Trip Report: Australia
Visited in December 2022
Believe it or not, it took me 142 countries to finally make it to Australia. This might be a bit surprising because Australia is a country that most people who like to travel have visited at least once. As a European, however, the trip to Down Under takes long, and to make it worthwhile, you actually need at least four weeks. Since you cannot take a four-week vacation every year as a full-time worker, I also had my reasons why it took me so long to visit Australia.
In December 2022, the time had finally come. Australia was the main destination on a one-month trip, on which Kati and I also visited Malaysia (revisit), Vanuatu and Brunei. The plan was to spend a total of 22 days in Australia. In fact, I have never spent more days in one country during one trip, so my anticipation was huge. Not only was I able to travel for a month again, but I was also incredibly looking forward to Australia. After all, it is a country where I have not heard from anyone that she or he did not enjoy it.
It all came differently, though. The reality is that Australia trip turned out to be one in which almost everything went wrong. It wasn’t the fault of Australia but rather a combination of unfortunate circumstances that made this trip partly a disaster. So that you get an understanding for it, I describe briefly what happened:
Getting to Down Under
Two weeks before the trip, I received an email from Turkish Airlines. The flight from Basel to Istanbul, from where we were to fly to Kuala Lumpur, was canceled. Turkish also did not find it necessary to offer a replacement flight. It was simply an info that the flight will not take place.
Since we could not fly earlier, we had to rebook us on a flight on the following day. This meant that our stopover in Malaysia would only last one night. Flying from Europe to Australia with only one night in between in another country is not something I would call an optimal outbound trip. After all, the ten-hour time difference alone means that a slow acclimatization would make sense. But that’s the way it was, and it was also the smallest issue on this trip…
The stopover in Kuala Lumpur turned out to be disappointing. As a matter of fact, it was probably my most uneventful layover I ever had because it rained almost non-stop. Nevertheless, it did not ruin our mood. I mean, in the end, Australia was our main destination and not Malaysia.
Our flight to Australia followed after 24 hours and was then the beginning of the disaster. The plane was already descending over Sydney but had to take off again. I could already see the city from above, but somehow the pilot did not manage to land the plane. He tried a second and a third time without success before he made an announcement. Due to a thunderstorm in Sydney a landing was not possible, and we would be redirected to Brisbane.
An hour later we landed in Brisbane. At the airport, we then had to wait five (!) hours inside the plane (!). Every thirty minutes or so we were told that we were about to fly back to Sydney, only to be told another twenty minutes later that for some random reason that was not possible. The mood among the passengers got worse and worse.
There was no food and drinks on the plane either. Respectively, there was but the airline was not willing to give it to the passengers. At least not for free. They told us that they would only accept cash as payment. Kati and I already spent all our Malaysian Ringgits and did not have Australian Dollars yet. After two or three hours at the airport, I told the flight attendant that I wanted some food now, even if I couldn’t pay for it. She then slipped me a Kitkat bar and whispered that I shouldn’t tell the other passengers that I got it for free. It was undignified.
After five hours we were told that we would not fly to Sydney anymore that day. Thus, we were allowed to enter the airport and had to wait another hour at the gate before they let us go through immigration. I immediately tried to book new flights to Sydney on the same day. Sitting in the plane I checked the prices and found a flight for about AU$ 150 (about USD 100). In the meantime, the price was AU$ 450, because probably all passengers from this flight wanted to book that flight immediately. When I decided that I would even pay the AU$ 450, the flight was not available anymore.
In the arrival hall, no one knew at first what was going to happen with all the stranded passengers. It was chaotic and only after about two hours have passed, we finally sat in a bus in the direction of Brisbane’s Central Business District. Fortunately, the airline paid for the accommodation and the 5-star Crystalbrook Vincent hotel we got was incredible.
The next day, the return flight to Sydney was going to happen. We were picked up at our hotel in Brisbane at 9am. By the time we arrived at our hotel in Sydney, it was already 6pm. So we spent the first two days actually more or less at the airport in Brisbane. In addition, we lost almost all of our time in Sydney…
Our itinerary in Australia was divided into two parts. First, we were supposed to spend three days in Sydney before flying to Vanuatu. After Vanuatu, we would spend another 19 days in Australia. But since we would fly from Vanuatu to Brisbane and not back to Sydney, the three days in Sydney now turned into only one day. For us it was not an option to travel to Australia and then spend only one day in Sydney. For this reason, we had to reorganize the whole second part of the itinerary so that we could spend another three nights in Sydney.
