Summary

While I put the summary first to grab the reader, I highly encourage those interested in an Australian vacation to at least peruse the entire blog to really get a sense of it all.  Seventeen days traveling over half a continent; not easy to sum up in a few words, or even a few paragraphs – but I’ll give it a shot.  As detailed in the itinerary below, we hit Sydney, The Outback, Cairns, Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef and Melbourne, in that order.  Prioritizing these destinations over a half dozen or so other locations in and around the continent.  Overall, when coming from the U.S. and heading to the other side of the world expectations are very high (no matter how much one tries to temper them).  There were occasions where we were underwhelmed, there were times it met and other times it exceeded these expectations.  Lizard Island was the highlight, by far, and in some ways turned the whole vacation around.  The main tourist area, Sydney, was a disappointment at times.  That said, Melbourne was a fun, cosmopolitan city experience.  On advice from the travel agent we moved up our dates to begin our vacation in Sydney at the very end of December to experience the first New Year’s Eve party on the globe; a potential once-in-a-lifetime world event.  There were ramifications to this, mostly related to large crowds and closures.  Was it worth it? – hard to say – spouse would say yes!  My daughter and I, not so much.

Aside from the extraordinary time on Lizard Island, let me tick off a few highlights from the trip – The Bridge climb, the opera house, the fish market and Manly beach in Sydney; the sunrise tour of Kata Tjuta and “Field of Light” dinner in the outback; the Daintree rainforest in Cairns; the wine tour in the Yarra valley outside of Melbourne as well as just experiencing the city itself.   To scale it, If Lizard Island was a 10, which it was, these activities ranged from 7- 8, in my humble opinion.  Please see much more detail in the individual destination write-ups below.

As far as expense, booking through a travel agent much of our trip was presented to us in one big package with a bottom line total making it literally impossible to discern individual items.  (As an aside, this was quite unusual for us to do and we would likely not book a trip this way again).  Overall, Australia is pretty darn expensive, the saving grace being the exchange rate which was about 15% in our (U.S. dollar) favor.  One other item worth mentioning – there is no tipping in Australia.  This helps from an expense standpoint (though we still tipped at times, finding it habitually quite difficult not to).  On the other hand the service level can be below average, reflecting this lack of gratuity.

Some general recommendations:  Melbourne is not considered a primary stop in Australia, we would disagree.  Hit the iconic sights in Sydney then as the saying goes – get out of dodge.  If one enjoys some walking/hiking and adventure, then visiting the outback when its not the heat of summer would be thrilling.  Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef is a must.  As detailed in that section; while it is very, very expensive, it’s worth saving up and potentially skipping or limiting other stops to spend several nights here.  Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our Australia getaway, but at the same time it was a mixed bag.  Some activities and sights can duplicated right here in the U.S., others were unique, transcendent, and forever memorable experiences.

Background

We plan on taking an international two week vacation every 18 months or so for a very long time, and this is one of these planned outings.  On this excursion, our 21 year old daughter joined us (why not? – free trip for her 😄).  As this is also our first time in Australia, coming from Southern California, and prior to this living in the NYC area, we’ll be looking to hit all the major attractions, and get a strong sense of the culture and vibe across the country/continent.  We are also mini-“foodies” and enjoy the nightlife scene to some extent.  Thus we are also looking to partake in the indigenous foods, premium restaurants and bars, and local food and beverage hangouts.  We try to avoid tourist traps at all costs, yet will not shun major, crowded sites and attractions.  We also look to get in a fair amount of walking/hiking.  While we are certainly conscious of how we spend money, we are fortunately not on a tight budget and can splurge occasionally, if warranted, and we did – it can easily get quite expensive here.  Australia is also a very large country, indeed its own continent with cities and coastal attractions literally plane rides away; hence we began planning months in advance, and in this instance used a travel agent which is quite atypical for us.  Come to think of it, this is the first time we traveled between various destinations by plane within one vacation (in the past we’ve cruised between sites).  The travel agent came in especially handy in booking the intra-city flights and ground transfers between the various hotels and airports which would have been a time consuming endeavor on our part.  While relying on the travel agent for many items, we still planned rigorously for this trip and did our own research using the standard guide books, internet sites, etc. as, in general, we are very conscious of not wasting time on vacation and have our own tastes that could differ substantially from a typical travel agent agenda.

Itinerary

Before beginning, its important to note that Australia’s seasons are reverse from North America.  Being warm weather folks, we purposely planned this trip for our winter/their summer.  As far as specific timing, with our daughter traveling with us we were limited to her between semester winter break from college (basically end of December through January).  Now, being summer in Australia, the local kids are off from school and thus it was travel season for the native Australian population (more on this in the Sydney section).  While our initial plan was to leave very early January, the travel agent strongly suggested leaving late December to catch the infamous New Year’s eve fireworks show in Sydney harbor – and so we did.  Arriving on December 29th and putting aside the time change for a moment, we spent five nights in Sydney.  From here it was on to the outback in the middle of the continent to explore Ayers Rock (Uluru) and Kata Tjuta – a two night undertaking.  We then flew to Cairns by the Great Barrier Reef, another two night stay where we toured the nearby Daintree rainforest.  A 10-seat plane ride over the Great Barrier Reef took us to Lizard Island.  This Island housed one luxury resort, where we stayed for four fabulous nights.  Then it was back on the propeller plane for a stopover in Cairns on our way to Melbourne.  We spent our final three nights in Melbourne before heading on a direct flight back to L.A. for a total of 16 nights and five distinct destinations on the Australian continent.

