Australia is a pretty easy country to travel around. With a huge backpacker culture and Working Holiday Visas available, it isn’t too hard to get around and have an amazing time down under.
That isn’t to say you won’t make mistakes though!
1. Being “Too Cool” for Sunscreen
Oh my God please wear your sunscreen in Australia. I know we all have this weird idea that it’s lame to wear sunscreen but believe me when I say the sun is DIFFERENT in Australia. Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world and you definitely don’t want to fall victim to that statistic.
While living in Australia, I used spf 50, would regularly reapply, and by the end of the day still be burnt. Swallow your pride and slather on the sunscreen!!
2. Being Too Stingy with your Money $
Things in Australia are expensive and I am all for budget travel BUT a big mistake myself and others often make is not spending the money on the right things. Here’s the key: splurge for the things you really want to do!!
Spend a night floating on the Great Barrier Reef for $600? Drive around Fraser Island for 3 days for $300? Skydive over amazing Australian landscape for $500? Yes those are all crazy expensive… but they are also the things people come to me and say were the best experiences of their lives.
$45 for some shrimp pasta? maybe not. $70 to hold a koala and feed kangaroos at a zoo? It’s a must! You can easily stick to your day to day spending, but make sure budgeting doesn’t stop you from experiencing once in a life time adventures that YOU want to do!
PERSONALLY: I try to have about $500 of splurge money per month. But if there is something I REALLY want to do, I don’t let my budget get in the way.
3. Having High Expectations
I absolutely love Australia. It is such a fun and beautiful country to explore but if I’m being honest I definitely had expectations that were not met in my time there. Below are some misconceptions I had before arriving:
- There are kangaroos everywhere – in reality you only really see groups of kangaroos in more rural areas. The only way to see them in a city is at the local zoo.
- Everything can and will kill me – Yes, there are lots of deadly things but the amount of contact with such things is not nearly as common as I anticipated (you will see them though!)
- Everything is the “Outback” – the desert landscape of the Outback is in the center. Otherwise there is a wide range of environments from mountains to rainforests to white, sandy beaches.
- All Australians look like Chris Hemsworth – a majority of Australians have mullets. That’s all I have to say about that one.
- Everyone says G’day – sadly, this is not very common in Australian vernacular. You will definitely hear it every once in a while and you can go ahead and use it yourself, but it certainly is not used often.
4. Not Researching Your Visa
This is mainly for Working Holiday Visa applicants. The WHV is easy to get but there are certain aspects of it I definitely did not know about when I first arrived in Australia.
Originally, I knew I could extend my visa for up to three years if I wanted to. What I did not know is that for each year-long extension, I need to complete 88 days of specified work (i.e. farmwork, work in rural areas, or hospitality work in the north). Many people get their 88 days in different ways – some staying in one place for all three months, others hopping around more. But if you want to stay in Australia for more than one year, you WILL need to complete these 88 days of work.
click HERE for Work Resources
5. Not Planning
I am all for a go with the flow travel itinerary, HOWEVER, Australia is a huge country and definitely requires SOME planning if you want to see it all. I have met loads of people that arrived without a plan and either ended up just staying in one place the entire time or made it halfway up the coast and ran out of money.
Also, definitely plan ahead for the bigger experiences you want to do. Fraser Island, specifically, tends to sell out pretty far in advance so be sure to book your tour more than a month ahead of time.
Find the balance between plan and no plan and you will be all set for your trip to Australia!
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