Travelling in Australia but bus, train, or air is expensive but it doesn’t need to be. What if you could travel from one side of Australia to the other for the price of a beer?
Australia is one of the largest countries in the world, with almost endless opportunities of things to see and do. The distances are great, leaving three main ways to explore Australia: by air, by bus, and by private transportation. Travelling Australia by air is fast and easy and the best way to travel if you have only limited time. Though, travelling by air, you’re going to miss a lot. The best way to see Australia is on the ground, visiting the smaller places along the way. Long distance buses are become increasing popular, but also increasingly expensive.
Lets say, for example, you want to travel from Adelaide to Alice Springs, visit Ayers Rock/Uluru, and then continue to Darwin. Greyhound will cost you $205+$209 just for the buses, and the daytrip to Ayers Rock/Uluru will cost $180 return, or $437 for the 2 night Greyhound package. So you’re looking at a minimum of $600. If you and some fellow travellers hired a vehicle and made a roadtrip yourself, you would save a lot of money and it would definitely be more of an adventure.
HOW DO I TRAVEL AUSTRALIA BY VAN FOR $1 A DAY?
The magic word is relocation.
With relocation you could hire a van from Adelaide to Darwin, for $1 a day, for 6 days, including $250 of fuel.
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Some visitors will hire a vehicle from point A to point B, where other visitors will hire a vehicle from point B to point A. But what happens if one direction is more popular than the other? All the vehicles might end up at point B! To ensure there are enough vehicles available at both points, sometimes companies need to relocate vehicles at their own expense. Hence they are willing to hire the vehicle to you for $1 a day, sometimes including petrol, as otherwise they would need to pay staff to make the trip and they would lose out even more. It turns into a win win for savvy travellers.
What's The Catch?
The pickup and dropoff dates are usually set in stone. The company is waiting for the previous customer to drop the vehicle off and the next customer already has a booking with that vehicle. You are the middleman who needs to get the vehicle from point A to point B to ensure the company can provide the vehicle to their next customer in time. Sometimes there might be a day or two of play, so you could make that 6 days into 7, but you’re going to pay a little more than $1 a day for that extra day. That extra day might be charged to you at the usual hire rate, so it could potentially cost you $100.
There is usually a kilometer allowance. This is to ensure you don’t flog the hell out of the vehicle, for example, by going from Adelaide to Darwin via Melbourne. If you go over the kilometer allowance, you’ll have to pay a set amount per extra kilometer which can be expensive.
You’ll be required to pay an insurance bond which could cost, for example, $1000 on pickup. Don’t worry, when you dropoff the vehicle with no damage, you’ll receive your bond back!
HOW DO I FIND A $1 VAN?
Almost every rental company will have relocations, some will advertise and some will not. Likewise, some companies will charge $1 while others charge more. The most comprehensive relocation website in Australia with almost 200 listings is imoova. They even have listings in New Zealand, USA, and Canada! Apollo embraces relocation more than any other rental company and has an awesome range of relocations listed on their site. All Apollo relocations are also listed on imoova.
1 Comment
Wow, Amazing