Been thinking that when i get made redundant i might take a month off and use some of my redundancy money to go on holiday.

Few logistically things come to mind, how easy is it to book a flight with different arrival and departure airports.
secondly any rules about hire cars and the nature of licence required? i have only had a licence two years so am concerned there might be a minimum number of years qualification.

Things to do and places to go can wait till i have firmed up the idea.

Dead easy to book flights to different entry/exit though can increase cost. If you are going to oz try virgin blue for internal flights as driving everywhere will take forever and lots of it can be dull.

Driving licence may be more important re your age for renting though some may only rent if you have held licence for 3 years from memory.

Campervans sound great but can limit how much you see. If stuck on the campervan idea try NZ as it is so much smaller and easier to negotiate by road.

Still sounds like fun!

For australia I’ve always found Emirates to be pretty flexible – could easily fly into brisbane and out of Melbourne, then make your own between the two seeing the Gold Coast, Sydney, the blue mountains etc. Not an expert on driving licences but there might be a minimum age (26?) for rentals – but not sure. Bear in mind that distances are vast – it’s something like a 10-hour drive from Sydney to Melbourne and that’s just one tiny corner of the place. Personally I’d fly from base to base with Virgin Blue or jetstar then use a campervan to tour for 3 or 4 days at a time. Otherwise, that’s a faultless idea.

Luxury Campers

Oz Campers

I looked into it as work was going to send me there an theres usualy the option to take unpaid leave at the end of any assignments.

Oz is hugggeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, adeleide, Sydney, melbourne, brisbane, are all about 8-12 hours drive from each other.

Someone recomended NZ as an alternative, and can be done cheeply if you plan ahead. Most of the tourists head in one direction, which means a lot of hire cars/campervans end up at one end (cant for the life of me remember which but some research could help you).

went to NZ for a month about 5-6 years ago, be nice to go back, but also be nice to try somewhere else. World is a big place! Too many places and not enough time to see them all.

Yep i would plump for Emirates – into Bris/Melb out of the other and drive inbetween. Its not _that_ far but you’ll want a bit of time, 4 weeks at least to have fun. You can make it cheap, eat wisely, drive wisely (at night perhaps when its quiet) and don;t pay for campsites all the time, use the national park ones etc that have facilities. Try not to crap in your dunny too much so you don’t need to empty it etc.
Get off the beaten track, avoid the tourist hot spots. Oz is great if it wasn’t for all the **** Australians 😛

Sounds like a grand plan. I wouldn’t go for anything less than a month though. If you like the coastal/beach thing, then as has been suggested Melb to Bris is a good idea. Bris to Cairns is also very nice but is a loooooong way. For something different, Darwin to Adelaide is also very popular, taking in Uluru etc.

Internal flights are relatively cheap with Jetstar (owned by qantas) and Virgin blue. Beware though as these 2 fly to some airports that aren’t at cities (eg Prestwick vs Glasgow) and are often late. If you’re short on time, fly inbetween, but if you have more time, it’s worth the drive between cities. There are loads of things to see if you’re prepared to go a bit off the beaten track.

Wicked campers are also in Australia, and will certainly be a cheaper option than most.

When you’re a bit closer to the time and have a better idea of what you want to see, send me an email and I’ll help out with some of the finer details if you like. If you take your MTB, check out http://www.mtbdirt.com.au for the MTB community in Brisbane, or http://www.farkin.net

You wont need to go to NZ as you’ll meet plenty of them in Oz 😛

I hired a car from Hertz in Perth a couple of months ago and I’m 25, so no 26 and over policy there for sure. Can’t help with the minimum number of years driving experience as I have been driving since 17.

For booking different flights, try a good travel agent like TravelBag or STATravel. I used TravelBag and they were excellent, they could very quickly look at different flight times/combo’s and make the booking in a way that I couldn’t on the Quantas website – to get to Perth I had to fly via Singapore, but I couldn’t find a way on the Quantas website to give me 2 days in Singapore instead of 2 hours! They even found out that it would be cheaper to stop in Hong Kong on the way back than to fly directly back (and that includes factoring in the cost of a hotel for 2 nights).

Also try JetStar as well as Virgin Blue for internal flights, and greyhound buses can be pretty cheap ways of getting around and covering long distances.

We did it for a month a couple of years ago..

Picked up the van in Sydney, and spent a month going around NSW/South Austraila..

Can’t reccomemnd it highly enough..

“Wicked campers are also in Australia, and will certainly be a cheaper option than most.”

Wicked campers always look really scruffy – old Hiaces with crappy “Wacky” graffiti. There’s another one called Jucy that’s Previas converted to campervans for two people, on-road only that might be worth a look.

“I hired a car from Hertz in Perth a couple of months ago and I’m 25, so no 26 and over policy there for sure. “

car != campervan.

I also looked at hiring a campervan but did not see anything to suggest that I couldn’t. Also met a bunch of guys in a Wicked campervan up in Exmouth and they were certainly younger than me.

If you’re travelling light/no kids and are young enough, my suggestion would be to pick up a cheap station wagon or van at one end and flog it at the other, sleeping in a tent/hostels/back of vehicle as time/cleanliness/money dictates. Campervans aren’t cheap to rent, especially if you’re by yourself. South of Sydney you’re going to be in cool/wet weather as well.

As everyone else said, don’t underestimate the distances involved, and travelling speeds are a lot slower than you might expect, and the roads are plagued with radar.

Saw plenty of “wicked vans” when we where doing our Trip.

To be honest, the word “basic” springs to mind..

I wouldn’t say it would be a drama for a couple of nights, but any longer than that might be one..

-you’d be better off in a tent.

Still, as long as the weather is ok-you have to have the boot open to use the cooker..

Mind, it is Oz, so that shouldn’t be a drama.

We found it cheaper to get a round the world ticket when we went south. Out via N america, back via asia.

We spent over 3 weeks just exploring around sydney and up to the barrier reef, so I’d say you want at least 3 months to stand a chance of getting around all of Oz.

We used a wicked camper in NZ, it was OK, nothing fancy & small enough for mrs trb to be happy driving it around town, it was luxury after 14 weeks of cycle camping!

Have you not seen Wolf Creek?

no intention of trying to see all of OZ, i don’t think it is possible to see everything a country has to offer in a lifetime. really want to spend a few weeks away from it all before i start the new job (this assumes timescales allow). As i am yet to get a definite date as to when i will get made redundant, between 6 and 12 months from now.

Hadn’t though about the round the world ticket, might be worth asking nearer the time and see if it works in my favour.

Comments seem to be pick a city spend some time exploring, fly to the next city repeat?