How to get around in: Australia & NZ

When you want to travel to Australia and New Zealand, everyone around seems to be hopping on a van and getting on the go! Is that the only good option? We don't think so!

If you're looking for a way to experience life on the road and living on a van, then these countries are amazing to do so - low population density, long roads, jaw-dropping nature and deep respect for wildlife. But... because everyone is thinking the same, it can be a bit saturated and prices do spike, especially in the summer months (Dec-March).

A big misconception that can happen is assuming that because these destinations are so popular that you can just camp anywhere but that's really NOT the case - there are many locations but often they are either not free or you have to get out of your way to get there and make some detours in your original route.

So it's important to keep that in mind when you are making a decision on which means of transport you're choosing!

Jump straight to:

• Comparison between types of vans/cars

• Our choice

• Should you buy your transport?

• Public transport - where can you get to?

• Flying around?

Moving around: van, car or hybrid?

Do you want to fully live in your van? Just cooking and sleeping? Or do you just want to use the car for the flexibility to go from place A to place B? Should you buy your own instead of renting? Is public transport even possible?*

Large Campervan - Diesel

Has everything you need - fully self-contained. So this is quite literally your house!

It was really comfortable and spacious, and it gave us a lot of freedom to sleep in more unconventional locations (for free). One of the most valuable features were the mosquito nets on all windows, even the skylight & the air-conditioning (only on the grid).

Biggest disadvantage: Can be difficult to park and doesn't fit in most covered parking lots. You have the extra task of managing the grey water & toilet 

(You can go even bigger than what we chose and then the price will be higher of course)

Compact Minivan - Petrol 91

We had 4 minivans of this model in different states. Their features differ slightly and we definitely recommend one where you can have the fridge permanently located in the back (if you get one) as well as with a small sink and counter.

Not all mattresses are created equal and depending on the model you might be unlucky - JUCY has never failed us here (as well as providing good dark curtains), so it's definitely worth paying a little extra for them.

Biggest disadvantage: You need to sleep with the windows open, rain or shine, hot or cold - this means mosquitos will more easily bother you and if you happen to not have the window covers you will suffer extra. And you need to keep moving your stuff from the back to front (and vice-versa) at night and in the morning - but you get the hang of it.

This is just your regular car, which we also rented through JUCY. We didn't use it to sleep, only to move around - it was still super convenient to have it because we could always bring some things with us on our day trips but it, of course, does mean you have to find somewhere to sleep at the end of the day.

We rented it to experiment if it was a cheaper combo (car + hostel). And comparing to some other vans it was cheaper to do it like this (to our surprise) but it really depends on the options you can find for sleeping. 

Biggest disadvantage: The specific model we had was also not the most comfortable for many hours on the road. We didn't want to book places to stay last minute to get a better deal but did mean sometimes going a little back and forth on day trips. It is for sure a different experience of being "on the road" because you are more in civilization by default.

Small Car - Petrol 91

129 € per night

102 € per night**

48 € per night

* The prices we show here are our costs only but we can't guarantee you'll be able to find the same and spend the same on gas as well, we share it for comparison and indication purposes only

**This price is actually the average of 4 different minivans - the cost can vary greatly per location or how far in advance you book (in some cases even more expensive than the campervan)

Which one did we like the most?

Overall, our preferences in terms of price/experience, as you can probably imagine since we rented the same type of model 4 times was the Compact Minivan. This was a great mix of comfort and "self-sustenance" because we could easily cook and store things and we got used to living from our backpacks so we wouldn't have stuff laying around everywhere - if that's not you, things WILL get messy and you might not enjoy this model. 

