In May this year we decided to travel to Australia to catchup with friends we haven’t seen for a while and explore parts of Australia we haven’t seen for ages. We flew to Sydney via Beijing with China Airlines, then spent two weeks in Sydney, two weeks in Melbourne and a week in Perth before returning to the UK with Thai airlines via Bangkok.
China Airlines’ economy class can best be described as “cheap and cheerful” i.e., you get what you paid for. Their prices are very competitive, significantly less than other airlines, and the cabin crew are attentive but don’t expect luxury. The entertainment system does not have new release Hollywood movies, the English language movies they have were released several years ago and the meals are a bit on the bland side. Also, if you have a layover in a Chinese airport for a connecting flight, while you can access the internet, you can forget about using Google, Facebook, WhatsApp or any other western social media app while you wait for your next flight because those sites are blocked by the Chinese government. All you can do is wander aimlessly around the airport waiting for your connecting flight.
Something we have seen sneaking into online flight and hotel booking portals is differences between what the portal shows and what is actually offered by the supplier. For most travel agents, what you see on the portal is what you will see when placing your booking – but not always. We found a few sites where the price on the site is higher than the price on the portal and we found the baggage allowance at Kayak was different to what was shown on the portal. Another trick we’ve seen is the booking site trying to charge for things that the airline provides for free, such as a special meal. For things like special meals or seat allocation, it may be cheaper and more certain to phone the airline after booking your flight instead of trusting it to the agent.
As with all things, by all means use the booking sites listed on your favourite portal, they can save you a lot of money but keep your wits about you. When you are placing your order do not select an option unless you understand what the option is. Remember, a phrase such as “Its safer” actually means “I’ll pay extra” and “I’ll take the risk” actually means “No, I don’t need that option”.
When we got to Sydney, we bought eSims that included local calls for our phones instead of physical Sim cards, to give ourselves a local phone number. A local number avoids roaming charges and gives friends and family an easy way to contact us while in Australia. Installing the eSim was easy. We used the hotel Wi-Fi to log onto the phone company’s web site, placed the order and followed the instructions on the screen. The whole exercise took about 20 minutes and we didn’t have wait two or three days for the chip to arrive or fiddle with inserting it into our phones.
Because we were staying in each city for more than a week, we decided to stay in self-catering hotels instead of regular hotels. Self-catering hotels tend to be cheaper than regular hotels because they are intended for longer term stays and don’t need daily maintenance. They also tend to be larger and more private than a regular hotel and they have a small kitchen, which gives you the flexibility of eating in or eating out, whichever you choose. While we enjoy eating in local restaurants, constantly eating in restaurants for every meal every day quickly becomes expensive and the food can get very monotonous. After a few days we crave ordinary food so after checking into the hotel we visit a local market to buy some breakfast cereal and some bits and pieces for the evening. That way we can eat in or eat out for each meal, whichever we choose.
While in Sydney we used our Opal cards to take advantage of Sydney’s excellent public transport network. We caught the suburban train to Newcastle and Richmond to catchup with friends, we caught the light rail to the new Sydney Fish Markets and made many trips on the Metro, all for a maximum of $5 per day. (That’s not completely true; using the airport train stations will cost $15 because those stations are privately owned.)
The new fish market in Blackwattle Bay, just across the bay from the old fish market is a modern must see destination for seafood enthusiasts. Opened in January 2026, it is the largest seafood market in the southern hemisphere and the third largest in the world, after Tokyo and Mexico City. The new market is a modern multi-level market with retail stores on the upper level and the lower levels reserved for wholesale seafood auctions. To get to the market we caught the light rail from Sydney and then walked for about 10 minutes from the light rail station.
The market is roughly midway between two light rail stations but, unfortunately, there aren’t any signs to tell you in which direction the market is when you get off the train. You are just expected to “know”. Nevertheless, when you get to the market, you are greeted with some of the best quality seafood anywhere in the world all sold at reasonable prices. We bought two dozen Sydney Rock oysters for $22 per dozen, half a kilogram of cooked king prawns and some sashimi grade salmon for our lunch all for less than $100, including condiments. In some London restaurants they charge £5 per oyster, we bought two dozen for $44, which works out at roughly £0.90 per oyster.
