Australia marked my starting point of my 7-week backpacking trip (I know, I know, I am mixing up the timeline here, but oh well). It was also my first backpacking experience, in which I started out traveling by myself for the first 2,5 weeks of the trip (this doesn’t sound long at all, and I’ve met so many female solo traveler, but for me it was a first). Starting out in Melbourne, I made a quick stop in Auckland, New Zealand (more about that in a later post), flew over to Cairns and made my way down to Brisbane, Surfers Paradise, Byron Bay and finally Sydney.

Melbourne

I started my travels in Melbourne and after a horrible 1000 hour flight (or at least it felt that long) I was happy when I finally arrived at the airport. I stayed at the United Backpackers right on Flinders Street across from the train station and right next to the Federation Square and St. Pauls Cathedral. The hostel is truly great, even though my all girls dorm could have been a little more social. However, beds are great, everyone has a big and a tiny locker, you have the chance to join social meals and they have a bunch of great activities that you can join. (FYI, there is a really nice donut place right next to the hostel, and they have amazing Chai tea latte there, too, and the shopping street is just a few minutes away.

Right at the beginning, I met a girl that arrived with me that night and we decided to stick together, as long as she was there. Melbourne was by far my longest stop, but I absolutely loved it. Its a little hipster, a little alternative, but there is so much to do. I went to rooftop parties, China town, we went to the local market, the Royal Botanic garden, walked to the main sides, took the tram around the city and had really good coffee and cake in St. Kilda. It was overall just a really great experience. I also have family in Melbourne, so of course, I also spend two days visiting my cousin and his wife and kids in one of Melbournes suburbs and we went to these cute little houses at Brighton beach (check it out during sunset, really nice).

Besides exploring Melbourne, I also booked the Great Ocean tour with the hostel, a Koala which was a day trip to along the Great Ocean road with a stop at the koala Sanctuary, which was amazing. You make different stops in between, but the final destination is the incredible view of the west shore of Australia. I also did a second tour to Phillip Island to see the Penguins. This tour was alright, I guess I just wasn’t as impressed because it was raining all the time and we weren’t able to stop at all the announced places because streets were flooded.

Cairns

While staying in Melbourne, I already booked two of my tours in Cairns. One was a Great Barrier Reef snorkeling tour, the other one was a day tour into the rain forest (the travel agency is right next to the hostel, so check it out if it’s still there. Of course, you can also just wait until you get to Cairns and book it there, I just wanted to make sure I got both of the tours because I only had 3 days there).

I stayed at the Global Backpackers Central in Cairns, which is known to be one of the most intense party hostels. I honestly thought it would be more social, but I only spent two days there, so maybe it would’ve been a different experience staying longer. The hostel is alright, but be prepared for loud music and party people.

Great Barrier Reef 

As I said, I booked my tours beforehand, but you can actually just fly out to Cairns and book and tour there as well. I went on a 1-day catamaran tour to the Great Barrier Reef. I decided not to do diving and here is why. I am scared to go into deep water anyways and I am a little freaked out by fish (haha, I know). So, for me to go snorkeling there was already a big deal. I didn’t want to ruin my experience by trying out diving for the first time. I’ve never done it before, and I will most definitely try it one day, but I know that some people freak out and don’t wanna go back into the water afterwards so I didn’t want to risk it.

Snorkeling was fantastic, we drove out to two different spots where we were able to go in the water. Its fascinating and scary at the same time and I am so happy that I did it (Unfortunately my pictures sucked big time, because my underwater camera thing didn’t work – thanks).Two things that I recommend when doing the tour (especially with the catamaran). 1. If you are likely to get sick on boats or have movement sickness – take a travel pill. They had one on the boat I was on and said beforehand to better take one. I was lucky enough to take it, because half the boat was sick afterwards from the movement of the boat (urgh). 2. Even though the sun is not full on out there, and I cannot stress this enough, put on sunscreen. I burnt myself so badly because I feel asleep on the boat and trust me, it wasn’t pretty.

Uncle Brians Rainforest tour

Uncle Brian tours – What an amazing company. I didn’t know anything about the tour or the tour provider beforehand and just wanted to try it out while being in Cairns. But let me tell you, the tour is really, really cool. They pick you up early in the morning from your hotel, the driver is super funny, you play games on the bus to get to know everyone a little better and you drive to the most amazing spots. We had a tour through the rain forest, went swimming and on a cliff slide, to waterfalls and so on. If you get the chance to go to Cairns, please make sure to check them out. Its worth it!

