Travelling to Australia

Of course, the only reasonable way to reach Australia is to fly. From Europe, there are no direct flights - a stopover in Hong Kong, Singapore or other cities might be a good idea if you have enough time. Also keep the following points in your mind:

- Some airlines offer excellent combination packages with flights within Australia
- A fork flight might be a good idea, saving you travel time within Australia
- Check your passport for sufficient validity - 3 months after planned return date

You need a tourist visa for Australia - usually, easy to get, e.g. using the web-based Electronic Travel Authority of Australia's Department of Immigration. The ETA visa costs AUS$ 20 and is available to citizens of the UK, US, Japan, South Korea and most West European countries (although, unfairly, not to the citizens of most new EU member states). Those not covered here would need to contact an Australian embassy, or use the services of one of the specialized private visa agencies.

With Global Warming a very "hot" issue these days, long distance flights have become an issue.  A number of agencies help you offset this by using a donation to support carbon dioxide reduction projects, e.g. in the third world. Look out for agencies which focus on replacing inefficient technology with efficient one, which in the long run has more effect than simply planting trees which will be felled and possibly burned at some point in the future. Some well-known agencies are:

- www.terrapass.com - probably the best known one
- www.carbonneutral.com - offering different types of CO₂ portfolios
- www.malaysia-wildlands-project.com - reforesting oriented
- www.atmosfair.com - based in Germany, high CO₂ estimates

The strange thing is that the carbon dioxide amounts calculated by these agencies may vary widely - for London to Sydney, they vary from 3 metric tons to 13. Also, the price tags have a wide variance. But no site claims to own a magic formula, so it is up to you to decide which offer (if any) sounds best.