That's right! A free road trip down Australia's stunning east coast! It sounds too good to be true. Well, in a sense, yes. But that's why I said almost.
My friend and I were discussing what we could do for the Christmas break, and we decided to go on a road trip.
We didn't want to do anything too extravagant. We wanted to go down to Sydney for the weekend anyway, but we had a few days to kill.
I was browsing the net for the best places to visit on a road trip down to Sydney when I came across a DriveNow in a forum post.
DriveNow is an Australian car and campervan hire company, which at first I thought… big deal. But the post suggested trying DriveNow's relocation services, a service where you book a car or caravan on a specific date and drive it to a location specified on the website.
In our case, it was Brisbane to Sydney-perfect! Now, it's not completely free. DriveNow charges you $5 per day to hire the campervan, which in our case added up to a total of $15 for three days.
We also had $50 of free fuel, which would cover most of the highway drive, but if you want to explore in those three days, you'd best be prepared to pay for a full tank.
Finally, we were given a 1,512-kilometer (940-mile allowance for those in the States) allowance, which is fine as the distance between the two cities is only 900 kilometers.
So, where did we go in our campervan? As we drove south of Brisbane through Surfers Paradise, we decided to do a quick stop for supplies.
As we passed through the New South Wales border, slowly approaching our destination, we stopped at Byron Bay for a quick surf and a bite.
If you have never been to Byron Bay, I highly recommend it. It is home to great people, great food, and, most importantly, great waves.
However, we had a schedule to follow. We drove further down to Coffs Harbour, home of the infamous Big Banana.
We parked our campervan at Park Beach Holiday Park just in time for dinner. At roughly $30 per night, the camping grounds are a steal.
We had a barbecue and socialized with the other campers, who were more than happy to share a beer (or four) with us. The next day, we woke up nice and early for a quick dip at Jetty Beach, and then it was off to check out the Big Banana.
The region is well-known for its banana plantation, so the Big Banana is a monument and tourist attraction in its own right.
From there, it was off to Newcastle. We were having a great time, so we decided to stop off at Forster, a large coastal town in the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales.
We grabbed lunch at Beach Bums Café, which is perfectly located on the main beach. Their lunch menu had everything you would expect from a beachfront café.
Everyone but me went for the 'works burger', which had everything under the moon between the two toasted buns. I am a traditionalist, so I went for the seafood basket.
After a quick sun-baking session, it was time to hit the road again to reach our final destination of the day, Newcastle. We set up camp in a small campground just south of 'Newy' and had an early night.
The next morning involved much of the same - food, surf, and good company. However, our trip was coming to an end. We packed and finished the 2-hour trip down to Sydney to drop off the campervan and get ready for our weekend in Sydney.
All in all, we were out-of-pocket by roughly $100 each (this includes splitting the fuel, camping ground fees, and initial supplies we received at the beginning of our journey).
It's not a bad price for a two-night coastal road trip in Australia. I definitely recommend it not only to families but also to couples and friends who want to discover more of our beautiful country at a minimal cost!
