FREE Travel Companion THE 74 THINGS WE WISH WE'D KNOWN BEFORE WE TOOK OUR HOLIDAYS TO AUSTRALIA (but only realised we should have known them when we were already on our way home!) Get our FREE Australian holiday planning companion packed with first hand advice and tips for planning your trip Down Under...

A personal message
from Lucy

Dear Australian Holiday-Maker
(and about-to-be Australian Holiday-Maker),

You should absolutely, definitely — no question about it — read this before you plan or go on holiday to Australia!

Why?

Because it's the most revealing thing, the most honest thing, at times the funniest thing, and most importantly, the most useful thing you'll read about Australia so you can discover the real gems of places to stay Down Under and have the best trip possible.

Whether you use this web site to find places to stay in Australia, or you use any other web site or travel agency it doesn't matter — but you should read this before you book anything!

Especially if you are a couple or young family without £millions in the bank.

If that is you, and that is us by the way — you can see Andy and I in the photo above, plus we now have little Miss Alex in tow (who has already been with us on her first trip to Australia, aged 4 months, which she loved — of course!). We have written this to share our knowledge of how to have the best holiday as a couple or family you can afford in Australia.

On her very first trip to Australia this is Alex, aged 4 months, in front of the Harbour Bridge in Sydney — she can barely contain her excitement!

So if you want to really find the outstanding bargains in terms of places to stay, that really should be 2 or 3 times more expensive as they are that good.

Or you want to find the absolute most drop-dead gorgeous beaches in Australia, if not the world, and not share them with the 'crowds', then read on.

If you don't always want to be at the same beaches and other gorgeous locations that are all over the pages of travel every standard travel brochure then we can help.

If you want a quality of food, activities, people, service, and truly a holiday that makes you never want to come back to the UK — or at least not want to go anywhere else on holiday!

Here we are kayaking on the Murchison River in WA after hiking to and then down the gorge in the sweltering sunshine (and dashing in for a cooling dip!) Only drawback... you have to walk back up the gorge afterwards!

Then look through this site, and book some really special places to stay that will truly add to an amazing Australian holiday experience.

In our opinion, Australia sells itself as a holiday destination. We don't need to 'sell' you the roasting red expanse of the outback or the teeming barrier reef, the majestic Opera House and the waiting-to-be-climbed Harbour Bridge. You already know that you want to head Down Under, which is why you are here and probably why you are on this site.

What we do is make sure you have the best and most fantastic holiday stay in Australia for your money. We're not travel agents — we're specialist accommodation bookers!

Here's how this site works for you:

You don't need to spend hours trawling the internet and guidebooks looking for affordable gems of places to stay in Australia — we've already done that for you — and visited the places too!

We're here to help you plan and organise your ideal self-booked stay in Australia.

Like you, we like to book our holidays 'independently,' and put together our own itinerary and places to stay. We also know, however, just how time consuming that is (hours — weeks — on the internet! Not to mention the guidebooks...and recommendations to consider...). Sometimes if you don't know your destination you can end up disappointed. Australia is a long way to go to stay in a boring hotel!

Alex was in charge of testing all beds (this one supplied by The Dive Hotel in Coogee, Sydney)

We feel that great accommodation adds to the fantastic holiday that is a trip Down Under. So we've helped you out.

On this site you will only find hand-picked places to stay that have something special about them. AND none should bust your budget. We aim only to include accommodation that costs no more than £100 (AUS$250) per night (or slightly more if it includes a few extras!). We're sure you won't be disappointed with our choices.

So why do we only feature places to stay in Australia?

To say that Australia is our favourite place to go on holiday doesn't go near to expressing how much we LOVE Australian holidays!

It's that simple.

We love our trips to Australia and just can't help going back again...and again and again and again. So we like to think we know our way around a little bit now and want to share our love of Australia with you so you can put together your best holiday Down Under.

One of our greatest Australian thrills has been ballooning over the outback during a visit to Alice Springs (despite the 3.30am start). We 'overtook' this balloon (as in flew over the top of it!) a few minutes later. When we landed we had an amazing breakfast picnic — washed down with probably a bit too much bubbly!

Australia is a wonderful holiday destination. Whatever month, whatever you like to do, you can on a trip to Australia. It's that easy. In one holiday you can be in a museum or art gallery in a vibrant city one day, and be snorkelling over an amazing coral reef the next...or ballooning over the outback... or hiking in a rainforest... or shopping in amazing boutiques... or just enjoying a perfect espresso in a great café...sipping wine at a fabulous vineyard...4WD driving across a sand island... the list goes on! And on!!

Why this site actually is the most valuable site in the world for you if you haven't got £000s to spend on each holiday you take but nevertheless want gorgeous luxury, excellent service, amazing beaches, truly beautiful areas and unforgettable experiences.

Our rigorous criteria can be yours too

Inspired Australia places to stay are about 'affordable luxury'.

