They have finally allowed Australians to leave this island! Huzzah!
Something that I have always struggled with is just how far we are from the rest of the world. Flying excitement is short lived until you realise that it’s going to be about 5 hours until you clear flying over Australia to Asia.
In the past year or 2, reasons that you could leave Australia as an Australian were if you were relocating for work or study. Other than those reasons, no family reunions, funerals or quick trips to visit family overseas were allowed. I had heard of many people who had applied to leave but were rejected multiple times.
As of the 1st Nov, we have been allowed to leave the country without having to apply to leave. So I had a peep. What does post pandemic world travel look like?
Difficult is the first word that comes to mind.
Our Government travel website finally changed from DO NOT TRAVEL to now updated information per country. First off, countries differ in whether they are welcoming international travellers or not. On further investigations, it also depends on what country you are travelling from depending on whether you meet the need to quarantine or not. Even then, quarantine times differ as well as facilities.
I’d only recently found out that we need an Australian-issued International COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate set up too prior to leaving. Information just keeps trickling in slowly, it’s alittle overwhelming.
Next up, I had a look at flights. Ooooof. I do not fancy a 41 hour flight to Europe with 2 stop overs. With the situation across countries changing quickly, the logistics around travel at the moment requires extra extra planning. PCR tests before flying and trying to find local test centres is another plan that needs to be on the itinerary.
For those also taking annual leave to travel, there is always the risk of having to delay flying back if one should test positive and have to isolate. For most, the minimum of 14 days quarantine is just not feasible to plan into a trip either. For many, family visits will not be practical yet.
It’s been interesting to see how international travel has resumed for us and let’s see what it’ll be like in a few months time.
Lingo in Transit 
Hooray! I’ve heard from other Australian travel bloggers that the country’s slowly allowing international travel again, but it appears only to nearby countries in Asia (if you count Asia as “nearby,” that is…)? As for one my side as an American, I doubt Australia will be welcoming us with open arms, as we haven’t had the most-stellar record for vaccinating our population (yet we still are freely traveling like no other, which I have mixed feelings about…). Any case, it’s baby steps, and I have a feeling that you’ll be able to travel internationally as soon as next year!
Yes! I had a look at Singapore where you need to apply to enter before leaving but fine for transits. I was looking up random countries on our travel site and some other EU countries still only had citizens allowed to enter. I’ve read that the UK is open to us too and know of someone flying to the US this week. I don’t think travel is open here yet for non citizens to fly in but I could be wrong. I don’t even think we can even fly to Western Australia from the east yet hahaha. Finally, some hope!
I’m so glad you can leave Australia now, that’s great news. Travel from the UK has been possible for a while, but it isn’t easy. We went to Holland (so only 4 hours away), had to take a PCR test before leaving (which wasn’t checked at any point), sort our vaccine passes, do locator forms (which wasn’t checked either), do a declaration form (which wasn’t checked either…sense a pattern?) to get in. Then to get home it was another test (not checked), a locator form (not checked) and order a day 2 PCR test (which still hasn’t turned up 2 months later). SUCH a waste of money and time for absolutely nothing to even be looked at!
Oh what a waste of money if they aren’t even going to check! It really feels like more of a box ticking exercise than anything else.
I think we can fly to WA as a family member just did that. But international travel sounds like a can of worms. Almost back to the old days of waiting at borders to see if they will allow you through. And the air fares? Were they exorbitant?
Oh ok! They were more on the expensive side eg flight to europe was around $2300, singapore was about $700. There are not that many flights so I did see alot of tickets with long layovers.