of long journey times from some destinations, some travellers from Europe opt to have a stop-over, commonly in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.
If you have to change to a domestic flight in a gateway city, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth all have distinct domestic terminals, requiring some time and complexity to transit, check the guides. Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin, Cairns and the Gold Coast have all gates in the one terminal building or within easy walking distance of each other.
Discount airlines
There are some routes into Australia that are operated by discount airlines. These can often be combined with other fares to make getting to Australia cheaper. Select your point of entry and exit to give you a cheaper round-trip, and possibly some interesting stopover opportunities on the way.
• Air Asia X, flies into the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth from Kuala Lumpur, at often deeply discounted fares. You can save money from Europe if having a stopover in Malaysia. Sometimes this is possible also stopping in Bangkok.
• Air Asia Indonesia flies into Darwin and Perth from Denpasar, Indonesia
• Scoot flies into Gold Coast and Sydney from Singapore.
• Tiger flies from Singapore to Perth.
• Jetstar Airways flies to Hawaii and several Asian destinations, including Denpasar, Osaka, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh, via Darwin, and also operates a substantial Asian regional hub in Singapore.
• Virgin Australia flies between Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Los Angeles, and competes strongly with Qantas on these routes.
By boat
November to February is the cruising season, and there are usually about 10 ships that arrive in Australia from other countries during this time. You can cruise to Australia, and then fly home.
Holland America
