Australia Travel Forum

hi my name is sue ,am 24 from liverpool. plannin to travel round oz next year for a year after finishin my degree. bein a female travellin alone am keen to meet up with others an travel in a group any advice on where to start an where to meet like minded travellers pref in uk before departure

Hi Sue
As Craic has said there are thousands of backpackers roaming Aus. Once you get to a backpackers there will be others going to one place or another and you can join them, this is sort of how it's done.
There are also many backpacker type bus tours you can do.http://www.waywardbus.com.au/ that is just one of them. Just Google for backpacker bus trips in Aus.
Also many backpackers use Greyhound buses to travel around, You can get a jump on/off ticket.
http://www.greyhound.com.au/default.asp
Travelling by yourself has the great advantage in that you can do as you please.
I would suggest that you buy a really good map of Aus and work out where you want to go, read heaps and have fun organising:)
If you are going to work while travelling, think about when the high seasons will be in the different parts of Aus as this is when you will find work while travelling. Most follow the sun.
Cheers
Anne

When you're working out where to go, don't forget the seasonal differences.
The north in summer (Dec-Feb)is very hot, wet and humid. Coming from UK you probably won't like it. The north in winter(June-Aug) is still very warm but hardy any rain and the humidity drops, a good time to visit.
South in summer is hot and dry, Perth area hotter than the south-eastern states. Winters in the south cooler and wetter, by UK standards, hardly a winter at all.
:)Lesley

No need to worry Sue as you will meet tons of other like-minded backpackers down in OZ. Heck, you'll be surprise that the majority of them will be British so that will make it even easier for you. If you are concern about where to go, what to do, etc...then buy a bus-pass. there are several companies out there... the arguments for or against them are too many to tell... OZ experience is a tour-like bus sytem that drops you and picks you up from the backpacker places (hostels). You don't need to stay there though, but at least they'll drop you somewhere familiar. Another plus of this service is that they stop at interesting places along the way, including state/national parks that you wuoldn't have seen otherwise in the regular bus... onthe con side is the excessive partying some of their costumers partake in. You can avoid this by staying at another hostel instead of the one they recommend. Their service is really good from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney to Cairns... not sure if they have expanded their service since I visited. They did had a partnership with Australian Adventure tours for the parts between Cairns to Darwin and down the outback to Adelaide. The next bus pass is with the regular buses run by McAferties (sp) and greyhound (they merged while I was down there). This service is more frequent then oz experience and is a no-frills way of travelling. They do drop you a bit off the tourist parts of town, but most backpackers will pick you up for free or a small fee anyways. This pass seems to work well all over OZ, including the west coast (which I sadly didn't get a chance to visit).

suerte,
Fernando