Holidays in Australia
My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. With the weather, we can say that we were lucky, there were not so many rainy days. It was a very correct decision that we arrived in Melbourne at night, after all, the flight takes a lot of energy and we gladly went to bed a few hours after accommodation, this allowed us to quickly reorganize in time. The hotel in Melbourne for three stars is quite decent, the location is perfect - in the very center of the city, many thanks. If you briefly describe excursions in Melbourne, then the sightseeing tour of the city is all super, a very good guide. The Great Ocean Road is a great tour, all the sights that were shown to us made an incredible impression. But on an excursion to Phillip Island it was a bit boring, except for the penguins themselves, there was nothing particularly interesting, the botanical garden and the chocolate factory were a formality, but I really liked the show with the penguins, it was worth it. All organizational issues, transfers, flights, hotel booking, everything is OK, there were no overlaps. I was surprised that on domestic flights all meals are paid, not at all expensive, but I just never came across this. The hotel in Cairns is very good, just what we like. Few rooms, very quiet, small number of guests, very comfortable. At this time of the year, there are not many tourists at all, the beaches are almost empty, there was a slight high / low tide, within 10-15 meters, they swam only in designated places. We never get bored, so we were happy to take a break from the hustle and bustle. Nearby there was a small pier, a lot of fishermen, it was very interesting to watch them. The embankment is pleasant for walking, there are parrots on the trees, a lot of vegetation, in general, everything is conducive to relaxation. Prices in restaurants in the resort area are quite decent, at least $ 100-120 for two, while the Australian dollar is almost equal to the USA. On excursions, we visited the zoo on our own, it was a few stops away from us on a regular bus. Excursion to the Great Barrier Reef is quite interesting, if we had not visited such places before, we would have been delighted. But still we had a lot of fun, definitely a must see. Excursion to the national park - a bit boring, in the afternoon it started to rain, but not for long. We visited a tropical forest, a mangrove forest on the ocean, had lunch, looked for crocodiles on the river bank, at the end of the tour we saw a very beautiful forest river with waterfalls, it was really beautiful. In Sydney, we had a hotel next to the famous Oxford Street, we still didn’t get to the gay parade, it took place on February 27, but maybe that’s for the best. We walked to the center, it's not far at all, Hyde Park was practically next to us. We visited quite a lot of sights on our own, we really liked the city. Excursion to the Blue Mountains - everything is OK, very beautiful natural and landscape views. The Russian-speaking guide is good, we learned a lot of informative information that was not in the guidebook, she told us which places to visit and what not to waste time on. If in general, then Australia amazed us, we had a great vacation despite the long flight, imbued with its spirit, felt all the features of both Melbourne and Sydney. The only thing, we were sorely lacking time, we wanted to visit as many interesting places as possible.