I travelled up the east coast of Australia in a car that I bought with my girlfriend. At first we were buzzing because it was a land cruiser 4x4, really cool we thought and we could not wait to gwt out there and explore! We though this would be much cheaper in the long run as we could then sell it after wards.
How wrong we were. After driving from cairns to Sydney (and sleeping in the car which was NO fun) the engine blew up and we lost... $7500! That is about £2500. Gone. nothing to show for it - and that does not include what we spent on fuel and insurance and break down cover. In total, we blew about £3500 in 6 weeks.
We were gutted, not only because we could have bought a Cheap Oz Experience Pass for about £250, we could have spent the rest of the money eating out or staying in 5* hotels and not come close to spending that amount of cash.
The loosing the money was really stupid, but that is not the only reason we were disappointed. If you get a car or a camper, you meet no one! Seriously, the camps sites are full of old people in winebagos, when you could be having a laugh in some cool back packer bars... The driving is very lonely in a car, and believe me we did about 3000 miles in 6 weeks, that is a long way people, meeting people on the bus takes the pain out of the miles.
As for the grey hound, well, yes it is probably cheaper, but it is not a travellers bus network, and probably takes longer with more stops and is less sociable. I would go with Oz experience if you are planning an Australia Gap Year
Thanks for sharing your experience, sorry you had it so rough. I was wrestling whether to go it alone or do the oz exp. Youve made it much easier for me.
ReplyDeleteTravel is glamorous only in retrospect.
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