Here at Gap Year World we pride ourselves on the fact we “know because we go”, so instead of giving you a generic post about spending in Australia we thought we’d hand it over to Rachael, who can give you the lowdown on how much you should spend in Australia in one month– drawing on her own experiences.
I wanted to work abroad so travelled to Australia for exactly 2 years – I literally left one day before my visa ended because I loved it so much, so I’d like to think I know a fair amount about the place.
If you’re off there for a month and want to know how much you’ll need then I’ll split it into four sections: transport, accommodation, food and spending.
This is a general guide, as opposed to state focused, so please bear that in mind – and don’t hate me if you spend more than this. Let’s say you’re travelling all of Australia in that time…very ambitious, but let’s go with it.
1. Transport
This can range as you’ve got loads of ways of getting around Oz – trains, planes and automobiles, literally…plus boats. I would say Greyhound is the best way to get up and down the East Coast (hop-on-hop-off Sydney to Cairns is around $650), and between Alice Springs and Darwin (I got this for $150 – way in advance).
There are always cheap flights between most cities too (usually excluding Perth and Darwin) for about $90 one-way. I flew Brisbane to Cairns for that price, and also Adelaide to Melbourne.
In terms of public transport, I’d say set aside $40 a week (the average for unlimited travel on a travel card). Perth is a little isolated, so my friends did an epic road trip between Darwin and Perth, which I wish I’d gone on, and the average for a campervan per day is about $50 a day. Take 10 days to do it and that would be around $500 (remember this could be divided between a few of you – for this, let’s say between 2). View more tips for getting around Australia by campervan.
So per person for four weeks – and if you’re going to see practically everywhere in Australia – you should set aside around $1570AUD (about £970).
Getting an ISIC card can save you tons of money on transport too – so the above amount could be even lower if you have one of those. Which you can currently get if you open a Westpac Choice Account – which works out pretty well if you haven’t opened an Aussie bank account yet!
2. Accommodation
I lived in hostels for the majority of my time in Australia, and the average cost of a hostel per night is $25AUD (you get discounts if you stay in the same hostel for a week).
Let’s assume the above costing got you a little worried, so we’ll stay with just hostels. If you do the campervan thing, you won’t need to spend on hostels for those 10 days, so say 20 days of hostel accommodation.
Per person for 20 days hostel: $500 (about £310)
Again, an ISIC card can help you out with hostel costs too!
3. Food
Let’s say your hostel includes free breakfast (a lot of them do, or at least a free pancake morning) – and you can do a weekly shop for about $25. Throw in a few brunches (maybe four) at around $12, and a few dinners (maybe ten) at around $20 and we’ll say that’s your food allocation.
Per person for 30 days food: $348 (about £215). You can definitely easily go over this – I would. So if you want to have more money for food, I feel ya.
And guess what? The ISIC card gets you food discounts too! It seems like there’s nothing this little card can’t do.
4. Spending
This depends on how many places you’re going and exactly what you want to do.
Attractions can cost big bucks, but things such as beach days are pretty much free. Let’s say that every week you want to visit 2 attractions at an average of $50 each, and the standard tours such as Whitsundays at around $400, Fraser Island at about $325 (or get a combo tour for about $650), diving at the Great Barrier Reef for around $160, and an Aussie Outback trip at around $400.
Per person spending money for 30 days: around $1,700 AUD (about £1,200).
All together: $4118 (about £2,500) maybe just round it up to $5000.
Now that you’ve got an idea about how much you should be saving, why not kick start your planning by searching trips and flights? Have a look at our Australia gap year ideas!