Let me pause here for a few words on the itinerary.  As stated earlier, Australia is a big country, larger than the U.S., and while not nearly as diverse as far as various cities and attractions, it does offer a multitude of vacation opportunities.  Hence, planning a trip to Australia would be akin to a couple who have never been to the U.S. looking to plan a trip to either the Western or Eastern half of the country.  if you’ve got 2 – 2 1/2 weeks where do you begin and as importantly what do you leave out.  So prioritization is paramount, some of which is just generally what are the major mega-sites (i.e. New York City if traveling on the U.S. East coast), and more specifically for secondary spots what are you’re personal interests (i.e. if traveling on the West Coast – the Pacific Northwest vs. The Grand Canyon vs. Las Vegas, vs. Napa Valley, etc.).   Now, the travel agent did quickly lay out an agenda based upon experience (that we simply don’t have), and in the end after our own research, we followed this very closely.  In our minds, Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef were must-do, major sites.  After this, it was a matter of prioritization – we chose the outback and Melbourne, and left out Perth on the West coast, Tasmania, the “Gold Coast” and a few others.  Our itinerary is likely one of, if not, the most popular for first-timers in Australia, with the possible exception of Melbourne which tends to be left off of first time must-see lists.  After executing our itinerary we have a different opinion on this.  But getting ahead of myself mates – lets walk through this Australian journey.

First Stop – Sydney – 5 nights

From LAX, Sydney is a 15 hour direct flight.   Here’s where we splurge – a lot.  Its simply such a long flight, we book business class or the like, which is ridiculously expensive.  That said, didn’t really mind the flight at all in this setting.  Given the time change, you leave in the evening and arrive in the morning about 12 hours later local time (and a day ahead).  However, you’re on the plane for 15 hours!  If you can sleep, you get extra sleep and can hit Sydney refreshed in the morning, ready to go.  That worked out quite well for us and jet lag was minimal.   After clearing customs, we found our driver and headed to downtown Sydney where we were booked at the Intercontinental hotel.   We were able to check into the room early, well ahead of check-in time, which was a plus.  Our room had an Eastern harbor view, unfortunately the western harbor views overlooked the main harbor and opera house.  Oh well, not exactly what we expected, but nothing to cry about.  After settling in quickly, we were off.  In the interest of brevity and enjoyable reading, I’m not going to go through our itinerary hour by hour or day by day, but rather just hit the highlights and observations of our time in Sydney.

The main sightseeing area of Sydney is by the harbor – two districts called Circular Quay (pronounced key) and the rocks.  It’s not a very large space and can be ultra-touristy and crowded – The Sydney Opera house and harbor bridge call it home and its also where mega-size cruise ships dock.  Our hotel being in Circular Quay was just two blocks or so South of the harbor, thus we ambled around this area quite a bit.  Indeed, most of the major hotels are located in or close to Circular Quay.

The Sydney Opera House – One of, if not the most recognizable building in the world.  We scheduled two pre-planned outings here.  First, a morning tour and that evening an opera.  Both of these were relatively inexpensive, especially the show itself given one is experiencing an opera in the world’s greatest opera house.  Book the tour early, it will fill up.  Again for the sake of brevity I’m not going to delve into this tour in any detail here, suffice to say, the Sydney opera house is one of the most iconic buildings in the world, and we enjoyed this one hour or so inside look, the truly fascinating history of its conception and design, the on again – off again construction that lasted decades, and just the architectural wonder that it is.  The opera house contains a number of different venues aside from the opera stage.  The opera playing during our stay there that best fit our schedule was a type of opera highlights show.  Four opera performers singing various hits from several famous operas.  We had great seats and thoroughly enjoyed the performance.  This attraction is obviously a must-see in Sydney.  It is our understanding that they are closing the opera house for renovations for a few years sometime soon; so check this out when traveling to Sydney; it is the number one attraction in the city.

Royal Botanical Gardens, shopping and walking around Sydney – On our first day, after exploring Circular Quay and the Rocks, we walked South away from the harbor through the central business district and took-in the famous Queen Victoria and Strand shopping arcades and stopped at a few bars/lounges including a revolving bar, O on the 47th floor overlooking the city.  All of this was just fine, nothing to jump up and down about, but pleasant experiences.  As part of day 2, we walked into the royal botanical gardens and headed for the Governors palace where there’s a guided tour given each morning.  To our surprise the Governors palace was closed for the holidays.  Nowhere in our research did it say this (and let me add, we do very thorough research.  See comments at the end of this section for more on closures).  OK, after taking a minute to absorb this news, we continued with our agenda, walking through the botanical gardens; heading towards the less touristy eastern suburbs of Kings Cross and Darlinghurst (a much longer walk then anticipated) – destination, the Jewish museum.

Sydney Jewish Museum – As a side note, when traveling we generally put a museum or two on our to do list and Sydney has a plethora of history, science and art museums.  We, for several reasons, had no interest in any of them (with the exception of the Jewish museum, as this is our heritage, and even this was a low priority).  The Jewish museum turned out to be mostly a museum of the holocaust, and we entered coincidently just in time to hear a holocaust survivor tell her gut wrenching childhood story.  After this was a guided tour of the museum.  Again, not going through any of the details, the subject matter is always thought provoking, almost incomprehensible that it happened, and beyond depressing.  A few comments are warranted here, while this museum was very well done and had lasting impressions, it was not necessarily an “Australian” attraction, the museum could have been almost anywhere in the world where there are holocaust survivors.  That said, glad we did it.