We paid a high price for this. Because when I had planned the trip a few months before, most hotels still had rooms available at a quite affordable rate. Now, ten days before Christmas, it was difficult to find good deals. In the end, this led to additional costs of several hundred euros per person and as you can imagine, a trip to Oceania is not cheap anyway.
The good thing, however, was that I had planned several buffer days in the original itinerary. In other words, days with activities that could be canceled in the worst case (e.g. the Blue Mountains near Sydney). Therefore, at this point, it looked like we would just have some unnecessary extra costs, but our route would not change much.
We lose another three days
The first three days were basically lost days. We spent two days at the airport in Brisbane, one night in Brisbane’s CBD and about 24 hours in Sydney. But even the day in Sydney was actually a lost one. It’s not the same when you know you must leave again that same evening. Basically, we checked into our hotel, had dinner, slept a few hours, checked out of the hotel, visited the harbor, walked up and down the CBD, and then went back to the airport…
At this point, however, I was still convinced that the trip would be good despite all the issues. From Sydney, we then flew to Vanuatu and those who have read my trip report will know that another flight was canceled there and we were stuck on Vanuatu for three additional days. So in the first nine days of this trip, all three international flights were cancelled or redirected. Can you believe that?
Furthermore, 19 days in Australia now became only 16. Initially, we had 22 days planned for Australia. After the redirected flight I thought that we would still have enough time with 19 days, but 16 days were not a lot anymore. Above all, I knew that we now had to travel through Australia at quite a fast pace to still see everything we originally wanted to see.
As a consequence, we canceled the places around Brisbane. We had originally planned six days in this region and wanted to visit Byron Bay and either the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast besides Brisbane. After we came back to Australia from Vanuatu, we eventually only spent two days in Brisbane. We explored the city, and we also visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which was basically our first real highlight in Australia.
At this point I would like to draw a short interim conclusion of this trip. In fact, almost two weeks of this four-week trip were already over. Two weeks and we had the feeling that we had experienced almost nothing. Mount Yasur in Vanuatu was cool and also the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. Other than that, we felt like we were running from airport to airport most of the time.
Bad weather
From Brisbane we were supposed to travel overland to Cairns. The typical backpacker trail on Australia’s east coast and probably the most popular itinerary in the country. Before we left Brisbane, however, I found out that Queensland was in for a rainy week. Of all things, now when our trip should finally start properly, and we wanted to do many activities outdoors.
From this point on, we had over a week of gray sky at best and pouring rain at worst. To be fair I must also mention that it was rainy season in the northeast of Australia, so we should have expected bad weather at least in Cairns. It still sucked. After the odyssey from Malaysia to Australia to Vanuatu and back to Australia, the eight days of rain were the last thing we needed. Of course, you can’t control the weather and a rainy day now and then is not a dealbreaker either.
Nevertheless, we did our thing, visited Fraser Island, the Whitsunday Islands, the Kuranda Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Some of these tours were still good despite the rather mediocre weather, although, for example, Fraser Island with gray sky and the occasional shower is just not the same as on a sunny day.
Honestly, under other circumstances I might have even changed the route after 2-3 rainy days. Or I would have even left the country earlier. But we had already reorganized the entire trip at short notice, which has led to significant additional costs. To reorganize everything again was therefore out of the question. In addition, we thought that with this streak of bad luck changing the route would probably have resulted in bad weather at our new destination as soon as we arrived. Or something would have gone wrong with the flight again. It seemed that this trip was doomed.
Fortunately, we still had a happy end in Australia. Our last two days in Cairns were still not great weather-wise, but at least occasionally the sun came out. After almost a week without sun, we were happy already from one hour of sun per day. Thus, the Kuranda daytrip as well as the Great Barrier Reef were a bit better than the tours the days before.
Our last six days in Australia, which we spent in Sydney and Melbourne, were finally sunny. On these days we could finally enjoy Australia as we had imagined. It didn’t even matter that it was colder in Melbourne than in my hometown Basel, although Switzerland was in the depths of winter. The main thing was that it didn’t rain.
As you can see, a lot of things went wrong in Australia. Before I draw a conclusion about this trip, I would like to mention the things I liked and disliked about Australia.
