Australian Holidays/flights

T_C_E

We hope to travel to Sydney via Hong Kong in july next year, some of you folk travel to Australia fairly frequently any advice on travel agents or flight agencies to use/avoid, should we book the whole package or contact the hotels directly?
cheers
Ray

TEL

Ray....fairly easy one to answer....for flights its a case of keeping an eye on the various major airline sites. Qantas/Emitates/Etihad/Singapore/BA/Cathay/Malaysian etc The cheapest flights will be with the likes of China Airlines/Chinese Eastern Airlines currently you could get £615 return to Sydney next month, but they arent the sort of airline Id use personally and normally there is a catch such as 32 hours going out, and 42 hours back. Quickest route is Qantas 21 hours out/23 back although BA do a codeshare with them too. Singapore did an amazing offer during May June this year when if booked before 30th June, you could Get a return for £530. Currently prices are around £900 up until 8/12 then its a lottery until the middle of Jan.....cheapest period is the low season March/April. Ray, you will severly limit your options going via HK and may end up paying a premium for that ( Ive also seen £775 next month by BA!!).. The other options are periodic checks on Opodo.co.uk and Travelocity.co.uk, and Netflights.co.uk If you go in July, although you wont get low season airfare, if you time it right, you will get low season hotel/apartment rates. Having said that, the exchange rate is ridiculous at the moment around $1.60 to the £....a long cry from the old days when you got $2.40-$2.70. Therefore, whatever you book, will seem expensive. Best bet, is to start looking now.....there are some deals already being bandied about, but be careful. Personally, Id book an apartment in around the Darling Harbour area, its close to everything you need in Sydney and of course you can do the exursions out to the Blue Mountains as well. The rail service around Sydney is cheap, but dont expect express trains, but its a lot cheaper than here and quite extensive. Id book it all individually, gives you much more variety and you arent necessarily stuck in one place. Bear in mind its going to be midwinter...albeith it wont be cold by our standards 15-20c during the day, 8-10 at night with exceptional lows getting down to 2-5C....thats plus....never seen a frost, but Im told they get them out west. I could write a novel here mate, but if you want to have a chat, then whisper me and I'll give you a call. oh and if your dates are set in stone, which if my memory is correct its your anniversary, then log onto Kayak.co.uk and you can log in your dates and once a day or once a week (yourchoice) they will email you with the best prices from a huge raft of International airlines....its a great service. Tel

T_C_E

Cheers Tel, like you say its bloody expensive.

bigstemarra

Just been reading this as I want to go out and visit by brother & his Mrs in Sydney again some time........that was really useful advice Tel, thanks for that!

Oh, and good luck TCE, bon voyage!

P.S My mum & dad are currently out there and have been telling me how badly the exchange rate is affecting things and everything costs a bomb....I might be waiting until the exchange rate improves a bit or I won't be able to afford to do anything - I hope I don't have to wait ten years for that to happen!

TEL

Youre welcome chaps, Ive done the journey 30+ times now, so Im a bit of an old hand...going again next month. I did a bit of research recently on the exchange rate and they dont expect it to improve(for us) in the foreseeable future, so much so that immigration from England has slowed down, poor exchange rate and high cost of house prices are said to be the blame. Sydney is generally no cheaper to live in than Sevenoaks when you compare house prices. Personally I think the next time we see the dollar rate hit $2+ will be around the time of the Olympics...thats the only time I can see us have a slight boom in the economy.

bigstemarra

That's the trip on the back-burner for a while, then!

Thanks for the info, Tel.

T_C_E

Likewise, our anniversary trip next year will deferred.
Two and a half grand we paid 5 years ago plus spending money, we are now being quoted Six grand!!

TEL

Ray, I wouldnt mind betting you could still do it for around £3000.....dont give up mate, there will be special offers on flights for sure, its just a question of checking regularly, and register on that Kayak site, its really good. Hotel wise, 20 days before you go, just go onto www.Ratestogo.co.uk and you will undoubtedly pick up a good deal, you wont have to pay more than £500 a week for the hotel...wont be full board, but its relatively cheap to eat around Sydney if you avoid the posh waterfront restaurants.

redman

I have been to AUs twice in August recently and it is the best time to go to Queensland and N territories. Queensland includes Brisbane Cairns, Whitsunday islands and the barrier reef which is a must. Sydney still reasonablw that time of year.
I would book the flights seperately as you probably can get a better deal but Bridge &Wickers are specialist travel agents for Aus. They are very knowlegdgeable about where to go and getting decent accomodation. I would highly recomend them.
However it is expensive there at current exchange rate - I was there couple of weeks ago on business and was noticeably more expensive than couple of years back. As for someone commenting on house prices they are now far more than Sevenoaks in any decent area of Sydney.

queensland_addick

Probably the cheapest way to do it would be either Air Asia Stanstead to KL, KL to either Gold Coast or Melb, then get internal flight/coach to Sydney, or Royal Brunei to Brisbane or Melb.
Air Asia from what I've heard is a very good service for the money. Normally I wouldn't recommend Royal Brunei, but I've heard they've just upgraded their fleet to Boeing 777's.

MrOneLung

Royal Brunei is also a 'dry' flight.
Think coach trip to Carlisle times 3

LargeAddick

my cousin is going in February to see the family in Sydney. Normally fly with Emirates, as do I, but they wanted nearly £1400 pp. They have booked though with El Attihad (sp, the mob who sponsor Man City) and have got it for about £1,000 pp. As stated the exchange rate is a real killer at the moment. I remember going in 1995 when it was about 2.70, even when I went Feb 2008 it was still 2.10. I wouldn't mind going next year but I'm not going to when it's that rate. Also remember to check when the Ashes matches are with regard to when you are going as that really bumps up the prices.

PS - I would never use a specialised travel agent for anything other than flights as sometimes they can get good deals from the airlines on them but anything else such as internal flights, accomodation, special tour trips etc then I'd do it directly via the net. I've always found it cheaper and if you have the time to do it it's more fun researching, planning and then booking your own itiniary.