Something to think of is trying to avoid the bigger cities during rush hour. We got stuck in rush hour coming home going through Windsor (so traffic from out west of Syd going into Syd in the morning), didn't think about it! No advice of where to stop tho.
Another idea is to have an in car DVD player. We just did a 9hr cross NSW drive and the DVD player was a godsend. We managed to do a 3hr drive, stop, 2 hr drive, stop and 2hr drive, before Lily puked in the car and we had to stop overnight, lol! The kids were angels until then and only Liam complained on the last 2 hr stretch a little bit.
That's the Newell highway.
We stopped in Dubbo overnight and did the drive in two days stopping every three hours or so.
I think you do it it in three days driving 8 hours a day.
It takes about 17 hours of straight driving to get from Melb to Toowoomba so add a couple more hours to get to the coast.
The drive is pretty easy.
We stopped in Shep from memory, Dubbo (overnight), Moree and then drove all the way to Toowoomba. They were the major stops were some smaller pit stops along the way at parks/servos.
DD was 3 at the time, only had the one then, she was well over it by the last couple hours but we did the drive in two days.
I'd also go overnight on the boat. It's a long time to keep the kids occupied and there just isnt that much to do on the boat after a while. If its raining then you have to stay inside, too hot and you'll all get burnt from sun wind water reflection. So while it is doable, I think it would be much easier at night. Just depends on how game you are
p.s just re read what I wrote and its def time for bed, can hardly write a sentence so I apologise lol
We did a road trip over Christmas from Townsville to Adelaide and back. And we tented it. The kids loved tenting, we were all in together. I didn't so much, my back didn't like it. We got DVD players, which were wonderful. 1 tip on those though, get spare fuses from D!ck Smith for the power thing. The fuse blew and we couldn't find a spare one until we got home, thankfully only a day. Avoid driving at night. We found a roo on the way home. Have lots of different activities and stop at as many parks as you can. Lots of towns don't have electric BBQ facilities so try to keep to good old sangas or take your own camp stove and pot. If I think of anything else I will pop it in here.
I'm back so i'll elaborate on our road trip now....
When we drove to QLD we went up on the Hume to Sydney. We stayed a couple fo nights with DH's parents then drove to QLD on the Princes Hwy, it took about a day.
On the way home we went on the Newell. We left early in the morning and stayed overnight at Gilgandra (spelling?) then headed back to Melb.
I found the Newell took longer than the coast and wasn't as pretty a drive but we got to see the dish etc. I wish we had have had time in Dubbo to go to the zoo but we drove through there too early in the morning.
Our kids were 5,6 and 5 mths at the time. I was so worried about how they'd go in the car for so long but they actually enjoyed it. Portable DVD players weren't around back then, we kept occupied by counting road kill () and utes. We played games and chatted. We stopped ever 3 or 4 hours depending on when DD needed a feed. It was actually a pretty good trip, the kids got to see and experience so much, they still talk about it.
I understand what everyone is saying about not taking the day trip on the boat, however I really think it would be easier with our kids. They don't sleep well at the best of times, so I think a strange little cabin with tiny beds in close quarters will be stretching them a bit much. DH and I have discussed it and decided this is the best way, its better to try and have a good nights sleep in a nice motel the night after the day trip, and then drive, opposed to having crap all sleep on a boat and then trying to drive a full day - ya know? Plus, we'll bring stuff for the kids to entertain them, two of them will probably still have a nap in the day so I'll bring the Ergo and DS will absolutely be enthralled at being on a boat so he'd be easy to entertain. So I'm not expecting it to be easy, but I'd rather that than being kept up all night by kids that don't want to go to sleep cos they are on a boat for the first time and thats exciting!!!
I'll write down the places everyone is saying and try to plan out our trip How excitement!!
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) and utes. We played games and chatted. We stopped ever 3 or 4 hours depending on when DD needed a feed. It was actually a pretty good trip, the kids got to see and experience so much, they still talk about it.
How excitement!!
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