Final Thoughts

In many ways, Australia felt like a natural extension of the U.S. Except, you didn't worry about being shot in any malls or movie theaters. The food - especially the fruits and vegetables - tasted much better here. But generally the food at the restaurants was much better. And the service at the restaurants was always consistently excellent, despite not having a tipping culture - which we really liked and appreciated.

It was also surprising how long it took for us to see a homeless person in Sydney (or in any of their cities really). Don't get me wrong, they were there, but the amount of them compared to what we've been experiencing in the U.S. is remarkable.

I found the infrastructure of the cities to be consistnetly better than ours - very well thought out - as if there was great effort to make things as easy as possible for everyone - locals and tourists. Getting around was very easy and quite often free. What a welcoming feeling that gives to a tourist when free public transportation is provided.

We may have just gotten lucky, but we had no significant problems with our flights. At worst, perhaps a flight was an hour late. What was most annoying was that when we returned to the U.S., we had to stay on the plane an extra 45 minutes because customs wasn't open at LAX. How embarrassing that the richest country in the world doesn't have 24 hour customs service provided. After such a long flight, it is tough to be told you have to stay in your seat almost another hour because of this.

One thing I didn't mention was how close we were to hitting a typhoon in Cairns. Apparently it is typhoon season in the summer there, so be aware of that if you plan a trip to the reef during their summer. We arrived about 3 days after the typhoon hit and Cairns got flooded. We lucked out that everything was fine when we got there and all our tours worked out.

Favorites

Some of our favorite things may be affected by our expectations. For example, I expected the Great Barrier Reef to be more colorful than it was - even though I greatly enjoyed all my snorkleing - especialy my swim with the turtle. I also had very high expectations of Perth, but Perth itself was a bit underwhelming compared to other cities - unless you count the beaches and the Fremantle area. Perth was one of Ian's favorite cities.

But my favorite memory was being at Lone Pine in Brisbane, holding Bilby the Koala, and having him look up at me with his face 1 inch away from mine - it was just pure magic. I did not expect to enjoy that experience as much as I did! And feeding kangaroos at all the parks was something I didn't expect to be able to do. I would be very happy to hold koalas and feed kangaroos all day long. But that's not what I thought I was going to enjoy the most - I thought it'd be the Great Barrier Reef - go figure!

I also did not know what to expect of Tasmania - and we both really liked Tasmania and really want to go back and explore other parts. It is absolutely beautiful and the air is so clean and fresh. I didn't think they would have real city life there, but they do! Including several vegan restaurants - which we don't even have where we live!

My favorite cities - and ones where I would consider living - would be Adelaide and Brisbane. Both cities have a lot going on and weren't oppressively hot - although I think Adelaide is considreably cooler than Brisbane. But we already have friends in Brisbane, so a move there would be easy - ah, a girl can fantasize can't she?

(Some of Our) Regrets

There is so much we didn't see! Uluru, Alice Springs, and other areas in the interior of Australia are likely going to provide very different experiences - including more interactions with their Aboriginal people.

I also wish that we went to the Whitsundays, perhaps instead of Cairns, for the Great Barrier Reef - but I learned about that location after we already booked our flights.

We also didn't get to go to the Australia Zoo outside of Brisbane - aka the Irwin Zoo - I bet that's an incredible zoo, but we sure got a lot of experience with wildlife while we were here!

We also didn't get to see the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast - which are both supposed to be stunning. Neither of us are big beach people though - I like to get in the water, but I don't particularly enjoy laying in the sun for long periods of time...and Ian hates the sand...so we ruled that out for this trip.

I wish we had at least 2 more days in Adelaide. I would visit Kangaroo Island (they have penguins there) and I'd do a winery tour.

We also didn't get a chance to see the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney - maybe my Cousin Joe will take us next time!

Conclusion

If you're thinking about going to Australia - GO! It's awesome! Send me a chat if you have any questions...I might know the answer! Keep an eye out for cheap flights...we paid about $1400 for our flight from North Carolina to Sydney. I expected it to be closer to $2000 for December, so I think it was a good deal. FYI - our flights from city to city in Australia were on Jetstar or Virgin Australia and were as little as $50 and as much as $250.

That's all I can think of for now...but if I think of anything else that might help someone plan a trip here, I'll be sure to add it!

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Thought of a few more things:

1. Most of the time, I was referring to US Dollars. On our trip, the US dollar was equal to about $1.30 AUD. That made things quite affordable for us - and it's not always like that - not so many years ago, it was the reverse. So now is a great time to go.

2. Make sure to always have a bottle of water with you. Always apply sunscreen (carry some with you if you'll be out in the sun for long periods of time) and wear a hat. That Australian sun is no joke! The water is delicious there and there are a lot of public water fountains with fresh, cold drinking water.

3. Slurpees at 711 were often cheaper than getting a water or soda (70 cents American). And they had cool flavors like sugarfree peppermint! It makes for a nice treat on a hot day!