After months of researching and reading reviews online I finally booked the places I am staying in Australia. If you are looking for a place to stay in an unfamiliar location I recommend searching on tripadvisor. There were hundreds of details reviews and a very helpful 5 star rating.
When I arrive in Sydney on July 7th I will be spending two nights at the Holiday Inn Old Sydney in the historic The Rocks neighborhood close to the airport as well as Sydney Harbor. The main reason I am staying in a hotel at the beginning of my journey is to try to get some sleep. On my last trip to Australia I realized that the jet lag after traveling for 24 hours and with a time difference of 16 hours is so much worse than I ever imagined. It took me almost a week when I arrived in Australia to feel normal, and about two weeks when I returned home.
The next three nights I am staying at the Blue Parrot Backpackers a family owned hostel in cosmopolitan Potts Point; the chic and glamorous part of inner Sydney. It was voted the #1 Hostel in Australia by hostelword.com in March 2011, and has received numerous other awards. I hope it will live up to its amazing reviews and awards. This will be my first foray into hostel living. I am staying in a 10 person female only dorm. This should be very interesting, but I have read up on hostel etiquette so hopefully my stay there will go smoothly. I found this great blog post covering the basics: Hostel Etiquette.
July 12th and 13th I will be leaving behind the city and traveling the to the picturesque Blue Mountains region. I will be staying at the Katoomba Blue Mountains YHA Hostel. Katoomba is the adventure capital of New South Wales. The hostel is Housed in a beautifully restored National Trust building, is close to breathtaking scenic lookouts, and local cafes and pubs. Winner of 2005 Best Backpacker Accommodation at the Australian Tourism Awards.
On my return to Sydney I decided to stay in a more central location and chose the Wake Up Sydney Central Hostel. The heritage-listed building is located at the corner of “the block”, the triangular backpacker ghetto of Sydney bordered by Pitt, George and Barlow streets. If you don’t know already, “the block” is where about 3000 of the hostel beds of Sydney are located. That means up to 3000 travelers on one block in Sydney on any one night of the year. It is a typical large hostel with a bar/nightclub on the bottom floor. However, it is only a year old, has many modern amenities and mostly positive reviews so I decided to give it a try. Most importantly it is located only a half a mile from the hotel that my tour is departing from on the 17th.
My tour ends in the city of Cairns on July 31st and I will be staying at the Holiday Inn Cairns with stunning coral sea views. The hotel is also blocks from Cairns downtown area. I am looking forward to the luxury of staying here for a night before I fly back to Sydney for a few days before I fly home.
My last night in Sydney I will be staying at the Holiday Inn Sydney Airport hotel. It has easy access to Sydney International Airport terminals and Sydney city centre. This is important so A. I do not miss my (very expensive) flight home and B. so I do not have to sit in a boring hotel room on my last night in Sydney. I plan on doing something or going somewhere memorable... and hopefully I do not succumb to a nap at the end of my trip. I will just have to keep reminding myself that I have 22 hours of flight time in which to nap.
This trip is staring to feel real. So excited!
BAS
