Trip to Australia - would we be totally mad?

Wow, there's no way I'd spend 4/5 hours a day in a car with a toddler for 10 days, I don't think it's really fair on the toddler either, tbh. Would it not be better to spend extra time with the BIL, then fly to Sydney a bit earlier for the wedding?

I wouldn't be so impolite as to call you "nuts" ?, but I might question why you'd want to drive 2000 miles with a baby when you could fly - just in terms of seeing so much more of Australia during the days that you are there and not being restricted to what you see whilst driving a very specific route? Also, have you allowed sufficient time to do 2000 miles @ 200 per day?

From a cost point of view, I think that there are more flights from the UK to Sydney, so you'd doubtless get a better deal on a return ticket to/from there than doing an open jaw via Perth. I know my friend from Perth pays an A and a Leg to get to Perth.

Could you fly to Sydney, go to the wedding and then take an internal return flight to/from Perth to see your family there, before coming back via Sydney?

I second that "wow"

It's bad enough doing the trip to get the stepkids, which is about 4-5 hours one way, and the thought of putting them through that journey for 10 days in a row? No way. They're zonked after the one journey...

I'd say to find some other way; would it be too much to consider flying from Perth to Sydney?

xxx

You are right - having had a quick look at car hire, I think that the cost would be prohibitive too.

Driving wise we would get up in the early hours to do the actual driving, hopefully leaving madam asleep. Would be pretty jolly hard on us though.

Will toddle off and look at flights instead.

Does a 2-3 week trip with flights between the 2 rather than driving seem too short a time? Not sure how Izzy would cope with the jet lag.

You are all very polite - having just read my OP back to myself I do sound a bit stir crazy.

Can I put it down to too much to do and baby brain please? ?

I don't know about what the driving in Oz would be like but if I were you and going to drive I'd rather just batter on and rack up the miles and do it in fewer days. We have travelled to FIL's house in France when our son was about the same age as your daughter will be and it's about 1000 miles door to door and it's 2 full days of driving. So if you just did long days you could get there a lot sooner. But I think I'd rather fly tbh as it's a long long way to drive if you don't have to.

Even without a baby i'd fly. you'd have much more time to see Oz.

I wouldn't dream of driving Perth to Sydney - mind numbingly, brain crushingly dull. There is absolutely nothing inbetween many places, so you'd have to travel for far more than just 200 miles a day just to get to somewhere to stay. Nothing new or different to look at out of the window either, and in Feb it will be swelteringly hot.

You can get cheap flights between Perth and Sydney (my brother lives in Perth so I go there a few times each year to visit) - check www.webjet.com.au which compares all the internal flights.