How much does it cost per month to travel in Australia?

Question

I want to do that Oz intro trip to Australia, but i don't really know how much money i should save up. I currently have £700 and can save about £300 a month (as i have a full time job and have to pay rent) At the end of those 6 months i can move in with my folks and save £800 a month for perhaps 2 months. So roughly £4000 i may have to set me off (rough guess, could be lower if i don't move in with parents).

But whats the lowest i could go? I want to travel for a year and i will have a working visa so i can get a job whilst traveling. Id like to have the first couple of months without a job though. Id also like to do fun things like bungee jumping or skydiving...

Thanks!

Answer 1

That's a tricky one to answer, really.

It depends on a few things - where you are going to travel and how, and how much you're going to move around. Also it depends where you are planning to stay! But I'll see how I can help.

For a start, you're going in pounds...to be rough, a pound is between $2 - $3 Australian...we'll call it $2, to be conservative.

So we'll say you're coming here with about $8000.

The big problem is vast distance. It's a long way between the major cities in Australia - even Melbourne to Adelaide, which looks like not much on a map is about 800km or at least a full days drive.

However we're lucky that we have a few budget airlines - so you can often get cheap tickets. Your best bets, in order, are Tiger Airways, Jetstar, Virgin Blue. Qantas can take you just about anywhere in Australia, but it costs a fair bit more!

To get an idea, Melbourne to Sydney can be as cheap as $70 each way - while Melbourne to Perth (one of the longer trips) varies from $130 a way up to $300, depending on airline.

Trains run between a lot of the major cities, as do buses - but the interstate ones get expensive.

Hiring cars aren't cheap either - mostly because of petrol, which is about $1.50 a litre in the cities but can get as high as $2 plus in the more remote spots.

Shop around a bit for where to stay. If you in a city, backpackers are the best bet, most start at $12 - $15 a night. Out in the country, a local pub is a good bet, usually at $20 - $40 a night (but given that is for your own room, that's pretty good!)

If you're going to stay for a while, usually they'll give you a better rate too - and at a pub, you might even pick up a bit of work bartending or in the kitchen which will help. Pub owners in the bush tend to be generous and if you work for them a bit, they'll take good care of you!

Don't bother with motels...they're usually $80 - $200 a night...you'll waste a lot on them!

Around the cities, public transport is a good bet. You can usually buy tickets for only a few dollars that cover the entire city for either a day or week at a time...depends where you want to go and for what. Steer clear of taxis if you can help it - again, costly! Most cities will have a bus between the airport and centre of the city, so use that instead.

Food on the whole isn't too bad. A pub meal will usually start at $8 - $10 and go up to $30 for the more fancy. Some city restaurants get costly - but for every 5 star eatery, there is a pizza bar or kebab shop that'll feed you a lot cheaper! Oh, and of course, there's the usual McDonalds, KFC, Subway in most places.

It depends a bit too on what state you are visiting. Or states! I live in Victoria and know it intimately - so I'll work off that and tell you what I know about the rest.

For a start, www.viclink.com.au is a good guide to getting around Victoria on public transport...buses and trains take you to just about any city in the state so you'll never be stuck for a fairly cheap ride.

However outside of cities, public transport is less - regional cities of 30,000 - 100,000 will usually at least have a good bus network though.

Depending where you want to go, will help you guide to whether you can do it solo or should go in a tour. As a rough guide, anywhere in the outback you should ALWAYS go with a tour group, it's just too dangerous to travel alone there - and by the time you hire an appropriate car and buy all the gear you'll need to travel the outback safely, it'll just cost too much.

I travel the outback quite a lot, but I've been going there for years and spent a lot of time learning how to survive and be safe - it's not something to just pick up! Trust me...you don't want to be out there alone.

But - around the cities and states like Victoria, it's a lot safer.

Mobile phones aren't too bad - prepaid plans are cheap and you can pick one up at the major supermarkets (Woolworths/Safeway and Coles). But don't be too reliant on it - out of towns and on the road, phone reception is often poor to non-existent!

If you want phone numbers to plan ahead, www.whitepages.com.au and www.yellowpages.com.au have all the lists - white pages are all numbers, while yellow is just businesses.

If you are going to be staying somewhere for a week or two, it's better to buy things like breakfast and lunch in bulk and keep it at your place (backpackers will have a communal kitchen) - and some dinners, too. So daily, it's quite easy to get by on only a few dollars for food!

I'm not sure how better I can help, so I hope this helps and feel free to email me and ask me more if you like!