And the European trip is about to commence...

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

11pm tomorrow night leaving Melbourne - 3 days in Abu Dhabi (14 f'ing hour flight) - then to Paris for a month (with 3 days in London)

[Platypus]

Just transferring down here?

Have a great trip, I'm sure you'll enjoy it

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Just transferring down here?

Have a great trip, I'm sure you'll enjoy it

Locking myself in the Qantas lounge for a couple of hours to shower, drink, eat, drink, prepare... drink.

Then medicate!

[Platypus]

Wiser than me, I fly out of Melbourne at 6:40 before my own 14 hour+ flightafter about two and a half hours in Sydney.

[memphis]

Is international travel common amongst the commoners in Australia? I ask only because the tyranny of distance makes travel to your country so expensive. I would love to visit Australia (and/or New Zealand) but the airfare is prohibitive, given my humble funds.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Is international travel common amongst the commoners in Australia? I ask only because the tyranny of distance makes travel to your country so expensive. I would love to visit Australia (and/or New Zealand) but the airfare is prohibitive, given my humble funds.

Well I think we have one of the highest passport ownership rates outside of the EU and there usually is a lot of travel among my age bracket.

I haven't travelled overseas for 5.5 years, which for my age and income bracket is considered very odd...

As for price, in the last year it's been more expensive for us to go anywhere... I think the logic being that our economy is going relatively well, so we have the money to pay higher fares.

[Platypus]

I'd say about 3/4 to 4/5 of 18-25yo Aussies go overseas, and the majority of them more than a week in Bali or New Zealand, but that's possibly skewed by about 95% of people i know my age having done so. Aside from perhaps Kiwis and New Zealanders, Australians would be the most proportionally over-represented travellers I encountered in South America last time, and considering that Sth America is an uncommon destination, i think that that would be even more true in Europe and Asia, and possibly the US and Canada too.

[Antarctic]

NZers are used to having to take long flights to get almost anywhere and it doesn't stop us from travelling in vast numbers.I guess it comes from living in the most isolated country on the planet...we are 1500 miles from our nearest neighbour.

It's very rare for any educated young Kiwi not to be well travelled...my own 23 year old daughter has visited at least fifteen countries in four continents.Young people are encouraged to do their OE (Overseas Experience) as their parents and grandparents did..
Even those in the lower socio-economic groups have probably been to Australia and maybe the Pacific Islands or Bali.

The twelve hour flights are awful,truly mind-numbingly horrendously awful but it's worth it to see the big wide world

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Have a great trip!  And be safe.