What I liked about Australia
Probably the best thing about Australia is the country’s diversity. When planning a trip to Australia, you are spoiled for choice when it comes to deciding your route, as there is so much to do. This is not surprising since it is the sixth largest country in the world.
We focused on the highlights of the east coast between Sydney and Cairns and on Melbourne. The reason for this was probably also a bit of convenience. After all, this part of Australia is an extremely popular tourist trail, and the itinerary almost creates itself. Besides, the most important cities are in this part of the country.
The cities were also the highlight of Australia for me. Maybe that’s because the weather was good in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. But other than that, I found the Australian cities nice, and they had a lot to offer to visitors. The best city for me was Sydney. This city is certainly unique with its location, the harbor, the iconic Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and the beaches.
The beaches around Sydney even deserve an extra mention. It takes no more than about 40 minutes from Sydney’s Central Business District to get to one of the many beaches. We did the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee on January 1. While Bondi was so crowded that it didn’t make you want to go to the beach, this coastal walk was pretty cool.
Surprisingly, I also found Brisbane very good, although you read on travel blogs again and again that the city is not worth it. Brisbane is modern, though. It also provides a few good attractions, has a great culinary offer, and even has its own beach in the city center. For me, Brisbane is definitely an underrated city, and I can’t understand why it gets so little love.
Melbourne was also nice. However, we just spent one day in the city and used the other two days for daytrips to the coast. On one day, fellow EPS-member Fiona drove us down the Great Ocean Road and on the other day we did the Phillip Island tour. The coastal region of Victoria will therefore remain stronger in my memory than Melbourne itself.
I also met Ben and Eilidh from Saiga Tours in Melbourne. The two used to work for Young Pioneer Tours and now they have their own tour company. Ben arranged my trip to Afghanistan a few years ago and I also met him and Eilidh (by coincidence) in Turkmenistan. So it was quite cool to see these guys again in Australia.
I also found the Australians in general to be friendly and humorous people. You actually feel always and everywhere welcome. In fact, many people messaged me on Instagram either wanting to meet for coffee or offering to help me in their hometown if needed. This kind of thing is quite rare in the Western world and I appreciated it very much.
Another highlight for me was the wildlife. Australia offered flora and fauna that I had never seen before. For example, I saw (and fed) kangaroos for the first time in my life. I was able to hold a koala plus we met dingoes in the wild. Impressive were also the many and huge spiders we saw at several places. We also occasionally encountered snakes and other reptiles and we even saw penguins!
Maybe I need to be a little more precise because we saw many of these animals not in their natural habitat but in sanctuaries. It was still great. The best of these sanctuaries, in my opinion, was the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. The Moonlit Sanctuary Conservation Park, which we visited on the way to Phillip Island, was also quite good. On the other hand, the Kuranda Koala Gardens was a bit depressing.
Of the typical tourist attractions, I would like to mention two. First, I thought the Kuranda Scenic Railway was awesome. This is a train ride from Cairns to the Kuranda Rainforest, which leads through very beautiful landscapes. For me, this was the slightly better “Kandy to Ella” train ride from Sri Lanka. In contrast to this seven-hour and at some point monotonous train ride, the Kuranda Scenic Railway takes an ideal two hours.
Second, I also loved the Phillip Island tour from Melbourne. The main event of this tour is the penguin parade, where hundreds of penguins come ashore from the sea at sunset to feed their little ones. Besides, the other three to four stops on this tour were interesting too and offer both beautiful scenery and wildlife.
What I disliked about Australia
Even if everything had gone well on this trip, there would be some points I did not like. Some of them are directly related to Australia, others are more about the way we traveled.
First, the obvious when traveling in the sixth largest country in the world: the distances. Getting from A to B in Australia takes time. It’s not like in New Zealand where you can self-drive and see 4-5 different sights a day. We covered almost 40 hours in Australia by bus and also had one or the other flight. Maybe our itinerary was a bit too packed, especially when it was clear that we only had eight days left for the stretch from Brisbane to Cairns.
Besides, I wouldn’t travel the way we did anymore. We mostly booked Greyhound buses to get from one place to the next. The price of the hop-on-hop-off ticket was just too tempting in the end. However, I guess we were too old for this type of travel, as the average age on the bus was probably around 25 most of the time. Somehow these bus rides were also gross, as it usually smelled like fries, burgers and foot sweat inside. I mean, there are nicer things than getting on the bus in Airlie Beach at 10 o’clock in the morning, where just 50 backpackers coming from Brisbane spent the night.
