Australia is one long way from most of the rest of the world, so to make such a long journey it is probably best to know in advance what you want to do or see to make the most of your time down here. Hopefully the following generic guide to my home will be of some use to other Airline staff and Industry types. This is meant to be a sort of FAQ guide to the major questions asked of how to get around, where to stay and general things. More specific articles on places and events can follow and always happy too answer specific questions if I can.
Australia is big - make no mistake. Distances between cities and destinations are huge and without the population base of Europe or the USA, for example, there are lots of barren areas. Consider that a non stop flight from Brisbane or Sydney to Perth takes almost as long as a flight from Los Angeles to New York and you will get some idea of how big Australia really is.
Times to avoid
School holidays occur 4 times per year. The biggest break is over our summer when schools will break up in the 2nd or 3rd week of December and return in very late January or early February. A lot of our industry and business also take this time to either close down or curtail their work and as a result popular holiday destinations are usually heavily booked for accommodation. The other big holiday season of the year is at Easter time when it is again School holidays. The July school break sees a lot of people from the cooler southern states head north to the popular winter sun resorts and areas. There are a lot of Public Holidays throughout the year in Australia and most of these are conveniently timed for a Monday, so the long weekend getaway for many people is a popular choice on these weekends. The far northern part of the country experiences year round warmth and heat being so close to the equator with the summer months being the quietest for them due to the wet season. Conversely, the southern states experience a drop in visitors in the winter months of late May, June and July. Appropriate drops in accommodation costs appear in both instances. Sydney is always expensive, but bargains can be found.
Getting Here
Sydney is by far the most popular gateway for international carriers, followed by Melbourne. It is worthwhile remembering that many of the Asian carriers, particularly Cathay, Singapore and Malaysia Airlines serve all mainland Capital cities with daily, double daily and in one instance triple daily flights. This allows alternatives for arrival if flights into Sydney are heavily booked. There are some surprising carriers flying into Australia - Emirates from Dubai, EgyptAir from Cairo, Austrian from Vienna to name but a few. The moral is to look further than the major global airlines and Sydney for alternatives. February and March are always good months to fly. Avoid December and early January if you can. June and July sees a big demand due to the high season in the Northern Hemisphere, although loads can be slow in these months as well.
Transport within Oz
By Air:
There are two domestic airlines. Since the demise of that great Icon Ansett in early 2002, Qantas is the only choice for blanket coverage. VirginBlue covers the main cities only. Both offer young and modern fleets and both have very good records on maintenance and safety. Both offer very frequent service in the Eastern Triangle of Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane as well as good coverage on other routes. Your choice of carrier may be influenced by the airline which offers you the better interline rate, but you can't really go wrong with either one of them.
WWW specials for both carriers are abundant and in many cases cheaper than ID rates. The major regional carriers are Flight West, Skywest, Hazelton and Kendell.
By Sea:
There is a cruise company that bases a ship in Sydney for cruises around the South Pacific. They follow the Eastern seaboard through the Barrier Reef to Cairns and also around the North of Australia, as well as cruises to legendary South Pacific isles. P&O operate the 4 star Pacific Sky operating extensive itineraries throughout the South Pacific and closer to home. Islands visited on a regular basis include New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and a host of smaller islands belonging to these countries. Many cruise lines call into various ports around the country every January, February and March as part of their Round the World itineraries. With Oz being the half way point, many segment packages are available on all carriers into and out of Australian ports. Captain Cook cruises offer 3 and 4 day cruises from Cairns on an intimate vessel. This is a great way to cruise the reef and visit some of the islands. For those wishing to see the Great Barrier Reef, with limited time one of the better options is Quicksilver operating out of Cairns and Port Douglas. They do offer industry rates on certain days of the week and depending on season. They will take you in a high speed wave piercing catamaran from the port out to a large pontoon moored over the reef where you can snorkel, take a mini sub dive down into the reef itself, sun bake on the pontoon or just relax in deckchairs under the shade with a cool drink or two. TTLine operates a ferry service from Melbourne to Devonport in Tasmania several days per week. The ferry is modern and offers facilities such as a casino, several restaurants/bistros, night-club and sleeping accommodations. This is the only way to get a car from the mainland to Tasmania. The trip is overnight in both directions. Several companies offer bareboat hires throughout the beautiful Whitsunday Islands group off the North Queensland coast. Houseboats are a popular way of navigating many of our inland rivers.
