Many vacation spots fire-free in Australia's Victoria state

Marysville was once a picture-perfect country town in what's locally known as the Mystic Mountains region near Melbourne. Leafy streets lined with cottages and pubs gave way to rising hills covered by a forest that hid waterfalls, horse trails and the Taggerty River. All that is now gone, along with much of the surrounding countryside, devoured earlier this month in Australia's worst-ever brush fires, which have killed more than 180 people. It could take up to five years for forests to recover, a wildlife worker said.

Healesville Sanctuary in the Yarra Valley, a tourist attraction and one of the most important wildlife sanctuaries in Victoria state, escaped fire damage. But it remained closed to visitors last week as the staff dealt with the overall effects and the inevitable arrival of animals needing treatment.

Budgeting time & money? Cheap one-week Australia trips in and ...

Flights to Australia have been particularly cheap lately. Qantas, United and V Australia have all been having sales with round-trip fares well under $1,000 within the last month. A cheap flight is pretty exciting to travelers, but most people rarely consider a short trip Down Under. Qantas Vacations is doing its best to open up our minds to viewing Australia as an option for the one-week getaway. They’ve put together “One-Week Walkabout” vacation packages to wrap around cheap flights from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD), Melbourne (MEL) or Brisbane (BNE).

Here are some sample trips:
Drive the Great Ocean Road: Six nights hotel accommodation and car rental plus airport transfers starts at $589 per person, double-occupancy. Islands of the Great Barrier Reef: Four nights in a 4-star accommodation in the Whitsundays or Hamilton Island with breakfast daily, $20 spa voucher, bottle of wine and chocolates on arrival, plus domestic flights from Brisbane and two nights hotel in Brisbane starting at $1,199, per person, double-occupancy.

Margaret River, Australia: The New California

For months, friends and acquaintances had been raving about Margaret River, Australia's premier wine region, located on the country's western coast just south of Perth. A friend from London told me it was the loveliest place she had ever been and that she would not hesitate to return – even if it meant travelling there from London. It was that beautiful. Thinking our time was short in Asia, I decided we should go see for ourselves this popular destination.

While Western Australia is relatively close to Hong Kong, it is still a journey. Flights arrive at midnight, necessitating an overnight stay in Perth. From there, it is a three hour drive south to Margaret River. This meant that – door to door – we arrived at our hotel exactly 24 hours after we left our apartment in Hong Kong.

Australia is cheap again, and Qantas’ Aussie Airpass takes you there...

Provided you book no later than February 28, the famed “Aussie AirPass” is selling for only $999 for trips occurring between May 1 and September 21 of this year. That ticket brings you a round-trip flight between Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia, and and then three futher flights to three other cities chosen from: Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, or Launceston.

Once in Australia, you’ll then discover that the U.S. dollar is now buying $1.50 Australian dollars, reducing your costs by 50% from what they were as recently as nine months ago (when the Australian dollar was selling at near par to the U.S. dollar).