Bondi Beach – Day three brought half a day at Australia’s most famous beach – Bondi.  The hotel provided towels, we grabbed our beach bag, hailed a cab (as Bondi is several miles from the main harbor) and were off.  Which brings me to public transportation in Sydney.  Being ex-New Yorkers and very comfortable riding subways/trains, we do not shun this mode of transport when vacationing in major cities.  Not only is it cheaper, but it is usually faster and brings one closer to the local population and culture.  Public transportation in Sydney while existent just didn’t seem very accessible to tourists.  We didn’t really think about using it, even once.  Now back to the beach – Bondi is not surprisingly beautiful, the water is relatively warm, the waves are almost perfect for body surfing, and we spent a delightful few hours here.  The famous splashes restaurant next to the beach doesn’t open till lunch, being there in the morning, however, we didn’t get a chance to sample this – too bad.  Always wanting to get in a bit of exercise, a “cliff” walk/hike from Bondi through several beaches South, ending in Coogee Beach, beckoned us.  We stopped about half way in Bronte beach (as it being New Years Eve we were a bit pressed for time) had a typical Australian lunch there and cabbed it back to the hotel.  This hike was gorgeous, but at the same time surprisingly similar to scenery and views we see along the Laguna Beach coast.

The Sydney Fish market and Darling Harbor – After Bondi Beach, we headed to the Sydney fish market.  A sprawling market with a myriad of diverse seafood and ancillary vendors – a different and fascinating experience.  Unfortunately, being New Years Eve, the daily tours were not being offered.  Even so, we had fun walking through this enormous market.  I’d recommend it as an hour or so diversion, certainly not something I’ve ever seen before.  It is also near Darling Harbor so both can efficiently be experienced in half a day.  We did just that, as our New Year’s eve dinner cruise disembarked here.  Darling harbor consists of several restaurants and bars and a few shops along this portion of the sprawling interior coastal line of Sydney.  Arriving here well ahead of our cruise time, we sampled a few places for drinks and apps.  Good stuff, but nothing too much stands out.

New Year’s Eve on the harbor – Stemming from its location on the earth and the human design of the time zones, Australia is the first main continent on the globe to celebrate New Years.  Fireworks over Sydney harbor with the opera house in the background is an iconic image shown all across the world as New Years Eve approaches other countries and cities.  In Sydney, the travel agent arranged a dinner cruise for us in the harbor.  The cruise began at around 6:00PM and unfortunately on again-off again rain, heavy at times intermingled with the cruise.  We had a table on the more exclusive upper deck of this ship and the dinner and service was just fine, nothing extraordinary.  Entertainment consisted of a live band on the main deck and a DJ on the upper deck.  Sydney does two fireworks shows, a great show at 9:00PM for families, and a more extravagant show at true New Year’s eve.  The main issue here was 7 hours on the boat – way too long.  Additionally, the ship just didn’t provide a party atmosphere.  While it’s always difficult to pinpoint what makes a great party and what doesn’t, I’d say the makeup of the crowd (mostly older couples and some families on this ship), the rain (just bad weather luck here), and the general entertainment offerings (including cocktails) were all to blame.  Now, in all fairness (and I’ll toot our own horn here) we’ve thrown or organized some epic New Year’s eve events over the past few years (two in Vegas!), so as far as New Year’s parties go, our experiences will be difficult to top.  While the fireworks shows were spectacular and seeing it from the harbor was worth the wait, the time between the 9:00pm and midnight shows dragged, to say the least.  This all stems back to the decision to travel over New Years or not.  The other factor here was being on the cruise ship for the fireworks or not, and here the rain played a major part.  Watching people stake out spots along the harbor hours in advance, only to be poured upon seemed dreary.  On the ship we always had cover when needed.  Post midnight we were very eager to finally disembark.  Now, Sydney shuts down most of its streets to traffic on New Years only allowing pedestrians, so we had about a half mile or so walk back to the hotel.  Observing the enormous and at times raucous crowds on the streets told us that there were some fun places and parties going on in Sydney New Year’s eve that we just didn’t experience on the “mature persons” ship.

Manly beach – Manly is a bit off the beaten path – the only way of reasonably getting there is a 20-30 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay – which was fun.  Once there, a little “town” of shops and restaurants/bars greets you on the way to the beach.  After walking through the shops, purchasing some water and other essentials and browsing some souvenirs, we chilled on the beach for the morning.  This is a wonderful beach with great body surfing.  We liked it a smidge better than Bondi, but that could’ve just be the luck of the day.  For lunch we hit one of the restaurants on the way back to the ferry.

Harbor Bridge climb – The harbor bridge offers a variety of guided bridge climbs which takes climbers to the top of the pillars holding up the roadway below.  Heights and steep climbs are not compatible with my girls, so I was on my own.  This climb is a process to say the least.  After checking-in at the allotted time at the base of the bridge, your group of about 12 or so are gathered together and given safety talks, a breathilizer, walked through metal detectors and so forth.  Then one gets a jump suit, whereby you go into a small dressing room remove your outer clothes and don the climbing suit.  Another metal detector awaits; as there are no phones or even watches allowed on the climb.  You are then escorted to another room and go to a station where climbing apparatus, consisting of metal hooks, etc. are strapped tightly to your legs and torso.  At this point, the group (all strangers to me) are all looking at each other like “what in the world are we getting ourselves into here”.  From here you are fitted with earphones to hear the guide and given more safety and other instructions.  Now that everyone is tensed up to the max, its outside onto the bridge surface.  You put the circular hook at your waist onto the metal guide cord and your fully committed.  No sooner, the female behind me starts breathing heavily and loses it.  There’s no changing positions once your hooked in.  Myself and her significant other behind her talked her through it at times.  Luckily I was in front of her, as she was trailing measurably behind the six or so of us directly behind the guide.  I did the “express” climb based on availability and what best fit into our schedule when booking a few weeks in advance.  This climb begins walking on two wooden planks with the roadway and water below.  There are rails on both sides, one of which your waist hook is attached to that you pull/push along.   I’ll be honest, its a bit frightening/terrifying at first.  About 1/3 of the way up, you head onto the main cableway that goes to the top.  Here, there is a wider walkway, that is actually an easier climb, but you’re much higher up.  Our guide was just wonderful, she was calming, told excellent stories about the bridge, its history, etc., and most of all, I could tell, she was extremely competent.  As there are no phones/cameras, etc. allowed, the guide will take pictures for you at the very top, obviously for a fee to purchase later.  After some time you do get used to this climb, and when you finally begin heading down, there is almost no fear left.  Overall, this was a great experience for me – pushed the envelope a bit, not something that can be replicated too many other places on earth, and just invigorating.  Absolutely one of the highlights of Sydney.

