I'm going to spend 2-3 weeks traveling from cairns to melbourne in november....need advice on where to get off the train
I'll be in australia for around 3 weeks in december after a couple weeks in thailand/malaysia and was thinking about getting a railpass from cairns to melbourne. The pass basically lets you jump on and off as much as you want (as long as you keep going either north or south). besides the large towns (townsville, brisbane, etc) does anyone have any suggestions of where I "need" to jump off to see cool stuff? Cheers
Reply to this Hi Rick T
I live in Cairns and Im from Melbourne so I can help you out there. Im not sure where your from so I am gong to assume your not from Australia. Just to let you know that during December Cairns is like being in a sauna!!! (Aug, Sep, Oct are best time to do Queensland) Im sure Thailand and Malaysia might be the same. If you don't mind humidity then you will be ok but it is really quite hard to function up here at around that time of year. Other than that, Cairns is a stunning part of the world. Basically the rainforest meets the beach up here. On a train trip down the coast from here I would stop in Cairns (go up to Port Douglas, Snorkel at Fitzroy Island, Mossman the Tablelands and Cape Tribulation if possible), Mission Beach, Maybe Townsville and go to Magnetic Island, Proserpine and go out to Hayman Island (Quite exclusive), Mackay, The Whitsundays, Airly Beach, Sunshine Coast, Noosa (See if you can get up into the mountains behind) Then Brisbane. So that is the Queensland Coast. As I mentioned earlier you would probably want to spend this time of the year down towards the bottom of Australia. Melbourne is fantastic during December. There are hot dry days down there, (not so much humidity). Hope this helps!
Mel
Reply to this Hey, I've just come back from Australia and used the Greyhound for the east coast. It's cheaper than a railpass, and you can get one which is valid for up to one month. It goes to more places than the trains stop at and stops right in the towns rather than far away. I had to walk for ages from the train station at one point with my very heavy backpack to get to the town! Plus you'll meet some cool people on the buses, no one really talks to each other on trains...well that's what I found from my single train journey from Cairns to Townsville. Oh and also, there isn't really any time difference in the journeys, which is strange as I thought trains would be faster...
Oh, and either way...you MUST go to the town of 1770...when i went there I heard that it was going to be getting developed soon with apartments etc...so get there and see its beauty before it becomes so commercialised...1770 really is a must! http://www.travelblog.org/Australasia/Australia/Queensland/1770/blog-63066.html
Enjoy Australia and take care
Lucy
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