But like we hinted above, the experiences can greatly differ depending on the company that provides you this model, if it's well designed you can have the actually have more storage than on one of those small more vintage looking campers and it stays in place while you travel! Let's briefly touch upon our experience with different rental companies to give you an idea: 

• Indie Campers (the large campervan):

  • They have local cells where you can pick-up and deliver your car but at lot of the admin needs to be done online & support team is in Europe (which was not the most handy when we needed to get help quickly - they will fully reimburse you for all your costs but you are kind of on your own when trying to fix things)

  • The van was amazing, really designed by someone who has been traveling this way before (which can't be said by all the vans that look like this model) - although we might have gotten lucky because our van was almost brand new and they might have fixed issues from previous models. In any case, everything was perfect - just a minor issue with one of the sensors of the grey water tank so we had to kind of learn a bit about how much time we took to fill it 

  • Before getting the van was when he had our only complaint: We would arrive after 17h for pick-up, which they told us would not be a problem but they wanted us to sign beforehand all the agreements so that they could give us the details of the van. Normally, when you pick-up a car, someone is there to help you and make pictures so that you agree on the state of the car when it was delivered to you - maybe we were just not used to this level of trust but nobody was there to receive us! We then had to call them, download a pdf editor on the phone to be able to sign the documentation, send it over to them and only then did they share the location for the keys of the vehicle. Not the best first impression after having just arrived in Perth... 

  • For sure the most comfortable experience that will feel less like you're giving up on the comfort of your home/hotel while still having the "on-the-road" vibes 

• Campervan village (the flower minivan): 

  • While this van was a eye-catcher, we actually didn't order it. We had chosen another type of van (with a rooftop tent) and this was the car we got assigned when we had arrived at the location - the moment when they told us about it, even though we had booked weeks in advance. We were not delighted.. 

  • Campervan village owns the vans but doesn't own the location where they are picked up (which is probably quite common) so we were never directly in contact with them, only a 3rd party who tried to help us as best as they could 

  • The van had been through a lot, very interesting drawings inside, which for us felt quite dirty, specially after the positive experiences we had before and the mattress it came with was VERY uncomfortable. Plus, there were no curtains, only blacked out windows 

  • The one thing we were very saddened by was that the linen, bedding and pillows was not included (which is fair) but upon handing back the car - when we gave back the ones we purchased (since we didn't have more use for it), we saw them putting it on a huge pile of old bed sheets and pillows that others had also left behind - we were just so surprised that this was never offered or mentioned - what a WASTE (literally)

  • Still it was an interesting experience to be getting all this attention by everyday Australians who thought we painted it ourselves 

• AutoRent (grey minivan):

  • This was a family run company in Tasmania which was super nice and helpful, we didn't have any issues with them or the car, though we noticed that they were strict with the timings of pick-up and delivery 

  • The car had some different features which we didn't love, especially when compared to the other vans - the (not so small) fridge was kept in the back seat area during the day (meaning you need to move it back & forth) which was really inconvenient; there was no sink in the back, just storage and the mattress was not elevated like in many car models, which meant there was less storage than normal (they compensate with a storage box on top which we didn't really use)

  • On the positive side - this was a very well maintained minivan, very comfortable seats and comfy mattress & nice curtains 

• JUCY (1 car & 2 minivans):

  • Even though we normally prefer to support local businesses, JUCY has really delivered the best value for money of all of the companies. Sure, the vehicles could show some signs of wear and tear but we had 0 issues 

  • Always smooth delivery and pick-up - don't be afraid to tell them that something is broken/not-working (especially if you already received like that), they are happy to fix things but most often people don't tell and they don't verify all the features before handout 

  • Great customer support when needed (always quick to refund when you had to make costs for replacing something) 

  • In terms of storage and features, their vans were great and it really worked for our way of traveling - if I could add something, it would be a mosquito net, so that you could sleep with the windows fully open in those warm days

  • For the car, we notices that it didn't feel super comfortable for long trips and maybe not the best driving experience like the vans but we think that has more to do with the model than the JUCY itself - even though we got our minivans from different companies they were all from Toyota, while our car was a small Suzuki

  • We met some people who rented the model with a rooftop tent and that might be nice for more warm nights as well, since you can get better ventilation (though more expensive because it means it can sleep 4 people)

What about buying your own van?

You can also choose to buy your own van (both in NZ and in AUS) and that can actually really increase your feeling of freedom - having to limit your trip to the time of your rental (yes, you can always extend but it is expensive) is actually one of the main struggles we had during our trip. But does that mean that buying is worth it? 

