Australia Travel Guide

One of the biggest draws for travelers to Australia’s is its natural beauty.  The landscape offers amazing variety in its endless sun-baked horizons, dense tropical rainforest and chilly southern beaches.  Spread out across the coastal areas, its cities have managed to blend a European enthusiasm for art and food with an easygoing love of sport and the outdoors.  Whether it be for weather concerns, or availability of discount airfare to Australia, rest assured that any time is a good time to visit.  Summer (December to February) can get very hot, but it’s also amazing beach weather.  Farther north, the summer wet season is very, very humid and the sea is swarming with box jellyfish.  Winter (June to August) offers skiing in New South Wales, Victoria, and sometimes Tasmania.  In spring and autumn the weather is on the whole, fairly mild.

Hostel, motel and hotel accommodation is readily available in most Australian cities and tourist destinations.  Budget Motels, Best Western, and the local Golden Chain Motels have a fairly wide presence in populated communities.  Smaller towns usually have a selection of motel rooms available at a number of venues, where accommodation rates are broadly comparable, if perhaps slightly less expensive than their equivalents in the United States.  In many cases, small town pubs will have a number of rooms available.  In larger cities, hostel-style accommodations feature shared bathrooms and dormitories, and in some cases include a fully equipped kitchen with food storage areas.  All state capitals have at least one major hotel up to 5 stars (look to the Medina brand throughout the country) that is comparable to many other high profile hotels around the world.  Most will have a restaurant (or bistro, depending on where you stay) on the ground floor, serving food on par with many other up-market restaurants outside the hotel.

Visitors expecting to see an opera in Sydney one night and dine with Crocodile Dundee the next might need to re-think the geography of this huge country.  In fact, it is this vastness that gives Australia and its diverse population much of its inherent character as a major vacation destination.   At almost double the size of Europe, it is renowned for its natural beauty; its red core contains some of Earth’s most impressive natural sculptures, and its varying cities offer their fair share of art, architecture, formal gardens and historical interest.  Outdoor activities are plentiful, including golf, scuba diving, and skiing.  When sightseeing, one really gets a feel that Australian flora and fauna is unique to the island continent, the result of having been isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years. Amongst Australian animals are a large group of marsupials (mammals with a pouch) and monotremes (mammals that lay eggs).  Australia is home to the well-known kangaroo and koala.  A visit to Australia wouldn’t be complete without taking the chance to see some of these animals in their natural environment.

Australia is so open and so empty in some places that approximately 80% of long-distance trips are made by air.  Qantas is Australia’s main domestic airline and has a budget subsidiary called Jetstar, where finding discount airfare within Australia is very achievable.  Few people pay full fare for domestic air travel because the airlines offer a wide range of discounts, including random discounting and Internet fares.  There are also long distance train and bus services offered throughout the major (and even outlying regions) of Australia, though one might find them a less-than-speedy way to cut across the great Outback.  Regarding vehicle rental, it is very common for groups to pool together for a car, which is a fairly economical way to see the country; just ensure that you stay aware of the rental company’s protocol for mechanical failure – the last thing you’d want is to be stranded in the middle of the bush with zero chance for assistance.