If I took a trip to Australia, what city or town would be best to stay in?

Question

First, I don't care for big cities...so, if I'm away, I want country living...not in the middle of nowhere, though.

Answer 1

Hobart, it's a city of 200,000 and capital of Tasmania so it has all the services without the congestion, polution,hype and lack of human scale of big cities.

Within 30 minutes you can be in a number of small historic villages dotted with Georgian and Victorian buildings surrounded by vineyards, hop gardens and orchards, another 30 minutes and you could be among the forests of the Tahune or Mt Field, in Port Arthur (one of our most famous convict sites) or on the beaches of Freycinet. Even in Hobart you can see bushland from almost any point in the city

Answer 2

If you truly don't want big cities and all they have i would suggest Tasmania it has some of the best countryside in Australia. Hobart is it's capital city and it's quite small and very friendly and from there you can access lot's of different activities. If you choose this option you MUST spend a night or two at one of the Cradle Mountain guest houses and go for a short drive to Dove Lake it's really beautiful countryside. Don't take this the wrong way but i don't know where you are from but Tasmania is an island State off the south-east corner of mainland Australia.

Answer 3

What do you like to do? Most of the country resides on the east coast as you probably already know and much of the rest pretty unoccupied.  The nice thing about Australia is that buses, subways and trains abound so you can take lots of day trips from one or more central locations.  The mountains outside Sydney are fantastic to visit as well as Cairns in the north.  A friend went camping near Ayres Rock for 2 weeks and liked it well enough.

We bought something called the gold coast pass several years back. You could travel one direction north or south along the coast in a greyhound type bus and get off and on where you wanted; some are smaller towns but there are inexpensive (some loud though) hostels all over the place. I don't like staying in one place more than a cple days so I liked being able to hop on and off bus.

Answer 4

I would recommend any of the small regional cities along the New South Wales coast such as Tweed Heads, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour . These three are great because you can experience a bit of everything. From beaches and head lands to rivers and valleys. Bushland and lush rainforest, however not so much rainforest in Port Macq. Tweed Heads is close to the tropics. Coffs is sub-tropical and Port is a little less sub-tropical. On a good three hour drive you can visit many country towns and see most of the natural scenery that Australia offers, with the desert being the only exception. I would avoid most state capital cities if you want some real Australiana.

These areas I know well. But I would also perhaps check out NSW's south coast (Bega was mentioned above and is a good choice for this region), Victoria's north, Queenslands top end along the coast and Tasmania for some amazing (although a bit nippy) country scenery. Decide on what climate you want to experience and go from there.

Have a great time!

Answer 5

Adelaide in South Australia is supposed to be a more genteel city.

Answer 6

surfer's paradise, queensland

for me money, does it 4 moi, love... =D

Answer 7

Places you would probably like, starting in the north eastern tropics and then clockwise around the coast.

Cairns - Great Barrier reef, tropical rainforest

Noosa Heads - surf beach, lakes, bush hinterland, National Park

Toowoomba - bush, parks

Currumbin - southern Gold Coast. Beach, estuary, rainforest

Byron Bay - beach, bush hinterland

Coffs Harbour - beach, mountains, bush

Newcastle - beaches, wineries, lakes

Katoomba - Blue Mountains bush, bushwalks

Dozens of small towns along the coast south of Sydney

Lakes Entrance - Gippland Lakes, rivers, bush

Geelong - beaches, Great Ocean Road

Hobart or anywhere else in Tasmania

Apollo Bay - beaches, temperate rainforest, waterfalls, bush walks, The Otways

Kangaroo Island - beaches, bush, wildlife

Barossa Valley - wineries, restaurants, bushwalking

Margaret River - wineries, restaurants, whalewatching (May-Sept), beaches

And dozens more!

Answer 8

My favourite favourite place is 7 hours south of Sydney, the bega valley. There are a whole lot of towns within short-ish distance of each other. Loads of national park and empty beautiful beaches. If you like bushwalks its a great place, plus lots of nice places to go and things to do that you wouldnt get to  do as much in cities, like whale watching in Eden, Bega cheese factory in Bega and art galleries and that sort of thing. The people are really friendly too!