Advice please on travelling to Australia, I know nothing!!!

[dietqueen]

GOd we know nothing about travelling to Australia. Want to plan to go next year - me, hub and 5 yr old to see his brother so there will be some time to sightsee but mainly to go stay with them.

Family in Melbourne so want to fly there.

When's best time to go - dont want sourching but warm would be great.

Where do we fly from, and to?

Approx cost

How long should be go

I'm australian so can hopefully help...

I would say you need a minimum 3 weeks, I always struggle for about 4 days adjusting with jet lag and time difference.

Melbourne is lovely, great shopping, food, it's supposed to be the cultural city for Australians. Nice beaches.. (I'm from Sydney and it's wonderful there too...)

March or October is a nice time to go if you don't want scorching heat....Melbourne is very hot over summer usually.

Heathrow to Melbourne. Lots of airlines fly direct. Obviously an asian or mid east stopover. If you were going to try and go to Sydney or Queensland you will need to get some domestic flights...Qantas or Virgin Blue are the domestic carriers. I think you will also need a hire car...Everything is quite spread out.

I'm going in May and my flights for DD and I are about £600 each.

Hope this helps...

Avoid Dec as prices go up for Xmas. Spring/early summer or Autumn is lovely so November or March/April. Feb is usually very hot. Melbourne weather is notoriously variable, can be boiling hot then chilly quite quickly.

I agree with bananapaddlepop, stay for at least 3 weeks, gives you time to get over jet lag - although consider a stopover in Singapore/Thailand/Malaysia for a few days, friends who have done this swear by it. If you can get a few days in a nice hotel by a beach or with a pool you can just chill out and be all refreshed for your arrival in Oz.

Sydney is FANTASTIC and great for kids - lots to see, or try the Great Ocean Road - an amazing drive from Melbourne to Adelaide (I'm in Adelaide plug plug). Or fly up to northern Queensland - beautiful - snorkel the Great Barrier Reef before it disappears!

Have fun, Australia is a wonderful country to visit.

sounds wonderful so Im now thinking APril time next year.

Yes was thinking one stop over not sure whether to do quick stop over or for a few days as we will have a 5 year old.

around £600 for tickets is brilliant news I was estimating £1,000 each!!!

Do I have to apply for visas etc...

you can apply for your visa online and it just goes electronically in your passport. We flew out to live in Melbourne in jan and did a stopover in singapore for 3 nights and it was the worst thing we did. It is much easier to put up with a jetlagged child in a home situation than a hotel room !

When in Melbourne you should meet up with some of us.

www.eta.immi.gov.au/

The Australia Govt recently brought in a new system called E-visitor - its very similar to the ETA. Details are as above.

BA no longer fly into Melbourne; that route got pulled some months back (the only Australian city they now fly into is Sydney). Quantas however, fly into Melbourne from Singapore.

We broke up the journey to Sydney by spending a couple of days in Singapore on the outbound trip; it does help a lot if you can break the journey both ways.

You must declare any food items brought with you on arrival into Australia. Failure to do so can incur harsh penalties.

If you are travelling with a child I would recommend flying with one of the Asian airlines - Singapore or Malaysian rather than BA/Qantas, ime the Asian ones are far more helpful to passengers with children.

DON'T FLY QANTAS. Had a terrible time with them over the last month with DS. Rude, arrogant and plain arsey. The BA leg back into London from Singapore was good.

I'd defo go Singapore Airlines, Emirates or Malaysian next time. Have a great trip.

Try and have a stop over. It is a long way with a little one.

Stopovers could be

Singapore
Hong Kong
Dubai
Kuala Lumpur
Tokyo