Australia on the move

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A June 2010 trip to Australia by MagdaDH_AlexH

On board Photo - Indian Pacific, South Australia, Australia

Quote: How we travelled from place to place in Australia

21 Photos

Jetstar: no frills flights Australian style

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Our stuff: waiting for the Jetstar to Melbourne Photo - Darwin, Australia

Quote:

JetStar is the budget subsidiary of Qantas, and one of several low-fare, no-frills airlines that operate in Australia and Oceania. Although JetStar has its own livery, separate ticket desks at the airports and own planes, the Qantas website shows the regular Qantas flights as well as JetStar flights and is thus the best place to look for connections and fares.

The main competitors of Jetstar/Qantas in Australia are VirginBlue and TigerAirlines. However, if you are looking for flights at a short notice, and if you are travelling with any hold luggage, a JetStar or a Qantas flight is likely to be your best bet: although VirginBlue can offer very good prices, these usually have to be booked weeks in advance, while TigerAirlines have a complex and not very transparent fare structure with high penalties for hold luggage. Additionally, Qantas is a national carrier and thus, together with JetStar, has the highest coverage.

The prices we paid were not particularly low (at least not by European cheap flight standards): we paid about 280 A

We took two JetStar flights, one from Cairns to Darwin, which we booked online couple of days before departure; and one from Darwin to Melbourne which we booked at the airport on the day.

I can't fault the members of JetStar staff I encountered: they were friendly, polite and helpful, and particularly the ticket desk person in Darwin was very understanding of the predicament we were in at the time.

The Cairns-Darwin flight continued to Singapore, and thus was treated as an international flight: this meant we had to check-in earlier but I suspect it also was the reason for a more comfortable seats: overall JetStar seats were not too bad in either of the planes, fairly wide and well padded in black leather (much nicer than for example Emirates Economy seats we had to endure for the total of about 60 hours flight time), although as usual in Economy, they could do with a bit more leg room. Comparing to the European cheap flight king Ryanair, JetStar had both bigger seats and more leg room.

However, the seats on the Darwin to Melbourne flight did not recline at all: considering that it was an entirely a night-time flight (it left at around 2am and arrived around 7am), this lack of recline was simply awful and made what could have been a reasonable flight into a gruelling one (I for once cannot sleep completely upright).

All in all, JetStar flights we took were OK: pretty much what you would expect from a non-frills airline, lower key than some European budget carriers (Ryanair or EasyJet) and with quite reasonable seats (which is, after all, the most important thing in a flight). If you are contemplating a night-time flight with JetStar, do check if the aircraft you'll be flying on has reclining seats – or prepare to be sitting upright all the way. Read Less

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Great Ocean Road

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Attraction | "Scenic rocks in The Thing"

Pretty, eh? Photo - Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Quote:

Theoretically speaking, we have almost three days for the Great Ocean Road: we are doing a relocation of a motor home, and we are picking it up on Saturday morning in Melbourne to deliver it in Adelaide by three pm on Monday. "Morning" is a relative term, though, and by the time the vehicle is actually ready for us (we are getting it for 5 bucks a day, so we can't really complain) and we are on our way, it's well past mid-day. Driving this Thing feels like driving a gigantic wardrobe on wheels, with the stuff inside rattling and rolling, and (at least at the beginning) constant fear that it needs more space that there is on the road. It's big, by far the biggest thing I (or even DH) have ...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on October 12, 2010

Great Ocean Road

Victoria, Australia 3230
61 (3) 5275 5797

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Rental car relocations: cheap one way car hire in Australia

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On the road in South Australia Photo - Australia, South Pacific

Quote:

Can you imagine camping in a luxury six berth motor home along the most beautiful stretch of coast in Australia for three days without paying a penny for the hire, and in fact with a quarter of the fuel money thrown in? Would you like to drive from Darwin to Melbourne in a new hire car for free, with all fuel covered and even an extra hundred dollars spending money? If these deals seem too good to be true, you might be for a surprise: such rental car relocations are one of the best long-distance one-way car hire options in Australia. ==Why get a relocation?==Australia is a huge country and anybody wishing to explore it in more detail will have to combine different ways of...Read More

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Queensland Rail

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Attraction | "Traveltrain: long-distance trains in Queensland"

Townsville station Photo - Queensland Rail, Brisbane, Australia

Quote:

Traveltrain is a subdivision of Queensland Rail and provides long-distance train connections within the Australian state of Queensland. In a country with a skeleton rail service outside large urban areas, where driving and flying dominate the long-distance travel, Queensland is comparatively well served by railways (by Australian standards at least) and worth seriously considering. The Traveltrain operates on four routes, one along the coast on the 1,700km stretch between Brisbane and Cairns, and three inland trains that go from the coast west into the outback. The main Traveltrain route is the coastal one, with the Brisbane to Cairns route serviced by two types of train (Tilt...Read More

Queensland Rail

Brisbane, Australia 4001
61 (0)7 3235 5555

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Indian-Pacific: from Adelaide to Sydney on the GSR train

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Indian Pacific, near Peterborough Photo - Australia, South Pacific

Quote:

Great Southern Rail (GSR) is probably the best known if possibly the least used by the Aussies of the Australian train companies, and it runs three long-distance interstate services, of which the longest is the Indian-Pacific, crossing the country (and the continent) between Sydney on the east coast and Perth on the west. The train runs once a week (twice a week in season, which is approximately between October and April) and covers over 4,000km between Sydney and Perth in about 65 hours. We travelled from Adelaide to Sydney, leaving at 10am on Friday and arriving around 11am the same time on Saturday. **Shortly after the train leaves Adelaide, the suburbs give way ...Read More

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Indian Pacific

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Attraction | "Good journey, service could be better"

Quote:

We travelled on the Indian-Pacific in August 2010, between Adelaide and Sydney, as a family of four.We booked the tickets over the phone two days before we left (you have to buy at least a week in advance to purchase online, for reasons that completely elude me), and we were instructed to be at the terminal at least half an hour before the train's departure. We paid 142 AUD for the adults and 130 AUD for children. The adults tickets were purchased as so-called "backpacker" fare, available to holders of several cards, in our case Hostelling International, though to be honest nobody ever checked our cards, while the saving was substantial - a regular ticket costs over 300 AUD. Th...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on October 9, 2010

Indian Pacific
South Austral
South Australia, South Australia

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About the Writer

MagdaDH_AlexH
Perth, United Kingdom

"A Round Pole and a Lost Brit travelling around the world. All text by Magda, pictures by Alex or Mag..."
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