Small ship Australia only cruise?

[ljandgb]

We're considering a trip to Australia and New Zealand.  I think I'd rather do a land tour of NZ, but was thinking a 7-10 cruise for the Australia portion might be better to hit the highlights.  We'd prefer a small ship for this, though, say Oceania-sized or smaller.  Looking around, I'm not sure this exists.  Everything I'm seeing is more NZ based, or is 15 days Australia only, which would not leave us enough time to see NZ with our work related time constraints.  Am I missing something?

[cruiser3775]

What you are missing is the large size of Australia. A 7 to 10 day cruise will barely get you anywhere. I'd choose only one country if you can't come for longer.

[yarramar]

You are missing the fact that Australia is a VERY large country, the same size as continental USA. 7-10 days is not enough time to see half the highlights.

Viking has just announced a new cruise which circumnavigates Australia. It is 32 days!

[ljandgb]

Thank you.  Makes sense.  That's like folks that post on travel boards about coming to see the US, list off 7 very disparate destinations, then say they're doing it in 7 days.  Um, no you're not! LOL

 

Back to the drawing board.

[Docker123]

This is the type of comparison map I have shown to some. Physical size, plus big coast line

 

[MMDown Under]

8 hours ago, ljandgb said:

Thank you.  Makes sense.  That's like folks that post on travel boards about coming to see the US, list off 7 very disparate destinations, then say they're doing it in 7 days.  Um, no you're not! LOL

 

Back to the drawing board.

Coralexpeditions.com is a small cruise company based in Cairns.  

[LittleFish1976]

20 hours ago, ljandgb said:

Thank you.  Makes sense.  That's like folks that post on travel boards about coming to see the US, list off 7 very disparate destinations, then say they're doing it in 7 days.  Um, no you're not! LOL

 

Back to the drawing board.

 

Maybe choose a couple of locations in Australia that you're particularly interested in seeing and fly between them.

[ljandgb]

Good visual!  I'll also check out that link.  We're in the planning stages for 2024, so have some time.

[OzKiwiJJ]

12 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

Maybe choose a couple of locations in Australia that you're particularly interested in seeing and fly between them.

For example if you want to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef you could do a cruise that takes you up that way but usually you'd have to do a ship's excursion out to the reef with hundreds of other passengers. In less time than a cruise would take you could fly to Cairns then transfer to Port Douglas for three nights. That would give you time to do two totally different reef trips - one to the nearby Low Isles, the other to the outer reef on one of the smaller reef boats. Of course you could stay longer and do a Daintree tour or explore more around Port Douglas. 

 

One place you can't cruise to is Uluru, you need to fly and spend a couple of nights there. 

 

Where else do you want to go to? Most of our major cities have enough places of interest, locally and as day trips, for a few days each. 

[ljandgb]

We're planning with another couple.  I'd like to see the Great Barrier Reef.  One of us wants to see Sydney.  Another Tasmania and Uluru.  We will need to really pare down what we want.  Or consider a land tour to see the highlights. My husband wants to do Australia and New Zealand.  If we do NZ, I want to do it by land.  I actually prefer land trips, so we can settle in to a pub at night and people watch, poke around towns, etc.

 

I, obviously, don't know a lot about the area, and personally would like to see more than just a couple places but time is the biggest constraint.  I could do 3 weeks, but the other couple is closer to 2.

 

I looked at Coral Expeditions.  Those Kimberly cruises look amazing, but I don't think I can sell it to the rest of the group.  I'm the "go as far away from other people as I can get" sort of traveler.  The rest, not so much.

 

Thanks so much for all the info.  I appreciate it!

[Aus Traveller]

11 hours ago, ljandgb said:

We're planning with another couple.  I'd like to see the Great Barrier Reef.  One of us wants to see Sydney.  Another Tasmania and Uluru.  We will need to really pare down what we want.  Or consider a land tour to see the highlights. My husband wants to do Australia and New Zealand.  If we do NZ, I want to do it by land.  I actually prefer land trips, so we can settle in to a pub at night and people watch, poke around towns, etc.

 

I, obviously, don't know a lot about the area, and personally would like to see more than just a couple places but time is the biggest constraint.  I could do 3 weeks, but the other couple is closer to 2.

 

I looked at Coral Expeditions.  Those Kimberly cruises look amazing, but I don't think I can sell it to the rest of the group.  I'm the "go as far away from other people as I can get" sort of traveler.  The rest, not so much.

 

Thanks so much for all the info.  I appreciate it!

Because of the distances involved, I suggest you forget cruising. You could fly into Sydney, stay a few days, fly to Cairns (to see the Great Barrier Reef) and stay a few days. Then fly to Uluru for a couple of days. On this plan, you could fly to Hobart and stay a few days. In Tasmania the distances aren't great so you could see a fair bit in a few days. The drawback with flying is that you do spend time in airports and in the air, but it enables you to get from one part of this vast country to another in a few hours.

[Fortunatefew]

13 hours ago, ljandgb said:

We're planning with another couple.  I'd like to see the Great Barrier Reef.  One of us wants to see Sydney.  Another Tasmania and Uluru.  We will need to really pare down what we want.  Or consider a land tour to see the highlights. My husband wants to do Australia and New Zealand.  If we do NZ, I want to do it by land.  I actually prefer land trips, so we can settle in to a pub at night and people watch, poke around towns, etc.

 

I, obviously, don't know a lot about the area, and personally would like to see more than just a couple places but time is the biggest constraint.  I could do 3 weeks, but the other couple is closer to 2.

 

I looked at Coral Expeditions.  Those Kimberly cruises look amazing, but I don't think I can sell it to the rest of the group.  I'm the "go as far away from other people as I can get" sort of traveler.  The rest, not so much.

