Hello Dear Readers!
It’s been a furious few weeks here for me, as I’m roughly three quarters of the way through a trip to Australia. It’s been an an incredible journey so far, and I’m more than a little excited to share it with you all.
First things first- figuring out my itinerary for Australia was pretty overwhelming. I originally booked my ticket for ten days, figuring, what the hey, that should be a good amount of time to tour the country. However, upon beginning to try and figure out where I was going to go, I realized that Australia is simply massive. I know, I know I should look at a map more often.
Anyways, it’s nearly the size of the U.S., so once I realized this, I decided to go ahead and change my dates from August 2nd-14th to August 2nd-24th, giving me just over three weeks in the country. (Though not really, since you lose two days on the way over.) I then decided to do the classic journey from Sydney up the East Coast, stopping over in Brisbane, Hervey Bay, Airlie Beach, and Cairns before hopping a flight to Alice Springs for a quick jaunt through the outback. Now this may seem like a lot, and it is, but it doesn’t begin to touch the amount of things to see and do in Australia.
So, with my itinerary decided, it was time to figure out where to stay. As an aside here, I booked my ticket to Australia during a price war between the major US domestic airlines, meaning my nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Sydney clocked in at just over $700 on Delta. I then paid for the flight using 35,000 American Express points. (To see what I’m talking about with these points, click here).
Australia doesn’t happen to be a cheap country to travel, especially when you’re booking hotels. I could use points, but it would burn much of my stash, so that’s not really ideal. And I’ve always wanted to meet great people while traveling, which is a bit difficult when you’re isolated in a hotel room.
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All of this is a lead up to say that I booked most of my nights in hostels. And not just like, private rooms in hostels. I mean 10 bed dorms with creaky metal bunks and the dulcet sounds of snoring to keep me awake all night. Do I sound bitter? Maybe a bit.
So this has basically been an intro to the reallly long saga of my trip that I’ll be posting over the next few weeks. Are you guys excited? I am!
First up- Sydney!
-Carissa “Almost an Aussie” Rawson
Just Plane Points 