pushed for time, and it's more expensive. - Greyhound also offer hop-on-hop-off bus passes. They are cheaper, and contain a lot of locals (with whom I had many interesting conversations -- I don't think I'll ever forget the aboriginal lady asking me if I'd heard about the riots in England ) The buses are more comfortable, there are several a day and there are night buses. Night buses = not having to pay for a night's accommodation! What about an organised tour of Australia? - Well, if you want a sub-standard trip for twice the price then go ahead . . . typically they offer some very rushed group transport & accommodation up the east coast at an inflated price, and you have to fork out more if you actually want to see anything. Companies such as Contiki are particularly bad for this. - The only tour that I've come across that I think is any good is OzIntro's seven day trip ( www.ozintro.com ). Essentially it's a week in Sydney aimed at people who've just arrived in Australia and you get a variety of organised activities, and you do all the admin stuff like medicare cards and TFNs. If you add up the cost of everything they give you, you couldn't really do it any cheaper anyway, and it's a great way to make friends, but don't be fooled into thinking that you can't get all the admin stuff done yourself. How much is it going to cost me?