In the last post, I talked all about my time in Sydney. In this post, I want to begin talking about my trip up the east coast and tell you what I considered to be the best stops. Most backpackers purchase a hop on hop off bus pass with either Greyhound or Premier for the east coast. Some buy a campervan instead so that they can choose when and where they go. I took a different option and traveled up the coast with Stray Australia.

I like the idea of Stray more than the bus passes for a couple of reasons. One reason is that on Stray, everyone is taking an east coast trip. With the bus passes, you will have a lot of people that are merely going from point A to point B. Many of the passengers are not backpacking. Another reason I like Stray is the fact that they have a few stops that the buses do not go.

Stray has numerous packages for the east coast, but the pass I took was the freestyle Mick Pass. This pass starts in Sydney and finishes in Cairns. A few of the stops you have no choice about staying overnight, but some of the stops are entirely optional to stay overnight. I spent at least one night at every stop, and many stops, I spent multiple nights.

The first leg of the trip was Sydney to Barrington Tops with a stop in Hunter Valley for a wine tasting. We stopped at HOPE Estate for the wine tasting. HOPE Estate is a beautiful venue with some excellent wines to sample. After the winery, we made our way to Barrington Tops, where we stayed for the night. We settled into the hostel, Twistops Retreat, and then proceeded to the river to do a little river-tubing. That night we enjoyed some delicious pizzas cooked in a woodfire stove, some drinks, and the hot tub.

After a fun night at Barrington Tops, we made our way to Spot X in Coffs Harbour with a stop at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. We saw many koalas in the hospital. Some of the koalas will live permanently at the hospital because of their ailments. The staff releases other koalas after a full recovery. Outside the hospital, we also saw some completely wild Koalas in the trees. After the hospital, we made our way to Spot X Surf Camp. This spot is an excellent stop for the night to get away from the cities. It is also a fantastic place to learn a bit about surfing since they teach all levels of surfing. Most of the people on the bus only stayed one night, but a few people stayed a few nights to learn how to surf.

After Spot X, we made our way to the River Retreat in Nymboida. We camped in some lodges here for the night and went on a canoeing trip on the Nymboida River shortly after arriving. I wanted to spend a little extra time, so I stayed two extra nights. From what the employees told me, I was the first person with Stray ever to camp more than one night at this location. I enjoyed my time here because I had the camp mostly to myself just to relax and enjoy nature. The next group arrived a day later, and I went on a second canoe trip with them along a different section of the river.

After River Retreat, we made our way to Byron Bay. I was hoping to meet up with some friends here, but sadly they left about a week before I arrived. We made a stop on the way to Byron in Yamba and had a short swim. I stayed at Wake Up! Byron Bay for three nights. I was planning to try my luck at surfing again here, but sadly I started to get a little sick the first day. I still made the best of my time, and the first night I watched a local band, Vaudeville Smash. The last full day, I took the hiking trail to the Byron Bay lighthouse. It was a harder hike with trying to get over a cold but otherwise painless enough and very beautiful.

From Byron Bay, we made our way to Surfers Paradise, where I stayed at Bunk Surfers Paradise for two nights. I had a friend that I met in The Bahamas that was living in this area, so I joined her for dinner my first night at the SkyPoint Observation Deck. We made it to the top in time for sunset and had a lovely time having some food and enjoying the views.

The next stop after Surfers Paradise was Brisbane. I stayed at Bunk Brisbane here. The main activity I did from Brisbane was a day to the Australia Zoo, the Steve Irwin Zoo. This zoo was a must-see for me as I loved watching Steve Irwin when I was younger. They have a lot of incredible animals to see, and I am glad that I made the trip there.

After Brisbane, we made our way to Noosa. I stayed at the Nomads in Noosa, and the main activity I did during this first couple of days was the Noosa Everglades. Everglades only exist in 2 places in the world, and the second one is in Florida. Since I have already seen the Florida Everglades, it just made sense to see the one in Noosa as well. I did some kayaking with another guy, and we went as far as we could go based on what our map showed.

Our stop after Noosa was Rainbow Beach, where I stayed at Dingos. This stop is the location to go to take a tour out to Fraser Island. I went on a 3-day 2-night trip to Fraser Island, and it was incredible. We did a 4WD tag-along tour where we drove on the beach, saw lots of wildlife, swam in absolutely stunning lakes, and experienced many amazing views. Fraser Island is a big enough tour to talk about on its own, so read about it here.

After Fraser Island, I spent one more night at Dingos before making a trip back to Noosa. Many people continued from Noosa to the next stop that day, but I stayed two extra nights in Nomads Noosa to plan the next couple weeks. I spent one day working purely on when I would go to the next stops and the other day walking through Noosa National Park with stops at the Fairy Pools and Hell’s Gates.

This concludes this post, but I will have another post soon that concludes my Australia East Coast trip. The next post will also be the final post for my first year in Australia.