Travel & Holidays Travel again

Recently visited the South Korean island of Jeju. Pretty good place to visit if you have a guide to show you around the place and can speak the language. If you like water activities, all types of seafood and accommodation near the beach, this is the place to be.

Unfortunately or fortunately, the place is not really promoted too much as there are quite a number of visitors from other parts of Asia.

 

Went down the rabbit hole a bit on this one so thought I'd share for those planning a trip with teenagers.
International Vaccine Statements are easy peasy to get via MyGov linked to Medicare - works brilliantly for adults and for dependants under 14. Comes unstuck when you have a child over 14 because you can't just select them and generate a certificate. This is due to their privacy. The help page says for them to call the Australian Immunisation Registry and they will generate. So I called them (bugger my 14yo's privacy) and they said they can't email and can only post and that takes 14 days - not a great answer as we leave in 7 days.
However the helpful gent said that all I needed to do was create a myGov account for each of the kids (14 and 16yo) and link that to medicare and then I could generate the electronic one. Stepped through all the hoops and questions for the 2 kids and voila I have 2 certificates. Done!
Not all countries need certificates for kids but Singapore does for anyone over 13 so we had to get them.
7 sleeps to go!!

 

Just booked a quick week to the Whitsundays (ex-ing out of Townsville) in late Sept to early Oct.

Was thinking 3 nights in Airlie with a day tour to Whitehaven, then 3 nights in Magnetic plus one night in TSV before we fly out the next morning.


Activity
Day 1 Fly to TSV, drive to Airlie
Day 2 Whitehaven Beach
Day 3 Free day in Airlie
Day 4 Drive to TSV, catch ferry to Magnetic
Day 5 Magnetic
Day 6 Magnetic
Day 7 Ferry back to TSV
Day 8 Fly home

Not going to Hamilton or any other of the more exy islands and not looking to spend ridiculous dollars on charters etc.

Can anyone improve on my itinerary?

 

imagine trying to get to the airport on a day like today and then trying to get thru customs and the security checks. You would need to leave home like 9 hours before departure.

 

I did some sailing in the Whitsundays area, it’s a fun way to spend time imo. Don’t bother with staying even a day Airlie, it’s not particularly interesting.

 

Melb again just got back

 

where is Port Douglas? Twilight Sailing

 

How so? What’s happening in Oz?

 

Yeah, with 5 people to pay for probably will give sailing a miss...but one of the days in Airlie will be dedicated to Whitehaven and the other - one of my son's likes fishing so we'll find some spots around Airlie for that if not treat them to a charter fishing trip. Basically I intend to try and just chill on this holiday without too much activity. Day hikes and relaxing on beaches is the aim.

 

We did PD the last time we went to Cairns (few years ago). This trip's focus is on Whitsundays and Maggie island. Can't (won't) afford the more expensive islands like Daydream, Hamilton etc.

 

School holidays.

Many are busting to make up 3 years of holidays/family catchups within a couple of months ... while half the airport staff (check in, border security, baggage handling etc) are out with covid/flu.

That's why we decided November was a better bet for our overseas booking

 

Gosh I hope we don't encounter this when we go. Hopefully they'll get their act together by then.

 

Train staff strike in Sydney most of the week plus the airports supposedly cannot find enough staff to open more than a few baggage scanning lanes at any one time. It takes hours to pass customs and security and this has been going on for months

 

Oh same in UK, post pandemic new world order I guess

 

Don't you have the self service baggage checks?

 

Yes there are some but the problems are after that. lining up for immigration and the security check after that. When I went out a few months ago it took 3 hours after checking in to reach my flight. It was supposed to leave at 9am and I got to the gate at 9.30 - they had to delay the flight an hour so everyone could get on board and so did many other flights.

It seems the problem still hasn't been fixed.

 

A friend went through Heathrow yesterday.
Took 4 hours to get through the queues, nearly missed her flight to the USA.

 

Damn might have to make an impromptu trip to Melbourne next week. Any news on Sydney's airport chaos righting itself?

Also, if I had to pick an airline - QF, Virgin or Rex....who should I pick for minimum of fuss, queues given the current situation?