Inspired Australia is about how we like to see Australia. We have 5 star expectations with 3 star budgets! A familiar situation we're sure. But our philosophy is that there is always a 5 star experience to be had (and we're talking service, location, anything) for 3 star (or less) prices if you look hard enough. So that is what we have done. We have looked hard and found inspired places for you to stay in our favourite place in the world — Australia.

We haven't quite yet mastered our BBQ technique...but practice makes perfect I say! Here we are 'smoking' some snags (sausages) on our balcony at Julian's Apartments.

As I have already said, our opinion is that around £100 (AUD$250) per room per night is an acceptable price to pay for a really lovely place to stay. So this is our aim — to find, and then share with you, inspired places to stay for 'around' £100. You won't find 100s or 1000s of places on this website, it will only be 10s, so the likelihood is that you may well bump into us one of these days — which would be a great pleasure! Come up and say Hi and we'd love to buy you a coffee or beer (we're bound to know where the best place is nearby to get both!).

Sometimes we find places to stay that are much cheaper (nearer to £50 for the room) and others sneak over the budget (up to £150 for the room) but we only allow these more expensive places if they include a few extras that we think are definitely worth it. And of course our recommendation for the lower priced places — stay a few extra days!

Why have we chosen a price range?

Knowing that we've searched out the best value places to stay for around £100 a night (be assured normally you'd be paying £150, £200 or £300 for places to stay with something special about them). I hope this means you can browse the site and book to your heart's (and wallet's!) content — realising you are getting a holiday experience which should, and normally would, cost 2 or 3 or 4 times as much.

I always get disheartened; you probably do too, when... I find a beautiful place to stay...I click on every photo in the website gallery, read every testimonial, choose my room from the list and mentally pick a spot by the pool... only to reach the prices page and have to force myself to look elsewhere as they are too high. Conversely of course there is nothing better than finding a wonderful looking and welcoming place to stay that you can't wait to get to and you can easily afford to stay a week! So we've stuck to the latter. If it's on the site — it's in the price range (of 'about' £100) and definitely not over £150.

Why are we doing this? And why are we sharing our favourite places with you?

It takes me hours (OK weeks!) to find the 'right' places to stay when I am booking a trip. It drives my husband Andy mad but he knows it is worth it when his feet hit the sand (or outback dust!) in another great place to stay in Australia that meets our very high standards but isn't emptying the bank account too much.

Western Australia is a great place to watch Humpback Whales — we saw this 'show off' from a boat trip out of Dunsborough (near Margaret River)

I am a travel review junkie — happy to admit it! The benefit of this addiction up until now has only been enjoyed by friends and family, but Inspired Australia means I can now share it with you.

I really do take my research very seriously. My (enjoyable) effort will save you hours and hours of making your own short list and then choosing places to stay. Modesty aside, I have become an expert at deciphering PR language and brochure-speak for reviews, hotel web sites and recommendations. It's quite easy to work out where is worth visiting from other writings as this (marketing and PR) is what I do for my 'real' job when I am not planning my Australian holidays — so I know how all the 'fluffery' works!

As for user generated reviews (and I admit I have an unhealthy appetite for Trip Advisor!) a lot of the 'skill' there lies in working out who the reviewers are and whether you agree with them! We're totally transparent and happy to state our many criteria so you will know whether you agree with us, or not, from the outset when you read our reviews. Mind you, we are so embarrassingly honest that you really can't fail to discover what you like by the way we ruthlessly describe everything about every place.

We are running this web site and accommodation booking service as it's about what we really love in life. It combines our 'corporate' talents of graphic and web design (Andy) and copy writing, research and promotion (Lucy) with something we are just totally passionate about.

We were literally sitting around one day (yes, I think we were in Australia at the time!) asking what can we do that combines our love of Australia with working? I spend hours and hours finding all these amazing places to stay, I love telling other people about them, plus Andy loves photographing them, and putting them up on the web, so why not put that all to good use?

Also, as most of the places we feature are small and independently owned or managed, we enjoy working with enthusiastic, focused and service-oriented individuals, couples or families that run them.

This is why we are running this web site.

How it works for you, and how it works for us.

We make a small commission on the bookings that we make for the properties we feature (as do all travel agencies and bookings web sites). This is how we get to fund our research trips (yes OK they are also holidays, but we are working very hard remember when we are testing all the facilities out for you!).

We're just interested in keeping the site running and being able to spend all the time we can researching and visiting Australia so we can showcase properties and accommodation that really capture the essence of a great Australian holiday.

Planning Your Trip Having arrived at the airport very late at night after a flight from Cairns, we had possibly an ex-rally driver hurtle us to St Kilda at break-neck speed... Catching taxis in Australia...

What we really enjoy is spending the time finding these great places to stay in Australia and then sharing them with other people like you, who we hope will enjoy them as much as we do.

Helping more people to enjoy these wonderful places to stay is the overall aim of this web site. It really is.

Our aim is not to make a fortune, but to keep the web site pure and honest and meaningful, so it is something which you can really rely on 100% and get value and truth from. At the same time of course we hope it will make us some income yes, but that is where our mission stops.

