By googling how much does it cost to travel in Australia, you will probably be scared to death to even think about going there. Why? Because the internet is full of warnings how Australia is uber expensive. And yet, there are thousands of backpackers travelling happily around Australia every year.
Yes, cost to travel in Australia can be high, but just if you choose it to be. Australia probably never will be as cheap country to travel around as Southeast Asia. However, with our tips, we will help you to lower your overall cost to travel in Australia significantly.
Don´t forget to visit our guide about travel planning – Reverse Travel Planning Strategy.
How to lower the cost to travel in Australia?
There are two easy ways how to make an Australian trip more affordable. And the secret ingredients are:
1) start planning your trip well in advance
2) road trip
Planning ahead will allow you to find the best prices and bargains. You will also have more time to think about your itinerary and adjust it to your budget.
If there is a country made for a perfect once-in-lifetime-road-trip-adventure, it is Australia. Australia was literary made to be explored on wheels. A road trip mixes two advantages. First, you experience the best Australia has to offer and second your cost of travel to Australia decrease.
How to keep a record of cost to travel in Australia?
The best way to keep a record of cost to travel in Australia is to start a diary. It is the best way to review expenses whenever you need. We have started our budget journal by dividing the costs into categories:
1) Transportation
2) Accommodation
3) Food
4) Fuel
5) Miscellaneous
6) Attractions/Adventure
Every time we purchased anything around Australia, we saved the bills or receipts. After, when we had time we went through the bills and divide them according to our cost categories. That way we kept a record of all costs and always knew if we are under or above our budget.
How much much does it really cost to travel in Australia?
We are budget backpackers, however, we like to balance our demands and value for money. We always try to keep the costs as low as possible, even when it sometimes means a little discomfort. The biggest demand we had, when we planned to travel around Australia, was freedom. We wanted to experience Australia on our own time schedule. We wanted to be able to travel anywhere we wanted anytime we wanted. That was one of the reasons we have chosen to travel by campervan.
If we agreed to travel by buses, the whole trip could be probably done a little bit cheaper. But, it would limit our possibilities to travel to places we wanted to see. Also, we would need much more time than we had. So we decided to accept a little bit higher costs in exchange for being free of any schedule.
So, as you might guess now, we decided to hire a campervan. Throughout a research, we discovered that this would be by far the cheapest option for us. The only downfall is that you should be experienced driver because you need to drive a lot. And I mean a lot. Australia is a super vast continent, so you should be at least experienced driver.
We travelled all the way around Australia in 60 days, a total of 25 000 km.
Breaking down the cost to travel in Australia
Campervan
We decided to hire a smaller size campervan because of the lower fuel consumption. The bigger the campervan, the higher the costs for fuel. Hiring the campervan cost us 3 180 AUD full insurance included.
Warning – If you ever think about skipping the full insurance, we can´t stress enough not to do it. We know a lot of travellers that wanted to save money and skipped the insurance. And they regretted terribly. Australia is not a country where you can afford to skip the insurance.
Book your campervan as soon as you can, that way you save some money. Think about the weather season as well. During a winter season, rates usually drop. For example, we have decided to hire the campervan in Sydney during the winter time and we headed north. That way we were able to hire a campervan for cheaper rates because Sydney was off the season.
The daily rate for a campervan was 40 AUD. Full insurance for 60 days cost us 1 200 AUD. That means that the insurance was 20 AUD a day for a full coverage.
That is a total of 3 180 AUD for 60 days. That is 53 AUD per day per a couple. Which means it is just a 26,5 AUD per person for a car and your accommodation as well. Furthermore, with your campervan, you are completely free of any schedule, except your own.
Fuel
The fuel is cheaper in Australia than in Europe. That was one of the reasons we have decided to travel around Australia by car. In the Czech Republic, the average price for fuel is 1,85 AUD, in comparison to 1,15 AUD in Australia. However, as everywhere, fuel prices vary. In cities, fuel costs less, but further you travel, higher the fuel prices. So by thinking a little bit in advance, you can save some money by planning where you get the fuel. The golden rule is, buy fuel in big cities for saving money.
