The East coast is the easiest part of Australia to explore. It’s one of the best places to travel solo as its super easy to meet other travellers as there’s only two ways you can go – up or down.
Where to start?
Most people find it easiest to start in Sydney or Melbourne and head up to Cairns. However, depending on the season you can also do this the other way round. I was coming from Japan and flights and seasons worked better starting up north in Cairns worked for me.
Recommended Itinerary
This Itinerary can be done either way round.
Melbourne (2-3 days)
Sydney (4-5 Days)
Byron Bay (4 days)
Surfers Paradise (Optional 2 days)
Brisbane & Moreton Island (3 days)
Noosa Heads (3 days)
Rainbow Beach / Fraser Island (5 days)
Airlie Beach / Whitsundays boat trip (5 days)
Magnetic Island (2-3 days)
Cairns (4 days)
Transportation and getting around
There are two main options in getting around the east coast. Either you hire or buy a car/van and make a road trip or you purchase a Greyhound bus pass.
Having your own vehicle allows for flexibility and additional stops outside the predefined bus stops and is ideal if you can find a couple of people to split the costs of the vehicle and fuel.
On the other hand, the Greyhound bus pass allows you unlimited travel up and down the east coast for a flexible amount of time. This is the option I went for and I thoroughly recommend it, it was super easy to make bus bookings online. Although during peak seasons you may have to make reservations further in advance. One of the best parts about this option was that I met lots of people on the bus journeys which I kept travelling with/bumping into all the way down the east coast as everyone is doing a very similar route.
Here is a link to a map showing all of the Greyhound bus east coast stops which you can use to plan your journey https://www.greyhound.com.au/media/6785/east-coast-network-map-24-10-22.pdf
Top tip – you can book in advance with no cancellation penalties. This means that if you are not sure if you will be travelling yet you can just pencil in the dates and secure a seat on the bus. This can be amended at a later date if your plans change. I did this quite a bit and it really helped.