The Blue Mountains – There are scenic mountains covered in lush forests an hour or two inland from Sydney called the blue mountain region.  Our travel agent booked us a tour of this area.  We hopped on a bus of 14 tourists heading east to a place called Scenic World to “explore” these mountains.  Scenic World consists of three attractions or amusement park type rides and a walk in the forest valley.  To be blunt, these were three poor excuses for Disneyland rides and downright cheesy at times.  It’s still not clear to me why this place exists at all.  When one is going to explore mountain and valley scenic areas or the like, maybe they’ll be an aerial tramway to get a panoramic overview of the landscape, but half ass amusement park rides?  Let’s move on, I truly don’t want to think about it again.  The tour then stopped at a few more overlooks, one of which did have amazing views.  Lunch was traditional Aussie food at a place two steps above a truck stop.  We then headed to a “wildlife sanctuary” to see and feed kangaroos and other marsupials.  This was fine, but it was a true caged zoo – you were not seeing the wildlife in their natural habitat.  The husband of an Italian couple we met along the way called the zoo offensive – on further thought he was right.  The bus then took a quick detour through the Sydney Olympic village and being a huge Olympic fan I enjoyed this, but there wasn’t much to see.  The tour ended with a 30 minute or so uneventful boat ride from one of the many inland harbors to circular quay.  the Blue Mountain tour which appears in all the tour books was, by far, the low point of our vacation.  A huge error by the travel agent and definitely not something we would have put on our own agenda.  Knowing how we always look to prioritize and simplify (sometimes too much), we just wouldn’t have bothered with it.  We were seeing Australia’s natural wonders in other places and were in Sydney for the metropolitan coastal city experience, and the beaches.  This was a big drive/bus ride, a hassle to arrange and we had enough going on in traversing the Australian continent by plane.  Never would have made our list, and we have lists 😀.  Now, we take full responsibility as we could have vetoed this portion the travel agent itinerary, but we really didn’t know the inns and outs of it.  Finally, the scenery and vistas are not that different and at times not as monumental as mountain/valley scenes across North America or Europe.  Whatever you do, skip this when going to Sydney.

Sydney – Some General Thoughts and Insights.  First off, we were in Sydney between Christmas and New Year’s, as referenced several times earlier.  This posed some challenges that we frankly didn’t foresee.  The crowds were thick at times, but this had as much to do with cruise ships being in dock then anything else, as it was noticeably less dense when there wasn’t a mega-ship in the harbor, and crowds are to be expected.  Closures caught us off guard.  We learned quickly that some fine restaurants and attractions are closed for the week.  That’s peculiar – it would be akin to restaurants and ancillary attractions right around Disneyland closing during the busiest week of the year.  Two items are at work here.  First, it’s a holiday week for the Australian populace, so the people who work in these establishments are given the week off and they close them.  I surmise this is a cultural priority difference between the U.S. and Australia.  The economics of being open during the busiest week of the year would trump any vacation time off in the U.S.  Second, as far as restaurants go, the local population has left Sydney for the holiday week, so the restaurants that cater to the locals and not the tourists close for the week.  Combining one and two it becomes a viscous cycle.  Now this brings me to an item I normally address frequently in these blogs, but haven’t yet touched upon here – Restaurants and Bars.  We did find some interesting places to dine, some from the concierge, some on our own.  Overall, the dining in Sydney was fine, but nothing to jump up and down about.  Traditional Aussie fare is fish and chips –  we had this for lunch a few times, and it was very good!  Being a coastal city, it is a seafood kind of town, and we usually ordered at least one fish entree for dinner.  Service was at times below average.  There’s basically no tipping in Australia creating another viscous cycle of “why go out of our way to provide exceptional service if we’re not getting any extra for it” from the server side, and “why leave an extra gratuity for average service at best” from the customer side.  The standout restaurant and exception to the above was Manta in the less touristy Woolloomooloo district, a restaurant recommended to us by the Four Seasons concierge.  Food and service here was outstanding.  Another premiere restaurant written up in all the guide books is Mr. Wong’s which does not take reservations.  After getting shut out here January 1 (which prompted us to walk over to the Four Seasons nearby and ask their concierge restaurant ideas), we tried again January 2, and put our name on the list.  We loved the vibe at this restaurant.  Sitting at the bar waiting for our table was loads of fun as the bartenders were friendly and mixed exceptional, creative cocktails.  Once seated for dinner, we found the food to be just above average and the service not so much (welcome to Sydney!).

OK, so much for the food.  Now onto something else unexpected.  There were numerous instances where we were given misinformation.  Not just from people working in various establishments we frequented but also from our hotel concierge.  Questions ranging from directions to ferry times to closures – nothing too complicated.  This was not done purposely, they told us what they thought was correct, but simply wasn’t the case.  It happened enough times that I’m putting the effort in to mention it here, and by the end of our stay in Sydney we were extremely wary of any information we received.  To this day not sure how to interpret this – I’m chalking it up to some sort of cultural difference.

