What would a month holiday to Australia from Amsterdam/Brussels roughly cost to a family of four?

Question

We would really like to visit Australia next year. We are a couple with two kids. We are still in the very early stage of planning. This means that we don't even know if it is at all affordable when traveling with kids. Maybe Australia remains a backpackers paradise for the childless. Could someone give us an estimate on the budget range we should aim for? We are not so much interested in the metropolitan area's since I assume that that will be quite similar to European cities.

I guess you would need to consider airfares (1000-2000 Eur pp?), car rental (comparable to the fares in Europe?), accommodation (we do camp). I guess the rest would be comparable to a trip in Europe, am I right? We don't want to need a lottery winning to go, but we dont don't want to travel all the way to Australia to turn every penny before spending.

So basically the question is what rough figure (Eur5000, 10000, 15000, ....) should we aim for?

Answer 1

That's an incredibly broad question. Accommodation can range from free (camping in community sites in the outback) to $2500 a night (Qualia on Hamilton Island or South Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island). Where you want to go will affect this.

Airfares vary massively depending on where you're going in Australia as well - go to somewhere that's only serviced by Qantas and there goes a huge chunk of money. Regardless, they all tend to be more expensive than Europe because there's less competition.

Car rental also tends to be more expensive than Europe in my experience, but that might've changed in the last few years. VroomVroomVroom.com.au is a good site for checking that.

Overall you could probably get by on $200 a day ($100 accom, $100 food - food is expensive here) plus flights plus car hire plus attraction entry, assuming you take all cheap accommodation options and eating at local corner stores or preparing your own meals.