After Sydney we travelled to Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, on the eXpress Passenger Train (aka the XPT). We caught the XPT mainly because time was not important and it went from the centre of Sydney to the centre of Melbourne. No travelling to or from an airport, no airport security, no being herded like cattle into a seat with no legroom and no sitting for two hours staring at the seat in front of you. Instead, we enjoyed a relaxing 11 hour journey through rural NSW and Victoria. Admittedly there wasn’t any spectacular scenery to see but time was not important and it was a very relaxing journey. It was also less than half the cost of flying from Sydney to Melbourne.
Both Melbourne and Sydney offer free walking tours which last for a couple of hours and you pay the guide what you think the tour was worth. They range from very good to ordinary, depending on the guide and they are an excellent orientation in each city.
Our hotel in Melbourne was a jazz themed hotel with a tram stop and a metro station about two minutes’ walk from the hotel and it was only about 10 minutes easy walk from Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market. Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market and the South Melbourne Market are two heritage listed markets that are well worth a visit. They have lots of small stall holders selling everything from specialty foods to staples to clothing to souvenirs and bric-a-brac and the streets around the markets have lots of cafés selling coffee and meals. Competition is fierce so all of them serve excellent coffee.
Two must see sights in Melbourne are the Twelve Apostles, along the Great Ocean Road and the Penguin Parade on Philip Island. The Great Ocean Road winds its way through the towns and communities along Victoria’s south coast, leading to the Twelve Apostles, which are pillars of limestone weathered from the coastal cliffs as the sea gradually eats away the cliffs. As well as the Apostles, you can see sea caves, blow holes and secluded beaches. Spoiler alert; there isn’t twelve pillars anymore but apparently there was once.
Philip Island’s Penguin Parade is a parade of Little Penguins (yes, that is their name), also known as Fairy Penguins or Little Blue Penguins, coming ashore in the evening. They are the smallest known penguin species, standing less than a foot tall and watching them come ashore in the evening is a sight well worth seeing. The facility includes a modern visitor centre, boardwalks to protect the environment from the tourists and several viewing platforms to watch the penguins from. Unfortunately, taking photographs of the penguins as they come ashore is banned by the wildlife service because the camera flashes would disorient the penguins.
After two weeks in Melbourne we flew to Perth, the capital of Western Australia, on Australia’s west coast. Perth is officially the worlds most isolated major city, closer to Jakarta and Singapore than it is to Sydney or Melbourne.
As well as exploring Perth, we explored the city of Fremantle with its 19th century heritage listed buildings, seafood restaurants and the oldest continuous market in Australia. If you are into wine, Perth’s Swan Valley wineries are close by and the Margaret River wineries are only a couple of hours drive from Perth along a modern freeway. It goes without saying that it is safer to join a tour rather than drive around the wineries on your own.
While in Perth we booked a tour to the Pinnacle Desert. Located roughly 200 km north of Perth, the pinnacles in the Pinnacle Desert are natural limestone mounds ranging in height from a few centimetres to over 3.5 meters tall. They were formed 20,000 to 30,000 years ago after the sea receded leaving deposits of limestone that have eroded over time to form the pinnacles.
After a week in Perth, we boarded a plane and made our way back to the UK and back to reality.
Overall, we enjoyed our three cities in five weeks in Australia. As well as the vibrancy of the three cities, we found that when traveling between Sydney and Melbourne, if time is not important then the XPT is far more pleasant than flying.
We could have easily spent a couple of months exploring Sydney’s harbour, beaches and surrounding area and we could have just as easily spent another couple of months exploring Melbourne’s café culture and shopping. Not to be outdone, we found Perth to be a modern cosmopolitan city on Asia’s doorstep with some great wineries and some spectacular desert scenery nearby.