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December 2009 (5)
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February 2010 (6)
January 2010 (3)

On the Rocky Travel's Blog page you will find news, discussion themes, curiosity and events preview and film trailer related to Australia as well as the latest additions and updates I have made to Rocky Travel's Guide. If you wish to have this information delivered straight to you, subscribe to my RSS feed. No need for you to come back here and check for it.
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Monday, 15. Mar 2010 | by Rocky Travel | comments: (0) | post comment

My trip to Australia - from travel planning to exploring places...

Step by step ....making your itinerary around Australia

I have been asked recently to write about my trips to Australia, so starting from
today, I will write each week a

couple of blog post to cover all aspects of my trip around Australia, from the very first pre-planning phase, organizing and packing to visiting and experiencing places around Australia.

For my first trip to Australia I started planning 6 months ahead. It was my first trip to Oceania and also my very first long trip travelling alone and backpacking. I had been waiting for years to take a 3 months pause off work, and my move from Germany back to Italy was the perfect occasion, so, I was really, really excited about it!!

I first gathered some impressions from people I knew they had been there and could give me some tips. Upon this information I was eager to surf in internet and find what I was looking for, but to my greatest disappointment I could find what I was looking for: either I landed to travel agencies sites, with adverts banners and little or almost unexisting content about Australia, or on the other hand, Australia platform sites stuffed with so much junk content and adverts that put me off immediately.

So I decided to try anther way and bought myself a couple of good travel guides and started reading them, yes indeed I almost did not use internet, ....so now you know why I created this portal about Australia :)

My time frame was fidex: end of March to beginning of June, so I started figuring out where and what I could do in those months starting from Sydney and going around Australia in a loop.

Why I choose Sydney: March is their autumn and if you want to visit Sydney and the south east part of Australia, with pleasent weather March is the right time...April and Mai is getting colder and it is better to head to the northern tropical part or you can visit the Red Centre. April-Mai is also best time for the outback.

So a couple of tips for your pre-planning:

identify the season and your time frame first - when you can or want to travel to Australia and for how long, this is essential before you start making any other planning and arrangements
make a list of what you want to see and do in Australia, based on your time frame It´s a huge country and you will not be able to see it all at once, unless you plan to spend 5-6months.

So for making up your mind and gain some insight about how to choose your destination and make your our own itinerary come back again to this blog, I will post in the next days a second report about my trips to Australia.

In the meantime you may want to check out this page and read learn more about What is your reason to travel to Australia

See you soon...!

Michela

Monday, 15. Mar 2010, comments: (0) | post comment

Friday, 12. Mar 2010 | by Rocky Travel | comments: (0) | post comment

What's new on Rocky Travel ? - A new itinerary: Australia's South East Coast

The South East Coast from Sydney to Melbourne !

I am now continuing the itinerary from Sydney down the south east coast to reach Melbourne.

Visualizza South East Coast Australia

Again for this month I have decided to introduce one area I visited in my first trip around Australia, which impressed me very much.

This is a good itinerary if you if prefer focussing on one specific area, and enjoy a more peaceful time at less crowded places.

The south east coast is ideal if you are looking more for relaxation and want to spend time in the nature, enjoy the peacefulness of beautiful coastal sceneray along with gorgeous walking in national parks. There are plenty of sport and water activities you can do along the cost.

Click on the link to learn more about The South East Coast

If you don´t know how to choose your itinerary around Australia, are looking for some ideas about the major attractions, you may also want to check out my top 10 destinations in Australia.

If you have any suggestions or want to add something to the above article, post your comment here below.

Thanks
Michela

Friday, 12. Mar 2010, comments: (0) | post comment

Monday, 08. Mar 2010 | by Rocky Travel | comments: (0) | post comment

Free Accommodation in Australia

Are you looking for free Accommodation in Australia ?

Does it sound too good to be true ? Not at all, it is realistic and possible! Sleeping for free has increased popularity and is possible all over the world thank to some good alternative kind of accommodation based on reciprocal exchange of accommodation resources or on hospitaliy exchange.

I give you here below a quick information about the 2 most ways of accommodation you can get for free in Australia:

Stay in a private home and get a free couch! This is a sort of "people helping people make the most out of their vacation" by offering a free couch to those who want to save money on accommodation and morevoer look forward to getting to know the locals by living in their homes. This is an amazing resource I personally have not tested yet, but have heard so much positive feedback about it. Through this organization Couch Surfing you can get a "couch for free" - you just need to be a member of the organization and start connecting with the other fellows travellers! Have a try!
Another good option which is becoming more and more popular is to swap your home simultaneously with someone else, who wish to visit your hometown. This is absolutely the best way to save money, because you receive it completely for free, it means your accommodation costs you nothing and moreover you have the great benefit of "feeling like at home". Home exchange however is not for everyone, you must absolutely feel comfortable with someone stranger staying in your house.

