The Travels of ブリッジバーンさん: Tips For Travelling Australia On A Budget

Australia can be an expensive place and it's also very big. Big places take time to explore. and more time is more money!

Since I want to travel the world for a long time. I needed to save $$$.

I traveled Australia pretty cheaply and still was able had a good time.

-Couchsurfing

This is more of a general travel tip for the world than one just for Australia. Many people know about it and millions of people are on the website but sometimes I still meet people who have never heard about it.

So, basically, you can view other profiles and request to sleep on their couch to save money on accommodation. When I tell people this their reaction is sometimes like: Well, that sounds like a serial killer's dream!

That's what I thought at first too, but my experiences of meeting strangers online have been good ones. and it makes me feel better that other members can leave references on each others profile's that tell if they had a positive or negative experience.

Just use your judgement and review profiles carefully. I've met great people from www.couchsurfing.com and saved quite a bit of money as well.

-Rideshares

Australia was a country in particular that I was able to find rideshares usually pretty easily. I never took buses! I just found other people to cram into a vehicle with and we all split the gas money.

the 2 sites i always went to for this are gumtree and couchsurfing.

I've already explained Couchsurfing above but now I must mention is that couchsurfing.com can be used for more than finding a couch to sleep on. They also have meet ups and events and you can attend. You can post on it kinda like facebook and find rideshares, advice, or just someone to hang out with.

Now, Gumtree is basically like Craigslist. . Buy, sell, find jobs, rideshares, etc..

People I met on Gumtree and went on the Great Ocean Road roadtrip with

-Goon

I was warned before going that a 6 pack of beer is $20. And I was surprised when I found beer was sold in a bar for about $5. Alcohol in Australia is expensive.. except for Goon. That's why all the backpackers drink it.

Goon is a slang word used to describe box wine in Australia. Well, wine or something like wine anyway. In other places in the world, box wine is just wine in a box. But in Australia, it's not normal! O.O all of the box "wine" is known as goon. and it says on the boxes that it is processed with milk an egg? I've also heard that some are processed with fish heads. Sometimes the boxes will say wine based product or something like that instead of just wine... And there is a lot inside.

Inside those boxes is a bag with 4 or 5 liters of goon inside.

One person told me that workers making the goon sometimes pee in it and laugh because they know that backpackers drink it, though I really don't know if it's true.

Once we bought a box of goon which was on sale and tried to take it back to the liquor shop when we noticed it was past the expiration date but the man at the shop just laughed and said "goon doesn't expire."

It tasted fine. Actually I kinda like it. I had to drink goon for part of the real backpacking Oz experience.

A word of caution, as many people might tell you, being goon drunk is like a different kind of drunk.

-Mcdonalds 30 cent ice cream cones

Ok, I suppose it's possible that by the time you are reading this that this might change, but it's also possible that it hasn't so I'm going to list it. While I was in Australia, I ate a lot of those ice creams.

Sometimes there are not even displayed on the menu but they do sell them. So ask, and hopefully they still have them for 30 cents.

-Lentils as Anything

Well, I've written about goon and ice cream, so let's move on to something more healthy.

Lentils as Anything is a vegetarian restaurant that is pay by donation only. You pay what you feel like paying.

I know there is one in Melbourne and Sydney, and a few other cities as well.

http://lentilasanything.com/

-Finding things

This one might not work for everyone. I don't know why, but I seemed to find things a lot while in Australia. Like this cool hat for example!

-Working Holiday Visa

Many Foreigners go to Australia for a working holiday. The minimum wage in Australia is like $16.something an hour and it's pretty common for backpackers to find seasonal fruit picking jobs. I know of many who easily find farm work. They even work- stay hostels you can check into.

Many work for a few months and save some money and travel for a few months. Hence why it's called working holiday. The visa is good for 1 year and multiple entry so many will save some money then go to Asia where things are a lot cheaper and re- enter again.

Only certain countries are eligible and you have to be 18- 30 years old.

Belgium
Canada
Republic of Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (including British National Overseas passport holders)
Republic of Ireland
Italy
Japan
Republic of Korea
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Taiwan
United Kingdom.

Work and Holiday Visa (Subclass 462)

Argentina
Bangladesh
Chile
Indonesia
Malaysia
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Thailand
Turkey
USA
Uruguay

Not a bad deal.. http://www.border.gov.au/

Whether you travel Australia on a tourist visa or a working holiday one, you'll probably meet a lot of people who are there on a working holiday. And a lot of Germans.. Australia has a lot of Germans.

- Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a website sometimes known as a beer money site. It won't get you rich, but you can get a little bit of extra money. So, Swagbucks are Points that you can earn for doing things like, searching the web, watching videos, surveys, even playing games, and etc. When you get enough points, or swagbucks, you can use them to get rewards. Like a $5 amazon gift card for example.

But I usually use them to get cash in Paypal. 1 Swagbuck is worth .01 USD. 1 penny.

Millions of people use it and I think it's definitely worth it because it does give you swagbucks for things you might have done anyway.

They even reward points for shopping at certain sites. Like If you make a purchase at Amazon.com you can get 4 swagbucks per dollar. If you book a flight at Expedia.com you also receive a certain amount of swagbucks per dollar.

The reason I'm listing it here is that Swagbucks is open to USA, UK, Canada, India, and Australia.

So If you do decide to try it out, please click here: www.swagbucks.com/refer/bridgepoc

In case you are wondering, yes, I get some swagbucks for refering others.

- Other General Tips

Camping, hitchhiking, buying stuff on sale in supermarket, meet others and buy large quantities wholesale, street perform.

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Alright so, I hope that this post has helped you or that you at least enjoyed reading it. I'm go to conclude this post with some pictures. Which you should definitely look at. I might even put a few more tips in the pics.