sharks chasing big schools of fish and eagles nesting in the more remote park of the rock, not sure of the type but bloody massive.

    Magnetic Island was another high point, rain forest this time. Stayed in a house on stilts that was open at the back and went into the forest.

    A ride down the east coast from Cairns to Sydney is a well trodden path by backpackers and tourists alike – it’s a big old trip 2500kms in total – about the same as driving to the Alps (I guess we’ve all done it) and back again so you want to plan your stops – IMHO I’d focus the majority of the time in Queensland, NSW is lovely, but the further south you go the more rural and industrial it becomes. If you had to cut some stuff out you wouldn’t be too robbed if you toured from Cairns to Brisbane, maybe skip to Byron Bay and then skip to Sydney – maybe go inland for the ‘skips’ rather than the coast road, my memory is hazy but all I remember between Brisbane and Bryon and Byron to Sydney was docks and farms. Oh avoid Surfers, it’s like Benidorm for Aussies.

    Sydney is a great city, but it’s just a city – see the bridge, see the opera house, but given your time scale I wouldn’t devote more than a few days to it unless you like fine dining and fancy shops.

    wobbliscott
    Free Member

    here was a Singapore thread on here a while ago, it helped me plan where to go when I was there.
    It’s worth spending the extortionate prices at the Marina Bay SkyBar for the night view of Singapore..:-)

    The prices up there are pretty typical of Singapore to be honest, but its free to get up there and worth a look…but a better view of Singapore is from Altitude 1 on top of the UBS building near Boat Quay. I think it’s the tallest building in Singapore, certainly in Marina Bay. You actually look down on Marina Bay Sands. It costs something like SIN$35 to get up there, but that includes a drink.

    Also try Level 33 for real ale brewed on site and decent grub too. Beer is typical prices for Singapore, but food is pretty reasonable.

    wallop
    Full Member

    Another vote here for Fraser Island – it was the highlight of my trip.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    OP search for the Singapore threads (eg via google with text “site:singletrackworld.com” plus keywords), outdoorsy and Singapore aren’t natural bedfellows … you can do night zoo (fun and unusual), east coast park hired bike ride up/down, hike at Bukitima Nature reserve (monkey’s etc, agressive b-stewards), a beer / dinner in Club St (French-ish food mainly), pepper crab at no signboard seafood at Esplanade with nice city skyline view, Indian food in little India (or at Dempsey), Lebanese around Arab Street, new botanical gardens (fee) are imo better than the original (mostly free) but a bit manufactured

    As an alternative suggestion skip Singapore and go to Borneo, get yourself to Danum Reserve Forest Lodge via either Kota Kinabalu or Sandacan. Also Kinabatangun River lodge / trip. Flights either from Sing (to KK) or from Malaysia/KL direct to Sandacan. If you love nature Borneo is the place to go but accept you are going to be gutted to see how much rainforest is now Peanut Oil plantations. Try and read “Land Below the Wind” before or buy when there.

    Have a great trip

    nickjb
    Free Member

    3 weeks to do the east coast of Australia will mean driving quite a bit. I’d totally skip Brisbane and the gold coast. Do this bit inland and see a bit of rain forest. Coast and reef at the top, rain forest in the middle, general holiday stuff at the bottom (beach, zoo, vineyard, history) then into Sydney via the blue mountains

    We tossed up between Fraser and lady Elliot island. Ended up on lady Elliot and it was stunning. Tiny island with a few huts to stay in. Snorkeling with reef sharks and turtles. Diving with mantas. Beach to ourselves in the evening with nesting turtles. We had a few days there. Definite highlight.

    Best thing we did in general was find quiet places to camp. There are free sites in the bush with composting toilets. Several times we had the site to ourselves. Lovely and peaceful with some interesting wildlife. We hired a van for our trip and it wasn’t much more than a car.

    iain1775
    Free Member

    Temple of 10,000 Buddas in Shatin, Hong Kong 🙂

    allyharp
    Full Member

    Australia: Queensland
    For the Barrier Reef take a look into the “Reefsleep” tour from Cruise Whitsundays, starting at Airlie Beach. It was the highlight of my Australia trip this year. You stay on a pontoon on the reef sleeping a max of 10 customers, importantly having the area to yourself for snorkelling rather than mixing amongst a boatfull of people. And they can do supervised diving for first timers with no experience (I did my first).

