Karennella

I get that. Same thing for people who do the Galapagos and then Machu Picchu. But in the scheme of things, it's "in the neighborhood". LOL

It certainly is for us coming from Australia. For some reason, flights to South America are more expensive than anywhere else and there are only about three non-stop flights a week from Sydney to Santiago, being about thirteen hours. The rest stop off in New Zealand. We did all the icons on a tour and we were very happy with doing the falls in that way. Much as we enjoyed South America, I cannot see us returning to go to just one region in the way that we go to Europe or Asia, even though the flight to Europe is 24 hours.

I like good tours as they are efficient time-wise. The falls are amazing.

I have never felt at all unsafe in Turkey; it is one of my favourite places on earth. We had a cruise stop in Iskenderin which is very close to the Syrian border. It was in 2011 when our stops in Egypt and Israel had been cancelled and reinstated twice and there was a lot of trouble in Syria even then. But all was good and safe and I love the Turkish people and the country.

Not being rude, but at the moment I have a very worried sister-in-law as her son is going to do a semester at a university in Illinois and is soon to leave. We seem to get constant reports of shootings in the US and my brother-in-law once had a gun pulled on him by a cabbie in New York.

Then we read about people who seem genuinely scared to come to Australia as they are scared of our wildlife. Quite bizarre to us!

I am a fatalist and I think the media have much to answer for.

Being Australian we had to pay the Argentinian reciprocity fee online and carry the printed out paper the old-fashioned way. We had to pay a Chilean reciprocity fee and only us and Mexicans pay. it had to be paid in person at the airport on arrival (after a thirteen hour flight) and we had to queue for over an hour.

For Brazil it was the full visa and the mechanics of getting it were quite confusing so I recommend checking very carefully. Everyone including our travel agent told us the passport needed to be sent to Canberra, the capital, and it could take a couple of weeks. Very inconvenient if you travel frequently.But somehow online I discovered that in Sydney, where we live, there is a little known Brazilian consulate. You make a booking online for the morning, front up and the passport is ready after 2pm. But you have to pay with a money-order, of all things, which are completely out of date here.

We also have to have a yellow-fever certificate for reentry from most of South America, so for the two of us, the visas and vaccinations cost about $A1000 (maybe $US800) But it was definitely worth it!

We have just returned from a Scenic land tour to South America and would use them for a river cruise. It is an Australian company and a big advantage for us Aussies is that all tipping is included. We find tipping such a headache even if we are really trying to fit in with the local custom. But I have read reviews from some Americans who were not really happy with the food, whether that is a cultural difference I couldn't say. We know many people who love Scenic river cruises and I am not sure whether the food is more geared to our tastes, but the attraction for me is the all inclusive part.

Do you Americans have to get a yellow fever vaccination for Sth America? Our government requires it for a lot of areas and then my doctor recommended so many other things that I should be fully covered for any Asian trips in the future! Ironically the only holiday I have had ruined by illness was in Hawaii this year, when I got a horrible coughing virus that ended up giving me the first bout of bronchitis I have ever had. But for South America, the combination of visas and vaccinations cost the two of us about $US800!

Sorry, hamiltonisland.com.au

Sounds like you will be tendering to Hamilton Island not Airlie Beach. Look at the island's website; Hamiltonisland.com. and that will let you see what there is to do. Anyone can use the main pools. About two thirds of the island is in its natural state and there are some good bushwalking trails. I am not sure who would do the ship's excursions to the reef; Cruise Whitsunday is the main operator but there are smaller ones too.

We have options as to which timeshare we might book, and was looking for which area to focus on.

 

It looks like the area around and including Sydney would best meet our needs. We definitely don't want heat & humidity!

 

Thanks everyone!

I am afraid that your visit is in the middle of the hottest time of the year here.

The coast is much cooler than even a little bit inland so I would also suggest around Sydney with trips down the south coast.