The places on the web site are all hand picked and have to earn their place. I can assure you that there are plenty of places that don't make it onto the short list we stay at and then feature.

Then there are also those places that we stay at which despite all my research efforts, just do not live up to the inspired Australia standard and so do not make it onto the site. Which just proves again how difficult it is to find great places to stay — even I don't get it right every time!

Who are we? And why on earth should you listen to us?

We're Lucy , Andy and, more recently Alex(-andra). We're also lots of friends and family who share the same pernickety insistence as us for well run and fabulous places to stay who make suggestions to us. We're also you when you send us recommendations, ideas and new places to research and possibly visit (if our high standards barometer is met!).

About me:

A peek into Lucy's mad holiday hungry mind — that churns 24 hours a day in her constant mission to find the hidden jewels of Australian places to stay!

I like to be organised. Get me researching and making some lists of holiday options (OK — I admit it — spreadsheets!) then I'm very happy. I spend hours and days agonising over itineraries: how to fit everything in, what days of the week will be better for where, transport options and other quite intricate details of planning when it comes to holidays. I am a holiday research geek — and I love it!

Here's me back when I was a young backpacker! A chilly December morning at the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria in 1996 (I know — I haven't aged a day!)

But the internet is also a minefield and exhausting reference tool I think. Too much choice is often blinding and sometimes leaves me wondering if I will ever find time to stay everywhere — or if I will ever find anywhere I like to stay — all during the same holiday.

You probably feel the same.
 

My backpacking cohort Marion and I on top of Kings Canyon at sunrise (with hangovers), Northern Territory 1996

Since then I have tried to find accommodation (at least for the first night) in advance!
 

Marion and I fossicking in Coober Pedy, South Australia 1996 (fossicking is scrabbling around in gravel looking for precious stones that miners have missed! — here it's opals). We knew how to have a good time...!

From leaving Australia the first time it took me 5 years to make it back, by which time I had met and married Andy and felt he needed to see what all the fuss was about!

Andy's first trip to Australia was for Christmas and New Year 2002-2003. We had a great trip — visiting Noosa as our first stop for some 'beach' then heading up to Palm Cove and Port Douglas for some heat! Then on to Melbourne for Christmas and Sydney for New Year fireworks.
 

Andy and I perched on Red Bluff, just outside Kalbarri, during our drive north up the Western Australia coast in 2005. A prime example of Andy's ongoing 'self-timed photo' quest — an 80s 'album cover' shot if ever I saw one!

And still, of course, we haven't seen it all! But that doesn't mean we're not already planning the next trip... and the one after.

Now with our baby Alex we have to be a bit more organised (not to mention laden with luggage) but it's not stopping us. We're hoping her first word will be 'G'day' (the official Aussie greeting!).

If you want to read my Australian travel advice, then have a read of my blog — www.LucylovesAustralia.com — all sorts of gems on there I am constantly updating: from flights info, to places to see, eat, visit, and of course enjoy!

About Andy:

My wonderful husband and his ongoing Antipodean-led quest for the perfect double espresso (and the perfect self timed photo!)

Armed with his bean bag (the most effective accessory you can have for self timed and low light photographs — so I am told!), and the need for a double espresso by mid morning latest, Andy finds Australia suits his holiday-ing (and lifestyle!) requirements very well.

Gino's Café in Fremantle, Perth WA — Andy's Holy Grail. The benchmark for a perfect double espresso starts here (and the cakes are pretty good too!)

The endless photo opportunities and design inspiration of iconic buildings, sweeping landscapes and bright seas and endless skies, mean no chance of him getting bored on the creative front either when we're in Australia.
 

Andy and I getting some surf lessons on Tallows Beach, Byron Bay in 2003 (this was my first surf lesson ever and I managed to stand...admittedly not very upright...for a couple of seconds!)

Why you should see Australia with Inspired Australia

If you like the site, and you get the sense that you really trust what we are doing and saying, then please use our services to arrange a really fantastic holiday that you will not forget (and hopefully encourage you to visit Australia many times again).

Please go ahead and use this site to your heart's content — it will be worth it!

Contact us now and we'll promise you when that happens we will look after you like our own friends and family and we'll book accommodation for you that you will be totally inspired by and remember forever.

Explore the site — have fun — it's entertaining (we hope!) as well as informative. Then do please send us an email (or complete the contact us form) if you have any questions, want more information about the properties we feature, or just would like to know more about holidaying in Australia in general. We will be delighted to hear from you and help you.

All my best (and look forward to hearing from you soon),

PS. If you want to join the Inspired Australia Announcement List click here...

What style of holiday property would you like? If you like to stay in a certain style of accommodation, then we've listed them for you this way: Apartment Hotels B & B Beach Houses Hideaways Family Friendly

If you know where you're going to visit... If you already know where you want to holiday in Australia we can help you choose some great accommodation there: New South Wales Queensland

If you know what you want to get up to... If you're not sure exactly where you want to go, but you know the type of location you like then pick from these options here: Beach City Countryside