Has anyone travelled withing australia in a motorhome i would like to here positives and negatives?

Question

We are thinking of selling up and buying a motor home travelling around Australia for a couple of years while we are still young enough to do it (we are in our early fifties). We would like to hear from anyone that has done something like this, the positives and negatives. We would love to hear any opinions at all as it is a very big step.

Answer 1

We sold our house and bought a cheaper one and put tenants in so we would still have a home plus some income. Not much though after costs to be honest.

I was about 48 then and must say I felt too young for the grey nomad scene so we purchased re-sale (half retail cost) holiday clubs points in wyndham resorts plus exchange ownership. The program allows for cheap purchase of weeks, days, night plus the allocation you buy etc in very nice accomodation. Still they are not everywhere and only good for about 2 months a year the way we worked it, so we also stayed in motels, tourist cabins, tents. 4 star one night, back seat of the car the next :)

Along the way met people who worked at times in motels, trades and also some who worked for food and room picking fruit or helping around farms. Also some conservation work can be done in exhange for food and shelter.

Negatives in tourist parks were evening entertainment, you cannot go out every night and tv reception in motor homes never seems to be the best and some parks are less social than others. So good if you have internet mobile and also like to read. Washing clothes becomes a pain. Sick of 10am check out.  You also seem to spend a lot of time at motor mechanic shops, all that driving hurts your vehicle! Biggest negative, do not want to return to full time work. Was meant to be a sabbactical not early retirement lol.

Positives outweigh negatives though, you will wonder why you did not do it earlier. By the time you are 50 you can be quite burnt out from work etc and wonder what it all was for. Well it was so you can be free for a while and go your own way! It suddenly dawns on you that you only live once and you do not have to follow the norms if you do not want to.

Just do it, as they say!

Answer 2

Haven't done it but would like to. Have you been to the Grey Nomads' site? http://www.thegreynomads.com.au/

You may find some good info in there on their forum.

Answer 3

Not in a motorhome but did travel around Australia with a tent.It was an excellent idea and I loved every bit of it.I have met a lot of couples in their fifties and they all had positive experiences.Most people stay in interesting spots for up to 2 months and then move on.The advantage of a motor home is that you can stop at a lot of free or very cheap national parks.Basically,you plan out a basic route of which way you want to go and what you want definetly see.You meet a lot travelers on your way and usually they recommend places where they have been that are good and they also tell you places that you should avoid.I found that this was an excellent way of getting the information as travel brouchures would often paint a completely different picture.

We mostly camped in proper camping spots because they were well equiped with hot showers and camp kitchens.I would recommend you join a camping chain like BIG4 or Top Tourist,both of these give discounts on your camping. However,I found that BIG4 parks were much better equiped and the quality of the things they offer is also much better.

Also,we spent a lot of money on going on different tours and for entries into places.I am not sure how much money you are willing to spend on these things but these kind of things can swallow up your money quickly.Therefore,it might be a good idea to agree on the things you want to visit in advance and stick to it.Believe me there are hundreds of things that will come up during your trip that you have not planned for.

The other thing is food.We did not use a lot of take away and restaurants.This means that we only had about one cooked meal per day usually at dinner time and a lot of BBQ's.At each stop we did our shopping and then only needed to buy bread and basic things from the camping store.

I would also reccommend a good GPS system and a CB radio and a mobile with good coverage(if there is such a thing)