Who's travelled around Australia?

July? That is mid winter down south. This year has been miserable in Adelaide. Spring or early summer would be better if they can swing it.

Carty, what inflation? Good exchange rates (for us) and inflation don't usually go hand in hand. Inflation has been low and in the last decade the AUD has climbed out of the 70's to reach parity with the USD last year. It has once again dipped below 90, but it is still strong. That is what is going to hurt a tourists budget.

My best bit of advice tell them to go t total.
When i was in Perth at the start of the year it wasn't unusual to pay $10/12 a pint and a case of beer was about $40. On the crap exchange rate it was about £8 a pint. My brother couldnt believe i could buy a crate of beer for that back in tesco's.
I have only done the west coast so not much help im afraid

Just tell them to save their money and buy a ticket to London. There is so many Australians here, I sometimes forget where I friggin live.

Matt, I don't know the actual inflation rates for Oz over the last ten years, but for example, first time I went (around '98-'99) a Maccies or Subway in a food hall was about $3-$4, which at the time was about £1-£1.50 or something (for a complete meal) fast forward to now and how much are you paying for a value meal in McD's? $6-$7? that's double the actual price, which coupled with the drop in exchange rate for £ to $ makes Oz about 3 times as expensive for a UK worker as it was ten years ago in terms of food prices. Please feel free to challenge me if you think I'm wrong but this is how I recall it

Do you still get the $0.30c ice cream in McD's?

Don't get me wrong mate, I'd move there in a flash if my wife would go but you can't deny it's got more expensive for the visiting tourist?!

Take a trip to Wolf Creek. It's that nice you may never come back.

I'd also recommend a good travel guide book. Such as "Surviving The Outback" by Tracy Andrews.

I lived in Sydney for 1.5 years and then took off 4 months, bought a campervan and did this:

http://jessluke.blogspot.com/ (starts Oct 200

One of best holidays I have ever been on! Never finished the blog, because we got lazy, but basically we headed back up the coast to Sydney, sold the van for $1500 more than we bought it for and flew to NZ (which is where I still am)

Originally Posted by carty

Don't get me wrong mate, I'd move there in a flash if my wife would go but you can't deny it's got more expensive for the visiting tourist?!

Yes, it is more expensive for a visiting tourist, but it is for the reasons already mentioned. It has absolutely nothing to do with inflation as suggested and everything to do with the current strength of the economy or to put it a little more succinctly, the sh**y state of your own.

Bought a camper van in Adelaide, had an awesome 3 weeks taking it up to Sydney where we sold it for $500 more. The Coast Road was wicked.

Originally Posted by MattCollins

Yes, it is more expensive for a visiting tourist, but it is for the reasons already mentioned. It has absolutely nothing to do with inflation as suggested and everything to do with the current strength of the economy or to put it a little more succinctly, the sh**y state of your own.

By inflation I simply mean the prices have gone up - which they undeniably have - it's not an attack on your economy!