Travel guide for Accessible

Once upon a time, planning a holiday was both time-consuming and expensive. It could involve a lot of map reading, phone calls and visits to bookshops or the library. Doing all that research and then developing an organised system to record all your findings was a major trauma. Thanks to the internet, everything is now so much easier - and often cheaper, too. For our Great Ocean Road accommodation, I went to the local travel agency and picked up a few tourist brochures on the areas we intended to visit. These are useful to get an idea of the significant sites and tourist spots, so I can choose to include them in our itinerary – or, in some cases, avoid them.   I then worked out a route using the NRMA Trip Planner, www.drivethere.com.au, which gives you the distance betwe... Read more

Talk to any adult who grew up in Sydney, and there’s a good chance they have fond memories of spending family holidays driving up the Pacific Highway to the Mid North Coast. For decades it has been a popular holiday region, with plenty of farms, quaint towns, parks and wildlife to enjoy. Year-round pleasant weather combined with delightful scenery beckon families, couples and groups alike. Wauchope is a small country town, which was originally home to a thriving timber industry. Today the timber mill is gone but the town has immortalised its origins by building a historical tourist attraction called Timbertown, which recreates the early settlement of the area.   Wauchope also prides itself on a thriving dairy industry and within Timbertown itself, you can visit a cheese makin... Read more

Have your say in the ‘people’s choice’ voting on the best Accessible Holiday Accommodation in Australia The 2009 state winners have been chosen for the leading holiday rentals across Australia with guests rating their favouritehotels, motels, hostels, B&Bs and accommodation parks.    TakeABreak.com.au, Australia’s only independent boutique accommodation website, is presenting the “Best Places to Stay” awards for the tourism industry, which recognise outstanding service in specialist segment categories.    State winners were selected via an exhaustive process from over 13,000 properties in 1400 localities and 39 accommodation types. National winners will be announced in early Nove... Read more

We’ve made planning your accessible day trips easy. We have highlighted a variety of wonderful day trips with specific information about the many accessible options that can assist in making touring easier for people with disabilities. Whether it is marvelling at the landscape, visiting the vibrant cities, trying the local produce, or meeting the characters and experiencing the unique Australian way of life en route – these trips will leave you feeling inspired. And no matter whether you pack up a car, board a plane, jump on a train or float on a boat, the stories you’ll bring back will stay with you forever. The Hunter Valley The town of Cessnock is gateway to the wine-growing region of the Hunter Valley, Australia’s oldest commercial wine-growing district, with ... Read more

Expect more than ‘great ocean’ on this iconic touring route. Rightly regarded as one of the most spectacular coastal roads in the world, the Great Ocean Road loops like a rollercoaster along the southern sea-cliffs of Victoria. Carved out of the mountains, the road winds its way around some 300km of rugged, exposed coastline from Geelong to Warrnambool, past cliffs, roaring seas, tranquil coves and some of Australia’s best surf beaches. Along the way it links the deliciously quaint fishing villages and seaside holiday towns of Torquay, Lorne, Anglesea, Airey’s Inlet and Apollo Bay before heading inland through the Otway Ranges. Emerging from the forest, the road then reveals a vastly different landscape as it runs behind sandstone cliffs, which face the onslaught of... Read more

We’ve made planning your accessible day trips easy. We have highlighted a variety of wonderful day trips with specific information about the many accessible options that can assist in making touring easier for people with disabilities. Whether it is marvelling at the landscape, visiting the vibrant cities, trying the local produce, or meeting the characters and experiencing the unique Australian way of life en route – these trips will leave you feeling inspired. And no matter whether you pack up a car, board a plane, jump on a train or float on a boat, the stories you’ll bring back will stay with you forever. Clare Valley Set amongst eucalypt hills, Clare Valley is another of South Australia’s beautiful wine regions and is famous for its Riesling. The region&rsquo... Read more

Those of us who live in Australia grow up understanding the joys, dangers and safety rules that make it such a great place.  However, many visitors to our country find Australia an alien, but starkly beautiful country, and they have little or no understanding of the best way to stay safe and enjoy their time here. A few very simple rules can help to make a visit to Australia a safe and pleasurable experience, and Tourism Australia has a brochure available for download that lists safety tips in a variety of languages. Driving tips One of the first things to remember is that speed limits are strictly enforced in Australia, more so than in many countries overseas.  Generally, when driving in urban and suburban areas, the speed limit is between 50 and 60 kilometres per hour. When ... Read more

If you want to see Tasmanian wilderness, but see it in comfort, then the West Coast is the place.  Strahan, tucked inside Macquarie Harbour, is in many ways the tourist capital of Tasmania, and with good reason.  Your first stop there should be the Tourist Information Centre on the harbour-front which has plenty of useful information and there is a theatrical play ‘The Ship That Never Was’, on there every day.  The Ship that Never Was tells the amazing story of the last convicts on Sarah Island who escaped on the ship they built, sailing it out “Hell’s Gates” and all the way to Chile.  If you’re disabled however, you might find the rustic planks surrounding the centre rather hard to negotiate.  The entrance isn’t that e... Read more

For many, it is a dream to travel to the Land Down Under.  The Great Barrier Reef is a natural phenomenon many long to see for themselves, as is the giant Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) sitting smack in the middle of the country. Seeing kangaroos in the wild, the chance to cuddle a koala, and just experience the laid-back attitude for which Australians are famous, may seem like an impossible dream. Happily, it takes only a day to travel to this great island continent, and with flights more reasonably priced than ever, and plenty of deals available throughout the year, you could soon be chatting with the locals while marveling at the mixed-up features of a platypus. Getting there Plenty of airlines travel to Australia, including their main carrier, Qantas. How much you pay to t... Read more

When you’re disabled it’s a lot easier - and cheaper - to stay at home. But after our family came home from a trip away, I realised the memories would be there with our boys for the rest of their lives.  It’s certainly not easy (when you’re disabled what is?) but it is worth it. My favourite Australian  destinations are: 1. Darling Harbour, Sydney I never visited Darling Harbour when growing up in Sydney.  But our family came up here and stayed 3 nights last year and had a wonderful time!  It was great being a tourist in what was once my own backyard.  After seeing a fair bit of overseas, I still think Sydney stacks up pretty well. The terrific thing about Darling Harbour is that it’s so much like Tasmania; a lot to do in such a sm... Read more