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Monday, 26. Jul 2010 | by Rocky Travel | comments: (1) | post comment

Something about Noosa, Queensland

I have decided to add to the Australia Rocky Blog a "Guest Blogger section" . On a regular basis I will be introducing to you fellow travel bloggers who like me are passionate travellers, love travelling Australia and want to share with you their great Australian Travel Sories !

Discover Noosa on Australia´s Sunshine Coast !

Noosa Beach

During time in Australia I was able to visit a lot of great cities. One city that often falls from the backpackers radar is Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. I was unable to take the typical backpacker trip up the coast and Noosa was one of the three main cities I visited, maybe this is why it stood out a bit more for me.

Why Noosa

Noosa is a tiny little town on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. It is known mostly for its surf beaches and its wild turkeys and koalas. It has too main parts; Noosaville and Noosa Heads.

Where to stay

There are four areas of Noosa; Noosa Heads, Noosa Junction, Noosaville and Noosa River. However they can be more directly separated into two sections; Noosaville (including the river) and Noosa Heads (including the Junction).

Noosaville is situated along the river and full of lazy-looking condos and boat rental shacks. Here there are many great restaurants to choose from. Noosaville gives off a bit more of that hometown feeling, a plus if you are looking to see how the locals live.

Noosa Heads harbors the major surf beaches, the beach shops and the massive Noosa National Park. There are bars along the beach as well as pizza places and swim shops. You can never get away from nature here, there is a bundle of walking paths along the coast and through the National Park.

I didn’t stay in a hostel while I was here but the majority of hostels are in this area, around the Junction and main supermarkets and shops. Don’t be fooled though, there are also hostels available in Noosaville if that’s more your style. Since it is such a small town, choose where you want to stay based on which appeals to you and the price and vicinity to what you want to see. In the end, you can walk just about anywhere.

What to do

As I mentioned before, Noosa is a small town; one of those one stoplight kind of towns. Depending on what kind of vacation you want to take; I would recommend three days to one week there.

There are a number of activities you can do in Noosa that are fairly easy on the wallet and also a number of excursion that use Noosa as a starting point. Hiking in the National Park is a must. It’s about a forty minute hike to Hell’s Gates. The walk is filled with beautiful scenery and coastline views and there is a likely chance you will be able to snap some shots of wild koalas along the way!

Noosa is also known for its major surf beaches along the coast and including the main Noosa beach, it would be a great place to learn to surf. If surfing isn’t your thing then sit back and enjoy the sun with a great view.

The river ferry offers it’s very own “sunset cruise” for just under AUD 20. It was a beautiful cruise, we bought a bottle of wine and some snacks and were welcomed on-board by a captain who had seen this a few times. He joked and laughed and invited us to sit back and enjoy the view. It cost only the price of the bottle and a return ticket on the ferry and you get a private view of all of Noosa, as well as some humorous commentary, courtesy of the ferry captain. If you go outside of the summer season, however, bring a jacket! It can get quite breezy alone the river.

There are a number of outside excursions you can take as well, we opted for the Fraser Island Day Tour. If you have the time and money I would suggest making Fraser Island a separate camping excursion, as is popular among backpackers. However, it was enjoyable and all booked through our accommodation, we even got a deal! Skydiving in Rainbow Beach is a very popular activity as well. Your accommodation will have a selection of brochures to choose from.

No matter where you are in Australia there is a wide selection of excursions you can take. Do some research before hand about what you want to see and then ask your hostel or hotel staff about it. There are some beaches and cities that are known for certain activities, so it’s always and experience to do those things in the suggested places; like skydiving in Cairns. So get out there and explore the options. While you enjoy Australia, give the little guys a chance too!

Note about this Guest Blog´s Author: Annie Bettis

Annie is a young nomad currently living in Florence, Italy and discovering the humor in living with a Florentine. She came to Italy to teach English but has truly discovered her passion for travel writing and all things travel. She has just launched her new travel blog Wayward Traveller and when she is not trying to communicate with the Italians she can be found reading inspiring posts and writing some posts of her own. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook!

Monday, 26. Jul 2010, comments: (1)

Tuesday, 20. Jul 2010 | by Rocky Travel | comments: (0) | post comment

Which Australian Destination ?

How to choose your travel destination in Australia ?

This is the second round of questions I am going to answer regarding what travel destinations to choose for your visit to Australia.

Once you have finalised when you will be travelling to Australia and for how long then the next step is to pick the australian destinations and make a travel itinerary out of them. At the beginning you may be feeling overwhelmed because Australia is really vast, there is so much to see, but if you know what you can expect to see and do there and especially how it looks like at the different time of the year then it will be much easier for you to take your decision.

At the beginning you may be feeling overwhelmed because Australia is really vast, there is so much to see, but if you know what you can expect to see and do there and especially how it looks like at the different time of the year then it will be much easier for you to take your decision.

First of all go through a short checklist to help you pinpoint when and what you can do in Australia ! Here below a few examples of what you can do in Australia:

Experience the Australian nature (the australian outback, the australian beaches)
Enjoy outdoor activities (swimming, diving, snorkeling, hiking, climbing, swimming)
cultural and sport events
City life, entertainment
visit friends or relatives

Done this ! Now take a look at the map and go through the page with the different Australian climate zones, so as to have an idea when the best time for diving and snorkeling in Queensland is or for visiting the Red Centre, or for a visit to Tasmania !

Now that you know how the australian weather looks like from north to south, from the western to the eastern coast, when the wet and dry season starts in Australia´s northern area, then you can start plan your trip.

