Australia

[nannakath]

Has anyone been to Perth, Hobart or Melbourne and found some reasonable hotels for the first two. Did you hire a car and which co. did you use?
Thanks for any advice.

[jno]

the cities are reasonably compact (Melbourne has trams) so you'd only need a car if you wanted to travel further. From Melbourne you can drive easily enough to Canberra and Sydney; from Perth down to Albany and the wine country.

I think I just went through Hertz but there will be plenty of others.

Melbourne I just stayed in a motel, Perth in the inner city, can't remember their names. They were cheap at the time but the Aussie dollar is quite strong these days.

[LCDMAN]

Try the Mantra on Hay (formerly Saville Park Suites) on Hay Street in Perth. Out towards the WACA but on the one of the main CAT (Central Area Transport) free bus routes. It isn't that big a city centre and you can walk it to the central shopping area in 20 mins or 5 minutes on the CAT. Hay Street takes you straight there. Airport isn't far out of town so pretty cheap to get to in a taxi.

http://www.mantra.com...hotels/mantra-on-hay/

http://en.wikipedia.o..._Central_Area_Transit

[rsvp]

spent about 8/10 weeks over there a while back - can't speak for Hobart but in Perth and Melbourne there are lots and lots of reasonably priced hotels etc - and everyone we dealt with was very prepared to make a deal if they weren't full. We transported a hire car back from (I think) Sydney to Cairns and all it cost us was the fuel - there is a time limit so you can't hang around for a day or two en-route. Speed limits are enforced with great gusto in Oz!!!

[LCDMAN]

If you do find yourself driving in Melbourne City centre then you MUST be aware of the unique arrangement called The Hook-Right turn when, because of the trams, you cannot linger in the centre of the road when turning right but must actually use the LEFT lane to turn right! It's kinda weird and not easy to explain, but look here;

http://goaustralia.ab...mation/a/hookturn.htm

[nannakath]

Thank you everyone. How do you find out about transporting a hire car mentioned by `rsvp`? Still looking for the hotels in the first two places.

[rsvp]

nannakath - we just rang around car hire places and asked if they had any re-locations going -