Beach Accommodation

By Jenny Riley

From experience I know that finding accommodation in Australia is a very delicate matter. Once you’ve saved the money to pay for your flying trip to Australia, you might think that nothing can come to you as a surprise anymore. (Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought). In Australia I was confronted with the brutal facts that made me realize that things aren't that simple.

“They do things a little different down there” my grandmother said before I left. Just because they speak English in Australia doesn't mean that you won't be surprised once you get to the Land of Oz!

When I was there I learned that most popular types of accommodation in Australia are Australian hostels. I think this has to do with the fact that people down there travel a lot more than Americans.

A great share of the country is an amazingly beautiful and unspoiled wilderness and some places are rather remote. You can also find some kind of ruggedness in the Australian spirit that we Americans and Western Europeans have lost many years ago.

Most Australians don’t mind living in what I like to call “Spartan environments” if they can live relaxed and on the cheap, and that's exactly what Australia hostels are all about.

They are Spartan and they are cheap. But for my family sharing one room with 15 to 20 people and having only one toilet to share is kind of frustrating. Due to these circumstances we were forced to make another decision about accommodation in Australia.