Australian Vacation

[Gracin]

So apparently my mother is wanting to give my Dad a nice vacation because he never really takes one, and apparently since she can't handle flying all that well I will be going with. My dad and I talked years ago about going to Australia, but really never more than that; so when she asked me to look up things he would enjoy doing I'm kinda left at a loss. The problem is, we would do just about everything given the chance and obviously because of time constraints we can't do everything.

So here I am asking native Aussies and hell anyone who has vacationed/whatever in Australia to give me some advice on things to do, places to explore, along with when is in your opinion the best time to take a trip to Australia. I know being from the states, that the seasons are opposite ours.

[Tydrane]

So apparently my mother is wanting to give my Dad a nice vacation because he never really takes one, and apparently since she can't handle flying all that well I will be going with. My dad and I talked years ago about going to Australia, but really never more than that; so when she asked me to look up things he would enjoy doing I'm kinda left at a loss. The problem is, we would do just about everything given the chance and obviously because of time constraints we can't do everything.

So here I am asking native Aussies and hell anyone who has vacationed/whatever in Australia to give me some advice on things to do, places to explore, along with when is in your opinion the best time to take a trip to Australia. I know being from the states, that the seasons are opposite ours.

Where are you from? I guess, what I'm trying to get out of that question is, what sort of vacation would you be looking for, hot weather, sunny, beaches, etc. or something a bit more mild?

Some general advice I could offer is that you can pretty much do everything worth doing in Sydney in two days. Visit Circular Quay, where the Sydney Opera House is, climb the Harbour Bridge (at day or night, the view is spectacular either way). The Sydney Olympic Park is also a pretty nice place to visit.

The Gold Coast is a great tourist-y location further north, heaps of beautiful resorts, beaches and theme parks. Worth staying there for a while. Queensland also has a few resort islands, and the Great Barrier Reef is pretty beautiful. Australia Zoo, founded by the late Steve Irwin, also attracts a lot of foreign tourists. All the things I've mentioned so far are much better to do in the warmer months, being from September/October to about February. Try to avoid November and December, though, because tourist places can get really crowded, and Schoolies Week (when kids finish year 12) unleashes a bunch of dirtbag kids to popular holiday spots which can ruin a good holiday.

I'd also suggest to avoid Alice Springs and Ayer's Rock/Uluru at all costs. If you really want to go there, it's worth checking to make sure that you'll be able to walk up it - but it's usually a long trip to the centre of Australia with very little payoff.

Just my thoughts.