A quick word on the hotel.  The Intercontinental hotel’s location was basically in the heart of the harbor district, and this worked out just fine.  Breakfast was included with our rate and it had the most extensive breakfast buffet we have ever seen 👍🏼.  Overall though, the hotel is a four not five star property in our opinion – the rooms, service, etc. were very good, but not exceptional.  Some poor advice from the concierge didn’t help (but as mentioned previously they didn’t corner the market on this item).  If going to Sydney, of the major premium properties, in my mind the Park Hyatt stands out simply due to its location.  It is literally out in the harbor by itself sitting under/beside the entrance to the harbor bridge.  A remarkable setting.  I cannot comment on the rooms or service, but if it’s in the same price ballpark (or should I say stratosphere) as the other 5 star properties (i.e. The Four Seasons, Shanghai-La, The Langham), choose Park Hyatt.

Final Sydney Thoughts and Summary.  The exceptional dining experience at Manta showed us that there were more exclusive, less touristy, more cosmopolitan areas to be had.  If there were anything we left out, it would have been to ferret out and hang in the more hip and happening Eastern sections of Darlinghurst, Woolloomooloo and Paddington.  In hindsight, we could have taken the money from blue mountain tour and put it towards experiencing these urban areas and/or upgrading the hotel (or to save a few dollars, potentially even taken a day out of the 5 night itinerary).  Working through the travel agent, we were only given bottom line whole package pricing, so couldn’t see individual items.  What was the hotel rate?  How much was the Blue Mountain tour?  Don’t really know.   In retrospect we should have insisted on this information (almost sure, we would not have received it).  Ok, past the time to finish up on Sydney.  Not surprisingly, mixed feelings here.  You have to see the opera house, and the bridge climb is fantastic!  The beaches are wonderful.  Sydney is, however, so similar to many mid-large coastal cities in the U.S. that for the first few days I had to keep reminding myself that I was in Australia half way around the world.  Now, living in Southern California, we are truly spoiled by the beaches here.  For those not living near the coasts, Bondi and Manly would be top top attractions.  So, the opera house, harbor bridge climb, and beaches – just that alone plus sprinkling in some walking around the city – and you’ve got three- four days of great times.  If you go in the off-season, it will not be nearly as crowded or expensive, and you wont have to deal with closures.  Overall, Sydney simply doesn’t stand out from the crowd.  It has its world class sights but not the sole of a great city.

Second Stop – The Outback – Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta – 2 nights

After some small chaos at the Sydney airport, we headed on a three hour flight toward the middle of the continent for something completely different.  Uluru and Kata Tjuta are a giant rock (Uluru) and rock formation (Kata Tjuta) in the middle of a flat desert.  These were very sacred places to the aboriginal people of Australia hundreds and even thousands of years ago and several tribes lived in the shadow of these rocks.  Indeed, ancestral aboriginal people still come to these areas for religious ceremonies, etc.  There are two tours that are the most popular – a sunset tour at Uluru and a sunrise tour at Kata Tjuta.  Two reasons for this popularity – the views at sunrise and sunset and the avoidance of being at these rocks in the heat of the day.   Being summer in Australia, it was going to be hot in the interior, and we hit an especially torrid few days.  The town, Yulura, basically exists to support vacationers to these rocks.  It consists of a few hotels with restaurants, a small town area of souvenir shops and a grocery market and housing for the employees at the hotels, restaurants, etc. supporting the tourist economy.  We stayed in what we believed to be the premiere property in the loop, The Sails of the Desert Hotel, but this was no luxury accommodation, and that was just fine as we didn’t expect a super high end property out in such a remote and rugged location.

Our first scheduled tour began in the afternoon a few hours after our arrival, but due to a few calamities with our flight, we arrived at the hotel several hours late, and had to catch up with the tour of Uluru about 30 minutes in.  Luckily, we missed almost nothing.  These historical and symbolic places in the outback are managed similar to the national park system in the U.S.  Park rangers, who are experts in the area run small guided group tours.  While we saw others out on there own, these tours are truly the only way to properly see the rocks and there are several variations depending upon fitness level and interests.  We joined the group inside the park at a “souvenir” shop where, based on our research, we purchased bug spray and fly nets to cover our face.  This was one of the smartest things we did all vacation.  While the heat at 110 degrees and above was oppressive, the flys were even more so, and the nets became essential equipment.  After seeing remnants of the life of the aboriginal people living in the area thousands of years ago, we took in Uluru at sunset, depicted in the pictures below.

The following morning brought the sunrise tour at Kata Tjuta.  We felt this rock formation was the more interesting to visit and provided more to see, even though it is the less famous of the two (we hear we’re not alone in this opinion).  Also, the ranger on the Kata Tjuta tour was simply better than the ranger the day before and this absolutely played a role in our thinking, (and that’s simply luck of the draw).  This sunrise tour also came with a camping style breakfast, which was some added fun.  Below are a few highlight snapshots of Kata Tjuta.

That evening we were booked at an outdoor bush BBQ dinner and an evening walk through of the “Field of Light” art installation.  The outdoor BBQ under the stars was an amazing experience.  Being so deep in the wilderness, the night was so dark and the sky so clear.  I have never seen that many stars in the sky – breathtaking.  The “Field of Lights” is an art installation of 50,000 colored lights covering acres of the desert.  It was supposed to be a temporary exhibit, but was extended due to its popularity.  It’s definitely something completely unique, a cool exhibit to walk through, and a fantastic way to cap off our two nights in the outback.  Unfortunately, due to the extreme darkness populated by thousands of lights, photography couldn’t really capture the visual.  That’s OK, it’s in our memories forever.

