Flights to Sydney - Journeying to the far side of the world Part One

I am planning a trip to visit family in Australia, Australia is a very popular location for holidays despite the fact it’s the other side of the planet! The trouble is that travelling that far can be stressful and extremely uncomfortable so I’ve looked into some tips that can hopefully make the flight a bit more bearable, maybe even enjoyable.

Firstly I, like many others, have family in Australia and they live on the outskirts of Sydney, which is a bit of a bonus since I won’t need to arrange accommodation due to me getting the spare room, also Sydney is one of the greatest cities to visit in Australia mainly due to the world famous Opera House and Bridge.

So that’s one less thing to worry about, now it’s just a matter of getting the flight out the way, I’ve travelled to America in the past spending over nine hours in a tin can and it wasn’t exactly comfortable (I’m quite tall and so leg room was a problem) so you can understand my apprehension at the prospect of the flight to Sydney. This is when I started looking up some tips and helpful information on how to ease the stress of the long flight.

First of all with flights to sydney you aren’t going to be flying straight there, the majority of flights need to have a stopover in either Singapore or Taiwan, which is no bad thing as it gives me a chance to see some Far Eastern countries on the trip, when arranging the flight it is normally a predetermined location and not something I can change, although by comparing different flight companies I could easily choose my pit-stop country. Most flight companies insist my flight goes from home in Manchester down to London’s Heathrow then onwards and eastwards!

In order to make sure I’m not going to be spending the flight contorted in their cramped seats I’m planning on enquiring about seat locations, some airlines allow you to select your seat yourself; especially since people are now booking their own flights without the travel agent who used to make sure families were seated together. I am going to see firstly how much leg room there is on these flights, since I’ve heard in the news and TV adverts that legroom has been improved recently, failing that maybe I’ll look into getting one of the seats at the front near the door, despite my concerns a la Fight Club I think I’ll be able to handle the responsibility of opening the door if we land in the sea if only just to get a chance to stretch my legs out!

Once I’ve chosen that then there’s the date of the flight, the main point to remember if all the TV shows have taught me is get there early, I don’t want to be one of those fools that turn up ten minutes before the flight’s due to take off and end up being told you’re too late. So I plan to get there around 2 hours before the time given on the ticket, mainly due to the fact I live not far from Manchester airport but know full well that there’s always traffic and the possibility of the car breaking down. So getting to the airport early is no bad thing, I’ve got a book and an iPod to keep me company anyway.

In the second part of my guide I’ll be covering the other things to consider when taking a long haul flight specifically flights to sydney in Australia, such as keeping yourself hydrated but not needing to go to the toilet every five minutes as well as how to deal with jetlag.