We do not tip housekeepers in hotels. We do not tip hairdressers etc. I have never seen tipping happening on boat trips and the like here though I haven't done tours with a private guide. I do tip in restaurants but usually around 5-10%. $45, make it $50 but only for decent service. Never for bad service and no explanation needed.

Thanks for the link.

I guess this is the type of cruise ships that the Australians like.

It is not for us.

Buffets are not particularly popular in Australia so maybe that is a factor. In NSW they went out of favour when the food regulations were tightened about fifteen years ago and restaurants found them more expensive. Most of our friends do not like mixing flavours too much. Nor the queueing involved.They are still the norm for breakfast in hotels and we used to like them occasionally if we had to eat with little children.

The picture seems to show the type of arrangement that is being put into the newest upmarket malls.

I think that we all nowadays accept "dynamic pricing" when buying plane tickets and hotel rooms. I buy books by Australian authors online and they are sent from London at a fraction of the price of buying them here, (if I could find a bookshop, as most have closed, because of people like me!)

How much of the higher price of cruises here is because of Australian consumer laws is a mystery to me. However we were in London a couple of years ago when Qantas shut down the day we were to fly out. We had our flight with another airline paid, were given free flights, and other compensation and were pretty pleased with it all. Imagine how pleased we were when, a few weeks later, we were paid an extra $1500 which we were owed, according to EU consumer law as we were grounded in the EU.

So I accept that for whatever reason we generally pay more. And that I do not have to buy that cruise if I don't like it. The problem is, however, that there are no large Australian cruise companies to go with instead.

Our guide in Turkey was a culturally Muslim but atheist Turk and totally opposed to any of us covering our heads. We never were asked to when with him. But in Europe in summer I always wear what I wear in very hot weather in Australia (as do so many women) loose ankle length skirts and loose tops; much cooler than anything tight fitting and appropriate for almost anywhere.

There will be no access allowed to the peninsula on the 25th except for ticket holders. A ballot was completed earlier this year for the tickets (see RSL website) and they had 42 000 applicants for 10 000 tickets. The Turkish government set the numbers and control the event as one would expect.

We were fortunate enough to attend in 2006 and even then access was strictly controlled. Unless you had prearranged transport because of disability you had to walk everywhere; from Dawn Service to the Australian service, the NZ service and the Turkish service.

I think the large cruise ships are planning to be as close as possible to the site of the Dawn Service. But I have heard that there are issues about it and also the way some tour companies are advertising. That may be why there is not more information.

You cannot overestimate the importance of this event to Australians and New Zealanders. It may seem strange to others that we commemorate a battle which our troops lost and where they were slaughtered, but it is as it is.

We live in Sydney Australia and our last cruise was in the Med. We visited friends in Dubai on the way over, toured in Italy and flew to London afterwards to stay with our daughter. We were away eight weeks and that is a pretty typical Aussie holiday. We had to pack for weather ranging from 45 Celsius in Dubai to potential snow in London. So having to pack and carry formal clothes was a bit of a chore even though I do enjoy the formal nights. Also we do not particularly like buffets, being the alternative.

If we were to just go on a cruise, especially if it started in Sydney, we would be a lot more positive about it. Even though we get the 20k baggage allowance on the long segments we often have a short segment with a budget airline and too much luggage is even more of a pest.

I know we could hire, but the reason we can afford to travel is partly a result of DH's tight disposition about many things!

How much are the wharfies (stevedores) paid in San Francisco? They are paid a fortune in Sydney so they must be really highly paid to be paid a lot more!

With the wonders of technology I was recently very excited to find out that I am descended from at least three convicts, one of whom arrived in 1794 and was later on murdered. Amazing that our family now is so very "stable" ie boring but happy! Our little grandsons' heritage is English Scottish Welsh and Irish,Italian German and French. Which equals 100% oz.

