SYDNEY CENTRAL,
Quaystreet
02/03 - 20/4
I've stayed here the longest. The apartment was in the middle of China-town, a short walking distance from Central Station and within 5 minutes you were standing in Daring Harbour, surrounded by tourists and malls and restaurants, and even a Chinese Friendship Garden. I shared the apartment with 3 other girls, 4 guys, and together we really made this place our home, going out for dinner together and sharing jobs, etc.
MELBOURNE
27/4 - 28/4
During our trip along the Great Ocean Road we didn't plan to sleep in a hotel, but since there's no camping in the middle of Melbourne and we were going there no matter what, we booked a hotel for these two nights. It was so nice to finally have a shower after a week of camping and sleeping in the car. Really necessary too, so we treated ourselves with this one. The room was very big. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this hotel.
NELSON BAY
1/5 - 2/5
Our apartment in Nelson Bay was beautiful, very spacious, especially the room I slept in. I had a bed for myself, we parked in front of the house, our kitchen was fully equipped. The bathroom was grand and the park itself was really nice as well.
PORT MACQUARIE,
Beach side Holiday
2/5 - 3/5
This apartment had a very strong 70s vibe, with all brown furniture. The living room in this one was big, but we didn't spend much time in this apartment. The beach was a short walk down the road, there was a surf school and we had breakfast in the sun the next morning.
COFFS HARBOUR,
Opal Cove
3/5 - 5/5
Opal Cove was by far my favorite place we've stayed. The people serving us at dinner were so unbelievably nice, asking us things and talking with us after our dinner was over. The yard in front of the hotel was enormous, stretching to some trees and the sea behind them. The view from our room was amazing and we could see the sun set from there. There was a small river running along the hotel and we climbed around on the beach for a while. The hotel had a gym, a swimming pool and all other sorts of things, even a game hall.
LENNOX HEAD, Santa Fe
5/5 - 7/5
Our place in Lennox Head was pretty big, compared to some of the hotels we'd had up until then. The man at the front desk was really nice too, very amicable. He told us some things about Lennox Head, how it was the most eastern point of Australia but they gave that title to Byron Bay, how the whales season was about to be here, but we were a bit too early. The room itself wasn't the most beautiful, but it didn't have to be. It had everything we needed.
BRISBANE,
Oxygen
7/5 - 10/5
I spent my last days with dad and Ruben at Oxygen, where we parked underneath the building and got in without having to meet anyone at a desk. The instructions were all in a box that we got the code to, pretty cool. The room was nice, but basic.
Some of these apartments were bought as well, because I'm pretty sure we stayed next to a Chinese family with many shoes in front of the door and it didn't look like they were about to move out anytime soon. Smelled good though.
During our stay in Surfer's Paradise, we slept in Budds. The swimming pool was amazing, the kitchen big enough. There were plenty bathroom-stalls and showers too and the rooms were fine. The hostel was short walking distance from the beach, we had a mini-golf course on the other side of the road. You can buy hair-dye practically everywhere. There are crazy clubs and restaurants very close-by and if you don't want to leave the hostel there's a big TV, pool tables, and boardgames galore. The people are also really nice.
SURFER'S PARADISE,
Budds In
10/5 - 18/5
Our stay in Wake Up started great, with a 150$ discount voucher for a Whitsundays trip. The hostel itself was great, with a big kitchen and a garden where we could have barbecues and just sit together. The rooms were big too, I think we shared them with 10/12 people. People were playing guitar in the main room and the staff were baking pancakes for breakfast the day we were there. We could rent bikes at the desk and we could take free paddle boards out to the sea on the other side of the street.
BYRON BAY,
Wake Up
18/5 - 22/5
Chill Backpackers was in the middle of City Backpackers, My Yellow Backpackers and Summerhouse Backpackers. We could park next to the graffiti painted hostel. The kitchens were up- and downstairs. The rooms were pretty good, I shared one with Samir and Chris, which had a double bed and a single one. From one of the kitchens you could walk onto a roof terrace which had a beautiful view, and there was a film-room where you could chill. At the desk downstairs we had pool-tables and computers.
BRISBANE,
Chill Backpackers
22/5 - 23/5
RAINBOW BEACH,
Dingos Resort
23/5 + 26/5
Before and after the time spent on Fraser Island we slept at Dingos Resort. This hostel was mostly for people who planned to go to Fraser with the Dingo-tour. We rented plates for the island and sleeping bags at the desk. We got a perfectly organised briefing at the bar, where they told us about how to drive the car, not to feed the dingos and how we would all sleep on the ground. The hostel itself was pretty good though, with a swimming pool and hammocks around them.