Let me finish off with an opinionated summary of our time in the outback.  Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta were fascinating to experience – even more so due to the religious significance they had/have to the aboriginal tribes that lived there.  That said, the rock formations, landscapes, views, scenery and topography is not any better than can be experienced in several national parks and the like in the U.S.  Going in the height of the summer when the heat was just so intense and the flies were so irritating certainly didn’t add to the experience.  On the other hand, the BBQ dinner under the stars and “Field of Lights” art installation was not something that could be experienced anywhere else in the world and was one of the highlights of the entire vacation.  So, a mixed bag here.  That said, for those who enjoy walking/hiking and can visit in the spring or fall, spending time at these rock formations and taking in the Field of Lights exhibit would be an exhilarating and amazing adventure, and I would highly recommend.

As Uluru and Kata Tjuta are the only areas in Australia where we came across an intersection of the aboriginal and English settlers, let me pause here to speak about a topic that I never or very rarely address –  race and politics.  Australia is certainly a caucasian country with the commensurate attitude of the public toward the native population.  In many ways they’re decades behind the U.S. in race relations, but trying to catch up.  In some ways, given the U.S. treatment of Native Americans, they’re not altogether that different.  Be that as it may, it’s a very white country that is still coming to grips with their treatment of the natives and more generally past immigration policies.  Enough on that – time for the next destination.

Third stop – Cairns – 2 nights

Cairns can be considered a jumping off point for the Great Barrier Reef, with one added attraction; the Daintree Rainforest.  The only rainforest in the world that touches an ocean.  We arrived in the afternoon, took in the harbor area then went on a group tour of the rainforest the next day.  The harbor encompasses a quarter mile or so boardwalk of various restaurants and bars on one side with boats docked in the marina on the other.  We came upon a unique place called Prawn Stars, which consisted of three boats in the marina serving that days catch of assorted shell fish on their decks.  We were pleasantly surprised at our late lunch there.

The hotel we stayed at, Pullman Cairns International, was excellent and we were able to secure a large upgraded suite.  The stay came with a buffet breakfast which, while not as extensive as the Intercontinental in Sydney, was absolutely fine.  On our first night, the wife was feeling a bit wonky, so my daughter and I explored the harbor area for dinner.  After stopping at a few places for cocktails, we picked Ochre a modern Australian style restaurant, sat at the bar and splurged for the 6 course tasting menu with wine pairing.    It was delightful, with probably a bit too much wine, but that’s OK 😊.

After the hotel breakfast the next morning, we were off for the full day tour of the rainforest.  Rather than go through the details of the tour. I’ll just sum up the whole day.  First, the rainforest was a bit further away then we expected, as the van ride there took some time.  The first stop was a guided river cruise through crocodile inhabited waters.  We were able to spot one very large croc, but it was hidden somewhat in the forest and would not have been captured well on film.   The pictures below capture the wonderful scenery along the river.

From another stop on the tour, the pictures below capture the rainforest as it meets the Great Barrier Reef within the Pacific Ocean.

We then stopped for a BBQ lunch which included an area to feed kangaroos and wallabies.  The pictures below depict a famous spot along the rainforest called Cape Tribulation.  Again, just amazing scenery, which also included a secluded walkway through the rainforest.  After this, we were taken even further into the rainforest, where we stopped for afternoon refreshments of numerous exotic fruits and a rainforest stream swim.  I partook in the swim, the girls did not.  It was fun!!  it should be noted, past this creek Australia becomes extremely remote with no paved roads or any real type of civilization for hundreds of miles up to the Northeastern coast of the continent.

After another picturesque overview on the way back, then a quick stop for some unique, really good tropical North Queensland ice cream, it was time for the long drive back at the hotel.  Overall, unlike the Blue Mountain Tour which was a dud, the Daintree rainforest tour was excellent, with scenery, vistas, and topography that in many cases could not be experienced anywhere else in the world.  While not necessarily a mind blowing attraction, it was solid and I would recommend it to others visiting the area.

Before heading back to our hotel, we discovered that the Reef hotel and casino across the street had a “wildlife dome” at its rooftop where one can hold a koala bear.  Unusual because Koala bears are very fragile and illegal to hold in most Australian cities.  Holding a Koala being a high priority for my daughter, we quickly ran into the wildlife dome before it closed and secured the last photo opportunity.  It was a cool experience.  Our last night in Cairns, we hit the harbor and went right back to the boats called Prawn Stars for the shell fish platter.  After dinner, we grabbed a cocktail at a restaurant along the way and called it an evening.

Fourth Stop – Lizard Island – 4 Nights

Lizard island lies off the Northeast Coast of Australia on the Northern end of the Great Barrier Reef.  We believed early on this was going to be something special, and when the car dropped us off at the tiny East Air terminal and we checked into the private airport lounge area, our expectations only escalated.  Soon we boarded a 12 seat private plane with just one other couple and took off for Lizard Island flying over portions of the reef.  Wow, this 45 minute or so plane ride was simply spectacular.

A little background on Lizard Island is warranted here.  The entire Island consists of one resort and a small research center.  Hence, the only people living on the Island are those working at the resort and the scientists at the research center.  Around the island are numerous small beach alcoves and given the number of people staying at the resort, the beach to room ratio is near parity.  Put another way, there is no issue with securing a beach all to oneself.  All meals and the use of snorkeling equipment, wetsuits, and small boats are included in the rate as is the transportation to different beaches on the Island.  Given all this, this is obviously one pricey resort (more on this later).

