I have just made a list of all Australian school holidays state by state with a view to being aware of potential times when booking ahead or avoiding totally may be advised. For example where I currently live on the Gold Coast in Queensland the next school holidays will be from 1st Term 2011 16 April - 25 April and NSW will be off 1st Term 2011 9 April - 26 April. So there will be plenty of activity in the Gold Coast caravan parks between the 9th April and the 26th April with a potential hike in park charges and the need to book ahead.
The purpose of this post is to request information from other nomads about similar times and places where the need to be aware is important when planning ahead. I have read somewhere here that Broome is very busy in June and there will be plenty of locations where advance knowledge will be helpful when trip planning. Any information that will help to avoid arriving at a destination and finding it booked out will be helpful.
Thank you for any information that will make my trip planning more effective.
John
lyn-n-ken said
07:18 AM Feb 1, 2011
hi yeoeleven
good idea you have getting this info.
during school hols we tend to go inland the parks are a bit cheaper and dont tend to raise their prices, parks without play equipment and swimming pools are best, people with kids stay away from them.
regards
lyn
What has always made me scratch my head is why do we have so many different dates in all of the states? Just about everyone these days has children and grandchildren in different states and it makes it almost impossible to get together.....
jules47 said
08:49 AM Feb 1, 2011
Re Broome in June (hey that almost rhymes!!) - there is always differing advice re Broome some say you can't book, some say need to book 12 months in advance - they have overflows to cater for the numbers, the idea is you go to an overflow (PCYC and others), then you go to the cp you want to stay in and hopefully you will be in a short enough line to get one of the next available spots as people move on - we stayed at an overflow at the local rifle club - didn't want to be parked on an open oval - no shade and heaps of people, someone on the road had told us about the rifle club, so that's where we headed, I think you can stay 5 nights in an overflow. We stayed at the club for the whole five nights, then just moved on, had seen most of what we wanted by then (were on a timetable of sorts). Even a bit of entertainment at the club - watch the skeet shoot, the customes guys come and practice - all very interesting.
jules47 said
08:50 AM Feb 1, 2011
Sorry - meant to say that you need to go the your chosen cp VERY early to get in a queue.
gerkel said
12:29 PM Feb 1, 2011
Well done on the hints and planning schedule. On our 3 month North and West Aust trip last year we prebooked Broome when we got to Derby in June. This proved successful as we were a little flexible with dates as we just stayed in Derby a little longer than originally planned. Definately not necessary to book 12 months ahead unless one has non flexible dates. We were also happy to choose one of the the smaller, less popular c/parks. The only place on the west coast that we found was essential to prebook for the grey nomad season was Coral Bay...probably b/cause there were only two c/parks in town. The only place we had trouble accessing over the School hols was Denham. Hope this of some help, Lyn
Hylda&Jon said
06:50 PM Feb 1, 2011
petengail wrote:
What has always made me scratch my head is why do we have so many different dates in all of the states? Just about everyone these days has children and grandchildren in different states and it makes it almost impossible to get together.....
Spacing them out a bit does help stop over crowding at holiday destinatios a bit & tourist orientated busineses like it as as their peak time lasts a bit longer. (though more applicable at destinations within a few hundred km of state borders).
As for me...I hate school holidays, too expensive and too crowded, so I say get them over & done with all at the one time.
Cheers
Jon
-- Edited by Hylda&Jon on Tuesday 1st of February 2011 06:51:16 PM
jules47 said
09:27 PM Feb 2, 2011
Most good diaries have school holidays, public holidays etc., in them - there is also a calendar you can get that has pension days all marked out.
Gerty Dancer said
08:23 AM Feb 3, 2011
We use my diary for that information, also its handy to know the public holiday weekends in various states too.
I think most of us tend to "hide" from the school-kids when they are on holidays. Caravan parks are more expensive and crowded, kids on bikes everywhere, worse in some free camps though, as theres no "caravan park rules" to restrain the kids... or their parents!
The purpose of this post is to request information from other nomads about similar times and places where the need to be aware is important when planning ahead. I have read somewhere here that Broome is very busy in June and there will be plenty of locations where advance knowledge will be helpful when trip planning. Any information that will help to avoid arriving at a destination and finding it booked out will be helpful.
Thank you for any information that will make my trip planning more effective.
John
http://australia.gov.au/topics/australian-facts-and-figures/school-term-dates
http://australia.gov.au/topics/australian-facts-and-figures/public-holidays
Well done on the hints and planning schedule.
On our 3 month North and West Aust trip last year we prebooked Broome when we got to Derby in June. This proved successful as we were a little flexible with dates as we just stayed in Derby a little longer than originally planned. Definately not necessary to book 12 months ahead unless one has non flexible dates. We were also happy to choose one of the the smaller, less popular c/parks.
The only place on the west coast that we found was essential to prebook for the grey nomad season was Coral Bay...probably b/cause there were only two c/parks in town.
The only place we had trouble accessing over the School hols was Denham.
Hope this of some help,
Lyn
Spacing them out a bit does help stop over crowding at holiday destinatios a bit & tourist orientated busineses like it as as their peak time lasts a bit longer. (though more applicable at destinations within a few hundred km of state borders).
As for me...I hate school holidays, too expensive and too crowded, so I say get them over & done with all at the one time.
Cheers
Jon
-- Edited by Hylda&Jon on Tuesday 1st of February 2011 06:51:16 PM