Tips For Your Cairns To Sydney Road Trip
One of the most epic roadies and probs the most popular in Australia is from Cairns to Sydney – cruising allllll the way down the East Coast. The journey takes you to all the top spots that I’m sure most of you have on your Aussie bucket list and the scenery is beaut!
Just picture it now…cruising along in your camper, windows down, sea breeze in your hair, a wicked playlist playing in the background – pure backpacker vibes!
The benefits of travelling by camper are endless – complete and utter freedom to hit up all the hot spots down the East Coast. From Cairns down to Sydney there are a tonne of epic things to see and do and we’re about to tell you some of our fave spots as well as some off the grid bangerrrrrs.
Let’s goooooooooooooo…
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Thinking about renting some wheels for the roadie?
Attempting to find a campervan can be a long process – trawling through an endless list of very similar looking vans on the internet with no idea what the hell you’re looking for – FORGET IT! We’ve got you covered!
We can find you the best deal on a camper perfect for all of your needs. All you have to do is pop in a few details of your trip and we can do the rest!
NOTE: we only book you a camper van or car rental if we can make it cheaper than the online rate! That’s the RatPack guarantee!
Places to hit up
Great Barrier Reef – snorkelling day trip, get your PADI certificate or head off on a liveaboard pro dive.
Magnetic Island – just off Townsville, this island is the best place to spot some wildlife – did someone say koala walks and wallabies at sunset?!
Whitsunday Islands – sail around the beaut islands and crystal white sandy beaches.
Fraser Island – cruise around in 4x4s on the largest sand island in the world!
Noosa – home of a stunning national park and the chance to see some wild koalas.
Byron Bay – AKA Ratpack HQ. After swinging by to say hey – learn to surf with dolphins and trek to the lighthouse for stunning views.
Sydney – the final stop off and what a place it is to end such an epic roadie. This is your chance to be a proper tourist and take in all the sites!
with RatPack Travel?
Places to visit (off grid)
Cape Tribulation – a combination of rain forest and beaches just north of Cairns – it’s amazing!
Atherton Tablelands – this national park is waterfall paradise – the whole environment is so beautiful and untouched.
Mission Beach – the place to be to tick that skydive off your bucket list – 15,000ft with views of the Great Barrier Reef…yes pls!
Cape Hillsborough – kangaroos. On the Beach. At Sunrise. Need I say more? This place is the definition of paradise.
Sunshine Coast – check out Mooloolaba and Coolum for some chilled out suburb livin’.
Ready to hit the road?
Roadie life is awesome, but simple things like having your daily shower and going to the loo start to raise a lotta questions. So before hittin’ the road, we’ve answered the all important questions to get you roadie ready!
How do I go to the bathroom?
There will be public loos along the way or you’ll have to embrace the bush wee.
Where do I shower?
Luckily, Aussie is pretty warm most of the time, so all you’ll need is a bowl of soap, water and a flannel to give yourself a scrub down.
A load of the beaches also have showers. A shower with a sea view – sounds pretty good to me!
How much food should I get?
Stock up on food every week or so when you come across a supermarket.
Avoid grabbing things in petrol stations – they’re expensive and you’ll end up spending wayyyy more money than you should.
Is is easy to drive in Australia?
Yep, it’s SUPER easy!
Unless you’re going through a city, you’re going to be on the open road for the majority of the journey. The open roads are straight, empty and normally pretty beautiful.
They do drive on the left over there, but don’t worry about it – you’ll get used to it! Plus, there arn’t many roundabouts in Oz.
How will I wash my clothes?
Some of the campsites may have facilities to wash your clothes.
Or, you may have to stop off at a hostel every now and then for the night to use the washing facilities.
How will I know the way?
Grab yourself a local sim so you can use 3G for maps if you’re worried about getting lost. Most campers also provide you with a map – old school style!
From our RatPackers
I booked my campervan to travel in NZ via RatPack Travel, who managed to find me the perfect van at relatively short notice and with a discount! It was a real help to have someone do the searching and mediate with the company, once they had dates and information from me. Thanks for the prompt and friendly service!
Great service! Jenner was so much help and gave us lots of options to suit our journey. Very attentive and made it an easy process.
This was the best customer service I ever experienced! I highly recommend you if you are looking for a Van or Camper to leave your email address so somebody of their team can get in touch with you. They compare for you all camper hire company’s and you can choose with one suits you the best. I literally talk to this awesome lady from Holland (as I’m only available after 8pm MEL time, so the arrange for me a call with somebody from the EU team for free) and she got our dream van for the most incredible price few minutes after we talked! And not even one day later I got my booking confirmation from the camper company. Their service is free of charge as they earn commission of your booking but this doesn’t cost you a cent. I did my own research before but the deals they give me was way better than I could find by my own. I highly recommend to get in touch with this team and let them find your Van. They literally saved us our fuel cost for a 3 weeks travel from Cairns to Sydney. Yes- that’s almost $1000 they saved us! Go and get your van! You won’t regret it.
So far, so so good. I should have started with RatPack to begin with and saved all that time searching for a camper and feeling like I was getting nowhere. Jenna was incredibly helpful -doing all the hard yards and getting us the best deal. Very prompt service. Thanks for making it so easy !
Very friendly service with Tammy. Super attentive and keen to help us. Got us a discount and one of the last available options.
Ratpack was super helpful! They were extremely responsive and helped us get an amazing deal on two 3-person camper vans. Highly recommend giving them a shot!
Really straight forward helpful and friendly people!
Mike helped us with finding the best van for us for our 3 week trip and was very knowledgeable. With some quick phone calls he gave us the best quotes and walked us through the process in detail. Everything was made clear and we booked our trip in just an hour! I would highly recommend their service.
Great experience with the RatPack travel team! Really went out of their way to help us book our Van’s for two different trips! They have great rapport with the various Van companies, were able to help us book the last available Van for our time in WA and were able to get us some discounts as well. Zan and Mikey were both so easy going, made it feel like we were chatting with friends who genuinely cared about our travels haha, awesome guys! Definitely recommend the RatPack service, will save you time and money fellow travellers!
Mike was amazing - helped me find a van and gave me quotes, a full breakdown, etc super quickly no stress! Just what I needed. Can't wait to start my trip. Thanks dude!
Booked a 3 week trip with MIKEY! Customer service was on point. No Buls**t straight to the point. Saved us a further % on the original price of the campervan and sent me a map of the east coast with highlighted areas he highly recommended to stop at. looking forward to our trip! 🇮🇪 🇦🇺
Highly recommend this company! Mike was incredibly helpful; he gave us lots of useful info and managed to get an excellent deal on a camper for our trip. The whole process was quick and easy. Thank you! Alison and Amy x
Mikey was amazing at helping us plan our 3 week schedule for the east coast. He went over and above to make sure that we were able to fit everything in that we wanted to in the time we have. His knowledge has been a great asset for us making an itinerary. Can't recommend enough!
If you want to book a camper for your trip, you should only do so with Ratpack. The team is incredibly fast and provides great service. No annoying comparison of providers, since Ratpack takes over. They are looking for the best deal and can offer great discounts. they respond individually to your wishes and give you additional tips for the trip. Since there is also an EU team, you could make calls at individual times of the day - simply excellent all around - thanks for everything
Absolutely delighted with the service provided by RatPack Travel. In particular, the excellent guidance and support offered by Jules! We explained our plans and she found a suitable solution to meet our needs. Very grateful and suggest other travellers use this facility. Thank you 😊
