Planning 1yr road trip with 2 under 5's!

Hi Brad and Stef,

We are doing it right now. We are in a Goldstream Wing 11 Camper and have taken it every where. I have 2 boys 1 has just turned 4 and the other is almost 2. We started in Brisbane and went north first to Cape York via the Telegraph track even did the infamous Gunshot with camper in tow. The boys as the wife and I are loving it. We then went mainly dirt roads across to Darwin and tried to stay as close to the gulf as we could ( 1 road was still flooded so we couldn't take that one). We are driving a Nissan Patrol 4.2 Turbo Diesel and are getting around 14lt per 100klm. We are not working for the whole 7 months which is good but we still feel we are not seeing every thing. (Good excuse to go again). We have spoken to people along the way and any trade back ground will get work particularly in the top half of Aust and electricians are in high demand. Stef you should just be a lady of leisure and send Brad out to work. LOL. You will have your work cut out looking after the 2 little ones. It doesn't coast all that much. 11 weeks into our trip has seen an accommodation bill, caravan parks and national parks bill of just over $1000 and fuel cost of $2500. We are now in Broome and are loving it. All the best.

Goona

Hi to "over the ditch,

Just make sure which way you go around with regards to the weather, hot and humid up north in summer, cold and wet down south in the winter.

Good luck with your preparation for your trip.


Regards

Craig B
ex chch

Good luck with your trip!

I'd be interested in other replies here too (although a search can reveal similar topics from previous years).
We are hoping to do a 3 to 6mth trip across northern Australia next year with 2 young girls (will be 18mths and 3 years old at the time). We won't be working though.
There are a million things to consider and I'm sure I'll be on the road well before I work them all out.
We'll be in a TD 100 series landcruiser and probably tenting it or staying in cabins rather than doing the trailer thing (although the wife is keen for a camper trailer).

As stated before, do the northern half in winter/spring, the southern half in summer/autumn.

not as long as your trip, but having travelled for 5 weeks to cape york and back with a 3 year old, i'll say a portable dvd player in the 4wd is a must for those days when big klms need to be covered. we only use ours when driving, it stays in the 4wd and doesn't come out, entertaining kids outside the car is something that needs to be hands on i reckon.

Hi Brad and Steph,
we too are planning a trip next year with the kids 4y/o girl and 3 y/o boy and sites like this can make it very easy and very hard at the same time basically an information overload,( this site does give some of the best info though) In many ways we are planning the trip around the kids making sure they will get as much out of it as possible, as we figure it wont be the only time we go round. My advice about 4x4's would be stick with either a Nissan or a Toyota. I reckon camping is the way to go a Trailer can restrict your movements (just my opinion) We plan to leave in April and be away from Sydney for only and not venture any further south than 28 degrees. Basically across the center the when we hit the west coast clockwise to home. It will require a lot of time for planning , and take your time. Good luck and hope to see you on the road.

Cheers,
Graeme

Hi Ingo,

Thanks for that - the new site seems pretty good - there's so much information out there it gets confusing. I just want to grab the bags and head out tomorrow - stuff mucking around planning, just get on with it....

Cheers
Steph

Hi Steph,

We're in the planning stages at the moment to travel around Australia for 6 to 12 months with a 4 & 5 year old as well...we're looking at leaving in 2 or 3 months.

Everyone's going to have their own opinions on what vehicles, campers etc. etc. you should take & a lot of it comes down to personal experience & preferences, but having said that here's my 2 cents worth!

Nissan & Toyoyta 4WDs usually great vehicles (& definitely popular) but you also shouldn't rule out the Mitsubishi Pajeros. Having owned several over the years I can say they are very reliable, cheaper to run than the bigger 4 x 4s & are quite capable of doing any 4 wheel driving you want to do.

In spite of this though, we're actually not taking a 4x4 around Australia. Our Pajero was getting a bit old & with 400,000kms on it, we decided to go for something a bit newer. We're going around in a VZ Commodore - yes, we will miss out on a few things but there's still plenty to see with a 2WD & we figure it won't be the only time we do it. In a few years time we should be able to afford to purchase a newer 4WD & can go visit the places we missed the first time.

Initially we were going to take a small van (similar to the Jayco Doves, Eagles etc.) but have decided on a camper trailer instead - purchase price is less & it will cost less to tow.

Another option with working is to look at fruit picking (more info at http://jobsearch.gov.au/harvesttrail/default.aspx) or maybe even a bit of WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms). With the WWOOFing you don't actually get paid, but you do a bit of work on their farm & in exchange for that you get free meals & accomodation (how much depends on what you negotiate with the property owner).

Hope this helps.

Rachel