Noob visiting Australia - need advice!

DCFC79

Interesting thread this as i want to go to au some point.

setspeed

agrinnall wrote: »

Regarding paying for it, do you have a credit card with enough available credit? if so can you take advantage of the statement date and payment date so that you book it now but only pay after your money has turned up?

Could you look at flying into Brisbane and out of Melbourne (or the other way round) so that you only have to travel in one direction within Australia rather than going backwards and forwards? It may save you time and money, although you might have to rearrange when you see your friends a bit.

No, it's not possible for me to put it on a credit card atm, not enough credit left! Also I don't really know anyone who has a spare grand either in cash or credit

As for not travelling back and forth - what you're saying does make sense, but friend no 2 (from Canberra) will be coming with me to Cairns (or Brisbane if I can't afford Cairns), and I'd rather travel together than arrange to meet her someplace.

bondy01

setspeed wrote: »

If you don't mind me asking, how much did that package cost you? I'm looking at paying for two people to go to Cairns, possibly from Canberra but could start from Sydney, but the flights that I found were £600 dollars per person alone, which I don't think I can afford... If there's a possibility of a cheap deal...

Can't really answer that as it was back in 1999. Jetstar also do internal flights , have you tried their website? Google Cairns (if you haven't) and there is lots of info.

Matt2389

Maybe try airasia as well, they often have great flash sales, you can fly stansted-kuala lumpur then from kl to a few different places in aus. You have to pay for food, baggage, no in flight entertainment (unless you rent a handheld player off them -cheap) but sometimes flights are so cheap that if you don't mind not having free food or entertainment might be worth it. Take a look!

murphymum

Thought I'd throw in my tuppence worth to this too.
I was in Brisbane for first 3 weeks in October last year. I flew Emirates, I booked it in early May after following the price for a few weeks. After booking the price did drop but only by about £20 then continually rose after that. I chose Emirates mainly because I didn't want to go via London, I flew out of Glasgow.
While there I took an internal flight to Sydney, and we flew Jetstar, they were fine. I was recommended either Jetstar or Virgin blue and to avoid Tiger airways, a bit of a hit or miss, but I'm sure others have different opinions.
My 10 year old was in and out of the water like a fish but my Aussie relatives thought it too cold to be in the water for any length of time.
Don't know if this helps you in any way, but hope you have a fabulous holiday.

murphymum

Just thought of something else you'll need and that is a visa, there are companies on the web charging for it, but you can get it free though the Oz government website, that's where I got mine last year and it's valid for one year. Read the other posts on here re ETA or evisitor.

Try this link

http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/evisitor.htm

As for money, I took advice from this site, and preloaded and took a FairFX card and also a Clarity card from Halifax. Found no problems at all with the FairFX card.

spottydog

I live in Sydney so will try to help.

Our main internal airlines are (in order of price) Rex, Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Blue, Air Asia (not Sydney). For Wagga (pronounced Wogga) I think you may be limited to Rex but all the others should do Sydney/Cairns. Wagga will definitely be interesting in terms of being Australian but probably not much to do (Sydneysiders that come from Wagga say so under there breath).

Canberra is around a 3-4 hour drive from Sydney outside rush hour (pretty close in our terms) but at present is very cold. I'm not sure about public transport as it's not something a Sydneysider would consider using to get to Canberra. Canberra isn't known for much apart from where the government is based, not somewhere I'd get excited about visiting for more han a day

For a cheap holiday, Aus is really bad a present with the rate at GBP1:AUD 1.5 (pints in Sydney generally start at $8/GBP 5.50)

IF you want to see the reef I'd go up to Port Douglas (a bit north of Cairns) as the reef is in far better condition. But to do this you are talking about a 4 hour+ flight from Sydney.

Personally between the UK & Aus Cathay is my airline of choice but I'm a lot shorter than you as 5'2".

HTH

setspeed

Thanks for the info so far everyone!
Any more advice/opinions please feel free

signol

This website :
http://www.railmaps.com.au/longdist.htm
has good info about the trains in Australia. Eg. Sydney - Wagga and Sydney - Canberra twice per day, I've used them and are comfortable and reliable, if not so frequent as UK trains. Taking the train to Cairns would be good but time consuming!
Tiger Airways are the Ryanair of Australia - dirt cheap but watch for extra charges and poor customer service.

Hope this helps.

signol

spottydog

Tiger Airways are currently suspended from flying in Aus so definitely not an airline to consider at present, I'd try Jetstar and Virgin Blue first. With regard to gong to Brisbane rather than Cairns for the reef, its a bit like going to Brighton beach cause you can't afford the south of France, Brisbane area is not the reef and Brisbane is actually a reasonable drive from the coast. Flying from Canberra to anywhere is likely to be more expensive than from Sydney/Melbourne as Canberra doesn't have so many routes going through so it would probably be best to get your friend to either meet you there or in Sydney/Melbourne