Guide to Sydney: getting there, getting around, hotels, restaurants, Olympic Games venues, city attractions

Take a good look as you travel

By air | By rail | By road | Australian essentials

First-time visitors to Australia may think that, after 24 or more hours in the air, they have done the difficult part. However, they must then contemplate getting around a country whose empty vastness presents a serious challenge to people used to living where there is always a village over the hill, and where an hour's flying can take them to a profoundly foreign land.

In Australia you can drive for days without encountering another soul. It is mind-bogglingly enormous - you could park 33 Great Britains on Australia and have enough space left over for the locals to live on.

About 80% of long trips by public transport are therefore by air, but there are other options, more picturesque though more time-consuming.

By air: you can travel to the main Australian cities on Qantas, while regional centres are served by smaller operators such as Whitsunday Airlines, which operates in the islands off Queensland. Using carriers such as Whitsunday is a fine way of reinforcing the frontier feel of Australia's more remote regions.

Qantas offers the Boomerang Air Pass, which gives British domestic flight discounts. The pass divides Australia into zones. Tickets within one zone - Melbourne to Canberra, for example - are from £95. Tickets between zones, say, from Perth to Sydney, start at £120. The pass is only for overseas passengers.

By rail: all main cities, except Darwin, are linked by a rail network. Train travel as a workaday transport system is not as important as it is to Europeans. The distances are so great that people calculate that the time saved by flying makes up for the cost. For the visitor with spare time, however, there is a lot to be said for rail travel. It offers a view of the diverse scenery, a chance to contemplate the lonely immensity away from the highways, and a far better chance of spotting wildlife.

Australia has at least three deservedly famous routes: the Ghan, connecting Alice Springs with Sydney and Melbourne - prices from Alice to Melbourne start at £213; the Indian Pacific, which crosses the continent from Perth to Sydney via Adelaide, including the Nullarbor plain - Nullarbor means no trees - and several optional tours starting at £406, though three nights on the train might make more comfortable travel worth considering; and the Great South Pacific Express, a luxury train linking Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns. On this last route prices are from £560 for a Pullman compartment between Sydney and Brisbane via the Hunter Valley, including a night on the train and all meals.

By road: Australians drive on the left, recognise British driving licences, maintain their roads and are generally civilised behind the wheel. In the cities, and between them, driving should be as easy as crossing Europe. There are roadside facilities, and although Australia once followed the big-car cult, smaller ones are now the norm.

Serious preparations are needed if you drive off the beaten track. A four-wheel-drive vehicle is best, and will also have extra room for provisions - five gallons of water per person per day, more food than you think you will need. Car hire with Bridge the World starts at £21 a day. The company also works with the coach tour operator AAT Kings, and arranges tours all over Australia. Ask for Bridge the World's Touring Australia brochure.

Andrew Mueller
Sunday Times

Australian essentials

Visas: citizens of all nations other than New Zealand require a visa or electronic travel authority (ETA) to visit Australia. British passport-holders in good health and with no criminal convictions are eligible for an ETA, which is theoretically free from most travel agents or airlines, though some may charge an 'administration fee'. When asked if you have a criminal record, please resist the temptation to quip: "Didn't realise you still needed one".

When to go: Australia's seasons are broadly antithetical to Britain's - that is, when it's cold here, it's warm there. Summer stretches from December to February and can seem brutal (daytime temperatures around 40C are not uncommon). Winters are relatively mild, especially on the coasts, though areas of inland New South Wales and Victoria get cold enough to support thriving ski resorts. The north of the country, above the Tropic of Capricorn, is an exception - humid heat, punctuated by cyclones. Spring and autumn pretty much anywhere in Australia are miraculous.

Getting there: British Airways and Qantas fly to each of the Australian states. Prices start at �656 (to Perth).