australia where to go in june/july

[hitchcock]

1,has any one flown with jal airways???/
2,where is nice to go in au in june and july been to perth,dawin,cairns and sydney before but as its winter there need to know where to go that will be warm and sunny(ish)?
3, does any one know how to rent a house for three weeks while we are over there,or good appartment hotels.?
4,whats the best airline to travel with and how do you cope with 2 children one aged 3 and the other 18months will have dp (who will sleep all the way there!!!

thanks for your help

Hello!

Haven't flown with JAL, but went to Cairns in July a few years ago. Well, just outside. We stayed in Port Douglas and rented a house just up a little track from Four Mile Beach. It was heavenly. Make sure you get in a trip to the reef, and a rainforest tour and there was a lovely thing in Port Douglas called "Breakfast with the Birds" in an "open aviary" if that makes sense... Birds free to come and go, but tend to stay, iyswim. You sit and have brekki and the kiddies can feed bits of fruit to the birds. It's lovely.

I only went there, but DH's family went to Sydney and Melbourne after that and it was nice, but obv not the best time for weather.

Re: the kids. I'll probably get shot down for this, but when I took DD at age 7, I gave her Phenergan Elixir to make her drowsy and she slept a lot. You could use Medised for the baby. I can highly recommend it!

Hope you have loads of fun.

tygap went to cairns 4yrs ago and had a day trip to pd did you go to cape tribulation???? amazing place

thanks for the advice about what to give the children if i need to

Yes I did! We saw some huge lizardy looking things there called Monitors I think. Beautiful place.

I can highly recommend staying in PD for a bit if you have kids with you . SIL had her son there and I had DD. So safe and quiet, yet lots to do nearby.

Oh, it was 4 years ago I was there too!

i was there september 2002 spent amonth travelling around au spent a week in perth,dawin,cairns and sydney had the most amazing time and some brilliant photos the best is litchfield np nr dawin was on the holiday programm lasts week amazing

did you go any where else??? apart from pd????

1. yes - very long trip - singapore airlines we found best - have also heard good things about emirates and royal brunei. Trip on JAL was much longer.

1. A little south from Cairns - Mackay and Whitsundays lovely, Brisbane is fab, fraser Island

1. can't help with

1. Singapore airlines were fab with dd. They are the most direct flight to take. We organised night flights - so we took off from Heathrow around sixish I think or later - got dd ready for snack and bed - she slept through to Singapore. We then had a couple of hours stopover - ran her ragged at singapore airport - fab airport - ( Tokyo/Narita - horrid horrid airport with very little to do.) We then had an overnight flight into brisbane - again got dd1 sorted for bed, put her in her pjs etc - she slept all the way.

first time she had a skycot, second trip she had her car seat - slept really well with car seat in the recline position.

It would be about 13 hours to Singapore and then it is about 7 hours into Brisbane.

JAL was about 14/15 hours to Narita and then another 9 or so to Brisbane.

what about alice springs and Uluru for somewhere different.

btw singapore has one of if not the largest seat pitch in economy seating.

I have flown JAL twice. not good with babies. very small seating, I was stuck in the middle of three with a sky cot that had to lifted up and down when the person next to me wanted to get out. not good for a sleeping baby who was woken up then never went back to sleep, you have a 6 hour layover in osaka/tokyo/narita. Osaka airport has a play area, showers and sleep area so not too bad to spend 4-6 hours there. There is a compulsory overnite on the way back usually in tokyo which breaks up the flight. Eidsvold is right 15 hours to japan, 9 hours to brisbane. I have flown R brunei 7 hours abu dabi, 7 hours brunei 7 hours brisbane but a killer 6 hour lay over in brunei also not good with kids NOTHING TO Do very tiny airport.

Best airlines cathay into hong kong fab fab airport lots to do and see, or singapore also a great airport and both have direct flights.

I would recommend cairns or darwin/alice springs uluru THEN maybe a flight out of cairns or perth so you can visit the beach. OR fly into Brisbane and drive down to the gold coast/byron bay beautiful beaches. (seaworld, dreamworld, movieworld, wet &wild) theme parks on the coast.

It would be warm days (t shirt) but cold nights in the desert. Im sure a travel agent could get you self servicing apartments with a kitchen.

I gave phernergan but if you have night flights especially leaving the UK they will tend to sleep. A back with some new small toys given out at different times works, walks up and down the cabin.

I would also book your children seats you do not want an 18mnth old on your lap the whole way been there done that i couldn;'t walk for days.

sorry for the long post I hope that helps.

opps sorry that should be backpack/bag with new toys.

Message withdrawn

we had an overnighter on the way back to the UK but the trip out was dreadful - stuck in the middle of a row and no sleeping rooms available!!