Getting around
Getting around Australia
Click on the maps below to see the roads, train and flight maps.
By bus
Greyhound is the national coach service in Australia that has developed products for backpackers. With coaches running all over the country every day you simply buy the number of kilometres you want to travel (1,000, 2,000, 3,000 etc) and then jump on the scheduled services as they pass through. Greyhound is the perfect option for budget travellers: no frills and plenty of thrills.
Oz Experience runs a fleet of backpacker buses which travel between Australia’s most gorgeous places. Just choose your route, buy your pass, then hop on and
off the buses as you fancy. There are some amazing activities included, like surf lessons, rainforest hikes and city tours. Oz Experience is for you if you
want to meet loads of like-minded backpackers and visit all the hottest spots.
Adventure tours
With more tours and packages, to more places for even better value for money than any other tour company in Australia! Their core focus is camping and 'accommodated soft adventure' tours for the budget traveller. Travel with an award winning company operating since 1992 and specialising in active, inclusive adventure nature tours exploring the unique scenery, wildlife and Aboriginal culture.
Let’s Trek Australia runs small group adventure tours all around Oz. You stick with the same group throughout, and there’s a highly-trained leader on hand to make sure your trek is safe, interesting and - most importantly - fun! Let’s Trek knows where all of the coolest and most unusual sights are found: these tours take you off the beaten track and into the heart of Australia’s wild spaces.
10% discount for gapyear.com readers!
Car and campervan
There's nothing like the independence of seeing a country on your own terms and if that's what you want to do in Australia, then there's nowhere like Travellers Auto Barn. Offering a wide range of vehicles to hire or rent, a guaranteed buyback scheme and loads of expert advice on the various vehicles and other options available, you'd be mad not to check them out.
By train
Australia has some truly epic train journeys. Perhaps the best is the Indian Pacific, which takes you all the way from Sydney (on the East Coast), across the
Nullabor Desert to Perth (on the West Coast). Trains are perhaps the most comfortable way to cross large distances - and large distances are something Australia has plenty of! You can buy point-to-point tickets, or a range of flexible rail passes.
By plane
In case you hadn’t noticed, Australia is enormous. The trip from Sydney to Perth, for instance, takes three days by train. Flying is sometimes the only way
to cross these kinds of distances, and with Virgin Blue it’s surprisingly affordable. Virgin Blue provides comfy budget flights around Australia and New
Zealand - check it out!
Jetstar is Australia’s other main budget airline. It’s great if you want to explore both the East Coast and the West Coast without spending weeks travelling
between the two. For instance you can fly quickly and comfortably from Perth to Melbourne from $189. Definitely worth checking out if you want to get from A
to B comfortably and quickly.