 

Thanks so much for all the info.  I appreciate it!

My thoughts if you want to see New Zealand do it by cruising.  You’ll go through the Fiords which is one of the highlights and why many travellers from all over the world travel a long way to witness the beauty of the Sounds.  You can people watch and poke around all the towns on port days.
I agree with your husband.  

Edited March 15, 2023 by Fortunatefew

[MMDown Under]

13 hours ago, ljandgb said:

We're planning with another couple.  I'd like to see the Great Barrier Reef.  One of us wants to see Sydney.  Another Tasmania and Uluru.  We will need to really pare down what we want.  Or consider a land tour to see the highlights. My husband wants to do Australia and New Zealand.  If we do NZ, I want to do it by land.  I actually prefer land trips, so we can settle in to a pub at night and people watch, poke around towns, etc.

 

I, obviously, don't know a lot about the area, and personally would like to see more than just a couple places but time is the biggest constraint.  I could do 3 weeks, but the other couple is closer to 2.

 

I looked at Coral Expeditions.  Those Kimberly cruises look amazing, but I don't think I can sell it to the rest of the group.  I'm the "go as far away from other people as I can get" sort of traveler.  The rest, not so much.

 

Thanks so much for all the info.  I appreciate it!

Australia is too far to travel for two weeks.  See if you can get your friends to get three weeks recreation leave.  My girlfriend in NY talked her boss in to three weeks leave, which gave her enough time to experience a real Aussie holiday in SE Qld., then drive to Sydney via all the NSW Coastal beaches, spend time in Sydney and Honolulu en route.  The advantage of road trips is you meet local people. 

Of course if you need a holiday, cruising is perfect.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Because of the distances involved, I suggest you forget cruising. You could fly into Sydney, stay a few days, fly to Cairns (to see the Great Barrier Reef) and stay a few days. Then fly to Uluru for a couple of days. On this plan, you could fly to Hobart and stay a few days. In Tasmania the distances aren't great so you could see a fair bit in a few days. The drawback with flying is that you do spend time in airports and in the air, but it enables you to get from one part of this vast country to another in a few hours.

From what @ljandgb has said earlier they will have limited time so I've added some timings. 

 

- Sydney 3-4 nights depending on what time the flight arrives ie allow three days sightseeing.

- Cairns 3 nights allowing two full days sightseeing.

- Uluru 2 nights, one full day sightseeing

- Hobart 4 nights allowing three full days sightseeing

That's 12 -13 days just for that. 

 

A one way NZ cruise (Auckland to Sydney) usually takes 12 -14 days if it covers the standard ports plus Fiordland. One wasvis best as you don't waste the extra two days crossing the Tasman for the second time.

 

NZ by land takes longer than expected. It's a long thin country and not all the roads are dual highways. Just doing.the South Island can take 2-3 weeks. Add another couple of weeks for the North Island. One way to minimize this is to fly into Auckland for two nights, then fly to Rotorua for two nights, then fly to Christchurch early morning and drive to Queenstown via a one night stop at Mt Cook (Aoraki). Stay two nights in Queenstown then fly out. That's seven nights / eight days. 

 

 

 

 

[ljandgb]

So what everyone is saying is that we'll need at least a month. 🙂

 

Seriously, thanks so much for all the help.  At least it gives me good info to bring back to the group so we can plan better.  I'm ok with 3 weeks off, but the others not so much.  I do agree that if we're going all that way, seeing as much as possible for as long as possible, is the way to go.

 

Next question, one of our group is a tax accountant, and our Spring and Fall is bad for him.  Is it poor planning to come in our summer (June or July?)  We're from Texas and coming in the middle of your summer does not appeal to me if it's very hot - I get enough of that at home.

[cruiser3775]

If you come in June or July, it will be winter in the southern states, so cold and short hours of daylight, but no snow. It is a good time to come for northern and central Australia, warm pleasant weather.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

If you come in June or July, it will be winter in the southern states, so cold and short hours of daylight, but no snow. It is a good time to come for northern and central Australia, warm pleasant weather.

Agree this is the best time of year to travel/cruise north in Australia.  Not good time to visit NZ in mid winter. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

12 hours ago, ljandgb said:

So what everyone is saying is that we'll need at least a month. 🙂

 

Seriously, thanks so much for all the help.  At least it gives me good info to bring back to the group so we can plan better.  I'm ok with 3 weeks off, but the others not so much.  I do agree that if we're going all that way, seeing as much as possible for as long as possible, is the way to go.

 

Next question, one of our group is a tax accountant, and our Spring and Fall is bad for him.  Is it poor planning to come in our summer (June or July?)  We're from Texas and coming in the middle of your summer does not appeal to me if it's very hot - I get enough of that at home.

Stick to Australia only if you come over in June or July. NZ gets quite cool then with the odd snowfall likely in parts of the South Island. There are no cruises around NZ in our winter.

 

However it's an ideal tiime to go to Cairns and Uluru although I believe the nights will be cold at Uluru. Sydney usually has lovely winter weather with pleasant sunny days, often reaching the low 20s Celsius / 70F in the afternoons but with cool nights. 

[valantine80]

Also limited cruises in Australia over our winter months if looking at that time, except for some small cruise ships.

[yarramar]

About February last year, a poster from Philadelphia was planning a 3 week trip to Australia & New Zealand on Trip Advisor. She had many questions and revised the itinerary many times over hundreds of posts on the various forums. Recently she has started to book her accommodations and tours. The trip is around August this year and the 3 weeks has become 5 as there was no way to fit in a worthwhile trip in the original time line.

At the very least, maybe, organise 2 weeks just for Australia with your friends and add a week extra for NZ for yourself. 

[ljandgb]

Good point.  Ok, we'll get together again and go back to the drawing board.