AUS or USA?

[mr.z]

Where to go? i'm wanting to do some traveling after uni, europe i will be doing a different time but out of the two.. which one and why?
Hopefully i'm not going alone but i'm not sure yet, its not going to be a thompsons holiday, will have a couple of thousand to go with and will be there for something like a month or so i hope... i'd like to go to australia via new-zeland (relatives there) but america is somewhere i have to go at least once (weather i can put up with the whiney accent for long is another matter though) its a huge country and varys immensely, each state is like a country on its own...
what do you all think? i know each one has its good and bad points.. any suggestions?

Should probably mention we will be traveling by bike going to buy one there and sell/ditch it after, which will..

A: be cheeper than renting.
B: wont matter if i wreck it/it brakes down.
C: be cheeper than coach/train fare.

I figure it will be the best way to see most of whatever country we end up going to.

Is there anywhere we shouldn't go? anyone done similar?

[flat spot]

Both countries are far to large if you're only going for a month, but out of the 2 I'd go to the U.S everytime.

It's just an amazing place and although the people do take a bit of getting used to it's a fantastic country.

I've travelled through 35 states in America in 4 months (by bus and car) and lived in Aus for a year and it's the U.S. I keep going back to. Actually only just got back from NYC........again.

[DukeRed]

Id go for australia personally out of the two. Not America because in my opinion its not all that intresting.

If your looking for a biking holiday look at Tunisia, good roads all over the country and amazing country.

[ZaphodBeeble]

Go see the world's largest ball of twine!
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Current bike: VTR1000F Firestorm. Previous: Firestorm (written off) - XJ600 Divvy - NSR125 - DT125 and a load of offroaders.

[Mr C]

[ZaphodBeeble]

Yeah the people in the States are nice, but painfully nice sometimes. My friend's mother is American, from Maine and she is so damn nice and polite it's ridiculous.
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Current bike: VTR1000F Firestorm. Previous: Firestorm (written off) - XJ600 Divvy - NSR125 - DT125 and a load of offroaders.

[G1_]

New Zealand and Australia are great if your into extreme sports and such!

[Major_Grooves]

One of my friends said to me that although he had a great time in Australia, he actually felt like he had more of an "adventure" when he went backpacking around Spain for a while. He said the problem with Oz was that wherever you went, there were hoards of teenage English kids on their gap year, and you never really felt you had got away for it all. You might feel you have more of a unique adventure in the US for that reason. Also you will be more of a novelty to the locals if you go to the right places which can sometimes be great fun!
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[cagiva gezzer]

I spent two months in OZ two years ago on my gap year. Traveled by coach on a "adventure network".

OZ is VERY popular with uk/euopean/american "travelers" in the age groups of 18-22 and 30-35 (from my experience). In the two months there i hardly spoke to natives and i think youve got more chance of seeing and australian person in london.

A bike sounds good and there are plenty of people doing the same sort of thing so you would be able to pick up something at the main entry/exit points.

OZ is vast and even with two months traveling 5-12 hours every other day i jut managed to do darwin-alice-cairns-melbourne getting in the main sights.

Your gonna need a lot of time to see anything and be prepared for long days on the road.

For a month or so i would say not to bother with a bike as you could spend 2weeks trying to find a bike at the start, then two weeks trying to sell it at the end.

My mates done sydney to cairns in four months and they said it was a nice pace. Also depends why you are going traveling. Beaches? ladies? Drink? Nightlife? nature? New sights?

Cost - I think i blew £3000 in two months (was saving it so i could live it up at uni ) £800 on flights, £350 on coach (expensive end of the market), £3/400 tours, £???? alcohol, £???? eating out three times a day.

Stuart
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[mr.z]

Well i'm going to be arranging a bike before i get there, something like what i have now (i'm on the australian and us boards so will be able to buy one from someone there) should be cheep and relyable, its not a problem, i might even just ditch it or sell it when were done...

[EuropeanNC30R...]

I know you get the minimum 3rd party insurance from the road tax there. (Australia)

[flat spot]

You haven't said what sort of thing you like to see/do. Honestly America is the place to go. The national parks have to be seen to be believed. The people are strange to say the least, and everyday you will be gobsmacked by what you see. You have every type of countryside you can imagine.

Don't want to throw a spanner in the works but have you considered Canada coast to coast ??

[Ste]

[cagiva gezzer]

Nope, tax is relatively expensive compared to ours, but you don't have to worry about 3rd part insurance.
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[Keen]

USA. I'm there at the moment and theres so much to do I just don't have time. Only seen Florida (pretty much all of it) and NYC so far, but travelling at the end of semester.

Plus (at least in Florida) motorcycle insurance is not a legal requirement, might be the same across USA. Petrol costs nothing, but tolls add up. cost me nearly $20 in tolls (then petrol) to ride the length of Florida, a bus ticket would have been $35. Worth bearing in mind.

[Craig_]

I'll reply to this one later, as from Dec 27th to 1st of Feb i went to:

Singapore
Australia (Sydney)
New Zealand (Aukland)
Fiji
USA (LA, Palm Springs & Las-Vegas)
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VAG Cars - www.vagcars.co.uk - North East VAG Owners Club

[Kickstart]

Hi

I spent 3 months in Aus at the end of 1996.

Petrol is cheap. Basically the same price, but in Aus$ (and there are 2.7 of those to the £). Road tax is horrendously expensive (think a years tax on a GPX750 worked out at £220 at the time), but insurance is cheap. Road tax in Victoria includes third part injury cover (but not 3rd party damage). You will probably have problems with getting insurance, etc, to travel out of state.

Speed limits in Aus are lower than the UK, and the police are even worse than ours for making money from speeding. You will almost certainly get a speeding ticket. Aus drivers round Melbourne were generally asleep (except the taxi drivers, who are worse than Italian taxi drivers). Have fun with the hook turns .

Bikes and cars are expensive for what you get in Aus compared to the UK. That 10 year old GPX750 / 25000 miles old cost the equivalent of £2700, whereas in the UK it would probably have been about half that. Basically vehicles last far longer over there (there were plenty of 20~30 year old cars in daily use), and will be repaired when in the UK they would just be scrapped.

Some stuff is cheap there, some stuff is expensive. Food and eating out are cheap (although Aus supermarkets are fairly basic places, making Kwik Save look like Harrods), but clothes and shoes are expensive.

Visa wise it should be fairly easy for up to 3 months. Any visa for longer than that will be difficult (although some allow you 3 months at a time so you could fly to New Zealand and back to get another 3 months).

All the best

Keith
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[G]

I would love to say Australia, just because the whole Atmosphere seems more intune with me. (I did grow up in Papua New Guinea, an island above Australia, with many Aussie friends) While I haven't been there for many years, the stereo-typical American-ness always annoys me, if you dig down you can actually find some normal people out there, it's just that it seems to be the exception.

However America is probably a better place to see. While Australia has plenty of variation, it's all pretty spread out. Okay, the US isn't exactly densely populated either but there's even more variation across the country and it is generally a bit easier to get around. There's also the cost to be considered, not only are flights to the US cheap at the moment but the exchange rate is also really favourable.


However either country will be able to more than adequately fill up as much time as you have.

[Demonic69]

For the people and as a student I'd say Aus, but as you're wanting to do a lot of riding I'd go for USA just because there's more to see and more places to stop.
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