Australia is a big country, almost as big because the continental United States. Taking a journey there usually means picking one or two areas to discover rather than attempting to tackle the entire nation at once. It’s important to not pack in too many destinations, in any other case you’ll discover yourself spending half of your journey in transit rather than having fun with the wonderful issues Australia has to offer. Here are some issues to consider when planning Australia transportation.
Distances in Australia
It’s easy to forget how far aside locations are when you’re not from there.
If you’re an American taking a journey within the US, you’d probably by no means plan a two week journey that concerned going to New York City, Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles. The distances between them are too great, and also you know you’d discover yourself losing a number of hours of a number of days sitting at airports and in flight.
As a reference, right here are some distances between popular locations in Australia:
- Sydney to Melbourne is about 550 miles or 880 kilometers
- Sydney to Cairns is about 1,510 miles or 2,415 kilometers
- Sydney to Uluru is about 1,780 miles or 2,850 kilometers
- Sydney to Perth is about 2,460 miles or 3,935 kilometers
Flying round Australia
As you can see, issues are fairly unfold out in Australia.
If you’re visiting two or three locations that aren’t too near every other, flying could prevent time. Just remember that the flight time is solely a half of your in-transit time.
You want to be on the airport an hour or two forward of time, plus it takes time to get to the airport, collect your baggage after the flight if you’ve checked bags, after which it takes time to get from the airport to your hotel.
That’s anywhere from two to 4 hours alongside with the time you spend in flight.
Flying from Sydney to Melbourne is solely about an hour and a half. But a lot past that, and you’re looking at greater than two hours flight time.
Direct flights from Sydney to Cairns is three hours, Sydney to Uluru is almost 4 hours, and Sydney to Perth is round 5 hours.
And don’t forget there are a number of different time zones in Australia.
If you’re going to smaller places, it might be harder to discover direct flights. Taking a connecting flight provides hours to your transit day and takes away out of your journey time.
Australia’s bus and train options
There certainly are bus choices in Australia, however due to the distances, you’re probably higher off saving this for shorter hauls.
For example, Townsville to Airlie Beach is solely 4 or 5 hours by bus. But for longer distances, the bus could take anywhere from 12 hours and up relying on the place you’re going. Sydney to Melbourne takes 12-14 hours by bus. Adelaide to Sydney takes about 24 hours.
If you want trains, there are a number of you can take, however they won’t be fast either. It’s best to take a train journey in Australia as a vacation spot itself.
Take a few days to journey through the nation by train and benefit from the scenery. There are choices that take you up and down the east coast, from top to bottom, from east coast to west coast, and more. Check out Rail Australia for particulars on all routes.
Renting a car in Australia
I generally don’t think it’s essential to rent a car when touring to a different country.
If you’re spending a lot of time in big cities, like Sydney and Melbourne, renting a car will be a bigger hassle than it’s worth. Parking is costly and hard to discover in cities, whereas public transportation is affordable and easy to use.
Check out the web sites for Sydney’s public transportation and Melbourne’s public transportation.
The exception to my rental car rule is when the road journey is the journey itself.
If you want to spend a number of days driving alongside the Great Ocean Road however you want to go at your personal pace, renting a car is a good choice. Or maybe you want to drive up the east coast for a road journey filled with seashores and the Great Barrier Reef.
Just keep in thoughts that there are different driving guidelines in Australia that you’ll have to know so as to safely and legally drive there. Plus, they drive on the left side of the road and the proper side of the car, reverse of the US and Canada.
Driving through the Australian Outback
Lots of individuals want to see the Outback when touring to Australia. And whereas renting a car and taking a road journey through parts of the Outback might appear appealing, it’s not as easy because it sounds.
It’s an enormous area of the nation and as you might expect, it’s sparsely populated. This means you might go miles with out seeing one other person, car or gas station.
Running out of gas or having one other kind of car trouble could get you stranded and trigger many different issues you wouldn’t take into consideration whereas driving in cities. Read this post about driving through the Outback earlier than you get your coronary heart set on it.
Safer methods of seeing the Outback include becoming a member of a tour or taking one of many scenic trains talked about within the part above.
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Australia has so many choices for exploring, however it’s not a compact country. Planning your transportation is an important a half of ensuring your journey runs easily and also you maximize your journey time. Try to stay to one or two areas if you don’t have a lot time, and account for extra time concerned when flying. Most of all, benefit from the wonderful experiences Australia has to offer!
Big thanks to one of my readers, Matthew, for giving us lots of useful hyperlinks for transportation in Australia:
- Flight booking: http://www.webjet.com.au, http://www.zuji.com.au, http://www.flightcentre.com.au, http://www.statravel.com.au
- Car sharing: http://www.goget.com.au (Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane), http://www.flexicar.com.au (Melbourne)
- Buses: http://www.greyhound.com.au, http://www.ozexperience.com, http://www.fireflyexpress.com.au
Read extra about Australia:
- Simple Australia Itinerary
- Great Ocean Road Tour Review
- Interview with an Australia Itinerary Expert
- Traveling to Australia: Things to Know Before You Go
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