!! Updated to include costs !!
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This year we are road tripping through QLD/NSW country.
We are travelling down to see family outside of family Wollongong for Christmas Day,
And to avoid the coastal crowds, where accommodation costs
would be prohibitive,
we have elected to travel down the New England Hwy and come back up the Newell
Hwy.
Our itinerary is as follows
20th December – Dicky Beach to Warwick (via Toowoomba for Lunch)
21st December – Warwick to Tamworth
22nd December – Tamworth to
Pokolbin(Hunter Valley) for 2 nights
24th December – Pokolbin to Wollongong for 2 nights
26th December – Wollongong to Canberra for 2 nights
28th December – Canberra to Cowra
29th December – Cowra to Leura (Blue Mountains) for 2 nights
31st December – Leura to Mudgee
1st January – Mudgee to Dubbo for 2 nights
3rd January – Dubbo to Moree
4th January – Moree to Toowoomba
5th January – Toowoomba to Brisbane (Southbank) for 7 nights
12th January – Brisbane – Dicky Beach
We have organised the car with our Engel fridge and packed pantry and food from our fridge at home. We have booked AirBnB and self-contained accommodation everywhere, so we will be self catering for most meals.
We do have the “Entertainment Book” which we will use vouchers for meals for Lunches at nice restaurants we want to try. This means we will have light evening meals at our accommodation.
The first couple of days are covering ground we have seen a few times before, so one night stops are in order to be able to be in Wollongong by Christmas Day to see family. Our first 2 night stay is Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley. I have chosen a hotel/resort in the centre of the action and hope to do a bit of wine tasting and eat some good food.
Update… We have been away a while now so my costs sheet has some meaningful data. I am very happy with our budget thus far.
We did not bring a lot of food from home as we don’t have a lot of room in the car.
We have a 40L Engel Fridge, another little 10L fridge and we have pantry items in two standard zip-up supermarket “cooler” bags.
Staying at AirBnB accommodation should mean we will be provided with some breakfast provisions as well which keeps the food costs down. When we do eat out, I want to try and choose restaurants that we have Entertainment book vouchers.
We are EXTREMELY happy with how economical the car is. We had been told the mileage was good, but we have not really looked into it in detail.
The following spreadsheet will update automatically as I add to it, so please check back often 🙂
Day 1 Friday Dec 20 Dicky Beach – Warwick
Day 2: Saturday Dec 21 – Warwick to Tamworth.
Day 3: Sunday Dec 22 – Tamworth to Pokolbin
Day 4: Monday Dec 23rd Pokolbin
Day 5: Tuesday Dec 24th – Pokolbin to Wollongong
Day 6: Dec 25th : Wollongong
Day 7: Dec 26th Wollongong to Canberra.
Day 8: Dec 27th Canberra.
Day 9: Dec 28th Canberra – Cowra. and King’s Plains
Day 10: Dec 29th Kings Plains to the Blue Mountains
Day 11: Dec 30th Blue Mountains
Day 12: Dec 31st Blue Mountains to Kandos
Day 13: Jan 1st Kandos to Dubbo
Day 14: Jan 2nd Dubbo
Day 15: Jan 3rd Dubbo to Moree
Day 16: Jan 4th Moree to Toowoomba.
Day 17: Jan 5th Toowoomba to Brisbane.
