RTW Feb/Mar 2010

We are planning a trip from Europe to NZ and Australia ending up in Florida for 3 months (where we live p/t) before flying back to Europe. My main question is that, are we spending sufficient time in certain places? We are budgeting for no more than 30 nights accommodation, so briefly here is our proposed itinerary so far:

LDN - HONG KONG 2 NIGHTS
HK - SYDNEY 4 NIGHTS
DRIVE BETWEEN SYDNEY TO MELBOURNE 2 NIGHTS
MEL - DRIVE THE G. OCEAN RD TO ADELAIDE 1 NIGHT, PLUS STAYING EN ROUTE
ADELAIDE TO CAIRNS 3 NIGHTS
CAIRNS TO AUCKLAND 1 NIGHT
AUCKLAND - CHRISTCHURCH BY CAR 3 NIGHTS
FLY C/CHURCH TO AUCKLAND 1 NIGHT
AUCK - FIJI 4 NIGHTS FOR R&R!
FIJI - LA SPENDING 5 NIGHTS WITH FRIENDS
LA - MIAMI - EUROPE.

The above gives us 26 nights in hotel accomm. on our trip plus 2 nights either end at the airport, so there is room for 2 more nights somewhere.

Any help or input into our proposed itinerary would be immensley helpful. Btw, is Fiji a safe place to visit? The other thing I wanted some info on is Cairns, it does sound very touristy in Cairns itself and wondered if we could find a more tranquil area somewhere on the GBR? We only want to snorkel.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks.

Veronica.

Simple answer is no you are not spending enough time in places. The sort of thing you are talking about doing would normally take a good company of months if you were spending enough time in each place. It is almost like an Amazing Race style trip where you are trying to cram way too much stuff in to way too smaller time frame.

As for the question is Fiji a safe place to visit, yes most definitely. You are safer in Fiji than you are in London. I've been there twice in the past 12 months and the people there are amongst the most welcoming and friendly people anywhere in the world. The resorts there are some of the best in the world and with a dollar that got devalued 30 percent earlier in the year prices are pretty good for packages when purchased ex Australia. One of my work colleagues has gone to Fiji over 20 times in the past 15 years for holidays because she loves the place so much and the people are just so nice. Just must do a tour to a local village when you are there because that will be one of the most moving things you will do on your trip and show you the real Fijian people. I've stayed at a number of the midrange to high range resorts there and Fijian's in the resorts will fall over backwards to make you feel at home.

You could go to Port Douglas when up around Cairns and that is pretty good.

[ Edit: Edited on 17-Oct-2009, at 22:13 by aharrold45 ]