Destinations
Australia is a sunny continent of antipodes with amazing animals. Diving on the Great Barrier Reef, excursions to Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne, Sydney sights and Aboriginal villages are all about Australia.
Do you know what globe you can buy in Australia? Inverted, with South Pole on top. And, by the way, no less correct than our traditional one: in space there is neither top nor bottom, and for Australians we are exactly the same antipodes that go upside down as they are for us. When you visit this country, it is advisable to bring a couple of globes, to yourself and your best friend: set within the line of sight, it perfectly eliminates egocentric errors.
Well, in addition to the werewolf globe from Australia, you can bring a full box of absolutely unique impressions. Think just about Uluru monolith, bloody red in the daylight, and which gets a completely extraterrestrial look at sunset! Then, with minimal separation, go endless WBD archipelagoes with some desperate underwater life, wide beaches with surfers on waves, live koala toys, after all, duckweed – an undeniable testimony of God’s sense of humor.
Add to that the recognizable silhouettes of Sydney Opera and Harbor Bridge monuments, a bunch of cool little things to take with you, including Aboriginal exotics, and ease of communication with locals: basic English will be sufficient.
Australian hotels are classified according to world standards, but they do not have “star” but classes: 5* – de luxe, 4,5* – superior first class, 4* – first class, 3* and a half – superior tourist class, 3* – tourist class. The rooms are always equipped with a kettle and iron and service and furnishings are up to the level of the hotels. In larger cities, it is recommended to book a hotel closer to the center. This is where most of the sights are located, and it is easier to go from central stations to long excursions.
In Sydney, the bed at the hostel will cost from AUD 47, the double room at the 3* hotel is from AUD 69-79, in the upscale “five” – from AUD 117 per day. The cheapest Canberra accommodations are hostels with separate beds for AUD 89-190 per night, the most expensive are five-star hotels: from AUD 240 per night. Accommodation in Brisbane’s 3* is from AUD 100, in Melbourne’s 4* from AUD 105 per day.
Australia’s main national dish is fried meat. Everything else – seafood and poultry, exotic fruits and local cheeses – are just a complement. Here you can find various delicacies: shark lips, crocodile meat, possum fillets, blue crab meat and freshwater oysters. Asian cuisine is popular in the country with its extremes: the product is either consumed almost raw or, on the contrary, processed beyond recognition.
Authentic Australian dessert – “lamington”, covered with chocolate and sprinkled with a coconut crumb biscuit. Local wines are not inferior in quality to the best European varieties, and some beers are even exported to many countries. To get acquainted with Australian cuisine in all its manifestations, true gourmets will have to travel all over the country: each state has its own specialty dish.
The Cairns plantations, called the “bowl of exotic fruits,” grow and abundantly produce tropical trees from around the world. Here you can taste delicious mangoes, pineapples, bananas, lychees and po-po.
There are BYO establishments in Australia: they don’t have a liquor license, so visitors are allowed to bring a bottle or two of wine or beer. However, the pleasure is not completely free: for each capacity you have to pay 2-15 AUD of “cork fee”, but it is still cheaper than buying alcohol in a restaurant. Asian cafes are open in major cities, offering generous portions of hits from Indian, Chinese and Japanese cuisines. Traditional English pubs with meat and beer, as well as vegan and vegetarian establishments are popular. Snack in fast food costs 10-15 AUD, lunch in the cafe – 25-30 AUD per person, dinner in a restaurant with alcohol – 150-160 AUD for two.
Materials are from the site: tonkosti.ru
Traveling to Australia is unforgettable pleasure but not cheap. From Kiev to Sydney, as well as to any other city in Australia, you can fly with one, or better with two or even three changes. And it will not cost less than thousand of dollars. And this is the minimum. The cheapest and the fastest way with transfers in Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Dubai.
It is best to fly to Australia from Kiev, Kharkiv or Lviv (with connecting flights to Istanbul). You can choose your own connecting flight and combine airlines. With careful planning and research of all variants it is possible to save quite well. The main thing is to look for flights in advance.
Australia’s largest airports are located in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane. The main gateway to the country is Sydney. The hub has the smallest area, compared to other airports in Australia. But it is responsible for most international flights, such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Jakarta, Dallas, Abu Dhabi. Also, all domestic flights on the continent take off here.
Canberra Airport serves domestic flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Dubbo, New Castle and others. But it is possible to get a cheap flight from Canberra to Wellington (New Zealand) and Singapore. If New Zealand is interesting by itself, then from Singapore you can continue your journey to anywhere in the world.
Traveling over long distances in Australia is most convenient by air. An extensive network of routes covers the whole country, while competing with each other, local airlines sometimes offer attractive rates. The key carriers are Jetstar, Quantum, Virgin Australia. Tickets from Sydney to Brisbane cost from 94 AUD, to Canberra – from 138 AUD, to Melbourne – from 108 AUD.
Australia’s rail transport is relatively underdeveloped and low-cost. Only suburban transportation and tourist routes around Sydney are well established. The most impressive rates are at Great Southern Rail: a trip from Adelaide to Darwin will cost from AUD 966. With NSW TrainLink you can get from Sydney to Melbourne or Brisbane for AUD 81, to Canberra for AUD 41.
There is a ferry connection between Melbourne and Tasmania. The cost of the transfer – from 130 AUD one way, the schedule and tariffs are on the website.
The cheapest but also the longest way to travel between cities is by bus. It is most advantageous to buy Greyhound travel tickets that allow you to travel the specified route as many times as you like within 30 days. Traveling from Adelaide to Alice Springs costs AUD $ 230, from Sydney to Brisbane – AUD $ 140.
City buses run from 5:00 to 23:00. The fare is paid with cards that can be purchased at kiosks and stations. It is best to buy weekly cards (AUD 17.50), suitable for all modes of transport and valid from 9:00. In Sydney, there is an extensive metro network (from AUD $ 2.50 per trip), downtown monorail (AUD $ 5) and Gulf passenger ferries (from AUD $ 6).
To rent a car in Australia, you need a driver’s license (either internal with English translation or international) and a credit card of any of the world’s most widely used systems. Sometimes it is possible to rent without a credit card on a security deposit. The driving experience must be at least one year old, at least 21 years old for passenger cars and a minivan (25 years old for all-wheel cars) and no more than 75 years old.
You can pick up the car at any airport, train or bus station. If necessary, the car will be delivered directly to the house. In Australia, there are rentals and vans for camping, but only for a period of 7 days. The rental of a standard Sydney car will cost from AUD 56, the SUV from AUD 80 per day. In Canberra, prices start at AUD $ 58 per day for the compact model and reach AUD $ 122 per minivan. The cost of gasoline is AUD 1.32 per 1 liter. Movement in the country is left-sided.
Taxis are easy to catch on the street or book by phone even late at night, their parking is available at large hotels, central shops and at the final public transport stops. When ordering a taxi by phone, as well as in the presence of luggage, the fare increases. Fares – AUD 3.50-3.60 per landing and AUD 2.50-4 per km. Transfer from Sydney Airport to downtown – 47-57 AUD.
Goulburn (82.36km)
Yass (55.54km)
Queanbeyan (11.10km)
Tumut (82.31km)
Australian dollar, $
4.36 A$
20 A$
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