The whole of Australia are changing to pin only on Friday, 1st August for all cards from all banks. Will be a bit chaotic next week. There is supposed to be provision in the system to use foreign issued cards without a pin.

Everyone will have to remember multiple pins, difficult for the elderly. We now have payWave cards where you just wave the card in front of the machine and that's it. Supposed to be secure.

But we can always change our pins if we want.

I think everyone has to work out what is the most important factor to them. We have done a lot of travelling in most continents but even so we have the Australian discomfort with tipping. We try to do the right thing but as the only tipping that is done here is in restaurants it can be quite stressful dealing with expectations to tip all and sundry. Thus the Scenic all inclusive policy is a big draw for us and overrides the fact that I would generally prefer to travel overseas with a more mixed group of nationalities. I am obviously not the only one because Scenic and APT (who use AMA) advertise all-inclusive very heavily as part of their enormous amount of advertising.

Re restaurants, any that have two sittings in Sydney lead to the assumption that if you take the 6 00pm out by 8 00, you will eat with a room full of squealing babies and toddlers! If we are with friends we book 7 30 and would think it a mediocre night if we are finished before 10 00.

Keep in mind that Scenic may well be relatively new to river cruising but they are a very well known Australian travel company who have been around for a long time. We know many people who have cruised with them and they have all been more than happy with their experience. I assume they gear more to the Australian market so perhaps the longer mealtimes are one result. We tend to make a night of dinner and find the North American quick service a bit rushed. The main disappointments I have heard have been to do with the river heights issues and hopefully the bad publicity over that will have resulted in some policy changes.

We found it interesting to see Christchurch last year but very sad to see the damage. A major problem with the reconstruction concerns the soil damage and its instability; it is a much more difficult task to rebuild than after some other types of disasters.

Perth of course is a beautiful and prosperous city and well worth a visit.

Capetown, in our opinion, has the most beautiful natural location of anywhere we have been. Terry, I would love to get back to Africa and I hope I do, but next year South America beckons for us!

But I hope you are able to get back to Australia and NZ again. You would absolutely love the Kimberley region.

In Australia the publicity campaigns are being ramped up to encourage us to use our pins as it seems in August we will have no choice. No more signing with credit cards, and I suspect it may be a bit tricky for people like my 87 year old mother who has signed all her life! I guess the wave technology is made for people like her!

For those of us who do a lot of international travel, jumping though some of these "hoops" is a necessary evil in an era when Travelers Checks are obsolete (and not accepted in many places) and having multiple source of obtaining cash a necessity. There are also some interesting variations in major credit card benefits. For example, between AMEX. MC and Visa only one card offers included collision damage waiver in Northern Irealnd...and there is another card (among those big 3) that offers the coverage in New Zealand.

In Australia, from August, all use of credit cards will involve only pin. At the moment, each time we use a card we have to opt for credit or debit; sign or pin. I wonder what will happen for Americans who do not have the pin option?

We have to use the credit button to get money out overseas with our Australian card (which is both a credit and debit with chip) If the credit account does not have a positive balance, the fees are dreadful with our particular bank.

You really have to take the time to thoroughly read the conditions of your card, tedious as that task is!

In Israel we did one ship's tour and one private. I was not althgether happy with the private one as I did not think the guide was particularly good. For me, the quality of the guide is the most important factor.

You do not avoid the fees if you are a local. You are not being discriminated against for being in another country. The only way to avoid the fee on Jetstar, for example, is to have the booking put on hold and make a direct payment into their bank account by electronic banking (or use their own credit card I think) I always do it by direct payment for the specific reason of avoiding the additional credit card fee. In Australia electronic transfer is probably the main way of paying for many things these days and debit cards are growing in popularity compared to credit cards.

We do not especially like using our main credit card overseas as it also a debit card which will access our main accounts. We just went to Malaysia and I booked the flights on Expedia, accommodation mostly on booking.com, took cash and changed it there the first night in Kuala Lumpur and we barely used a credit card at all.