Australia and Oceania Travel Forum

I'm planing my visit to Melbourne from Dec 21st to Dec26 (6 nights at Mel)then driving to Sydney for 5 nights and flown back to my hometown after celebrating new Year at Sydney.
there will be 4 of us and appreciate your taught on which route is the best way for me to follow and what are the places that I should not miss..

is December really very hot? My wife can only plan her holiday in december since its school holiday.

thank,
shaz

Hi,

Inland Australia gets quite hot in December, but its a dry heat and not the humidity of Penang.

If you're driving then there are basically 3 ways to go.

1. Quickest is the Hume Highway about 880 km and can be done in about 10 hours. Mostly a dual carriage way. If you went that way you could consider a side trip to Canberra, but you'd need to stay at least one night and Canberra deserves more than 1 day. Another side trip could be the southern highlands of NSW (Bowral).

2. "Coastal" Highway 1 - you don't get too see all that much of the coast and at that time of the year that road will be packed with Aussies on holiday. At least a 2 day drive and distance is about 1200 km.

3. Variation is to go through the high country, through Omeo in Victoria and then into the snowy mountains (no snow at that time of the year) and via Cooma in NSW to Canberra and then on to Sydney. To do justice that would need at least 3 - 4 days and distance would be about 1600 km.

If this is your first time in Australia, maybe Canberra should be the place to visit in addition to Melb and Syd.

It can get hot in December, but it's even hotter in January & February. It should be a nice time to visit, make sure the car has air conditioning.

Cheers
Col & Sue

I did Sydney - Canberra - Melbourne with an overnight in Canberra.
Nice drive, no stress when done in 2 days.
Reserve a car early, Xmas sells out quickly.

all,
thank you for your sincere advice...share if you have more. thank again....