So, our total fuel costs were 2 980 AUD. That means that we have paid on average 1,7 AUD per litre of fuel and 0,12 AUD per kilometre. The most expensive fuel we encountered was in Wattarka National park – 2,15 AUD/litre. On the other hand, the cheapest fuel we got was in Home Hill – 0,95 AUD/litre.
Food
Another huge expense is a cost for food. Food costs are probably one that can make or break you. To be honest with you, food is something that we are saving money on. We don´t need fancy food while travel and we cook our own food from cheap ingredients. We are able to live with simple, cheap food for weeks. That way we are able to save a lot of money on food and enjoy saved money on fun.
If you decide to buy avocados, shrimps every night and dine in the restaurants than your budget will skyrocket. That doesn´t mean that we did not treat ourself from time to time. We saved money to taste delicious and unique food instead of spending money on pizzas and sausage rolls. One of the best food we have tested was a crocodile burger in Darwin.
If you want to save as much money as possible, think twice about purchasing alcohol. If anything is super expensive in Australia, it is alcohol and beers. Drinking a bottle of wine and beer every night can easily ruin your budget.
So, on average our weekly food bill was around 120 AUD, that means probably 1 170 AUD for the whole trip. That is just 16 AUD per day 
Accommodation
We had our own accommodation on wheels, so we saved thousands of dollars on accommodation. But even with a campervan you sometimes need to pay for campsites. Especially in popular places like Uluru or Karijini National park.
If there is any country in the world that is made for a perfect road trip it is Australia. Australia is super-road-trip-friendly country. You are literally able to find sites to park your car for free almost everywhere. That does not, of course, mean that you will not need to spend any money for campsites.
If you hire a no-self sufficient campervan, like we did, you need a proper shower time to time. So our strategy was to camp at free sites and once in three days to book in a proper camp to shower, do our laundry and have an electricity for our laptops and cameras.
The free camps are usually very basic, just a place where you can safely park your car, usually with simple toilets. That it is. But at the end of the day, that is all you need.
So at the end of our trip, we have to spend for campsites around 460 AUD. With probably the most expensive sites on at Airlie Beach, Wattarka National park and Uluru. That is around 8 AUD per day.
Micscelationous
You should always plan to have some money aside, just in case some unexpected expenses will show up. As we travelled we needed to buy a few gas bottles in a cooker. We had to buy a new flip flops and buy a better snorkelling gear at Airlie beach to enjoy snorkelling trip. Also, we ended up buying a next external hard disk, because we had run out of space for photos. We had to pay a few parking tickets in Brisbane and Melbourne and a toll for using highways. You need to pay your phone bill as well.
So we ended up paying in total 720 AUD on staff we did not expect to need before
Attractions
There are plenty stuff to do around Australia and we had to choose wisely what to experience. You can spend thousands of dollars around Australia and never see everything.
In total, we have paid 2 500 AUD for attractions. With the most expensive attraction being the cruise around Whitsundays Islands and overnight sleep on the Great barrier reef.
Do you think it is a lot of money? Maybe it is. But for 2 500 AUD we were able to visit:
the rum distillery in Bundaberg, visit the Skypoint view in Surfers Paradise, flight over Great barrier reef, cruise around the Whitsundays Islands, snorkel and sleep on the Greta Barrier reef, visit Kakadu National park, visit Uluru-Kata Tjuta National park, swim with crocs in the Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, visit Jumping crocodiles in Darwin, feed dolphins at the Monkey Mia, sandboard in Western Australia and much more So we feel it isn´t a lot of money in compariosn with what we saw, what do you think?
So in total we paid 2 500 AUD for all the adventure and attractions, that is just 41 AUD per day per couple, so just 20 AUD per person.
The final cost to travel in Australia?
Our total cost to travel in Australia were:
- With a campervan: 10 290 AUD, 171 AUD a day, 85 AUD per person per day
- Without a campervan: 7 110 AUD, 118 AUD a day, 59 AUD per person per day
And there you have it guys, the costs of an amazing road trip around Australia. As we have said, Australia will never be super cheap country to travel around, but it can be done on reasonable travel costs, without breaking your bank account.
Did you travel in Australia? Let us know in the comments down below, we would love to hear from you.
