We did a 1-way road trip from Sydney to Brisbane over 7 days with stops at Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley, Port Macquarie and Byron bay along the way. I’ve summarised the distance and times below as well as a separate short blog for each location to give you an idea of all. Additionally, I’ve added some general tips and prices at the end to help you plan it financially – with more prices on each location in the miniblogs (Its worth noting that we started our trip on the 25th of January 2023, just before Australia day on 26th, so that may have lead to some slightly higher prices for hotels etc.). Some of the road journets seem really long but the roads are so nice to drive there, and we obviously stopped the odd time to refuel take a break etc. loved every day of driving, especially the non toll road between 2 national parks on the way to Hunter Valley from Blue Mountains.

Start Point – Sydney Inernational Airport (SYD)

SYD to Blue Mountains

Time: 90 mins

Distance: 110km

Blue Mountains Blog: https://travelwriterepete.com/2023/01/26/blue-mountains-sydney/

Blue Mountaints to Hunter Valley

Time: 3 hours

Distance: 215km

Hunter Valley Blog: https://travelwriterepete.com/2023/01/28/hunter-valley-wine-region-australia/

Hunter Valley to Port Maqcuarie

Time: 3 hours 20 mins

Distance: 300km

Port Maqcuaire Blog: https://travelwriterepete.com/2023/01/29/port-macquarie-new-south-wales-australia/

Port Maqcuarie to Byron Bay

Time: 4 hours

Distance: 395km

Byron Bay Blog: https://travelwriterepete.com/2023/01/30/byron-bay-new-south-wales-australia/

Byron Bay to Brisbane Airport

Time: 2 hours

Distance: 175km

End Point – Brisbane International Airport (BNE)

Tips and Prices

Australian visas need to be applied for online and depending on your country you may have to plan well in advance. For Irish citizens generally the process is very quick and free.

Local simcard (vodafone) 40 GB data and 500 local minutes for 28 days 30 AUD

Watch our for the time difference between New South Wales and Queensland (Queensland is 1 hour behind)

Hyundai i30 7 day car rental 696 AUD (excluding 1 way charge)

1-way drop-off charge 300 AUD

Fuel 190 AUD (1400 km)

Tolls 35 AUD