Broome, Darwin, Cairns questions

To all in the Group,
I will be traveling to Australia for the first time and have a few
beginner questions that I hope you can help me with.
First, are there any direct flights between the U.S. and either
Broome, Darwin, and Cairns? If not, can these cities be reached by a
connecting flight from Sydney?
Next, are there direct flights between Broome and Cairns and between
Darwin and Cairns? Roughly how much would a one way economy class ticket
cost for these flights?
What is the intercity bus service like in Australia? More
specifically, how long would a bus trip between the above cities take?
How long is the bus ride from Cairns to Sydney?
Lastly, does driving in Australia follow the British rules (drive on
the left side of the road) or the American (driving on the right side)?
I would very much appreciate any respones to some or all of these
questions, as this will be my first trip to Australia. Please reply to
this newsgroup or to the email address below.
Thanks so much,
Andy Forrest
New Jersey, U.S.A.

aat210 at webtv dot net

(Andy Forrest) wrote in
:

To all in the Group,
I will be traveling to Australia for the first time and have a
few
beginner questions that I hope you can help me with.

Sure, the first recommendation is get yourself a good travel agent!

First, are there any direct flights between the U.S. and either
Broome, Darwin, and Cairns? If not, can these cities be reached by a
connecting flight from Sydney?

The two airlines that fly direct from the US to Australia are United and
Qantas (partner AA). Both fly LAX-SYD. Qantas (www.qantas.com.au) will
then connect you direct to Cairns, Broome or Darwin. UA's partner in
Australia is VirginBlue (www.virginblue.com.au). It flies direct SYD-CNS
and SYD-DRW. Broome is served via a connecting flight through Adelaide
(only weekly, I think). Note that VirginBlue is 'pay as you go' for food
and drink, but otherwise full service. Qantas is full service.

Continental does fly 3 times a week into CNS (as its only Australian
port) via Guam, if you feel like a different route. I have no idea what
the fares would be.

There are sometimes also good deals for flights via Asia. Some of the
Asian airlines fly to CNS and/or DRW.

An alternative option is to fly LAX-AKL with Air New Zealand and then on
to SYD, BNE or CNS direct.

Check with a travel agent!


Next, are there direct flights between Broome and Cairns and
between
Darwin and Cairns? Roughly how much would a one way economy class
ticket cost for these flights?

DRW-CNS. Yes on Qantas. Expect to pay around $330 Australian one way
DRW-BME. Qantas partner airline Skywest (www.skywest.com.au) flies this
route. Expect to pay around $200.

What is the intercity bus service like in Australia? More
specifically, how long would a bus trip between the above cities take?
How long is the bus ride from Cairns to Sydney?

There is one main operator: Greyhound/McCafferty.
(http://www.greyhound.com.au/). Routes have been severely cut by cheap
airfares in recent years.

Cairns - Darwin, not really practical

Darwin - Broome, 24 hours, $273

Sydney - Cairns. Around 48 hours (with one change of bus in BNE) from
SYD-CNS costing around $320. Given that a one-way airfare on VirginBlue
is as little as $149 I wouldn't bother!

Lastly, does driving in Australia follow the British rules (drive
on
the left side of the road) or the American (driving on the right
side)?

Driving on the left!

I would very much appreciate any respones to some or all of these
questions, as this will be my first trip to Australia. Please reply to
this newsgroup or to the email address below.
Thanks so much,
Andy Forrest
New Jersey, U.S.A.

aat210 at webtv dot net


Enjoy!

Les

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 05:32:01 +0000, Les Chandra wrote:

Cairns - Darwin, not really practical

Plenty of people do it by bus. I did it in one go once. It took 32 hours.
I vowed that I'd never do it again. There is Mt Isa to stop at on the way,
but not much else other than Katherine which is pretty close to Darwin,
but the gorge is well worth a visit.

Jason

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