Trains in Italy are excellent.
Also, recommend the overnight ferry from Naples to Sicily
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I usually find I know more than travel agents.
Having said that, the Flight Centre Travel Expo is on in early Feb at the Exhibition Centre. If you have done the research prior & know what you are after (product and dates) there are bargains to be had.
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particularly the youngsters who work at Flight Centre. Whilst planning our trip to Argentina last year, I formed the opinion that Flight Centre staff couldnāt find South America on a map of the world.
Best to research oneself and know most of the answers before you ask any travel agent.
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If youāre internet savvy, do your research, have your itinerary well-planned, book using reputable sites and have a dedicated c/card for internet purchases (low limit in case it gets hacked) thereās no great need for a travel agent these days. We do a couple of family trips a year (often multi-stop) and havenāt used one for a few years now.
AirBnB is great, but research carefully. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. Be careful of people who have many properties listed, or who offer you alternative accommodation for those dates - that can often be a sign of a scam. The other thing which can be annoying is that owners seem to be able cancel with limited warning. It will come up on their feedback that they cancelled, but you have limited opportunity to bemoan the fact. Weād booked accommodation 4 or 5 months out for a multi-country trip a few years ago. The owners in both Singapore and Helsinki suddenly cancelled with only a couple of weeks to go. Incredibly frustrating, given weād booked airfares/trains/transfers/other accommodation etc. so couldnāt rearrange the schedule. We were lucky - while options get somewhat limited the closer you are to actually travelling, we were able to find good substitutes in both cities.
Lately Iāve found booking.com to be a pretty decent option (especially for self-catering accommodation), but again you need to research things carefully.
Trains & buses in most of the western world crap on anything you find in Australia, so are definitely a good option for getting around.
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I can second that for accomodation bookings
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Good Travel Agents will get you better flight prices than you can get on the Net.
I always find the flights I want, take them to our Local HelloWorld and let them do better. They always do.
And if something goes pear shaped with an airline, I like having a Travel Agent to fix it when I am in the middle of nowhere.
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I use a travel agent for work trips only because I have to. Even then it is only to book flights.
Prefer to do it myself and hunt around.
Also have been burnt by travel agents before so am somewhat negative on them.
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Just had our flights to Bangkok cancelled for June. We have been offered to be placed on a different airline (Qantas) but Iāve declined. It was 2x award flights so Qantas will credit my points back thankfully and Iāll now look at other options
Has anyone tried Swapsy for FX? At present it looks like they only convert between USD and CNY but it looks like a good idea and will be better for us when they include A$ and other currencies.
An old university mate of mine is down from Sydney for a week, and, despite having lived in Melbourne for 27 years, had never been to the Wimmera, the Mallee or Mildura.
So on Thursday, we set off heading north into the heatā¦
Lunch at Horsham with my nephew
Through Brim and other Mallee towns with the artistic silos
Overnight in a scorching Mildura
Morning at Lock 11
Off to the Murray-Darling confluence at Wentworth, but according to the lock-keeper, you have to go about 50km north before you see how much damage Barnaby and his corrupt mates have done to the Darling. Itās all Murray water backing up.
Then to Swan Hill for lunch with an old crony known to all here.
Over to Barham, where my mateās mum hailed from and now lies.
Barham-Koondrook bridge which has recently been refurbished and the elevating centre panel rebuilt.
Off to Bendigo for the night.
Over to Maryborough for a view of that very grand railway station .
Back home through Avoca, Glenthompson, Caramut, Hawkesdale.
Lot cooler back here. It was putridly hot up on the river.
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Ha. Itās forecast as 40 in Melbourne on your first dayā¦
And what an absolutely phenomenal bloke he is.
Just totally top notch.
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albert thurgood is in swan hill?
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Have they finished the bridge? Was still being worked on when I was there in early October.
(my mother in law lives in Koondrook, she said the heat there was stifling last week.)
Yeahā¦just finished, but now they have to remove the temporary workings.
It was 40 plus when we were there.
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Youāre getting soft in your old age Noons.
At what age are you too old to stay at a backpackers and cart your stuff around in a one of those back packs they use?
Last time i went backpacking i was 31.
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My idiot mate loves staying at the backpackers and getting around in one of them backpacks. Heās 34. Kinda feel itās time he grew up a bit.
Iām going to Europe in June and intend on taking my backpack. I find it easy to carry. But am upgrading the accommodation.
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