We stepped off the plane to a warm and friendly greeting by one of the staff and were golf carted to the main building, which houses the reception area, a bar, a sitting area, and the dining room.  At an outdoor patio we sipped champagne while checking in and getting educated on the resort and activities available over our ensuing four day stay.  (For those more senior readers – it was a surreal “Fantasy Island” experience.  We would not have been surprised if Ricardo Mantalban appeared from the dead).  We talked with the hotel manager and activity coordinators for a bit, scheduled a few activities and were soon informed our room was ready.  We followed another guest service agent to our room, which was termed a garden view suite.  The guest rooms are located in cottages scattered around the main building.  To this day not sure where our cottage fit into the hierarchy of the various levels of rooms (certainly closer to the bottom end), but we absolutely loved the room and its location (and we’re very discerning, some would disparagingly say even a bit snobbish when it comes to hotel rooms).  After this it was lunch in the dining room where we spotted a medium size lizard on the walkway – hence the name of the Island.  There is a beautiful beach right in front of the central building and an activities “hut” right next door where one can access wetsuits, snorkels, and meet up for planned scuba/snorkeling excursions further into the reef, arrange for a small boat to ride, etc., if that’s your bag.

At this point rather than go through each day in detail, I’ll categorically sum up our other-worldly stay on Lizard Island.

The Island and its beaches.  As alluded to previously, Lizard Island consists of numerous beaches ringing almost the entire Island.  To access these beaches, guests can either grab one of the small boats anchored just off the main beach in front of the activities hut and be on their way (with the help of the staff), or get a boat ride from one of the staff to a predetermined beach and arrange a pickup time.  We chose the latter, as we had no interest in figuring out how to navigate these boats around the Island – after all we we’re on vacation – we’ll let someone else take us around 😄.  On our first afternoon, we were just getting acclimated and weren’t looking to venture too far, we were driven to the beach just left of the main area, where we were told there could be turtles to spot.  We got our stinger suits and snorkels jumped on the boat and were dropped off at this beach for a few hours.  Chairs were set up and we basked in this luxury for a bit.  A word on the stinger suits – there are jelly fish in the water, and although highly unlikely, these suits are a precaution to ensure one doesn’t get stung.  I donned the stinger suit and snorkel mask, and surprisingly my daughter joined me.  They weren’t kidding when they said turtles.  We had turtles literally all around us, and even waist high near the shore line, turtles were abundant – wow – never experienced anything like this.  Oh, did I mention, we had this beach all to ourselves.  Before long the boat came back for our pickup – it was all too soon, we certainly could’ve stayed longer.

The next day we filled out a checklist of lunch and beverage items to be packed in what the Australians call a hamper, and us Americans call a picnic basket and hit the activities hut to prepare for our next beach outing.  We were taken to the beach just to the right off the main beach where there is coral bed to spot blue crabs and numerous other fish.  We were set up with our chairs and picnic basket in a shady spot and arranged for an afternoon pick-up.  This time there was one other couple on a different section of the beach.  I ran the beach and did some snorkeling as the family relaxed.  While there were an abundance of fish to see not far off the shoreline, on this day the harmless jelly fish were so heavy and profuse it became annoying enough to cut the snorkeling short.   But that’s the ocean, you never know what you’ll get one day to the next.  Still an amazing experience.  Throughout we had lunch, beverages, snacks and wine from the “hamper” and made almost a whole day out of it.

Day three brought a more adventurous trek to not only the completely other side of the Island but a beach on another Island about 1/4 mile away.  Following the same routine, we were dropped off on this small Island we had all to ourselves with chairs and picnic basket till the mid-afternoon.  As shown below, a 5 foot shark joined us for most of the morning patrolling the shallow waters by the shoreline – not something you see everyday, to say the least.  I snorkeled, the tide took me out and I did struggle a bit to get back to shore.  While another amazing experience, being out on a deserted Island by ourselves with no communication was almost too adventurous for our family.  If they forgot to pick us up, we had literally no way of getting off the Island 😧.  Obviously, no worries, they came and got us, boated us back to the main Island and then after a long winding walk, we were jeeped back to our cabin.

On Day four we chilled on the beach in front of the main building.  Again, we had this beach to ourselves.  The snorkeling here was as good, if not better, than any as I swam above a string ray and saw a shark come by.  At the end of the day we realized there was no need to venture too far to any of the more remote beaches – the beach right out front was gorgeous, empty, and had just as much to see.

Food and Beverage.  There is one dining room where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served.  Between meals, cocktails, milkshakes and other beverages are available at the bar in the main building just off the dining room, and we partook in this consumption at regular intervals throughout our stay.   In the dining room, the food and service is first rate, and over the four nights we were able to enjoy a variety of stellar food and wine all served in a delightfully upscale atmosphere.  One night we splurged on the degustation dinner.  This is a 6 course meal paired with wine and served beachside.  To get an idea of the specialness of this dinner – the chef came out to greet us in the dining room the night before to discuss our likes and tastes as part of the menu design.  The dinner was more than a meal, it was an event beyond mind blowing.  Hard to find the right adjectives – I’ll leave it like this – it’s not too much to say that this was not only the highlight of this vacation, it was likely one of the best evenings we’ve ever spent on any vacation.  See the pictures below.

There is also a small building housing the Marlin bar which is open a few nights a week for late night drinks, and I believe some bar food.  On two of the nights we hit the bar, where it’s a hoot to hang out with mostly the staff of the resort.  Indeed, one night I was there partying with the staff and a few guests till well past midnight 😬.

