American Visitng Australia

[BAM1748]

Depends on you as a person, and how you like to travel.

I would recommend an all inclusive day tour, with CBD hotel pick ups and drop offs, so that you can just enjoy the tour and not have the hassle of driving.

For a little more independence, I would suggest catching a train from the CBD to the mountains, and then use the hop-on-hop-off bus service to see the sights, this gives you more control over how long you want to spend seeing what. Blue Mountains Explorer Bus - Home

If you are totally opposed to travelling around with groups, then yes - a hire car for a day gives the most amount of independence to do and see what you want (but with long, tiring drives at the start and end of the day).

Yankees are used to long distance like us, Sydney City to Katoomba is 60 miles mostly (but no all) on Freeway. Not a biggie, people commute that every day.

Matt

 

[dk4]

Yankees are used to long distance like us, Sydney City to Katoomba is 60 miles mostly (but no all) on Freeway. Not a biggie, people commute that every day.

I think that someone from Orlando, and Florida in general, would be use to extremely efficient and effective freeways (turnpike, interstate, etc): So dealing with 1) Parramatta Road (/car park) in the morning and afternoon pre/post motorway, 2) a city council's idea that roads are for - buses, light rail, cyclists, taxis, pedestrians and one way traffic, basically anyone other than regular car drivers to use - would probably inspire a road rage incident.

My experience driving around Orlando, and in Southern Florida in general, is of roads which are made for car drivers! Sydney's road system is an abomination by comparison.

I would not recommend a day trip to the Blue Mountains in a car unless someone else was doing the driving. An overnight trip would be a different kettle of fish.

 

[justinn]

I looked at purchasing every flight separately vs doing a multi from Qantas. The Qantas site did not give a fare class so I'm not sure how it will affect a platinum challenge. Does anyone know what fare class the "walkabout" pass is? It was about $1000USD cheaper to do the multi vs all the flights separately.

 

[wandering_fred]

Even using the multi city option with QF you can still find the actual fare codes.

serfty has an add-on or you can do it the manual method. On the last page (where the flights and total $$ are listed ) select the page source from your browser and search for the word "classes" and all will be revealed. Remember E class only credits to QF.

For walk-about (add on) fares I would be tempted to use a TA even if the transPacific legs are booked on line. Just provide the eticket numbers to establish your arrival and departure from Australia. Likely booking into fare classes that will give 50% EQM when posted to AA. But that could have changed.

Happy wandering

Fred