Backpacking Australia in April - to book or not to book accommodation?

Rikushix

Hey guys, long time since I've posted here. I'm leaving on a huge trip 10 days from now for 5 or 6 months. A month in New Zealand, a month in Australia and about two and a half months or so in Europe. My question here concerns Australia: I know April is a weird time to go to Australia - my flight arrives in Sydney on April 7th, and I've got a flight leaving Brisbane May 6th, so I'm hoping to do the whole east coast plus a trip up to Cairns with some dives at the reef. I've heard that April is busy because it's between semesters for school holidays AND it's right around Easter. As opposed to the tour I'm taking in New Zealand, I was going solo in Australia and wanted to be flexible. Do I stay the course and just let things happen or will I have a hard enough time finding a cheap hostel to stay at that I should just plan things out now and book a few nights in every town well ahead of time?

Donovan Puppyfucker

There are backpackers hostels all up and down the coasts of Australia. And April is in the middle of our Autumn, so there isn't actually much tourism going on then. You should be able to find cheap accommodation fairly easily. It also wouldn't hurt to ask in the AusPAX thread in the PAX forums and see if any Aussie forumers are keen to put you up for a night or two while you're here?

PulpDogg

I was down in Australia for the second half of 2008 - and other than my first hostel, I had nothing booked in advance. I never had a problem finding any accomodation. I travelled down the whole East Coast from Cairns to Sydney. So I would second chrishallet83 and say, just go and don't book too much in advance.

bsjezz

april is a beautiful time of year on australia's east coast!

i don't think you'll have much trouble. there are campsites, cabins and motels all over the place, if not necessarily hostels in every last town. if you hear about any out of the way beaches or villages you'd like to swing by it might be worth sniffing out options ahead of time, but otherwise the less plans, the better. i'm sure you'll end up in places that you don't want to hurry on from

tynic

yeah, the easter break specifically is a tough time to find eg. a beach rental house, but hostels and stuff should be pretty ok, and the rest of the month you should definitely have no problems.

Rikushix

I think what I'll end up doing is booking my first few days in Sydney, because from the sounds of it dropping an extra $10 premium to stay at the YHA at the Rocks is totally worth it, and then let the rest of it slide and just go from there. I'm armed with a sizeable Lonely Planet so I've got all the recommendations already.

@chrishallett83 I'll definitely check out the PAX AUS forum - thanks for the tip!

Thanks so much for your help guys - really, really appreciate it!