Brisbane

Brisbane for me marked the end of my traveling alone experience and I met my back then boyfriend there for the last part of my journey. We stayed at the XBase Normad Brisbane hostel, which was a pretty good location to find our way around and all the important sights were in walking distance. Fun thing was that I met one of the girls from Melbourne in that hostel by accident, so we spent a nice first night out at the hostel pub crawl, which was fun.

We spent two days in Brisbane as far as I remember and used the time to walk around, explore the city, went up the tower of the town hall, walked along the water, to the Botanic gardens, the grounds of Brisbane university, the parliament and so on. It was a nice stay and the weather was relatively good, considering that it was a winter month (be prepared to dress warm, it was actually snowing in Melbourne while I stayed there).

Brisbane is a cute city, lots of shops in the main shopping street, a good amount of stuff to see. I would,however, not stay there for too long and just see the city as a fun little stop in between.

Surfers Paradise

We only stayed in Surfers Paradise for two nights and it was raining the entire time. But even if the sun would have been up, I would say 2 days are definitely enough. The beach is fine, you can go up on the observatory and have a nice view over the area, but besides that, I did not find it especially interesting there and a little overrated (sooorry, not sorry). Again, all based on personal experiences. The hostel we stayed in, however, was quite alright, the Surfers Paradise Backpackers Resort. Its run by a couple of surfer dudes, pretty laid back, young people everywhere, a sauna, mini pool, a tv room, table tennis and activities at night, so if you ever get there I can recommend this hostel to you.

Byron Bay

Byron Bay. One of my favorite stops during my time in Australia. We stayed at the Byron Bay YHA really close to the beach. The hostel is nice, you have a pool in the garden area, the rooms are ok, same with the bathroom. But the part that made me love this hostel was for sure its owner. He is a super nice guy, super knowledgable and took us on a tour to the lighthouse where we were able to watch wales and walked along the shore which was awesome. He also gave us a 5 bed room all too ourselves which was pretty nice considering that we were a couple.

Byron Bay has a very relaxing atmosphere to it. Its the typical surfer town, the beach is nice and you have a lot of little shops and restaurants where you can go to. We did three different activities while being there (booked both via the hostel). We signed up for a beginners lesson in surfing (I am so talented…), the Grasshoppers Nimbin tour and a kayaking tour to watch the dolphins. I loved surfing, even though I was a total beginner (even though it took me a while to get the hang of it), I loved the kayaking (exhausting but so much fun), but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Grasshopper Nimbin tour. Or lets rephrase this. I wasn’t a big fan of Nimbin. Everything else was actually really nice. Our driver was fun and we had different stops that were nice like the Minyon Falls and the Rocky Creek and we had a great BBQ. Nimbin itself was, however, not for me. Even though I love the entire hippie movement and vibes, I just couldn’t really get over the fact that the entire group ran off to buy drugs. I mean, good for you if you are into it, but I am most certainly not. But thats just my personal opinion, try it out and see for yourself. Would love to hear your opinion about it.

In general, Byron Bay is a must go when in Australia. Its a cute little town, beach, sun, cool people, surfing – I mean what more can we ask for. So make sure to step by if you get the chance.

Sydney

Our final stop was Sydney – the city I’ve been waiting for to see. We stayed at the Sydney Railway Square YHA hostel which is awesome because you actually sleep in old train wagons right next to the train station. It’s close to all the big sight seeing stuff as well as Chinatown (good food).

Sydney is a really great city. Besides the major sight seeing places it offers great food, nice restaurants and bars and your will, for sure, be having a great time. We walked to the opera, the habour, sea life (it’s just like any other sea life so don’t waste your time in there but rather spend it outside – it was raining that day). What I can recommend is Featherdale Wildlife Park if you want to do a nice little trip and see some kangaroos. I would also recommend the tour (booked it through the hostel) to  the three sisters, which is a famous rock formation.

Obviously I will recommend traveling to the East coast of Australia. I wish I would have had more time as always, but I fully enjoyed my weeks of traveling around there, the people that I met and the experiences I made. My favorites were for sure Melbourne and Byron Bay, but there are so many other stops in between that are must sees (White sunday islands etc.) and obviously the rest of the country has a lot to offer. So, bring some time and start exploring.