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/RgyAAc]DSCF7923[/url] by Alistair Harper, on Flickr

    Whitehaven Beach nearby seems to be a huge tourist attraction, to the point that people in Airlie Beach were amazed when we suggested we weren’t going to go (we did in the end).
    [url=https://flic.kr/p/R3ics3]DSCF7882[/url] by Alistair Harper, on Flickr
    It’s a very nice beach, but it is after all just a beach. And you’ll be sharing it with several boat loads of people. Worth going, but not one to worry about missing either.

    You can camp on the Whitsunday islands with the appropriate permits, and there are boat transfers. We didn’t have time to but that’s something that would interest me.

    Australia: Sydney
    Blue Mountains is a nice day-hike. Even doable from Sydney by (very cheap) train if you don’t have your car.

    Bondi-Coogee is a common coastal walk to do. It’s nice, but I thought the nearby Rose Bay to Watsons Bay was a prettier walk, and quite a bit quieter too.

    Hunter Valley for wine tours. We joined a tour group as an out-and-back from Sydney which took us to a wildlife park on the way – worth it for stroking Koalas, Kangaroos and Pythons.

    bear-uk
    Free Member

    We got the bus tour around Hong Kong which was a good way of seeing the place plus Queue jumped the Vehicular tram to the mountain top. Dont do the Themed Island at Singapore as it was not that good.
    Defo do the Carunda Railway and Cable car in Cairns. Barrier reef not that good when we was there. Fraser Island worth doing, I quite liked Brisbane. We skipped the Gold coast section between Brisbane and Sydney. Blue mountains trip good. Bondi beech was crap but the coastal walk to Coogee beach was good.
    My mates Grandad supplied the Steel and helped build the Coathanger bridge. Northern end of Aus was better than the southern end imo. Bit like here lol.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    That’s a lot of driving in QLD right in the middle of summer. Could easily be 40c up there. Personally not on my list….
    Blue Mountains in from Sydney
    City stuff
    Skip brisbane
    Sunshine coast is nice but will be absolutely rammed with kids

    Alternatively…
    East coast of tassie, spectacular, Mona foma festival in hobart and ride the ews trails at Derby.
    Adelaide festival may also be on then

    Flights can be had cheap if booked in advance and will save you a lot of driving. Internally I’d suggest virgin.

    fourbanger
    Free Member

    It’s worth spending the extortionate prices at the Marina Bay SkyBar for the night view of Singapore..:-)

    Better view from bar at Swissotel.

    Tom_W1987
    Free Member

    Yeah…..Palawan.

    I’d rather blow my brains up a wall with a 10 gauge than end up in Singapore.

    LeeW
    Full Member

    The zoos in singapore are ace, especially the night zoo.

    Whilst I think the zoos are ace, that one was the worst for me a couple of weeks ago. Singapore zoo is ace, fed the giraffe for $5 which is a bargain!

    Gardens by the bay is incredible – and free if you don’t want to go in the green houses. Go at dusk and stay as long as you like. It’s like something out of Avatar.

    I was in 1-Altitude last night which is a good view over the city, MBS is over priced. The food is ok, but not as great as I expected it to be.

    Sentosa is ok, but get your tickets when you’re in the hotel. Most rooms have free smart phones which have daily deals on attractions. I wouldn’t pay full price for it but my other half and 5 year old SD had a ball for around £40.

    I have a really good deal with the Quincy hotel out here, free meals, booze between 6-8:30pm and daily laundry. Give me a holler if you fancy it.

    LeeW
    Full Member

    I’d rather blow my brains up a wall with a 10 gauge than end up in Singapore.

    Extreme, but a fair assessment.

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    Hong Kong –

    Tram tour if available (I believe they are private parties) if not just jump on one and take your own tour of the island. Likewise use the ferry to jump between Kowloon and Hong Kong rather than the tube.