EMU PARK,
Emus Beach Resort
26/5 - 30/5
Youssef was working in Emus Beach Resort when we passed Rockhampton on our way to Airlie Beach. He'd invited us to stay there for a few nights to check out the surrounding Keppel islands. The beach was a short drive from the resort. We had a big room again, with closet space and a giant bathroom. This was such a nice change from sleeping on a floor. Again, there were a swimming pool and a cabinet filled with games. The people were nicer than the weather, but we really enjoyed ourselves.
AIRLIE BEACH,
Base Hostel
30/5 + 3/6
Base hostel was a camping like hostel with different barracks that had their own bathrooms. There were places to park your car, even when you'd be gone on the boat. The kitchens were shared, there was a swimming pool, and the hostel was in the middle of the town, so walking distance from the bars, clubs, restaurants, and a kebab place where I made loads of friends. Anneke and I booked our Great Barrier Reef dive at the front desk, and they had all the information we needed for our trip.
31/5 - 2/6
The New Horizon was fabulous. We slept with everyone under deck, in one shared room. There were double and single beds and couples got to choose beds first. The kitchen was small, but breakfast lunch and dinner were well prepared for us every day. We brought our own drinks, and at night the crew even made us cocktails with fruit. We played games, there was music, we had a toilet and a shower. If we wanted to buy drinks we just had to write down what we had. Everything we needed was right there.
WHITSUNDAYS
New Horizon
4/6 - 6/6
Base hostel had all different cabins that served as rooms. There was a bathroom-stall for every few cabins. If you walked inside the park a little further, there were complete houses with pointy rooftops that looked very fancy, but also didn't have their own bathrooms. We had an organised Bingo at night, the moon would come up from the beach-side which lit up the sea that was not even 10 steps from the park. There was a very private beach not far from there and you could find other things you needed at the desk.
MAGNETIC ISLAND,
Base Hostel
6/6 - 14/6 + 9/8
The fact that I chose this place to stay at twice (just as with Maze and Wake Up in Sydney), says a lot about what I think of this hostel. There was an amazing pool, a bar next to the door, the staff may have been the friendliest of all the people I've met. The service was awesome, but the hostel was really a party hostel. Before every event, the staff would go around the hostel trying to hype everyone up for it. The bigger rooms were always full of people, kitchens were fully equipped and the hotel rooms were beautiful too.
CAIRNS
Gilligan's
SYDNEY CENTRAL,
YHA
25/6 - 7/7
YHA was pretty cool. Right underneath it was the InCafe where they had wonderful warm banana-bread and ham and cheese croissants. The kitchen was amazing, with art all over the walls, and music playing through the building. There were tables where you could charge your phone at, the rooftop had a jacuzzi with an amazing view over half Haymarket. It had a barbecue, and a few tables where we could chill at night if we were allowed. The staff organised trips and we had discounts to all major tourist attractions.
SYDNEY CENTRAL,
Wake Up Hostel
18/6 - 21/6 + 5/8 - 8/8
I made loads of friends in Wake Up, especially in room 308. The windows couldn't open, but the rooms were gigantic. They had beautiful closets where you could stall your stuff. Right under Wake Up was the Side-Bar, where we went out several nights. We ate pizza there, we played Jenga and we drank our wine. There was a desk with a TV where we watched the football-game England vs another team during the world cup. One day they placed a life-sized celebrity behind the desk, which was pretty cool.
SYDNEY CENTRAL,
Maze Backpackers
21/6 - 25/6 + 7/7 - 20/7
Maze was my home for a longer period of time. I stayed here with different friends, and from here on out I visited the city. At maze you could borrow gear for your pool-table, you could do you laundry, you could watch film in the room upstairs. The rooms were pretty okay. Every night Maze would organise a trip to a bar or a club with a small bus. Every other night they had free dinner with the whole hostel. Every Sunday we had free pancakes. This hostel wasn't the cleanest or prettiest, but definitely one of the most fun.
SYDNEY CENTRAL,
Great Southern Hotel
29/7 - 4/8
I only stayed here for a couple of days and it was amazing. As close to everything as Wake Up, YHA, and my apartment were, but this time with my own bathroom and bedroom. The bed felt like heaven, and the staff was very friendly. Fresh towels, information about anything, discounts for sights, very pleasant to stay here. Even breakfast served in the room if I wanted to.
10/10 would recommend.
FALLS CREEK,
Pretty Valley Lodges
21/7 - 29/7
It wasn't really warm in Sydney anymore, but this wasn't what I expected to live in when going to Australia. Falls Creek was freezing, but so beautiful. Pretty Valley was pretty, as the name suggests, but expensive too. Ski-holidays itself are always expensive I guess, but really worth it. There was a bar connected to Pretty Valley, they had the restaurant, jacuzzis, a film-room and a ski-rental, all under the same roof. Very beautiful.