first time traveling alone Australia 1 year.Need some advise

Hello Roelof and welcome to Travelblog!

Having been born in Australia, I can provide you with some pointers on most of your questions:
A. Anytime of year is good in Australia becuase it is such a large country and there is always good weather somewhere on the continent. In the summer months, it is best to stay in the southern part of the continent, and in the winter months, it is better to head to the northern areas.
B. Not an area which I have any knowledge.
C. Australia is an expensive destination, both in accommodation and food, and even food purchased in a supermarket is going to be expensive compared to even Europe. Try to bring or have access to as much money as you can.
D. Australia is known the world over for being a friendly and relaxed place to travel. You will have no problems meeting other people here.
E. There is a lot of construction work currently in Australia, especially with the rebuilding of places after the floods and cyclones here in Queensland.

My general advice for people travelling the first time, is that most fear of travel is based on fear of the unknown, and once you have arrived at your destination, these fears will quickly disappear. You'll then laugh at yourself as to why you were so worried in the first place! Reply to this

Hello Ravenne and welcome to Travelblog too!

I can answer the phone question for you. If you are staying in Australia for a while, it is far better to get a local sim card for your cellphone (called mobile phones in Australia). Just ensure that your phone is unlocked prior to leaving your home country so that it can take other sims and networks. All you need to get one is some form of ID (thus your passport is an excellent start).

Re travelling alone as a female (or even a male) there are a number of rules, but most importantly remember that you are isolated from your normal surroundings, so you need to be more conservative in your approach to life than is usual. Here are some basic pointers.
- Don't accept food or drink from strangers or those you don't know well.
- Don't tell strangers or those you don't know well where you are staying (be vague - i.e. "I'm staying somewhere near the post office".)
- Do not lose control of yourself (through alcohol or drugs) unless you have someone you know very well to look out for you.
- If out late at night, being in a group is safer than being alone.

It's normal to be nervous, but when you arrive here, you'll wonder why you were nervous in the first place! As I mentioned in my previous post, Australians are a welcoming and friendly bunch, so it is good destination for the first-time traveller. Reply to this

Hi Roelof,

I live on the Sunshine Coast in SE Queensland. That's an area where you can learn to surf. In fact anywhere from there south. Look up surf schools on the net. (Sydney, Byron Bay, Gold Coast and here, just to name a few places)

Best not to have too much cash on you. Credit cards are common as are debit cards.

Most backpackers travel the east coast but if you're staying for a year, make sure you head west as well. Central and northern Aus are also worth a visit. Western Aus could be good for finding work. Do some research on the net to give you an idea of what jobs are where. Reply to this

In response to: Msg #146400
Hi Roelof, what an excellent adventure...i'm sure you'll have a fantastic time!

I am in Perth, Western Australia (bottom left) and although we are very isolated from the rest of Australia and the many tourist things on the east coast we have lots of 'hidden treasures' on our side of the country! And more importantly for you we have a massive mining industry so there is no recession here! Tradies are worth a bundle and you can easily earn 6 figures over here... of course that means cost of living is fairly high too.

Pretty much North of Perth will be very hot in December, January and February. Last year we were still getting 40 degree weather in APril and today (2nd Dec) it is 36 degrees. We have a dry heat here in perth and you will find equally hot weather on the east cost at the same time although it is the wet season as you go north acorss australia. It is also cyclone season in the northern area until about march/april so it is off season for tourism. But i travel around Aust a fair bit and i've never put off a trip to go north because of cyclones or the wet - it makes it cooler to have a bit of rain 😊 The coldest months are june/july/aug across australia and Perth will be down in the low-20's maybe 18ish while cities like melbourne and sydney will be down in the 5-10 degree range maximums.

With your experience in snowboarding you might be able to get a winter job on the ski slopes on the east coast? I would maybe bring $200 with you and use an atm to get out more money when necessary. Most Ozzies wouldnt carry more than $100 on them at any time and the use of eftpos/atms is very prevalent and you would have to be in a very country town to have to use cash.

Oh, i was going to say that all of our big cities are on teh coast so there is heaps of surfing nearly everywhere. In Perth we have a beautiful coastline with heaps of surfing and down in margaret river (wine country 3 hrs south) they have professional surf competitions etc. We have a big river through the city centre so heaps of sailing over summer and if youre happy to travel up we have monkey mia where you can see heaps of dolphins or coral bay/nigaloo reef where you can see amazing fish right 1m off the coast and dive with whale sharks. there are some amazing gorges and the pinnacles if you are into landscape and if you go south it becomes quite green and lush and there are heaps of wineries and fancy restarants.

so hope that gives you some info about perth. make sure you come and visit no matter where you end up being based
tam Reply to this