3-4 weeks in E. Oz, July '11. Travel agents or online?

[ampere]

We have decided to bite the bullet and take the DSs to Oz next UK summer. They will be 10 and 12 (yes, I know, 12= full price!).

DH (and the boys) are Australian, but we left there 7 years ago. DH has relatives in a small one-horse town in Qld- a quick visit!

Otherwise, the plan is to fly into Sydney (via a poss stop-over), a few days there, fly up to Briz and travel up to the Sunshine Coast (where we used to be based) for a week, probably with a car hire, the fly up to Cairns to see all the must-sees up there. Then fly home.

My questions are:

Whilst we can obviously book all this ourselves online, where can we find the info about which international airlines might include a free of cut-price internal airfare or 2? How do we go about sorting out an arrival hotel in Sydney?

Who flies into Sydney but out of Cairns?

Which 'high street' TA would be helpful? DH wants to go and see the TAs in our local small town near Southampton which I fear will be a waste of time as it's my impression they are far more clued up with coach tours to Suffolk for the over-60s. I believe they'd access the same on-line sites we would!

Any advice happily received.

Hello

I'd never use a high street travel agent but you are right to check your own internet prices with a reputable agent so that would be Austravel or one of the big online flight companies like traifinders.

The best flight/hotels deals are by the airline whose asian city is its hub so Singapore Airlines would be Singapore, Malaysian would be KL and Cathay Pacific would be Hong Kong. Talking to a good agent would give you an idea who have got the best prices for that time of year with the best hotel stopovers.

From memory you won't get a large longhaul flight into or out of Cairns. You will connect in either Sydney, Brissie or Melbourne. The lowcost airlines are very cheap in Australia so I'd probably only look at flights into and out of your main place which is Sydney.

The hotels in Sydney are well versed on arrival times from longhaul flights. When you book online there should be a box you can complete or an e-mail address you can give them your arrival times.

f it were me doing your trip I'd start with where I want my Asian stopover and look at the relevant airlines website to get flight/accommodation prices. I'd then look at the budget airlines into Cairns and get their costs and then call round the likes of Austravel etc and compare.

Let me know if you need anything further.

The likes of going places and thomas cook are not the agents to go with for a trip like this!

Just had a look at the singpaore website. Underneath the flight booking on the main page there is a section for hotel bookings.

Trailfinders. Trailfinders Trailfinders Trailfinders...

We did 8 weeks in Australia a few years ago. Via Singapore, Hawaii and LA. They were amazing. Amazing, I tell you! Everything was sorted, everything was organised for us with us deciding on the details but them doing the slog of organising... it was perfection. Can't rate them highly enough, in my experience. Utterly helpful and utterly charming even when we had inane requests and silly questions.

They have some high street branches too, I'm not sure if they're everywhere but we definitely have one.

OK, we just called Trailfinders!

I think this will be the way to go- as I persuaded DH! I used TF in London about a thousand years ago when I was 23 or so. You took a ticket, were told how long you'd be waiting (2 hours or so?!), everyone sat outside on the grass til you were called, then in you went and sat at a scruffy office desk in a huge open plan building with an (inevitably and invariably!) Australian TA who'd have a map of the World as a blotter which we used as a doodle block to decide where we'd drift for the next year's travel!!

I will let you know how the plan evolves.

Thanks for everone's input.

Good luck and happy planning!

Trailfinders have come on quite a lot since those days you describe. Also they have an office in Bournemouth.

I also do not think that Cairns is on any international long haul route; you will have to connect to there from Sydney.

Virgin Blue fly out of Sydney to many destinations in Australia (we used them to fly from there into Coolangatta on the Sunshine Coast).

Interesting. More than Brisbane, we need to be near Buderim so Virgin Blue might be a good choice.

On the other hand, I would like to climb Mt Warning with the boys, maybe via day or 2 at Byron Bay so maybe I will need to go to BNE.

As you can see, the plan is still evolving!

And I have to add, TF, even 24 years ago (!) were fantastic. They did exactly what they said on the tin AND you felt like you were part of the 'back packing thing', which I wonder whether today's all-in gap-yearers get?

I'm talking back in the days when the Lonely Planet of China was in its first edition!

If you want to fly out of Cairns I've just done that last month on Cathay Pacific. It's their Brisbane-HK route but some flights drop down in Cairns before leaving Australia.

Don't book this type of holiday through a high street travel agent. I once booked a holiday through First Choice going to san francisco then vegas then antigua and it was a bloody nightmare.

I'm another one who gives a vote for Trailfinders. They are fab and very clued up plus booking with them or booking yourself on the internet, there's not really any difference in price

Have a fab holiday

Take TF's advice by all means, but double check prices yourself before booking. When we came out to Oz three years ago we wanted to spend three months travelling en route with 3 kids, mainly Thailand. Someone recommended a "personal travel agent" who was supposed to be able to sort everything. She was insisting on trying to book us with BA even though I said I didn't fly with them, I eventually got hacked off and did it myself online. I saved 2,500 POUNDS on flights and accommodation compared to what she quoted us (she was obviously on big commission from suppliers). I was also able to book more alternative accommodation - she insisted that what she was offering was the only thing with availability which was total crap.