How I traveled 28 hours to Australia and Survived !
The last time I visited Australia was in the winter season with the temperature a cool 62F, I was 15 years old and extremely excited to be visiting the continent down under. After seeing the cosmopolitan sites of Sydney Australia and checking out Sydney Opera House I went back to the USA, but in 2022 as soon as Australia opened up I decided to hop on a plane to the down under.
Staying in Australia
The Australians take the idea of Breakfast to a new level. While in Australia staying at the Hyatt in Sydney the idea of a perfect breakfast was carefully crafted with artistically crafted poached eggs with a touch of herbs which made my eyes water after the brunch. In my traveling experience, most restaurants in Europe and in the US do not really know how to nail a perfect a la carte breakfast. Hotels in Sydney provide excellent service for the guests and the level of care is higher then hotels in the US. The hotel was located in the center of town which made walking around town a breeze.
But as I soon came to realize staying in the center of town in Sydney is not a great experience their are few places to see and the most interesting tour sites are located outside of Sydney.
Traveling to Australia
As a seasoned traveler with a tourist visa, I can travel into Australia as many times my visa allows but due to Australia’s long closure of air travel, travel into the country was next to impossible. In order to fly into Australia I booked a ticket with United Airlines out of SFO for 850 USD in Economy Class if you can’t find that exact fare the next best idea is use either Avios miles with Qatar Airlines and fly from Lax to SYD with Qantas to avoid paying the notably high fuel charges that Qantas loves to enforce.
The first issues in my trip came before I even left Copenhagen. In order to get to Australia I decided to fly from Copenhagen to San Francisco and then to Sydney a flight time of 28 hours and 10 minutes, when I arrived in San Francisco the Covid PCR test that I had was no longer valid so I had to take a 6 hour PCR test and by the time the test was done I was running like a marathon runner through the International Terminal at the Airport and managed to reach the gate with 15 minutes to spare.
As soon as I handed my Covid test to the CSR agent, I was told they were was an issue with my test. The testing center forgot to include my middle name and they were debating whether they could accept my test or not. Finally after 20 minutes of waiting at the podium and watching 200 passenger pass by me, I was given the go ahead to board and I ran on to the plane just as the door slam shut.
Through out the 17 hour plane ride my stress level was through the roof as I kept wondering they accept my Covid test results. Will I be deported from Australia or even worse thrown into jail? When I arrived I was relieved as the Boarder Force of Australia did not even look at my Covid Test Results all my worry was for nothing.
I’ve had plenty of lows during the pandemic; it’s been hard to stay enthusiastic about working in the travel industry when, at times, it has been literally illegal to travel.
Bottom Line
This trip was like no other international trip I have done, at least one I have done in the last 2 years though.
For the first time in 2 years I wasn’t able to just jump on a plane to go on a vacation when I wanted to. It was not as simple as booking ticket heading to the airport. Planning was needed through out this whole trip with a PCR test and another PCR test as well going through 10 time zone changes as well as the unplanned jet lag that awaited me when I arrived in Australia. Traveling for 28 hours was a dream come true so what if my internal sleeping rhythm clock is out sync at least I own the bragging rights to this
