If you ever get the chance to go, DO IT!
Written: Oct 17 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: beautiful, clean, relatively cheap
Cons: expensive and long airfare
The Bottom Line: If you can go, DO IT!
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| amandaw99's Full Review: Australia |
How I got to go
I think that I am really lucky. I got to go to Australia this past summer for three weeks. Not bad, for a 21 year old who paid for it all myself. And, I would do it again in a heart beat. I was lucky in that one of my friends was studying there, so I had a great tour guide and got to see the most awesome things, and really felt like I did a as much as possible without exhausting myself entirely.
The plane ride
I live outside Philadelphia, and, by far the plane ride was the most expensive part of my trip. In total, round trip, I spent about $1200 on airfare. The trip, from my house to Sydney took about a total of 24 hours. Ouch, I know.
It wasn't so bad though. About 5 hours to San Francisco on a nice size plane. Then my friend and I had about a 5 hour layover in San Fran, which was nice as we got some great Mexican food in the airport, met up with a friend who is now working out there, and just relaxed before the long leg of the trip. Before we knew it, we were checking into the next flight, which turned out to be the nicest & roomiest plane I've ever been on. It was one of the two story type planes, a great time, great movies. Took about 14.5 hours to get to Sydney, most of the time though I was sleeping as it was Philly night time.
Arrival in Sydney
When we finally got off the plane, we were relieved and had to make our way through customs. No fruit or anything allowed, but it was really no big deal. Our friend met us there, and we were off on our first big day in Sydney (around 6am).
The first thing we did after dropping off our luggage at a friends, was just walk around Sydney. I can't put into words how beautiful it was. It's a new city, relative to most cities in the US. It is clean, the people are friendly, and it is just exciting to be there. They even have a monorail that runs throughout the city (which u can pay about $1 to ride around on when you're tired of walkin').
Sydney
Sydney is just awesome. Aside from the monorail, it's home to many of the major companies offices. There are sky scrapers, which are right next to Darling Harbor, my favorite place in all of Australia. The Harbor has boat rides, is a great place to just "chill" - but at night the bars and restaurants liven up and are a fun place to be. There's also an IMAX theater right on the Harbor, as well as many kids jungle gyms, etc that apparently were put there for the Olympics. Check out the link at the bottom of this epinion for many Australia pictures.
Speaking of Olympics. We all saw some footage of the Olympics in Sydney, right? Whether it was the amazing lighting of the torch, or the closing ceremonies, I promise you - you can't imagine the city planning that went into the Olympic Village. On one of our day tours, we went through it. It's TOTALLY solar powered. It's amazing. Most of the athlete housing has now been removed, but you can swim in the pool for about $3.
Other local attractions (within a day trip of Sydney) are the Blue Mountains, Bondi Beach, and the petting zoo - yes - you get to pet koalas!!! There's a great night life in the city, too. You should check out places like Coogi Palace, Bondi Hotel, and Scruffys. Most are very American like, you will feel right at home.
Shopping
If you love shopping, you will love Australia. For Americans, the exchange rate is great, and everything is really cheap (even the food). Our modest hotel cost us less than $10/night each, it rocked. Be sure to check out Paddy's Market on weekends, great bargains in a flea market type setting. Also, check out the market at the Rocks on weekends, great crafts and stuff.
There's also higher end stores, like in the Queen Victoria Building (AX, Guess, etc) and the typical GAP and other familiar stores everywhere. Shop
Food
No, I didn't eat 'roo. Or crocodile. I ate pasta, and fast food and other good stuff. Nothing really special to Australia, mainly because it wasn't offered where I went. One funny story, though, is one of Hungry Jacks. Supposedly, they went to Australia when Burger King decided it wouldn't be profitable to have business there. They also bought rights to all of Burger Kinds merchandising (hence, they have the same exact whopper and decorations and look just like burger kings, but with the same type of bubbly lettering are called Hungry Jacks). Yes, I ate there, and it tasted the same.
Everything was really cheap. Mcdonalds ice cream cones, for example were 15 cents. How can you refuse? They also have full pasta dinners for about $3... and ice cream, don't even get me started.
Other places I visited in Australia
We took a huge roadtrip while we were in Australia. We took a flight to Brisbane (ridiculously cheap) rented a car, where we drove to Surfer's Paradise. Surfer's Paradise was a great little town, very much like a New Jersey shore city.
We then flew to Townsville, and drove to Cannes, which is where we went snorkeling/scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef. It's something you have to try while you're there, I wasn't really into the diving, but I enjoyed the amazing boat ride none the less. We also stopped by Cape Tribulation, the only place in the world where two World Heritage Sites meet (the rainforest meets the Reef). For pics, see the webpage below. We then headed back to Sydney. Keep in mind the flights were booked online and were really cheap. And the rental car was easy to get (21 years old with an English speaking licencse) and was pretty cheap because we were with 4 people.
Hints and Tips
Anyway, my final tips are these. Do as much as you can, but don't get so exhausted that you aren't enjoying yourself. Check out a wine tour while you're there, and bring some home - something else that is so cheap (best wines were like $20/bottle). Also, the best tip I can give you is when you are checking into the first leg of yoru trip, if you aren't already ask to be come a frequent flyer member on that airline. I racked up enough points to get a free flight (or 2 upgrades) within the US. Definitely something to remember. Also, if you are interested in seeing some pictures, please see my website at
http://www.seas.upenn.edu:8080/~amandaw/australia.html
Thanks for reading
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Students
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
amandaw99
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Member: Amanda
Location: Pa
Reviews written: 72
Trusted by: 45 members
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