Australia- morning arrival or evening arrival??

mgdavid

It's not *just* when to arrive, surely you have to consider and rank other criteria,
- UK departure time and convenience of it
- whether you sleep well in economy (I do, but many don't)
- how long you have to travel after deplaning, to your eventual destination
- if you're being met, their convenience / availability
etc.
Personally I look for shortest journey time, I don't want 7 hours in an airport, and I don't want 2 stops or more. We are off to Brisbane this summer, booked with Cathay Pacific. Son and his family are going with Singapore airlines.

zagfles

See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4796123

Doshwaster

steve1500 wrote: »

We arrived in Sydney in the a.m..


By the time we had cleared customs, got hire car, got to Hotel had shower etc it was already 1ish then something to eat wander round. time for bed

The thing I can't understand is how some people can fly long haul and then just jump into a hire car. After a long flight the last thing feel capable of doing is driving.

In fact with work we have a total ban on driving after a long haul flight on "health and safety" grounds.

mgdavid

Doshwaster wrote: »

The thing I can't understand is how some people can fly long haul and then just jump into a hire car. After a long flight the last thing feel capable of doing is driving.

In fact with work we have a total ban on driving after a long haul flight on "health and safety" grounds.

I think this just illustrates the wide difference in people's approach, attitude and ability to tolerate travel. I remember the first time to Australia we landed at 11pm on New Year's Eve, hopped into the hire car and had a good halfhour drive out to a Perth suburb to hit our friends' party; regrettably due to waiting for the bags we were late, but only by 20 minutes or so. After an hour or so we drove right across to the other side of Perth to the apartment we'd rented, found the hidden key and went to bed around 3-ish. Turned out to be a good way to force ourselves onto Oz time, no jetlag.

zagfles

Doshwaster wrote: »

The thing I can't understand is how some people can fly long haul and then just jump into a hire car. After a long flight the last thing feel capable of doing is driving.

In fact with work we have a total ban on driving after a long haul flight on "health and safety" grounds.

Depends - I've done it a few times after a flight to the US, not too much of an issue unless driving into the late evening, but no way I'd do it after a flight to SE Asia or Aus/NZ. Though another reason not to is of course you'll miss out on the free cocktails on the plane!

travellerboy

The flight to Australia or New Zealand is hell without a stop over, believe me. Most people will be extremely tired and need to get to bed soonest whenever you arrive. Night time arrival would be more appropriate but the choice is yours. Also bear in mind that Flying west to east is always worse for jet-lag

zagfles

travellerboy wrote: »

The flight to Australia or New Zealand is hell without a stop over, believe me. Most people will be extremely tired and need to get to bed soonest whenever you arrive. Night time arrival would be more appropriate but the choice is yours. Also bear in mind that Flying west to east is always worse for jet-lag

Yes, we flew west to east but pretended we were flying east to west! Arrived in Singapore about 10am, ie 3am UK time. Stayed awake on the plane. Had an 11 hour stopover, booked the transit hotel and had a daytime sleep for 8-9 hours. (transit hotel bookable by the hour not night - and is very reasonable, and lovely and quiet and dark, no windows, you wouldn't know it's daytime).

Onward flight to NZ at about 9pm but we'd only just got up! So no need to sleep on either flight because we'd had 8 hours in a real bed. Bit weird them serving the evening meal with wine etc when you just want breakfast with coffee! But really helped with the jetlag - once in NZ went to bed at about 7pm it was just like having a couple of late nights, and we were soon into the new time zone.

mgdavid

travellerboy wrote: »

The flight to Australia or New Zealand is hell without a stop over, believe me. Most people will be extremely tired and need to get to bed soonest whenever you arrive. Night time arrival would be more appropriate but the choice is yours. Also bear in mind that Flying west to east is always worse for jet-lag

utter tosh, except of course for you and those like you.
I've been to Oz 4 times, NZ once, Tokyo once, never for one moment considered a stopover. I quickly learnt to sleep on planes (yes, in economy) and don't have too much of a problem acclimatising to new time zones. You have to have the right attitude, and really want it to *not* be a problem. I do think the latter is the key - sweeping generalisation but as a nation Brits simply love to moan and make a big deal about things. Take the opposite view and work on ways to minimise or eradicate the problem - and it will go away. A couple of tips:
Set your watch on your final destination as soon as you are on board the first leg.
Stop yourself saying 'it's lunchtime at home' and start saying it's dinner time where we're going'.

Gloomendoom

Doshwaster wrote: »

The thing I can't understand is how some people can fly long haul and then just jump into a hire car. After a long flight the last thing feel capable of doing is driving.

In fact with work we have a total ban on driving after a long haul flight on "health and safety" grounds.

If I have just spent the last 20 hours sleeping, jumping into a hire car is no problem at all.

If you can't sleep though, I can see how it might be inadvisable. I struggled on one trip with seven babies within ten feet of me. It was grim.

hcb42

I have flown there 12 times and leaned towards AM arrival

I stopped off in Hong Kong on way back last year just for 24 hrs and wish I hadn't, it was just a faff and would rather have got home a day earlier