ozzieclare2b

Ok so we are thi king of having a rekkie first when we get the visa. Part of me thinks stuff it sell up and just get on a plane when visa arrives the other half thinks you need to go and look and see if you like it. We have already decided on Adelaide and Chris doesnt want to look at other areas while we are there, wants to get to know Adelaide.

So, whats the best thing to do?? Do we look at flights and separte accomodation or try and look at packages?? there doesnt seem to be many around on the net (package) and i have rang a few cheap flight places who have said they will ring me back but havent. Nlow dont know where to start!!:curse: Dont want to spend an absolute fortune on the holiday but wantto stop over in singapre on the way as i have always wanted to go there.

so if anyones got any tips feel free to share (crikey what would i do without you lot!) ps this is all hyperthetical really lol as we havent even got the visa but like to plan ahead! x clare

bretang

Hi Clare,
If you can afford to do a rekkie then i would do one, we went to Perth ,Melbourne and Adelaide. We have visited other cities in oz in the past and we were going to Adelaide but changed our minds after rekkie. If you want further info on Adelaide then pm us. We decided after these visits on Perth but have since decided on Brisbane but each to there own ah. It cost us around £5000 with fights,car hire and spending money but was money well spent (credit card lol). I can not remember the name of company we used but Austravel comes to mind but they were very cheap and beat Travelbag etc. Any more info just pm us ok and i will get the wife to find the travel company out.

Bye Brett

mark 'n' joe

I think if you can afford to do a reccie it would be money well spent. We have been twice before and still havent a clue on where to settle. We are going for 4 weeks again in October to validate and have a look at Melbourne and Adelaide because we havent seen them yet. Brisbane is top of our list at the mo but have friends in Perth who we are also going to see when we are there in November.
We have always booked the flights and accommodation seperately. We have booked with Travelmood twice for the flights and the accommodation off the net.
Good luck whatever you decide.

Joex

Sammy T

Hi there,

I'm sure you'll have a great time - how exciting.
We called Austravel, told them we wanted to go Melbourne, Tasmania, Adelaide and Kangaroo Island and they came up with several options for us but too expensive. So then checked out some of the places they had suggested to us and booked it all myself, seperately, flights, cars, internal flights, hotels, lodges, boat trips, sea kayaking, a 4wd tour, even 2 meal reservations at places we really wnated to eat at, all over the internet. Took quite some time but had no problems with anything at all and best of all was £2000 cheaper than the overall quote from Austravel ( who I must add were extremely helpful, I changed our itinerary several times and each time they came back with new ideas and quotes)
Good luck and have fun!

Sammy

ozzieclare2b

Thanks for the ideas travelmood looks good Just done my sums looks like we need to save up a bit more than i thought, but it will be worth it. We have had an offer on house from someone but they havent sold theirs but the sooner we move the easier it will be to save. x clare

mindblower

[ /QUOTE]

Deffo rekkie, you have to see it , experience it , get a feel for it, familiarize yourself as much as possible with your new surroundings.

Would be difficult going in blind with no back up.

Dave

selina

Hi Clare,

We came over to the Sunshine Coast just over a year ago and had never been to Oz before

Mad as it seems we figured we would put the $15,000 a recci would cost us to better use by taking time out once we were here to have a good look around without worrying about finding work asap etc

Also we thought if we did not like it and wanted to go back to the UK we would not have wasted alot of money

We did loads of research on areas on the internet before we came and because we had not been before we had no pre-conceived ideas about how life would be so I suppose we could not be let down by the reality once we arrived

The first time in OZ for us was real, not a holiday which is really what a recci would have been for us as you can't sort anything out on a recci

In fact the most settled expats we have met also never came on a recci too they just moved here

We have settled really well and love it here

I suppose this way may frighten some but i would recommend it

Good luck in you new life down under

Selina x

Wendy

That's what we did too. Dived right in Feet first

Clare, we stayed at the Big4 caravan park at West beach, it's pretty good, near the airport and easy to get around from. www.adelaideshores.com.au

Also have a look on www.asda-travel.co.uk for flights, which seem to be cheaper than anyone else if you're coming to straight to Adelaide from the UK.

mark 'n' joe

We are staying at Adelaide Shores

Jx

Kevhaze

We took the plunge and did a rekkie to Bendigo, VIC (before we got our visas). We had made our mind up before we arrived that this was where we wanted to be; and didn't look anywhere else. Because it was such a long way away and would cost us loads we really thought that we should come over and take a look.

Me (as always, thinking about the pennies) suggested that we should do self-catering as opposed to hotel whereby we would have to do food shopping to help with comparison food and cost, and also it would stop us, to a certain extent, getting into holiday-mode. Because we were skint on money and holiday allowance we only did 8 days but it was a whistle-stop time. We had a good look at new build houses, areas in Bendigo, schools, job searches and a bit of touristy things. We were very lucky that the accomodation owners were extremely helpful and we have since been firm friends ever since. This helped us when we moved over here insomuch that they allowed us to use their address for a contact address for the shippers and also we were able to have some leeway with accomodation when we finally settled here in 2005. In fact they have been a wealth of advice.

From my particular point of view, I think it is wise to do a rekkie before. Especially for us, having never ventured any further than France.

Hope this helps.

Hazel

ozzieclare2b

wow thanks wendy! thats a great site didnt even know asda sold travel! thanks

sel

Same here

claretandblue

Hi Ozzieclare2b,

We went over to Oz for a reccie in March (we being myself, hubbie and 2 year old Son). We would definately recommend a reccie. We booked the flight and 2 hotels through Travelbag (couldn't find anyone cheaper) flew to Singapore....fabulous!! then on to Sydney, we spent 8 days there visiting all the various touristy sites then hired a 6 birth Apollo campervan (they hadn't got any 3 births and it was a very similar hire price for a 6 birth) through Salamander Travel (we shopped around online and checked the price out with Travelbag and couldn't find anyone cheaper, they were really helpful) and travelled up to the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley and and back down the coast towards Melbourne and then on the Great Ocean Road, Port Fairy and then to The Grampians and ended up back in Melbourne. We stayed there for 9 days in St Kilda. After spending almost 4 weeks in Oz, we still haven't decided where we want to live, so we are thinking of another reccie.

We found that it wasn't that much dearer to hire a campervan compared to hotels, we which we had hired it for a longer period.

A campervan was definately the best way to see different areas, we fell in love with so many!

We have just received the thumbs up from the TRA and are now getting all the bits together for the visa application.

Good luck!!

Rachel, Nigel & Jacob

Sammy T

Wow!
That sounds like a fabulous trip, you sure packed it in and saw lots! We had 18 days and like you we have still not decided exactly where we want to be but couldn't afford to go again so will just have to take the plunge when it comes to it.
But I personally wouldn't have wanted to go any further with our plans without having seen something of Oz, I know its not the same on holiday and you can't really know a place unitl you've lived there a while and used all the local services etc but we both felt happier having actually been there and chatted to various locals. There were some things which surprised us and it didn't feel the Australia I had pictured in my head - however we still liked!
On the other hand lots of people don't visit first and are very happy there so I guess its all down to individual circumstances, it certainly did make a large hole in the finances which we now spend paying off for the next 6 months

Sammy

vicki1972

Hi, we are in the same dilemma at the moment we are pulled in two directions either perth or adelaide. can only really afford to do rekkie to one so are still researching which. any help on adelaide suburbs would be handy as that is the info we are struggling with. are definatly doing rekkie as I feel that withtwo small children I do not want give up what we have here when we may not like it there.

Vicki