Planning Our Honeymoon
Ian’s been doing a great job of carrying our blog for awhile now, but I thought it’s about time to chime in and share my perspective.
Australia is a place that has been on the top of my list to visit for quite some time. The beaches, the wildlife, the friendly vibe that Australia seems to have has always attracted me. We figured that it would be a great destination for our honeymoon since we’d be able to spend more time there than we usually do on our regular vacations. Also since it’s an English speaking country we hoped that it would eliminate an additional stress that usually comes with travelling to a foreign country.
Booking the flight was easy but everything else I found to be a bit more of a challenge then when I’ve gone abroad in the past. A large part of it comes from my reliance on Yelp and other online resources. Nowadays before I go anywhere or buy anything I look up reviews online so I know exactly what I’m getting into. Admittedly it does take some of the adventure out of it but I hate having a bad meal or wasting my money on something that’s not worth it.
Fortunately to satisfy my need for information, I was able to get references from friends and friends of friends which put my mind at ease. I also relied heavily on TripAdvisor.com when looking up accommodations and activities, but I found it to be a little cumbersome to navigate not to mention that it’s harder for me to determine the reviewers reference point to see how they stack up to mine.
Here are some of the useful things we discovered during our travels.
General
- Most restrooms do not have toilet seat covers. Toilets also have half and full flushes.
- Free internet at the Apple Store. Internet at hotels were quite expensive. We also got a 50MB plan for Ian’s phone for about $50.
- This is applies to anywhere you travel, but be careful about marking yourself as a tourist. We got yelled at by a panhandler in Bondi Beach in broad daylight for pulling out our map.
- Sun is INTENSE. The no ozone layer thing is not a joke. Bring lots of sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses. The highest SPF they sold in Australia was 30, so if you think you need more protection, bring it with you.
- No international driver’s license required if you have a driver’s license written in English.
Money
- Bank of America has a “sister” bank called Westpac. ATMs can be used without any additional service charges.
- Many hotels charge a 1-3% surcharge for using a credit card.
- Tipping is not required. Though the guidebooks often recommend 10% at fancy restaurants our Australian friend told us that tipping is not necessary anywhere. To us it felt really wrong especially since there were many places we received excellent service so we did tip, but as the trip went on we got a little more used to the concept. As an alternative many hotels and restaurants allowed us to make small donations to charities in lieu of tipping. We thought it was a nice way to solve the issue.
Eating/drinking
- Food is expensive. Expect to pay $30+ for a main dish. Of course there are many fast food options, including Subway all over the place but we found that cafes were good places to sit down and get affordable and good meals especially for breakfast and lunch.
- It is standard that hotels provide hot water heaters, tea, coffee and milk. Most of the hotels we stayed in also have small kitchenettes.
- Most days we bought pastries for breakfast which was a more affordable option and also saved us from having to rush out first thing in the morning.
- Most restaurants allow you to bring in your own wine for a small corkage fee.