    Temple of 10,000 buddhas again. Take a walk around the city, there are parks (including a pretty sobering SARS memorial), traditional gardens, the Edward Youde Aviary (as in giant dome with loads of tropical birds) and of course the peak. Once the crowds die down the peak area is pretty quiet, don’t bother with the over priced restaurants on site, across the road is a The Peak Lookout which is lovely when the sun goes down. Symphony of Lights is a waste of time, very underwhelming, afternoon tea in The Peninsula is nice. Head round the island for beaches or Stanley which, again, is nice after sunset (we found a small shop on the front selling beer from a fridge and just sat for a few hours getting peace). If you fancy a drink in the city take a walk around Lockhart Road in Wan Chai, avoid the usual tourist traps (Irish pubs etc) and go to a local bar, you might get a quick glance when you walk in but you’ll get no hassle. Just be warned, they cannot mix cocktails to save themselves so keep it simple. And it WILL be strong. Oh and you can walk about pretty much anywhere, we stayed in the Harbour Grand in Fortress Hill and the area around is a mix of industrial and low end commercial; totally safe and no bad vibes.

    But TL:DR you will have plenty to do, two weeks wasn’t enough for us and another two probably still wouldn’t exhaust the place.

    konagirl
    Free Member

    For Aus I would emphasise the north will be hot, the reef is in stinger season (some people don’t mind wearing the suits, others are put off by the thought), and the reef has been battered by both consecutive heat waves and by the recent Cyclone Debbie. Some resorts around the Whitsundays / Airlie Beach won’t have re-opened by Christmas. Have a good read around the internet and work out which bits you want to see. Don’t drive 1500km from Cairns to Fraser Island if you are only going to snorkel/dive one or two spots, the road isn’t that interesting! Get internal flights.

    With the route you suggested, its a great idea to see the beaches (Sunshine or further north, not Gold Coast) and the rainforest, glowworms and birds in Lamington/Border Ranges. And the Blue Mountains have loads of hiking options plus habituated kangaroos at Glenbrook (Euroka campground).

    Given you are coming for summer, I would seriously suggest other options* :
    1. Sydney-Melbourne via Blue Mountains, coast road, alps, wineries and the great ocean road (views, rainforest, beaches and koalas).
    2. Melbourne-Adelaide via GOR, wineries and hills.
    3. At least 2 weeks in Tas (hike the overland route or south coast track; MTB at Blue Derby; see roos, wallabies and smaller bouncy things, wombats, echidna and platypus if you stay in the right places) and then a few days / week around Mel for koalas on the GOR and wineries / good food / relaxing.

    * I am biased. I currently live in Tas and for hiking, great outdoors and wildlife it is awesome. A trip to Cairns in summer is for lazing on the beach and the reef. Even mainland Vic/SA can have days of 40°C +. If you actually want to get out walking or biking in summer, the further south the better!

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Welcome to tassie konagirl

    batfink
    Free Member

    re: Australia, Byron Bay is beautiful, but at that time of year I would give it a very wide berth indeed – It’ll be rammed.

    We spent a week based in Hervey Bay (which is, in itself, a sh*t-hole) but is a great base for whale-watching, an overnight trip to Fraser Island, and a few days on Lady Eliot Island (as above, highly recommended).

    On the island theme – above all else I would recommend a trip to Lord Howe Island. 2 hrs flight from Sydney, and an absolute paradise. Won’t be cheap at that time of year, but I didn’t ever want to leave. Snorkeling and diving is fantastic – you can swim with huge turtles just off the beach, sea fishing was amazing. And… well…. just look at the place:

    I can let you have an itinerary for central Sydney if you tell me how long you’ll be here for – it’s a great city, but the best things are not on the tourist trail (bridge climb ffs!)

    konagirl
    Free Member

    mikewsmith – Member
    Welcome to tassie konagirl

    waves!

    Lord Howe Island

    Yes definitely. My boss and his wife lived there (his wife’s a GP) and you can see how much they loved it when they talk about it. It seems to be on everyone’s bucket list.

