Taking the kids to Australia

I have traveled to Australia twice and love it there. Those trips were in the days before I had my children. I am hoping to get my son enough time off school to go to Australia for Christmas next year. To afford the tickets we would have to travel end of November or early December. We wouldn't be able to afford mid December. I suggest November, December, January, February or March for arrival in Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide. Sydney is my favorite city in the world. I would suggest you take your kids there for a walk in the botanical gardens, a look at the harbor and some time at Shark Bay or another beach. You could take them to see the kangaroos. I wish to travel along the Great Ocean Road and that is done beginning in Melbourne. I loved going to the Queensland coast and that is popular with families. You might be able to rent a house or apartment for a couple of weeks. You might like to hire a camper van and drive round in that. I did some camping and stayed in backpacker hostels. Good luck planning your trip.

I've been there once, I visited a friend that was studying in Adelaide. We rented a car and drove to Kangaroo island, then we drove along the coast to Melbourne. From Melbourne we took a plane to Sydney where we met another friend of mine, she is Australian and lives in Wollongong with her husband. The 3 of us (the husband had to work) drove to the Blue Mountains, then we drove to Wollongong. I stayed there for a week and travelled around the area. If you want somewhere quite close to Sydney I think there'll be lot of things to do in the Blue Mountains. We went to the Jenolean caves and lot of rhododendron gardens. The later is maybe not very child friendly but very nice :-)

Yes, we'll 'ave ya! Sydney has lots to see & do, but it is very (I mean VERY expensive!). There are plenty of places that are cheap here, but what you might want is not necessarilly cheap, but good value for money, ie well-serviced, everything you need in relatively close proximity & reliable emergency & assitance facilities close by if something goes wrong. For that sort of combination, you can't go past Adelaide (chest-thumping here!). We have had the best Airport in Oz for the last six years running with the most awarded manager. Our beaches are the cleanest & safest in Oz (& I've heard directly from New Zealand tourists that our beaches here are the most beautiful anywhere in Oz). We've been assessed as the cheapest city versus the best level of services in Oz for over many decades now. Everything you need is cheap here & you get the biggest bang for your buck right here. Hire cars are cheaper, accomodation (especially booking a cabin in a caravan park, which I've done many times) is cheap & well serviced. Busses, taxis, parking, everything is cheaper here. There's under a million people in this sprawling city (not too crowded, but well-attended), which in the last round & every round of fires, floods, storms, etc remains blissfully unaffected! Beautiful summer weather here right now & flights are heavily discounted from February 1, so what are you waiting for?

That sounds like so much fun. I hope you and your family have a great time. I have never been to Australia but I'm sure that it would be a wonderful place to go. Hope you get lots of suggestions for a great deal. Have a good time.