Travelling to Australia and USA

Mattandkatyuk

Hello,

My fiancee and I are looking into going travelling for six months at the beginning of July.

We would like to base ourselves in Australia for the majority of the travel and look at doing some bar or farm work for a bit of extra cash. However we would like to also spend a month or so doing a road trip in the USA, in particular New York, LA and Las Vegas.

Could anyone advise us what the best tickets are for us to get? Does anyone know whether we could get a ticket where we could get flights to both destinations? Any idea what the ball park cost would be for this?

Thanks

Matt

dzug1

Either a return to Australia via the US (Air New Zealand is a possibility, and others may do it) or a round the world ticket heading eastbound.

New York, LA and Las Vegas do not fit into one road trip - you are best off flying on to NY when you have 'done' the west.

You'll need to look very carefully at how you can legally work in Australia - and forget working in the US - you can't.

mxspyder

When my wife and I did a similar trip we booked a "oneworld explorer" ticket with BA. When we did it a few years ago it was £1000 but it has gone up to £1700 now. It allows you to fly between 3 continents with up to 16 flights (including internal ones - Handy in Oz!) you can book on to any of the 11 "oneworld" airlines. The ticket lasts a year and you just book the tickets as you go along. It worked out well for us. More details on the oneworld website

If you are going to Oz in July, i would aim for a mjor city and plan on Bar work, being winter, there might not be be a huge amount of farm work. If you are keen on the idea of fruit picking South Australia should be a good destination (lots of fruits and wine producers)

Spend as much time as possible researching work locations before you go, we found Lonely Planet quite helpful.

Good Luck!

Mattandkatyuk

Thanks for your help,

If we just want to go to Australia and USA does anyone know if you can get tickets specifically to spend time at both these destinations. I know that with flights to Australia they refuel at LA or Singapore it would be good if we could get a ticket where at the beginning or end o our travelling we could stop off in LA for 3-4 weeks and do a road trip in the California/ Nevada region?

Bananabelly

Mattandkatyuk wrote: »

Thanks for your help,

If we just want to go to Australia and USA does anyone know if you can get tickets specifically to spend time at both these destinations. I know that with flights to Australia they refuel at LA or Singapore it would be good if we could get a ticket where at the beginning or end o our travelling we could stop off in LA for 3-4 weeks and do a road trip in the California/ Nevada region?

Like dzug said, air new zealand fly through the US, major US carriers (United) do too, and Qantas. It will be more expensive usually than going through asia, and you might find (apart from the airnz flights) that a round the world flight suits you better.

You can almost always break up your travel if you have separate flights - I do it all the time. It is probably better to go and talk to a travel agent as they can find the best deal. STA travel might be a good place to start. Websites won't be as easy to play around with the dates.

The only other option is to get a return to LA for example, then look at cheap flights to oz with Vaustralia or again through asia (eg airasia). I doubt that will save you much money though and it is a lot of fussing around.

intranix

If you plan to work in Australia under a working holiday visa, remember that you can only apply for ONE in your lifetime, so use it wisely!

Also, if you are OVER 31 you cannot obtain one (30 is ok).

Mattandkatyuk

Does anyone know if it's possible to rent short term reseidential properties when visiting Australia as opposed to staying in a hotel?

Bananabelly

The rental market in major cities in Australia is very tight - vacancies are less than 1% I think? There are self-contained apartments that are rented out pretty much like hotels, if you want to do your own cooking, etc. I don't think you will get landlords wanting to rent you somewhere for only 3 months (as that is the longest you are allowed to stay in one job). If you want to stay in one city for a while and are happy to share a place, that is much more easy to do and I am sure you will find something. One website to look at is www.flatmatefinders.com.au for Sydney and Melbourne, for example