No fine print,
just straight answers.

Guides run the days that are hard to do alone and better in a group, the K'gari 4WD safari, the Whitsundays sail, the Great Barrier Reef day. Every other day you travel solo and unguided, exploring each stop your own way. You've got a bus pass and pre-booked beds, all on the one fixed itinerary.

Every East Coast trip runs the classic Sydney ↔ Cairns corridor, and you can travel it in either direction, start in Sydney and head north, or start in Cairns and come south. You pick your start point at checkout.

There's no fixed tour group and no tour leader travelling with you. Each guided adventure runs with its own group of other backpackers for that leg, which is where your mates come from. Between the guided days you travel solo, on pre-booked beds and a bus pass, or with the mates you've made along the way.

Most people book solo and make friends along the way, that's the whole point. But couples and pairs of friends book too. You'll fit in either way.

It's built for 18–35s doing the East Coast backpacker route. There's no hard cutoff, but the vibe, the pace and the people you'll meet are aimed squarely at that crowd.

One all-in AUD price covers your hop-on-hop-off bus pass for the whole route, every night's accommodation along the way, and the headline guided adventures for your trip (which vary by length, see each tour page for the exact list). It's the same components you'd book yourself, bundled and pre-arranged.

Flights to Australia, food and drinks, personal spending, and optional add-ons like the Mission Beach skydive. Anything optional is clearly listed as an add-on on the tour page, never bundled in without you choosing it.

No, the 15,000ft Mission Beach tandem skydive is an optional add-on, there if you want it and easy to skip if you don't. We'd rather show you an honest base price than pad it with things you might not do.

Social, well-rated backpacker hostels along the route, dorm-style, the kind of places where you actually meet people. The number of nights and locations are listed on each tour page.

About a minute. Pick your trip, pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and you get confirmation on the spot, no enquiry form, no waiting on an email chain before you can lock in your spot.

Yes. Every trip is open-dated and valid for 12 months. Book now to lock the price, then pick your actual travel dates whenever suits. You'll always see the exact price for your chosen month before you pay.

Beds and tours genuinely cost more over the Christmas–January and July peaks. Rather than hide that in the small print, we show you the price for your travel month up front, standard most of the year, a little more in the shoulder and peak windows. No bait-and-switch.

No. The price you see is the price you pay, no card surcharges, no service fees added at the end.

You don't pay for any part of it we can't confirm. Once it's confirmed, cancellations and refunds follow each operator's terms (including if an operator cancels), and we chase any refund for you.

Your payment goes through Square's secure checkout, and you don't pay for a spot we can't confirm. Date changes are free until 3 months before your start; after that, and for cancellations, each operator's terms apply.

Established East Coast operators we book with, long-running crews with strong Google and TripAdvisor ratings. We bundle and book it; they run it on the ground. We're always one message away for the whole trip.

Travel Mates is a brand of Wanderlust Travel & Adventure, an Australian travel company. Your booking, payment and support all sit behind an established business.