Starting out in Oz

[Rob89]

Hey,
I'm planning on comming to Oz in October, I have a years Working Holiday Visa and was wondering how easy is it to turn up at the airport, find a hostel and set yourself up on your own? Or is it worth trying to join up with one of these introductory companies to start out? I would quite like to do it alone, but am obviously a little aprehensive of everything going wrong if i cant find anywhere to stay, or work. Is it easy to meet other back packers out there?
I was planning of flying into Perth, is this a good area to start?
Is anybody else heading out around October time?

[poppysbigadventure]

Hi Rob,

Such an exciting time for you! I came out to Australia with the Ultimate Oz arrival package. If you check a post I made to Ellie in another section of this Forum, you will see my comments. But basically my best friend & I had the best start to Australia possible with Ultimate Oz. This is the ultimate oz facebook page if you want to see more info, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profi ... UltimateOz

Seriously, from the moment them picked us up at the airport we had a blast. The hostel called Wakeup where we stayed was fantastic & central to everything. We did a days surfing lesson, went to the blue mountains, had a brilliant night out on a boat cruise of sydney habour. It was everything we hoped for.

The only thing about Ultimate Oz is that that i dont they do arrival packages to perth, just to Sydney. Perth is so far away though from the rest of australia & its pretty expensive to get over to the east coast if you want to once you arrive. I would recommend starting off in sydney as the people are so friendly for a big city & there is plenty of work & accommodation around to get you sorted for a few months.

Anyhow I love helping out travellers who are about to come out to australia, so if you have any more questions feel free to ask! So far i have had heaps of fun on my travelling & with the Ultimate Oz gang so I am going to change my career to travel when I get back to the UK, so this is good practice

All the best,
Poppy

[Rob89]

Hi Poppy,

Wow! Thanks for all the information and the Ultimate Oz link. (Are you sure your not a rep for them? you certainly gave a glowing reference! haha) I've seen their name crop up a few times since looking around and they seem to be quite a highly regarded company. Its definately a tempting option.
Do you know if in their package offer they do the application process for a Working Holiday Visa as part of the bundle they offer? I couldnt see any mention about whether you apply seperately or if they deal with it. Obviously as mentioned before I already have mine, so it would reduce the price of the deal quite alot I should have though. I tried contacting them, but it doesnt seem to be working at the moment.

With Sydney, I have heard alot about how expensive it is and it can be a real struggle to survive there without blowing a huge hole in the bank balance, which was why I was a little cautious about starting out there, did you find this to be the case or is it not as bad as people have been making out?

Thankyou for all your help!

Rob

[poppysbigadventure]

Hi Rob,

Not sure why you couldn't get in touch with them. Did you try contacing them by that online chat or send them an email direct?

They were great at getting back to me every time.

Anyhow wishing you all the best with you travel plans! Yay!
Poppy

[2212markymark]

Hi Rob,

I also booked with Ultimate Oz to come out to Australia and my trip so far has been fantastic. It really was the best thing I did as far as getting started in Sydney and meeting heaps of brilliant people.

Couldn't recommend it highly enough really. Sydney is unreal btw. Amazing place.

Feel free to contact me if you need more info.

Mark

[Rob89]

Awesome, thanks for you replies. Im near 100% certain im going to book ultimate Oz now for when i arrive.

couple of questions though,

I looked at booking my flight today for the end of August, one way, but one of the guys seems to think you have to have a return or open end ticket to get in the country, do you know if this is true or not?

Also, was told that its really difficult to get work out there at the moment, is that true?

Thanks again guys!