We haven't tried so I can't give you a full answer but I hope this will help: 

Pros of Buying: 

• Full freedom to go as far as you want for as long as you want. You like it here, you stay 3 more days, no compromises

• You can get your money back (even if only partially) when you sell 

• You can choose your own insurance 

• If you want to change something about the car, you can 

Cons of buying:

• If you don't like the car you got, it will be more difficult to change / swap

• Selling can be a difficult and long process - here it really depends on the deal you made to get your car (you can buy it with a buy-back guarantee at a specific price from certain providers); in Australia, you do need to have an inspection document in order to sell your car, which means you might be force to fix issues that were in the car even before you buy it but you were not aware of 

• You take all the risk 

• Buying has more upfront costs than renting

Public transport - is that even an option?

Well.. It depends.. Where are you going to stay and where are you going to go? 

We have found that most large cities in Australia have amazing and affordable public transport systems - Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Hobart has a reasonable bus line but not many other options. (In Canberra, we didn't really try it out but surely there will be some bus lines). So if you're planning a trip in the metropolitan areas and surrounding suburbs, it's actually quite nice to only use public transport because parking in a nightmare and expensive, plus traffic. 😤

We could easily get to some day hikes and beach trips as well as to get to the stadium to watch the footie (Australian Football). It all worked great and it was quite modern. 

In NZ, we only used public transport in Christchurch and that was enough to go from the airport to the center but we found it a bit difficult to get to some other areas which are definitely worth visiting near the city but quite difficult to reach just by bus. 

If you are talking about intercity traveling, it might be possible but extra challenging and expensive. For example, there is a train line from Perth to Adelaide which takes 3 days and costs about 1500€ and we heard it's mostly a sitting experience in a cargo-focused train. From Melbourne to Sydney is also possible, an 11h train ride which can be about 120€ if you buy in advance (sometimes it can be cheaper than flying if you factor in the extra costs of traveling to and from the airport in each of these cities). 

In the South Island of NZ, we found later that there is a train line from Christchurch to the North area (Picton) along the coastline that seemed amazing and it is actually part of a beautiful scenic train network from Auckland to Queenstown (going from the Northern to the Southern Island) and the prices do seem reasonably affordable (but perhaps less than flying, unfortunately). 

You will of course have a bit less flexibility to properly get to all the beautiful mountain areas and hikes but you could always choose to just rent a car once you are at your end location and still enjoy the train rides! 

Flying around in Australia and NZ

There about 146 airports in Australia (though not all with commercial flights) and almost 100 in New Zealand. So you know they like flying around. Flying in between different locations within the same country is definitely common practice and it's for sure an option to get some more remote areas if you are not feeling like driving there. You will have less choice for providers so do expect it to be a bit on the pricey side.  

While we don't recommend flying in general as an option to get around, we did make use of it to get from state to state in Australia and also to go from Australia to New Zealand. If you looking for a good deal, which I expect you will be, Jetstar Airways, will most likely pop-up as the most budget airline. 

Now here is the "trick", at least during 2024 and 2025, you are able to join the premium program "Club Jetstar". Similarly to other premium options you get to board early, more luggage, etc. That's not why we mention it. The MAIN BENEFIT of actually spending money on this upgrade is that you will get discounted prices in your flights and the costs of joining the program almost pay for themselves after 1 flight. So essentially, the moment you decide to fly with Jetstar, you should join this program as it will make the current flight your in cheaper (which is actually will make it the same price, taking into account the costs of joining the Club) plus all the other perks. But from this moment on, any other time you fly with them, you will get a cheaper price and, trust us, in Australia, they will always be the most affordable option (even without the discount!). 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Joining Club Jetstar is a yearly subscription - once you leave Australia, don't forget to cancel before the 1 year mark. 

For New Zealand, we never used the plane so we are not aware if such benefits exist with other airlines, but you can surely fly to and back to Australia with Jetstar from NZ.