Melbourne Good value
The best eating in the country and the most argued-about coffee. Vietnamese on Victoria Street, Greek on Lonsdale, Italian on Lygon, and a filter coffee culture that predates the rest of the world noticing.
Budget travel in Australia
What a visitor's money does in Australia: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Expensive average across 6 guides · 5 is very cheap
Money
Australian Dollar (AUD) · 1 USD = 1.40 AUD · 1 EUR = 1.61 AUD
Australia is almost completely cashless. Tap-and-go everywhere. If you need cash, exchange at the airport is actually decent (Travelex price match).
ATMs
Avoid: Cashcard and Next Payments machines in pubs and clubs, ATMx
Use: CBA, ANZ, NAB, Westpac
The big four charge no local fee. Pub machines charge A$2.50-3 and are everywhere in nightlife areas.
Getting around
A short ride in Sydney: A$15–28 across town — pricey
From the airport: Sydney airport to the CBD A$45–60, against A$22 on the train
A little under the meter, and far better supplied.
City by city, cheapest first
Perth Good value
A city that eats outdoors. Fremantle for fish and chips off the boats, Northbridge for Asian, and the Margaret River region three hours south makes wine that competes with anywhere.
Tasmania Good value
Cool-climate wine, oysters straight off the lease, and cheese from the north. Hobart’s Salamanca market on a Saturday is the whole island in one square.
Sydney Expensive
Sydney is a food city. Try the fish market, eat Thai on King St (Newtown), and get flat whites everywhere — Australians invented them.
Great Barrier Reef & Cairns Expensive
Barramundi and Moreton Bay bugs are the local plates worth ordering. The Rusty’s market on a weekend morning is where the tropical fruit is — try a mangosteen and a black sapote.
Uluru Very expensive
Options are limited to the resort and priced accordingly. The supermarket at Yulara is the sane choice for lunches; save the money for one proper dinner under the stars.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
The guides in Australia
SydneyAustraliaHarbour, beaches, and endless sunshine
Great Barrier Reef & CairnsAustraliaThe largest living structure on earth, an hour offshore
UluruAustraliaA single rock, 348 metres high, in the middle of a continent
MelbourneAustraliaLaneway coffee, street art and the best food in Australia, in a city that changes weather four times a day
PerthAustraliaThe most isolated big city on earth, with white beaches on its doorstep and quokkas on the island offshore
TasmaniaAustraliaAn island of temperate rainforest, empty beaches and the cleanest air measured on earth