Around Australia: Accommodation

Accomodation was not my concern. I was travelling at the very beginning of the tourist season in the north — just after the wet season. Some tourist locations were just slowly organising themselves for the upcoming tourist season.

I had camping gear with me: a tent, a sleeping bag and a self-inflatible mattress. As it turned out, I never used this gear. Pitching a tent is easy, but wrapping it up the next morning, at or before sunrise — while the tent is still wet and the sleeping bag still moist — is certainly not much fun, and may even be unhealthy, considering the mould that could have built due to the moist equipement being stuffed into a waterproof bag all day.

I did not pay much attention to the type of accommodation I selected; I let my GPSr list a bunch of options and picked what either sounded nice, or later during the trip, what I perceived to be the right accommodation for the day. To explain this: I may have stayed at a great place the previous night, did all I had to do, may not have felt like a shower for the night, or was certain to leave early in the morning, all these factors lend itself to the choice of cheaper style accommodation. In other words, if a bed is all that is needed for the night, a cabin should do the trick; and so it did.

See below the list of accommodation I had selected during my journey Around Australia in 2010. The links behind the dates will lead to the trip report page for the day on this website, while the link behind the name of the accommodation will lead to pages external to this website.

Accommodation List

Date [dd/mm/yyyy]	Location	Name of Accommodation	Cost [$]
24/04/2010	Gracemere	Private	0.00
25/04/2010	Ingham	Herbert Valley Motel	79.50
26/04/2010	Cairns	Aspect Central	89.00
27/04/2010	Normanton	Albion Hotel	90.00
28/04/2010	Tennant Creek	Barkly Homestead	120.00
29/04/2010	Darwin	Hiway Inn Modarwin	95.00
30/04/2010	Litchfield	Litchfield Tourist and Camp Park	125.00
01/05/2010	Timber Creek	Timber Creek Gunamu Tourist Park / Circle F Caravan Park and Motel	60.00
02/05/2010	Kununurra	Hotel Kununurra	170.00
03/05/2010	Halls Creek	Best Western Motel	145.00
04/05/2010 05/05/2010	Broome	Backpackers	180.00
06/05/2010	Auski	Auski Tourist Village	65.00
07/05/2010	Exmouth	The Potshot Hotel Resort	98.00
08/05/2010	Ningaloo	Backpackers Ningaloo	90.00
09/05/2010 10/05/2010	Denham	Denham Seaside Tourist Village	115.00
11/05/2010	Cervantes	Cervantes Pinnacles Motel	126.00
12/05/2010	Perth	Rainbow Lodge	29.00
13/05/2010	Pinjarra	Pinjarra Motel	105.00
14/05/2010	Nannup	Nannup Hotel Motel	110.00
15/05/2010	Walpole	Walpole Hotel Motel	85.00
16/05/2010	Amelup	Stirling Range Retreat	70.00
17/05/2010	Esperance	Travellers Inn	90.00
18/05/2010	Mundrabilla	Mundrabilla Roadhouse	90.00
19/05/2010	Streaky Bay	Streaky Bay Hotel Motel	100.00
20/05/2010 21/05/2010	Cooper Pedy	The Underground Motel	95.00
22/05/2010	Hawker	Hawker Hotel Motel	90.00
23/05/2010	Toolunga	Elizabeth Motor Inn	89.00
24/05/2010	Blanchetown	Blanchetown Riverside Holiday Park	110.00
25/05/2010	Cape Jervis	Cape Jervis Tavern Motel	80.00
26/05/2010	Millicent	The Diplomat Motel Millicent	90.00
27/05/2010	Cobden	Cobden Motel Caravan Park	55.00
28/05/2010	Ararat	Ararat Motel Inn	95.00
29/05/2010	Ardeer/Melbourne	Sunshine Motor Inn	130.00
30/05/2010	Yanakie	Tingara View Cottage	100.00
31/05/2010	Mallacoota	Mallacoota Log Cabin	80.00
01/06/2010	Queanbeyan	Leagues Motel	140.00
02/06/2010	Milperra/Sydney	Milperra Palms Hotel Motel	95.00
03/06/2010	Woy Woy	Waters Edge Motel	75.00

Accommodation cost per night (min, max, mean) was 29, 180, 93 AUD.

A Word of Caution

A word of caution if you are visiting from overseas and try to make sense of the type of accomodation and associated dollars paid. The Australian "classification" of accommodation is rather strange, compared with the rest of the modern world. In most other countries the price goes up with the type of accommodation. For example from less to more expensive in ascending order:

• Backpacker-style
• Cabin
• Motel
• Hotel

As you can see from my list further above, hotels can be cheaper than motels, and cabins can be more expensive than motels. Or even crazier, the most expensive place I stayed was at a Backpackers Resort for 180 AUD the night.

So yes, please keep this in mind when visiting Australia and booking accommodation.

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