    BigDummy
    Free Member

    Hong Kong…

    Have a check nearer the time for whether you can catch one of Jason Wordie’s walks. Very engaging local historian, well worth it.

    This chap is also interesting.

    I’ve lived here 2 years. For my taste, a week in the city is quite a long time – it’s crowded, hassle-tastic and expensive, and it mostly boils down to shopping and patchy food served with somewhere between indifference and hostility. It’s interesting and quite intense, but there’s not a lot that you’d classify as “unmissable”, and that 100% includes all of the tourist attractions. I’d recommend getting a copy of this, using it for transport info and a starting point, and then either sticking to their routes or wandering off. For the most part, Hong Kong is very safe and you’re never much more than an hour from home by tolerable public transport.

    Getting out and about, taking public transport around and getting out to the beaches up at Sai Kung, the mountains and the outlying islands (Lamma, Lantau etc) is an excellent use of time. There is some good biking to be had – drop me a line if you like – although hiring tolerable bikes locally is tricky. Friendly Bike Shop in Mui Wo on Lantau is a decent bet.

    If you like visiting bike shops, Flying Ball Bicycle Company is amazing – wall-to-wall Santa Cruz and Bromptons.

    Kadoorie Farm is a bit odd, but is worth the trek and they have some cute animals. It’s worth taking your time and doing the long walk at the top of the hill – the views are excellent.

    The Maritime Museum is surprisingly good value, and if you need lunch in Central its cafe is not insane and quite relaxed.

    Disloyal of me, but The Peninsula is often vexing for afternoon tea. You usually have to queue, and you can’t reserve. I can kinda see why people go, but left to myself I’d go to the Mandarin Oriental for afternoon tea, and The Bar or Felix at the Pen. for late drinks.

    If you can’t be bothered with the queues for the Peak Tram, it’s actually a rather pleasing (if steep) walk up either Old Peak Road or the Morning Path from Sai Ying Pun – perfectly doable at night too. The views are VERY hit and miss though because it gets cloud up there when nowhere else does.

    TripAdvisor is fine, but also OpenRice for restaurant recommendations. ABC Kitchen is a bit of a gem.

    🙂

    RichPenny
    Free Member

    For Aus, I’d go 5-7 days in QLD, then fly to Tassie for 10-12 days, then a few days around Sydney. Tasmania is ace, and relatively cheap accommodation wise from what I remember. We did 8 days, because it’s small you can cover a lot of different types of places and they’ll all be lovely 🙂 Climate much more temperate in the summer too.

    paladin
    Full Member

    singapore – go to the seafood restaurant in chinatown (the one with red and yellow tables and chairs), drink beer, eat food, and watch the selfie stick wielding tourists streaming by

    nickjb
    Free Member

    Regarding the heat in northern aus, yes it gets hot. Uncomfortably so at times. Depends how well you deal with that. High 20s in the middle of the night was tough but a cold water bottle helped. Its hot enough to put a lot of people off so its frequently very quiet. We had the place to ourselves so many times. Made it much more special. We read reviews of people queueing from the middle of the night to get into one of the parks with limited access. We drove straight in and saw a handful of people for the three nights we stayed.

    ebennett
    Full Member

    The highlight of my trip was a surf trip to a national park between Sydney and Byron where we camped out beside the beach and went surfing every day. Woke up to kangaroos bouncing around, saw humpbacks breaching (from a fairly long distance, but still 😆 ), and had pods of dolphins playing in the surf with us.

    Might be too much time out of your schedule (or you might hate surfing), but I’d thoroughly recommend it. Think it was Surfaris I did it with.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Oh and Singapore nice for a couple of days (especially after Indonesia) usual threads have details of whats good.

    alex2002
    Free Member

    Hi,

    I lived in Au for 10 years, hold dual citizenship, lived in Vic, Tas and NSW. Been pretty much everywhere!!

