Where to start? - Perth or Cairns

[Chocolaty Claire]

Ive just been offered two flights, looking to choose V soon!!!

One flying into Cairns and one flying to Perth. And I dont know which one to choose?

I'm entering with quite a bit of cash and doing the WHV, and hoping to do some travelling before finding some buddies to settle for a bit probably Melbourne.

I have heard that Perth is great and very live-able, but should I start here or end up here after Ive done my travelling around?

Can anyone give their opinion?

[raoulduke]

Perth is a long, long way away from the East coast (where I assume you will be focusing your travels) So if you are determined to see it I'd recommend flying there first then catching a budget airline to and work your way north from Melbourne or south from Cairns.

I probably wouldn't suggest settling in Perth, although it is a great city it is isolated compared to anywhere on the East coast. For example if you were in Melbourne you could easily fly to Sydney for a weekend.

Also I'm soaking up the sun in Poland right now but from what I hear you can expect some English weather in Melbourne at the moment.

Good Luck

[Diorama]

Well would you have to fly out of the same city? Or can you do an open jaw. If I were you I would probably fly into Cairns, travel down the east coast, Sydney to Melbourne, Tasmania, Great Ocean Road to Adelaide, Adelaide to Darwin (do uluru trip), Darwin to Perth (Kakadu, Kalbarri, Coral Bay...etc)..
From Perth you can go south for a few weeks. the margaret river area. Then you would basically be seeing all or lots of australia.

Perth and the west coast is beautiful!!! It was actually my favourite part of australia. I found it to be so much more real. Wasn't full of 19 year old gappers that were getting wasted every single night. I found it was fun of people who were actually wanting to explore Australia in it's finest! Once you have a route in mind follow it and you can settle a couple of times along the way. My advice to you: Don't get stuck for many months in Sydney!!! Have the backpacker population arrives in Sydney and works there for 6 months. WTF! Go out and explore