Air Tickets & Flight Advice

Flight Specials
Everywhere has specials for Twin Share, you can get an extremely good deal.
But for me? The cheapest I could find for a solo traveller at last minute, was from Escape Travel flying via Air Paradise. (Melbourne Airport to Denpasar Airport) 31st May - 27th June - AUD $890 including 4 nights in Kuta (Flora Beach Resort - budget!)

You can get them as low as $500 with 8 nights accommodation if you have twinshare and you're not fussy about when you go. These prices were even listed for June, which is a popular tourist month.

Found this site today (17 May 04) and it looks pretty awesome for finding cheap flights from Australia and NZ to just about anywhere - http://www.cheapflights.com.au


Air Travel Health
Dehydration is a real hazard when flying. It is vital that you consume plenty of water - avoid too much alcohol, tea & coffee as they will increase dehydration.
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT), also known as 'economy class syndrome' - been in news for causing death & injury - basically any form of travelling that forces you to remain seated for more than 4 hrs increases the risk of developing blood clots in the legs, according to some experts. It's essential to keep your circulation going while you're flying. Remove footgear, move your legs up and down regularly, take walks in the aisles. read more tips - sas guide to safe travel


Departure Tax
You must keep 100,000Rp for your departure tax (apx AUD$16) and don't lose the card they leave in your passport as you will need it when departing.


Airport Customs / Luggage
On the way back into Australia from Bali, the 2 main "worries" are:
- the weight of your luggage, and
- the contents of your luggage.
Air Paradise only has a 20kg limit, which meant that I was allowed to take 20kg (they secretly give you 30kg) and then you pay excess for the rest. They don't weigh your hand luggage, so put all your heavy items (if possible) in there. I got to the Bali Airport early, but I'm so thankful that I did, as my luggage weight turned out to be 80kgs!! I had already gone through and chucked out what I didn't need, so couldn't believe that it weighed that much. You can't just pay excess either... Australian occupational health & safety prevents the airport luggage guys from lifting anything over 50kgs, so I had to buy another bag, stick more things in my already-overpacked hand-luggage, and try and get my 80kg back down to 50kgs, which somehow I did.. and then I had to carry 2 x very heavy bags on board with me, as well as re-pack my luggage to hand in. The excess costed about AUD$100 too. I was so early that noone was waiting behind me while all this happened, but it all had to happen in front of them, at the counter so you could continually re-weigh the bags, so be EARLY and you can iron out problems without pissing people off :)

Also, don't buy dodgy items - ie: soveneirs with animal hair, items made out of animal (ie: tortoise shell, etc) as there is no chance that Australia will let you in with them. You can buy food, as long as it's still packaged, ie: i bought a heap of chilli sauces back that I bought from the Matahari Supermarkets. You still have to claim them at customs though.

Note: When you arrive back in Australia, the line is huge, it was more than 1.5 hours to get through, and I was one of the first 20 to leave the plane. If I didn't have anything to claim, I would've maybe made it out in about 40-60 minutes. There were hundreds of people behind me in the line, so they would've had to wait at least another hour to get through customs.