The East Coast: Summer vs. Winter

By Daisy Boxall, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

During my time in Sydney, I was lucky enough to do the East Coast of Aus twice; once in summer time (December) and once in winter (July). After reflecting on these trips, they both have serious perks but also a few things I wish I had know before so I present to you my tips etc. on the East Coast!

Firstly, doing the coast in the summer months is obviously going to be slightly more expensive and requires some more in advance planning; its so busy during these months which did unfortunately mean me and my mate did have to skip some of the trips and tours we wanted to do just as they were all booked up. However we found a few hidden secrets we would have overlooked otherwise!

When we did K’Gari (which I would 1000% recommend – this was the highlight of both trips!) I had heard Dingo’s tours was the way to go but since they had no space we ended up on K’Gari Safari and had the best time and met some just as unorganised people as us, we had a great time. So great we used them again in July and the group we had was just as fun! So I would defo chose this tour! Another wonderful thing about K’Gari was in the summer we ended up with very wet and humid weather which was great as we could spend all the daytime on the beaches exploring whereas some summer trips have limited time out of the cars just due to the intense heat there; in winter it was whale season which was amazing! They come so close to the beach and there are 100s of them all day! Just make sure you do K’Gari, it’s great!

Moving onto the Whitsundays. Both trips again were fab but so so different. Summer was amazing, hot sun all day long and the views were gorgeous. However, this combined with some goon is the perfect recipe for heatstroke so be warned! On the flipside, winter weather brings some crazy storms and crazy waves so if your not strong stomached, maybe bring some sea sickness tabs, it can get bumpy! To be honest there wasn’t may major differences in the trips other than the weather but with all Whitsunday’s trips, each tour sees completely different spots so I loved them both! It was also nice in the winter to not be scared of the stingers and the sexy stinger suit you have to wear!

These 2 tours had the most variety between them when I did them, I just had the most opposite weather when I did each so that changed things! The other spots we did (Cairns, Noosa, Byron, Brisbane) all varied much more dependent on the hostel we decided to stay in and what they had on offer, some were much more party vibes and some more wholesome and active so it just depends what you fancy. It was great to experience both seasons, but obviously the warmer, sunnier summer months are always going to top winter, but to be honest the East Coast is brilliant and all in all though, the thing that made both of these trips as amazing as they were was 100% the company I had along the way. I did both trips with one of my best friends from back in the UK and we met some awesome people other along the way and got some seriously good stories so I would say whether your alone or with mates, everyone you meet is looking for the same thing: to have a really REALLY good time! And its really not hard to in such beautiful and breath-taking places! It’s awesome!