A bit silly were the 30-minute food breaks during the bus rides. These happen at rather random times, for example at 10.45 or at 16.25. Some of these breaks take place at well-equipped gas stations with restaurants, others at places where you won’t find anything warm to eat.
The most ridiculous break was the one in the capital city Canberra. Our bus driver stopped at 22.50 in the city center and told us that we now had time to eat something. He couldn’t tell us where, though. He said we could walk up and down the streets and see if we find something. So I have at least seen something of the capital.
Moreover, I found Australia quite expensive, although it is necessary to differentiate. The accommodations, usually one of the biggest cost drivers of a trip, were actually okay. I mean, in the CBD of Sydney you can get a 4-star hotel for less than AU$ 200 per night. In the center of Paris or London, you’ll pay double or even more like triple that. Expensive in Australia were the tours like for the Great Barrier Reef or the Whitsunday Islands (Whitehaven Beach & Inlet Hill), which usually cost something between AU$ 200-300 per person.
What I found really shocking were the prices for food. In the city centers, “normal” (i.e. no Michelin stars), restaurants with good ratings had prices that were not far from those in Switzerland – if at all. In supermarkets like Woolworths, food was also more expensive than in Switzerland. I mean, AU$ 3.75 for 0.5l Coca Cola is a hefty price. And you should definitely avoid convenience stores like EzyMart or 7-Eleven in Australia.
Australia, by the way, is the first country I’ve been to that adds a surcharge on goods or services on Sundays or national holidays. The standard surcharge is 10% but some restaurants charge significantly more. Add to that a credit card surcharge of 1-2% and you are not far from the confusing US pricing system. One of our hotels actually charges a 100% surcharge for laundry on Sundays. Crazy.
What I also did not like was Cairns. Somehow I found this city a bit trashy, especially the center. At night, it’s full of drunk and homeless Aborigines, so the city doesn’t feel very safe either. Only two blocks further is the waterfront, which seems like a mass-tourism place à la Cancun. It was a bit surreal but the city was not my cup of tea at all.
Last point to mention is that traveling in Australia during Christmas and New Year is not the best time. Everything is even more expensive than usual, there are many tourists (local and foreign) and the hotels are fully booked. I did the same mistake in New Zealand by the way. On the other hand, Christmas is also the best time to take off from work.
Will I ever come back?
As you can see, a lot of things went wrong on this trip. If I draw a conclusion, it looks like this: of the 19 days in Australia, seven were really good. These were the last six days plus the day in Brisbane when we visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Then there were maybe 2-3 more days that were okay. The rest of the days were disappointing. So, 7 great days plus 2-3 okay-days out of 19 days in total. This is at most an average result I would say. Plus, you have to consider that Malaysia and Vanuatu before Australia was not only fun either.
Maybe one or the other reader will now think that I’m also exaggerating a bit. I also don’t want to sound like an ungrateful and entitled prick. It’s just that I thought that this might be the best trip of the year. And it became the most disappointing.
Australia can’t really be blamed for what happened. It was just a trip with a streak of bad luck like I have never experienced it before. I mean, the fact that three flights were canceled in the first nine days is probably something you will encounter once in a lifetime. If at all. As I’m reading through this article, I have a feeling that this could be a plot from a Ben Stiller movie.
Aside from the mishaps that happened to us, most of the things I criticized are also things that can be prevented by traveling differently. If I were to start the trip all over again, I would pretty much travel with a rental car. Furthermore, I would pick a different time than between Christmas and New Year.
I still think that Oz is a great country to travel and I will definitely come back someday. With these almost three weeks, I now got a first impression of the country. However, Australia is so huge that it would take months to see all the highlights. I still want to visit the West Coast, Tasmania and the Outback someday. Who knows, maybe I’ll be back Down Under relatively soon when I visit the rest of the countries in the South Pacific.
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I was living in Australia more than 15 years and still I haven’t travel many places. I agree with you, yes it is very expressive. It is more cheap to travel in south east Asia. I don’t recommend either traveling Dec & Jan any school holidays. Aus is a massive county and beautiful place. If you are traveling OZ need more time. Hope you next visit will be a great one. Yes Sydney is the best city 😃. Thank you.