Hi to everyone on this forum,
We will be travelling to Australia (on BA metal as we need to use BA miles - apologies
) for 3-4 weeks around Xmas 2005 (that is Dec'05-Jan'06).
Dueto very limited flight availability (for miles) we will have to book the flights almost 12 months is advance i.e in January 2005 - obviously we will have enough time to read Lonely Planet and other sources about what to do and where to go... But I surely rely on FT community views of course.
Below you might see some very boring and traditional questions but may I ask your views/suggestions:
In/Out route - Melbourne or Sydney? Any principal difference/warnings?
Around the country - how to travel to minimise cost and maximise miles ?
. Any special "passes" on QF? I am BAEC member - do I need to get on QF FF programme to get to extra benefits?
Theme - generally backpacking with once week splash on a nice hotel. We want to see Sydney (for NY), Perth (friends), Outback/Ayers Rock, nice beaches & snorkelling (no sharks please) - the rest is we are open for any suggestions
...
As we will be travelling between end Dec and end Jan - is there any difference to take north-south or sount-north direction on the east coast to avoid any weather extrems (although hot weather is fine with us)?
I will be checking this thread quite regularly next months (also to lift it up to the "visible" part of the forum - can we make it sticky?
) so hope your recomendations will be useful to everyone planning their 1st trip down under
Thanks for your help, cheers and a Merry Xmas to everyone!