    East coast:
    Fly into Sydney do the central Quay ferry (all your pictures in one go) to Manly and have surf lesson. Then jump on the bus to bondi from circular Quay
    Hire a car and drive to Nelson bay. Eat brunch in Nice, jump on the ferry. across the road and you will see dolphins but i doubt whales due the time of year. Hike tomaree mountain just up from nelson bay (about an hr, i used to run it) for the best ariel view of your trip.
    Back to Sydney.
    Fly to the gold coast very cheap
    Do the beaches and theme parks
    Drive to byron, surf and become a posh hippie!
    Drive to brisvegas and make sure your around at sunset with your cameras for the bats!
    Fly to sunshine coast, pick any beach and repeat!
    Book trip to frazier island (harvey bay) for two nights
    Arrange overnight bus from harvey bay to airlie beach then do a overnight boat trip out to the reef and whitehaven (probably one of the best beachs in the world)
    Bus upto port Douglas (nice) / cairns (bit shady)
    Do AJ hackett Bungy and sky dive onto beach
    Visit cape trib and the daintree rain forest.
    Fly to Sydney, or maybe easier/cheaper to fly out to KL ot BK?

    Fly when poss as they are like buses and the country is to big to drive! Pack light. Stay in backpackers as you will get ensuite etc.

    My career has meant i ve been into some very remotes areas as well as the met zones. Snakes and spiders are not an issue and i doubt you wll see any, unless in a zoo! but learn the first aid to deal with a bite if your going hiking and take more water than you need. (Get bit, stay still) Be more carful in both ocean and river water, rips kill more tourists than anything else. Also be aware of the lifeguarded flags and respect them, sharks or jellys wont be an issue then. Dont swim on bloody deserted (plenty of) beaches, especially up north! (Crocs and bull sharks)

    Easy places to hire and ride MTB:
    Manly DAM sydney
    Newcastle nsw amazing views and may see wales
    awaba mid coast
    Cairns (wc course there)
    Gold coast

    Hope that helps

    I ve done HK and Singers but will let you work those out!

    Let me know if you need anything else

    Have fun!

    flint.m.alex@gmail.com

    corroded
    Free Member

    My tuppence-worth on Australia – you could go to QLD in the peak of summer, but it will be very hot, very steamy (wet season in far north). Plus you’ve given yourself a lot of driving in a state where there’s a lot of empty space. Think scorching seats and steering wheels, windows up, air-con full blast. Plus you can’t just go jump in the ocean because jellyfish (really – every beach will have warning signs). Any hiking or biking will require carrying a lot of water.
    I’d look again at Konagirl’s suggestions. South is better in summer. People go to QLD for winter and spring (up to November).

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Fly to the gold coast very cheap
    Do the beaches and theme parks
    Drive to byron, surf and become a posh hippie!
    Drive to brisvegas and make sure your around at sunset with your cameras for the bats!
    Fly to sunshine coast, pick any beach and repeat!

    Seriously, in the middle of the school holidays?
    My first experience of brisbane was late December and early Jan, near 40c 90% humidity and its gets worse after it thunders.
    Late Jan this year was grim as another heatwave and storms hit. It also gets dark really early as they don’t do daylight savings. By the time the temp was nice to wander along the beach some days it was dark.
    Had a lovely few road rides up and down the sunshine coast in November, nice quiet and chilled, main towns were more like the Costa del whatever in January.
    Though you will be able to spot the lobster red Europeans up there.

    AlexSimon
    Full Member

    Hong Kong is a weird one.
    I like wandering the streets, but didn’t like many of the tourist attractions. I took the tram up to the Peak (no queue when I did it), then walked down in the dark. Was nice. The Peak shopping bit is tacky, but the view is pretty good.

    My fav meal (been there 4 times now) was from the LockCha Tea Shop (dim sum) in Hong Kong Gardens (bottom of the Peak Tram).

    Stanley market was grim for me. I preferred the local’s markets which were more produce-based and full of character.

    Public transport is cheap as chips and even taxis.

    I enjoyed ’The Dragon’s Back’ walk. Would have liked to do more – perhaps on some of the islands.

    Managed to find some wild monkeys 5 mins walk from Shatin MTR, but mostly enjoyed finding my own way around some of the back streets and back yards. I found it felt very safe.

    My photos:
    View from Hotel #2

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