Favourite (or otherwise) destinations

[Blitzkrieg]

Indeed, but as I found in Switzerland, scenic train journey's are often exclusive affairs, where a private company owns particular sections of railway and can get away with setting high prices for anyone that wants to travel along them. That aside, I think many of the examples given would be including exceptional accomodation and meals.

 

[Stonewall]

would hope so. Heritage class on the trans-siberia are prob converted cattle trucks.

 

[phlogiston]

My wife's a travel agent. Let me know what you want

 

[Winmar]

I'm off to Tassie again this arvo for 5 days. Nice.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Tiger had a one day sale earlier in the week, so I randomly bought tickets to Mackay for a week in Feb for my girlfriend's birthday (which is today). Have always wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef. Win.

 

[Watto]

I'm off to Tassie again this arvo for 5 days. Nice.

Nice, it's pretty lucky you live in Melbourne, there is constant $30 flight sales to Tassie from there.

 

[Lord Tim]

Just got back from Japan again. Every time I go there, I remember how awesome the place is, especially Nagoya for some reason. Just a really nice city full of gorgeous girls, great food and just the right balance of interesting/busy and fun/laid-back.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Japan has crept up my list of potential future holiday destinations. I figure it a very interesting country that you could see a large part of in just a few weeks.

I would love to do China, but fuck that would take months to get your head around most of what is on offer!

 

[Winmar]

Sweet, Japan! I'm tempted just to buy a flight there sometime when I'm in Asia.

China's massive!

 

[Shadow298]

any recommend a good cheap airline to New Zealand or who is the best to go to and from there.

 

[Lord Tim]

We did NZ on the first leg of our tour this year using Jetstar and they were pretty cheap. No frills and the usual level of what you'd expect from them, but it did the job. I can't remember off hand what it cost though.

Interestingly enough, I think Japan worked out cheaper for each of us because we got uber sale flights of around $400 return each, which is insane! We got the whole band and 2 roadies over there and back for just over $3k which is nuts!

 

[Winmar]

What do you folks use for funds when you're away? Travel cards?

 

[Lord Tim]

We just changed $AUD to Yen at the destination airport (or in rare cases found an ATM that accepted Aus cards, but the fees are nuts). Between that and a credit card, you're generally good to go.

 

[KoichCPA]

We just changed to Yen at the destination airport (or in rare cases found an ATM that accepted Aus cards, but the fees are nuts). Between that and a credit card, you're generally good to go.

Free ATM's are at post offices.

I'm going back in Feb too for another few weeks.

Totally awesome place.

 

[Goreripper]

Have always wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef.

Hurry up.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

That is why I am going in Feb!

LT who did you fly with to Japan? Those prices are awesome!

For funds, taking cash out of an ATM using a Visa debit will give you the best exchange rate and a small fee. This is why I take out a stack of money at a time so that I am not getting hit with this fee very often. The only problem then is carrying lots of cash, but a good security wallet should take care of that. Another option is ordering the foreign currency before you leave from a bank. They will give a much better exchange rate than a travel agent or a currency exchange booth in say an airport or a tourist destination. I use a credit/debit card for as many purchases as I can though, because this gives no fee and the best current exchange rate, and you won't burn through cash as fast so you won't need to get more cash out, attracting another ATM fee.

 

[Winmar]

Is it Visa debit that charges no fee on purchases? My Mastercard charges a fee on all overseas ones.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

My Visa debit didn't. Worth looking into.

 

[Lord Tim]

Yeah, we used the post office ATMs to get money out - it was one of the few that consistently worked for everyone, but I think we still got slugged like $5 or so fee on every transaction, so we tended to get out a big wad and just either carry it around or stash the bulk of it somewhere secure until we needed it. I could be wrong on that, though, but I'm pretty sure we still got the fees. Nothing on any credit card purchases that I'm aware of though.

Blitzy - we went Jetstar for Japan. Pretty crap but dirt cheap, and you can put up with crap for 8 or 9 hours if the price is right! Probably the worst bit of the trip was actually the 3 hour stop-over on the Gold Coast - the airport there is utter shit (to be fair, they're renovating it at the moment), and you spend a lot of time sitting around being bored out of your brain. And coming back into the country, forget any duty free shopping there - there basically is none, and you essentially go domestic from there back to Sydney/Melbourne/civilization and can't claim anything at your final destination airport.

 

[KoichCPA]

Blitzy - we went Jetstar for Japan. Pretty crap but dirt cheap, and you can put up with crap for 8 or 9 hours if the price is right! Probably the worst bit of the trip was actually the 3 hour stop-over on the Gold Coast - the airport there is utter shit (to be fair, they're renovating it at the moment), and you spend a lot of time sitting around being bored out of your brain. And coming back into the country, forget any duty free shopping there - there basically is none, and you essentially go domestic from there back to Sydney/Melbourne/civilization and can't claim anything at your final destination airport.

This man speaks ther truth. THe change over is apalling.

But

It's cheap and it gets you to Japan. Once you get there it's worth the hassle.