Australia - tickets and accomodation...

[bea]

following on from teh australia thread... my dear little bruv is contemplating going over to australia over the new year period to meet up with a friend...

he asked me if i could hunt out some cheapo tickets on the web and also some ideas about where to stay in Sydney...

...me? i suppose i could trawl the web for hours trying to figure out where to go and which online travel agents/tickets are best to use... but i thought! those well travelled mumsnetters will know!!!!

so ladies please help me out here... where do i start?

best place to get a deal on tickets on the web? and also good areas to saty around in sydney... any hotel recommendations...

not too swanky but not backpacking either (he's a bit of a delicate soul is my bruv!!!... roughing it he a'int the type!!!)

many many thanks....

e bookers are very good for airfares - much much cheaper than anyone else we have come across. Have used them once and intend to use them again.

Cheap accommodation - well we actually got a really good deal on a 4 * hotel about 5 minutes walk from circular key and walking distance to the city centre. I think for that I just did a hotel search - or accommodation search for Sydney. We did not eat there but ate at different places each night. With the exchange - most places will be okay.

Trailfinders were very helpful when we were booking our Australia trip a few years ago.

I have used trailfinders for different trips - from Aus to the us and yes they were good. Flight centre are also very very good.

STA are good, and depending on your brothers age you can get cheaper tix than normal.

Will be expensive over the xmas period though.

Try here: www.kangarooclub.co.uk/ (No connection to them - just good service in my experience).

www.wotif.com good for last minute booking of goodish hotels. They do cheap deals if you book up to two weeks in advance. We used them all over OZ and got some very good deals.

thanks for all the advice so far... i can't believe the prices i have found so far... ranging from just over £1000 to £4000... how can prices vary so much (spot the airline travel virgin!)

spoke to bruv this morning and the places he's mentioned are Paddington, Darling Bay (i assume he means Darwin Bay!???) and Bondi Beach... he's thinking of staying for 2 weeks so any suggestions for accomodation would be very much appreciated... (want to make sure he sticks to the 'nice places'!... he is my little brother after all!!!)

mountains of thanks to all you well heeled travellers and aussies!... keep it coming!

anyone want any advice on Birmingham! i'm your woman!

Think he may mean Darling Harbour, near Sydney Harbour & bridge, opera house etc.

Paddington is nice, good shops.

Can't help on accomodation, I overstayed my welcome at a friends flat heh heh heh

ooops! yes he did mean darling harbour... just been trawling thorough many of the suggested sites and i'm beginning to find it all a bit exhausting... howdo you know you're getting a good deal!!!.... now i know why people goto to travel agents and let them book flights and accomodation!!!!

Bea, its a minefield I know! Christmas is the traditional high charge period, with most airlines dropping their fares back to "normal" range from 24 or 25 December (when you can't actually arrive in Australia in time for Christmas anymore). The three weeks at the beginning of December are absolute no-gos for cheap deals. Normal range for London to Sydney is probably anywhere between £600 and £850 at new year. Hope this helps?

Our friend's went last year and stayed in hostels round Australia. They found they really nice, and always managed to have a nice, private double room,; many en-suite. They found them to be pretty cheap and didn't have to book. Might need to over New Year though - might eb worth doing a web search though.

Just to complicate things.... if he can be bothered to go there first, it can be much, much cheaper to travel from Frankfurt to Australia. You need to find a cheap return ticket to Frankfurt and buy your onward ticket through a German agent (you should be able to do this now iyswim). It might mean a long-ish wait in Frankfurt going to/from. I haven't tried this since I like to keep the stop-offs to a minimum travelling with DD.

We got a good deal from Emirates when we went to Melbourne in 2000 and the journey was broken into three 7 hour flights which I found far more pleasant to be honest.

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