And I can add some more help by givign a couple of examples how to better plan your travel around Australia.

Let´s say you have the average time most visitors have, 2-3 weeks, for your first visit to Australia and want to see some Australian cities and eventually the Great Barrier Reef or the Red Centre, here find below a possible itinerary to match this

Start from Melbourne, visit the city and its surrounds, 3 days, including a 2 day drive to the GOR.
Head north to Sydney driving the south coast to Sydney, you need at least 4-5 days for driving along and stopping by over about 1000km. When you reach Sydney you can spend 3-4days visiting the city. For more information click on Sydney and its surrounding areas From Sydney you can fly over to Airlie Beach and spend 5 days visiting the outer Reef there at the Whitsundays Island. So you have 3 weeks altogher. Alternatevely if you only have 2 weeks you can fly from Melbourne to Sydney instead of driving.
Ideal time for a visit: July and August is the best time for the Great Barrier Reef but also the busiest ! These are winter months in Sydney and Melbourne though! so you must make up your mind ! May-June is a good time for both locations since the dry season usually starts in May, and the weather is mild in Sydney and Melbourne too.
Tip for Australia crowd-free travel : if you do not like crowds and want to avoid the busies time ever in Australia then choose March-May or September-October. Theser are the best months for all areas in Australia, in the north the dry season has just started and therefore is the ideal time to enjoy it without loads of tourist, the same situation repeats at the Red Centre, July-August are extremenly busy and dec-feb very hot months too, with temperatures soaring the 40-45°C !
Sept-Oct are good months for the south and the eastern and western coast, it´s spring time in the south east with lovely temperatures and just not too hot in the western coast.

Remember that the tighter the time available the less flexible you are and you will be bound to fly a lot if you want to cover far away destinations across Australia within a short time! This is something you must take into account !

That´s why I cannot stop emphasizing how important it is to plan at least 4 weeks on your first trip to Australia!

If you want to learn more about how to set up yor own travel itinerary, you may want to read through this easy step by step Travel Planner Guide I put together for best Travel to Australia !

Stay tuned and watch out for the next post next week !

Michela

Tuesday, 20. Jul 2010, comments: (0) | post comment

Thursday, 08. Jul 2010 | by Rocky Travel | comments: (0) | post comment

About visiting Broome !

Broome the pearl of North West Australia !

When hearing of Broome most people will probably think of Broome´s Cable Beach, the world famous white sandy beach!

Broome is much more than this, it´s a real gem, on the Norh West Coast of Australia, a gateway to the Kimberley wildnerness area, with an interesting history and aboriginal cultural tradition.

Broome like Darwin is one of the Australia´s tropical destinations that divide people´s opinion between enthusiasts and disappointed visitors. Most of times the disappointment is due to the hype the travel industry has created about Broome, the lack of information and also wrong expectations.

It is important you get relevant and accurate information about the place so to have a clear picture of what Broome is really like and especially what you can do and you cannot do during the wet and the dry season.

Let´s say the best time for a visit is the dry season, from April to October, at this time of the year Broome is also very popular with Australians fleeing the cold south , so that during the winter months of June-August Broome is really packed with visitors: its population of about 14.000 goes up to over 50.000 people!

However even during the wet months (November to March) you can visit Broome, you will not be able to swim in the ocean because of the stingers, there is so much too see! If you do not mind solitude then Broome is a great place for relaxation. But beware of the tropical temperatures! in Feb-March the weather is really hot and steamy !! I was there in February and I can tell you how water was dripping from my forehead !

If you instead are looking for good entertainment and vibrant sceneray then you have to go there during the months of June-August !

If we can define the ideal time to visit Broome then April-May would fit the picture, at this time of the year it is "still" not crowded with visitors, you can swim in the ocean of all Broome´s beaches, and you can access the Dampier Peninsula and the southern Kimberley without worrying about heavy rain.

So let´s have a look at Broome´s biggest attractions: the Brome beaches! Here below some of the most
beautiful spots:

Cable Beach is the most popular, fine white sandy beach stretching
for 22km, the best way to explore it is by car, you can access with a 4WD and drive along or you can take a wonderful 7km walk from Gantheaume Point where the lighthouse is and more attractions like Anastasia´ s pool and the dinosaurs footprints: if you are lucky to spot them ! If you want to make sure you see them get there early in the morning at low tide, and walk along the beach towards the resorts area. It´s a 7km simply wonderful walk !
Riddell Beach between Riddel Point and Gautnheam Point. This is a rocky
beach with red cliffs and sands, the colour contrast with the tourquise ocean is simply amazing ! Great beach for a walk, for taking pictures, and if you want to avoid the busy cable beach.
Broome´s Northern Beaches are located in the Dampier Peninsula, around Cape Leveque, you will need a 4WD to get there, you will be travelling across aboriginal land, so you also have the opportunitiy to learn from the aboriginal communitiy offering tours and accommodation too. If you love camping, fishing and deserted beaches than this places will be rewarding you with terrific scenery. Middle Lagoon, Qandong Beach, Willie Creek are some of the beaches. At Willie Creek beaches you can also visit Broome´s pearl farm and learn about the pearling industry of Broome.

There are many things you can do in Broome, watch this space if you want to learn more about Broome´s places to see !

And how was your experience in Broome ? Tell us about your fave spot or about a travel tip you want to share with other fellow travellers !

Thursday, 08. Jul 2010, comments: (0) | post comment