Advice on Visiting Us in Australia  - I’ve written several emails and given various advice about what time of year is the best to visit us.  On this page, I've tried to pull it all together. 

This would be an easier subject if you were just coming to Australia to visit us and then going back.  But you have to realize that Cardwell is not a normal part of Australia.  As long as you’re traveling all this way, you probably want to see some other things.  My main recommendation is that you should see Sydney, since most flights come into Sydney and it is the most interesting city.  Sydney Harbor is beautiful, a lot like San Francisco. The famous Opera House is right next to the Sydney Harbor Bridge, right in downtown Sydney - spectacular.  You can take a short ferry-ride from there across the bay to Manly for lunch.  It is a beautiful beach town, sort of like Santa Cruz.  Or go to Bondi Beach, the famous surfing spot. 

Incidentally, we don’t recommend driving in the cities unless you’re VERY comfortable driving on the left side of the road.  The city streets are hell to drive on.  Take public transit.

 When to visit - The only problem is that the BEST time to see Sydney is the summer (January through March), which is the WORST time to visit us!  Of course, there are other great places to visit but all the big cities are best in the summer.  If you’re going into the Outback or to the Tropics (where we are), you avoid the summer.

 So I’m going to assume that you want to see Sydney and you want to see us and you can plan around that.  Here is a table of temperatures and rainfall for Sydney and Cardwell: 

 The first thing to notice is the Cardwell rainfall from December through April – over 67 inches!  The temperatures aren’t bad, but it’s muggy – sort of like Florida or Texas in the summer.  We can have weeks without rain, but we can get weeks with constant rain, too.  We’re used to it but coming here from a US winter it would be hard to take.  So …

ADVICE #1: Avoid the tropics in December through April.  Early December or late April might be ok.

ADVICE #2: Avoid anywhere in Australia from mid-December through January.  That’s when the Aussies go on holiday and everything is crowded and expensive.

ADVICE #3: September/October is the best time in Cardwell.  It’s early spring, the wet season hasn’t started, temperatures are perfect, and the birds and animals are active.   May and November can be great, too, but you’re taking more of a chance on rain interfering with your vacation.  June through August is usually great weather, too, but the days are a little shorter (11 hours – not that bad) and it’s cooler, too.  Nice, though, and still green and beautiful.

 September and October are starting to get pretty nice in Sydney, too, (it’s Spring) so that would be my ideal recommendation.   This works well if you want to visit Brisbane, too.  It’s a warmer area with about 2,000,000 people in the metro area (Sydney is 4M).  The beaches are fabulous, the best I’ve ever seen.  Or you can go to Steve Irwin’s Australian Zoo.

 How long should you visit?  Allow at least two or three days in Sydney for sightseeing and adjusting your clock.  If you’re visiting us, I highly recommend a week to ten days in this area.  Not all that time would be in Cardwell and maybe not all with us.  But it is a unique part of the world and if you’re going to come all this way, I think you will be pleased that you didn’t rush through.  Of course, if you want to really see the Outback or visit Ayers Rock (Uluru) or see one of the other big cities, let us know.  You could easily spend a month here.  Or split your time with New Zealand, the most beautiful country we’ve seen.

 How much will it cost?  Airfare is going to be between $1,000 and $1,500 per person.  Lodging in Sydney will be well over $100/night in the downtown area, which is HIGHLY recommended.  A standard motel room in this part of the world is $60 or so but we can put you up in our place while you’re in Cardwell.  Our balcony can be enclosed and converted to a nice bedroom with a queen-sized bed.  The people who have slept there loved it but it’s not very private.  Rooms in the resort area, where we are, will be over $100/night but we can often get a deal.  Food is about the same cost as the US.  The exchange rate has been pretty steady with the Australian dollar worth about 75 cents US.  So a $100 room on an Aussie Web site would be $75 in US dollars.

 Travel Arrangements - Most flights come into Sydney but there are more and more going into Brisbane.  Brisbane is an hour closer to us by air.  From either place, you can fly to Townsville or Cairns.  It makes no difference to us.  You CAN fly direct to Cairns without going through Sydney or Brisbane, but you have to go via Hawaii and Guam or other weird routes.

 An unusual aspect of Australian airlines is that ALL tickets are one-way.  There’s no price-break for getting a round-trip.  So you might think about flying into Townsville and leaving from Cairns – or vice versa.  That way you can see a little more.  But, of the two, Cairns has a little bigger airport and has more to do.  So most people just fly in and out of there.

 What can you do in the Cardwell area?

 1.       Hanging around Cardwell – Our resort area is a great place to just relax, but there hikes, waterfalls, and viewpoints that will keep us busy for a few days or more.

2.       Hinchinbrook Island Ferry – Hinchinbrook Island is a unique place.  Leaving from our marina, the ferry takes you way up mangrove-lined channels and then it’s a short walk to a huge unspoiled beach for an hour or so.  Then they drop you off at another beach and you hike about three miles up the island to an eco-resort where you relax until the ferry picks you up.  The ride takes you near some other islands and there’s a chance of seeing dugongs and/or dolphins.  This trip runs from 9 am until 5 pm.

3.       Great Barrier Reef – There are many big boats that go out of Cairns and Port Douglas every day.  They take an hour or two to go out to the outer reef where you can snorkel or dive.  Or you can take an overnight trip and stay on a platform or a boat out on the reef and do a lot more snorkeling.  There’s also a reef trip which leaves near Cardwell that’s supposed to be good.

4.       Zoos – There are a few places near here where you can see the tropical birds and animals up close and even see a croc show, which is pretty cool.  There are also butterfly and bird sanctuaries.

5.       Rainforest – We have a lot of tropical rainforest near us, which we just love.  There are many hikes, most of them easy.

6.       Daintree Rainforest – This is the oldest and second-largest rainforest in the world and it’s pretty great.  It’s two hours north of Cairns (four hours from here) so it takes some planning.  But it’s really special.

7.       Atherton Tablelands – Probably our favorite place, worth two days of your trip.  It’s a two hour drive from here.  Elevation is about 3,000’ so it’s about 10 degrees cooler.  Pretty little towns, great rainforest areas, parrots, cassowaries, platypuses, tree kangaroos, you name it.   You won’t see ALL those, but you never know.

8.       Cairns – Check out our Web site for more about Cairns, but there are nice restaurants and a fun downtown area – and LOTS of resorts.  Very tropical.  Pretty upscale.  There are also LOTS of tours running out of Cairns, so if you wanted to stay in a city in the north for a few days, Cairns would be the place.  Port Douglas – a well-known resort town – is an hour north of Cairns.

9.       Townsville – The other big city (over 100,000), it’s much more blue-collar.  They don’t get much rain so it’s pretty brown most of the time.  But we like it a lot.  It has a fantastic long beach park and one of the best lookouts you’ve ever seen.

10.  See the Outback – We’re only a few hours from real Aussie outback, so we can easily do that, too.

There’s more, but that gives you an idea of why we think you can enjoy a week or ten days in our part of the country. 

 And, finally, let us know when you start THINKING about coming so we can talk about scheduling.  I would hate to have you come during a time we weren’t going to be here!