Australia trips

[Zip]

That seems quite expensive - I was on the SIA website yesterday and they had £399 flights to Sydney for those dates?

Congrats for booking.

I have 4 days to go

I may be able to get you a place to stay in Mt Gambier if you need

Ill ask my brother if you can park your van in his drive way for a night

 

[Fuzz]

I'm all booked.

My Flights with Singapore Airlines cost ~£750 in the end (which is good as I was looking at at least £850 a week ago).

15 October LHR > SIN (A380, upstairs cabin, exit seat reserved)
19 Oct SIN > SYD (A380, Upstairs cabin, exit seat reserved)
19 Nov SYD > SIN (777, Window seat)
19 Nov SIN > LHR (A380, upstairs cabin, exit seat reserved)

I've got a few days holiday in Singapore going over. Coming back I have an overnight stop over in Singapore which I prefer to break up the trip. I'll get myself a POD hotel or something for the night.

Nicely done..
12 hrs to Singapore is long enough for anyone to sit still for..
Then another 7hrs to sydney although may be a little quicker in the A380, I only had a measly 747-400.

You won't be disappointed in Singapore airlines..

 

[Vanilla]

That seems quite expensive - I was on the SIA website yesterday and they had £399 flights to Sydney for those dates?

Congrats for booking.

I have 4 days to go

It seems the prices vary massively day by day but these were the dates I had so I just went for it.

 

[Vanilla]

I have a question for Australia. I am landing in Sydney and then flying to Cairns.

I want to rent a car in Cairns but I don't know exactly how long I want it for or which city I want to drop it off in.

This is because i'm meeting up with my cousin around Cairns and I don't know how long i'll use the car for. I don't care if the car sits around for a few days, money isn't an issue but i'd like some kind of flex plan for the car so I can drop it off whenever and at any large-ish city.

Any ideas?

 

[Fuzz]

Avis in Cairns let me drop mine off there after I drove it from Sydney.

http://www.avis.com.au/car-rental/html/Landing/cairns-rental.html

 

[kefkef]

It's getting closer for mine now too, we've decided to see a bit more while we are out there, so:

11th Dec Heathrow > Hong Kong. 3 nights in Hong Kong
15th Dec Hong Kong > Perth. 4 nights in Perth (visiting friends/rels)
20th Dec Perth > Brisbane. 1 night in Brisbane
21st Dec > 30th Dec hiring a car and travelling from Brisbane to Sydney seeing the sights. Xmas eve/day at Noosa already booked.
30th Dec > 5th Jan. Stop over in Sydney for New Years Eve at Rydges World Square.
5th Jan Sydney > Bangkok. 3 nights at Siam@Siam hotel.
9th Jan back home.

Should be fun, but probably a bit hectic too!

 

[gjc10212]

I'm travelling to Aus with my gf in Dec., 5th to be exact flying with Etihad. Flights for two are £1696 returning 26th Dec. I found STA travel were the cheapest. Can anyone recommend travel/health insurance?

We are planning a short break to Fraser Island and doing the usual touristy things, that's if I can get my gf off the beach.

 

[Matt]

I am in Australia for a few days in December either side of my NZ trip

Does anyone know of a decent hotel in Sydney to stay in for 4 nights? Sydney seems to really fail in providing cool boutique hotels

 

[Vanilla]

Worth a shot - Anyone have any Australia guide books they'd care to donate to save me buying a new one?

 

[[TW]Fox]

I have a question for Australia. I am landing in Sydney and then flying to Cairns.

I want to rent a car in Cairns but I don't know exactly how long I want it for or which city I want to drop it off in.

This is because i'm meeting up with my cousin around Cairns and I don't know how long i'll use the car for. I don't care if the car sits around for a few days, money isn't an issue but i'd like some kind of flex plan for the car so I can drop it off whenever and at any large-ish city

Hertz will allow you to do this I beleive - I booked a car from Adelaide to Sydney but I extended it by a day and they were fine with it. You'll want a car for your time in Cairns - there isn't an awful lot to do in the CBD - everything is out of town or on the reef etc. I kept my car hire for my time in Cairns and I'm glad I did. There is loads of cheap parking in Cairns again.

I hired about 6-7 cars in total:

Hertz: Well priced, competitive, the cars are about 1-2 years old though - at one point I had a previous model Falcon XR6 which must have been a 2007 at the very newest. Hired 3 from Hertz in total although the interior of the Falcon was filthy. I can give you a CDP code for 15% off if you are interested.