By Land:
All major rental car companies are represented here in Oz. Avis, Hertz, Budget, Thrifty have the widest coverage and are well versed in industry rates. Other companies to consider are National, Dollar (not linked to Dollar in the USA), Bayswater and Delta. Quite often, deals can be found at better than Industry rates. We operate on the metric system here, so all references on their web sites will appear in Kilometers and Liters of fuel.
Australia's railways have declined in recent years with many routes having been replaced with buses or coaches. Recent events, however, suggest a resurgence in rail travel is occurring. The most comfortable trains are the long distance trains operated by Great Southern Railways and include the famous Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth, The Ghan from Melbourne and Adelaide to Alice Springs and The Overland between Melbourne and Adelaide. Each State Government is responsible for it's train services and as a result there is not much in the way of integrated service. NSW Railways run fast XPT trains between Sydney and Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane both daylight and overnight services. The trains are modern and compact and offer little concession to the golden days of rail travel (unlike the previous mentioned services). Queensland Rail offer a variety of services on fully refurbished or brand new trains within the state. Their range of services are quite innovative and a look at their web site is recommended. Queensland Rail has teamed up with the Venice Simplon Orient Express group to conceive the Great South Pacific Express, an opulent train modeled along the Orient Express which runs from Sydney to Cairns and return, making several interesting stops along the way. Again, a look at their web site is to be considered.
Another option of getting between places while seeing some of the different countryside is by bus. Greyhound Pioneer Australia is our premier express coach line and offer services to most parts of Australia. They offer a very good bus pass scheme and have been known to offer industry discounts. The other main player is McCaffertys.
Accommodation
Many major hotel chains are represented in Australia. They include Sheraton, Novotel, Hilton, Mercure, Inter-Continental, Holiday Inn, Marriott and Ramada. If there are a few of you, may want to consider an apartment style hotel. These are numerous and offer great value with 1,2 or 3 bedroom suites. The two most well known and wide spread apartment groups are Medina Apartments and Quest Apartments. Quest provides coverage over most of the country while the Medina group is centralized in the Eastern Capitals. For a slightly more budgeted approach, the local Flag Inns group are by far the largest motel group in the country. Best Western operates quite a few motels, as does the Budget Motel chain. Other local chains include Country Comfort and All Seasons. All motels in Australia consider the following room inclusions as standard: Color TV, Tea/Coffee making facilities, own Bathroom, free Parking (a very minor few in the city centers may have a charge) and in room Breakfast service (at a charge).
Day to Day Costs
The easiest way to make a summary of this is to provide the prices in Australian Dollars and for you to go to a Currency Converter site on the net to convert to your local currency. A few brief ideas on how much things cost here would include:
Can of Coke - $1.20, Big Mac - $3.50, Movie Ticket - $13, Daily Paper - $1.00, Light Lunch of a sandwich and cup of coffee at a take away - $6.00, Loaf of Bread - $2.00, Liter of Milk - $1.50, A beer in a pub - $2.50, Bottle of Local Wine from a Bottle Shop - around $10.00, Cigarettes - very expensive approx. $6.00 for a pack of 25's. To fill a medium size car with petrol (gas) when empty would be approximately $35-$40, depending on area and if there's a petrol price war on or not. Of course, prices vary by region and city, but it gives you a general idea of day to day things.
Eating Out
There are all manner of restaurants, eating places, and fast take away places. As a very multi-cultural society, you can find anything from Mongolian to French, more so in the cities and especially in Melbourne which is a gastronome (and shoppers !!) delight ! The ubiquitous McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, Dominoes and Subway can be found almost everywhere. Hamburger bars, Fish and Chip shops and Chinese restaurants are also found country wide.
The "Language"
I will do a separate article on this as several words here have totally different meanings than in other English speaking countries. Suffice to say that it is advised strongly that American visitors do not use the term "Fanny" or "Fannypack" in public as they are liable to get a slap in the face from locals !!
This has hopefully provided an insight into some of the more perplexing parts of travelling here. More specific articles will follow and commonly requested questions will probably result in an article specifically dealing with that to be kept on file for future reference.
http://www.nonrev.net/correspondents/images/al.jpg