Odds and Ends.  As for added events, which are not included in the rate, my wife and daughter hit the spa one morning for a combo body scrub/massage/mini-facial treatment and absolutely loved it.  I was signed up for a snorkeling charter.  Here, they take you out well off shore further into the reef.  This was right after my late night at the Marlin bar and the surf that day was rather high and choppy.  Not my finest moment to say the least.  To get an idea of the roughness – just floating in our snorkeling gear with our heads above the water in the middle of the ocean, we were bobbing up and down about four to five feet.  I only lasted about half an hour, and I wasn’t the only one.  But even on a calm day, there is not any more to see going out on the charter boat then one couldn’t experience on a few of the close in beaches.  So, absolutely no need to spend extra on the snorkeling charter unless you have a hankering to snorkel well away from the shoreline with a guide.  On a completely different note, there is no WiFi or cell service on the Island.  The only exception is a small lounge area between the check in desk and the dining room, just off the bar.  We and others made good use of this area.

Quick Summary.  As can be gleaned from the write-up above, we absolutely loved Lizard Island.  For anyone going to Australia, we say this is a must!  Yes, its extremely expensive – save up your money, cut short other sites/cities, spend less days elsewhere, etc. but make sure you vacation on Lizard Island, it will be well worth the money spent.  One thing to note, we got very, very lucky with the weather.  For a week the region was hit by numerous rain storms and at times almost hurricane like conditions.  It cleared up a day or two before we arrived and we only saw some residual winds and choppy seas as I mentioned above.  We found out later on that it began raining again a few days after we left.  It’s not clear what one would do on the Island during rain storms – close to nothing.  Spending all that money and being stuck indoors – oh gosh 😬😢.  Not to end on a dour note, poor weather is quite atypical for the Island.  Finally, while not sure of the occupancy rate at the hotel during our time there, during the day we saw very few other guests.  The only time when there were other guests around us was during dinner.  Vacationing in a tranquil, tropical environment where the staff outnumbers the guests –  it simply doesn’t get any better than this!

Fifth Stop – Melbourne – 3 Nights

We arrived in Melbourne quite late at night and checked into the Crown Towers Hotel as a preferred guest of the local travel agent.  The upgraded room was large, classy and exquisite while the hotel itself was connected to a giant casino complex.  This preferred status provided us club lounge access including complimentary breakfast, afternoon tea, and happy hour canapés and drinks – a tremendous perk from booking through this travel agent.  The next morning we explored the complex a bit; with its high end shops and adjoining casino we got a bit of a vegas feel – in a good way.

Melbourne was tacked onto our Australian itinerary somewhat by surprise as an extra stop before departing the continent – hence we didn’t have a good deal of time there; two days and nights (but we’ll take it).  Given that, on our first day we kept the travel agents agenda of a half day private car tour in order to get a quick, comprehensive overview of the city.  This tour was enjoyable and we hit the highlights as well as some of the more local and obscure areas.  As it turns out, the famous Australian open tennis tournament began the day after we arrived.  This gave the city an extra bustle and as part of our tour we drove by the tennis complex (but had absolutely no interest in watching tennis in Australia).  Melbourne has an underground graffiti culture (for lack of a better phrase), which we explored a bit on the car tour.  My wife found this fascinating, my daughter and I found it rather disgusting.  There’s both commissioned works together with just plain spray paint pictures/words on a building.  I didn’t get it at all.  Not necessary to get into any more detail regarding this tour, which I said worked out just fine.

In our research, my wife came across an establishment in Melbourne voted a top ten bar in the world.  Without further ado, off to the Fitzroy neighborhood of Melbourne we went later that afternoon for an excellent time at the Black Pearl bar.  After this it was back to the central district for a cocktail at Eau-de-vie, which was an awesome place and dinner at super normal, a recommendation from the chef at Lizard Island.  A truly fantastic cap to the day.  We then walked back to the hotel for the evening.

Being novice wine aficionados (is that an oxymoron?), on our own we booked a wine tasting tour of the Yarra Valley for our final day in Melbourne.  Australia is well known for their wines and Melbourne was the closest we would get to any of the wine regions on the continent.  With the wine tour beginning late morning and no time to waste, we first took a tram to the famous Victoria market right after breakfast.  We had visited the market briefly on our private car tour, and enjoyed it such that we wanted to explore more of it on our own.  This also gave us the opportunity to ride the free tram and be more like a city local.  The tram turned out to be a little more complicated than normal simply because after a certain distance from city center and on certain lines it’s no longer free and one has to be aware of this – not a big deal.

The Yarra valley was about an hour and a half drive from Melbourne, and the tour we booked included a private car pick-up and drop off from our hotel, stops at about five wineries and lunch in the valley.  Quite different from our previous fourteen or so days and very fun (if, of course, wine tasting is something that interests you).  Two wineries we found exceptional, and we ordered a case each sent to our California home.  The wineries make delivery easy and if ordered by the case shipping is included in the price of the wine.  As mentioned earlier, the exchange rate was about 15%-20% in our favor, and this made the order more economically palatable.

Back in city proper, we explored the casino area a bit more, took complete advantage of the amenities in the club lounge and went for a cocktail near our hotel.  After this it was a walk to dinner at Chin Chin where we knew ahead of time we weren’t going to get a table without a reservation (especially with the Australian open in town), so we had dinner downstairs in the bar area.  It was good, Supernormal was much better, but it’s likely some of our mediocre feelings toward Chin Chin stemmed from our cramped seating arrangement at a basement bar table.  A long day and needing to pack for home the next morning, we walked back to our hotel.

A few summary words on Melbourne.  While Melbourne certainly has a central area that is walkable, other destinations are somewhat spread out and necessitate a taxi or free tram.  We did both.  Melbourne had a much more metropolitan/cosmopolitan feel than Sydney, and we enjoyed it quite a bit better.  In a sentence – Melbourne is more city like and less touristy than Sydney.  That said, with not the major iconic attractions to schedule and take-in, one can probably spend less time in Melbourne and get a great sense of the city.  In some ways it took the better parts of Las Vegas and New York and combined them nicely.