It´s good for those who do love experiencing new places and do no want to pay for accommodation and at the same time look for a great opportunity to get to to know the locals, you definitely will find easy connection with the neighbors and friends of the exchanging family. Some other people do not fancy at all having strangers in their homes, besides that you will also have to consider the location of your home will also play an important role when looking for an exchange. If you live in a major city or place of interest it will be easy to find what you are looking for, if you live outside or far away from the requested place it will be harder to find a good match to fulfill expectations. Anyhow it´s not a reason not to try.

There are lots of sites in internet offering a pool of inquiries with the possibility of getting to know a bit more about the people with whom you want to swap your home. Usually you have to subscribe if you want to be a member and be able to partecipate in all activities, have access to the forums and all inquiries and offers, but the yearly fee is usually afforbable, and if you intend to use it quite a few time during the year is really worth joining these sites. You can can take a look at them here: Aussie House Swap or Home-Exchange

If you want to add you experience or comments, or post a link of a website resource, please enter your comments below.

Thanks,
Michela

Monday, 08. Mar 2010, comments: (0) | post comment

Wednesday, 03. Mar 2010 | by Rocky Travel | comments: (0) | post comment

Credit Card or Cash - Tips on exchanging money in Australia

Tips and thoughts on exchanging money in Australia

When I planned my first trip to Australia back to 2004, I was asking friends about
how to exchange money, and the

major tip was:

A) get a a visa card - this is the only credit card accepted literally everywhere!
B) for your cash use either travellers checks or withdraw from ATMs.

After a few considerations, I did decided to get a VISA card and left my Amex at home. That was a good tip, because I made the experience myself, Amex was scarsely represented compared to other credit cards like VISA. Two years ago I found Amex card gained popularity though, but if you want to use just one card than I would suggest using Visa in Australia!

As for the cash I decided to buy travelers checks in Germany and it worked out quite well, even though there are a few things you should consider before going with this option. And I will explain to you here below why.

In the meantime I have been to Australia a second time in 2008 and my experience with money exchange and money related matters was slightly different from my first trip.

Out of my past experience I give you here below some tips to help you making up your mind when it comes to money exchange matters.

use a pre-payed card, this is the best tip I can give you! I found out about it, later on, when I saw the long list of commmissions my bank had charged for my purchases. You can upload your pre-payed card whenever you wish with the amount of money you want . You can apply for this card with your bank. Usually all banks offer them next to normal credit cards. The great benefit of this card is that bank commissions are much lower, usually 1% or even less. If you consider that banks usually charge 2% or more for your purchases abroad with credit card. Some banks also add transactions-fee for foreign currency on top of the commissions. With a pre-payed card you can save money on commissions!
Day-to-day funds. Here there are 2 good options for your daily cash. Either you withdraw cash from ATMs but in this case you must first check out with your bank what commissions apply, and what transaction-fees they charge. Usually they tend to be very high, if your bank has international ATMs or has partner banks in Australia, then you should not pay more than 1%-2%. Since my banks commission were extremely high I choose to buy some travellers checks, which can be still a good choice. But again here you have to consider a few things before going with this option.
Travelers Checks I made quite a few mistakes here: I bought them in Euro, which I should not have done. Always buy them in the local currency, i.e. in Australian Dollars. First they are accepted anywhere! You do not need to exchange them into Australian money. They are actually money with the benefit that if you loose them or they are stolen they are covered by the insurance and you can claim them. If you buy them in your own currency, then you will have to shop around for the best rate exchange. Often people do that because of the false believe that there are "no-fee bureau de change" but instead these are usually the most expensive places to change money! Believe me. Amex exchange bureau also apply commissions, even though they say they are commission free, it´s not true, commission are built in the exchange rate you get. So it is really worth buying the travellers checks in Australian dollars, should you decide to go with this.
Credi Cards This is what I use more frequently when I travel abroad. Cash is certainly vital for your daily basis purchases, however credit cards is the most convenient payment tool for all your bookings and reservations. In Australaia you have to pay attention because some hotels, hostels, car rentals, restaurants tend to charge your card in your own currency instead of charging in AUS. In this case the exchange rate is worse than the average and mostly includes hidden fees. Be careful with this. Because I did experience quite often in my last trip in 2008. If they offer you to charge your card in your own currency , decline it! Do insist on having it charged in the local currency, i.e. in AUS and not in EUR or USD or whatever your own currency is. Be careful because in some places they did it straight away without asking me. So pay attention to this tricky transactions!
Check with your Bank and Credit Card Company thoroughly before leaving to Australia. Find out which fees and commissions apply when using your card and/or withdrawing money from ATMs in Australia. It´s a savvy investigation, so as to avoid nasty surprises when you return home and suddenly receive a long list of commissions and fees on your purchases and bookings you did not expect!

Wednesday, 03. Mar 2010, comments: (0) | post comment