Thrifty: Great price, fantastic car, great service. Best rental experience. Pristine brand new Falcon XR6. Fully recommended but they wante drop fee for a one way to Cairns so I only used them as far as Brisbane

Europcar: Gave me a broken Aurion and didnt give a stuff about it. Drove it 1800km before I finally found a Europcar office who could swap the car... for an Aurion with bald tyres. Also be aware because the full size car category includes the usual Toyota Aurion and Ford Falcon but also the utterly crap Camry and the small VW Jetta and its pot luck what you get.

Make sure you rent a FULL SIZE car. Shop around because I never paid more than a few dollars extra over a Hyundai Getz for the big powerful cars I drove. At one point with Hertz the Falcon I had was cheaper than a Corolla! I never used Avis - they were always considerably more expensive than everyone else. However the Avis carpark at Cairns Airport was a petrolheads paradise - row after row of brand new Falcon XR6 and Comomdore SV6's, rather than the rather random collection of nice and nasty stuff in everyone elses carpark.

ALL Australian rental companies have massive $3300-$5000 exceses and charge you $30 a day or so to reduce this. REFUSE this extra cover and buy a policy from www.insurance4carhire.com instead for 65 quid which insures you against needing to pay the excess and effectively reduces it to zero. £20 cashback via Quidco as well.

Worth a shot - Anyone have any Australia guide books they'd care to donate to save me buying a new one?

My GF still has it so I cant send it to you and she's not back till next month but I 100% recommend the Lonely Planet guide. It's certainly the best guide I saw. Ours was a 2007 and some of the accomodation it said was excelent was infact crap but the points of interest and city guides were spot on.

 

[[TW]Fox]

We are planning a short break to Fraser Island and doing the usual touristy things, that's if I can get my gf off the beach.

Fraser Island is unmissable but I urge you to consider a self drive tour. I hired a Land Cruiser and did it myself and it was absolutely awesome. We went where we wanted, when we wanted. The organised tours look completely crap, herded about like sheep into silly buses, no thanks very much.

Beach wise check out Coffs Harbour or Byron Bay - or actually the beach at Hervey Bay (Where the Fraser Island boat goes from) is pretty nice.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Does anyone know of a decent hotel in Sydney to stay in for 4 nights? Sydney seems to really fail in providing cool boutique hotels

In Sydney we stayed at a youth hostel on George Street, 690 on George I think it was called? It was clean, modern and great value. I stayed in all sorts of places - from crap hostels (Hello Mackay) to the Marriot in Surfers Paradise. All part of the fun.

The Marriot was best, though

I could write up my trip but as it was 6 weeks long its going to take ages. Does anyone care enough for me to put the effort in?

 

[Vanilla]

I could write up my trip but as it was 6 weeks long its going to take ages. Does anyone care enough for me to put the effort in?

Yes. Will be following in your footsteps in a few months.

What was it like to drive there?
What was unmissable?
What was crap?
How were the flights?
etc

 

[[TW]Fox]

Yes. Will be following in your footsteps in a few months.

What was it like to drive there?

Like a cross between the UK and the US. You drove on the UK side of the road and there are crappy hatchbacks everywhere mixed with... American style roads, enormous big rigs etc. It's not too bad and everything is straightforward... BUT...

Do NOT speed excessively, you WILL be caught
Read up on parking rules, they are mind bogglingly stupid. Some areas you get fined if you park nose in, some areas you get fined if you park rear in, etc etc.

What was unmissable?

Sydney.

What was crap?

Mission Beach and cops in bright green Commodore's. Also the prices of some stuff, its bizarre, some things are very cheap (Dominos pizza - large pizza in UK = £16.50, large in Aus = never more than £5, £2.50 on cheap Tuesday) but some things very expensive (Can of coke? $2-3 in most places. Chocolate? $2-3 for a regular bar!).

How were the flights?
etc

I hate long haul flights so they annoyed me greatly but to be honest as far as long haul goes it was fine. Plenty of space and plenty of movies.

 

[zetec452]

I could write up my trip but as it was 6 weeks long its going to take ages. Does anyone care enough for me to put the effort in?

Please. . I think so many people consider going to AUS that it would be worthwhile if you have the time.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Please. . I think so many people consider going to AUS that it would be worthwhile if you have the time.

I'll do a breif rundown then. It is a staggeringly great country and I very dearly wish to go back there again. Infact should I end up in a career which qualifies for citizenship I'd strongly consider moving there.

 

[zetec452]

I had plans to go just after I moved to Canada but not managed to go yet. I'm secretly hoping my 2 month work contract isn't renewed to give me an excuse to go over for a couple of months.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I find my long straight road where the horizon blends into the road in the distance by the way

Then found a more fun one

 

[Nix]

So, see any spiders?

 

[Vanilla]

haha you went on a track with the rental? Where was this???