Your Guide to Visiting Australia
Posted on March 10, 2009 by Patrick Evans - Marketing Communications Coordinator
It is a little known fact that the STA in STA Travel doesn’t stand for Student Travel Association or Student Travel Agency, but Student Travel Australia. That’s right, our ancestors are from the land down under.
Almost 30 years ago, two Australian students started STA as a way to help University students travel. Now we’re all around the world.
Coming back to our roots, we put together a quick travel guide to Australia.
What to Do
Australia has the water equivalent of New York’s Central Park with Streets Beach. A real-life oasis in the middle of the Brisbane. It is one of the few beaches that is smack-dab in the middle of a city.
One of my favorite things to do in any city is check out the local art. It is a little slice of culture that reflects the people in a deeper way than just visiting the gift shop near your hostel. In Sydney, the Museum of Contemporary Art should be on your itinerary. Admission is free and guided tours for those new to the art scene are free as well. They also have a pretty awesome Web site.
What to Eat
Australia, kind of like the U.S. is a mash-up of cultures with immigrants from all over the world, so you can get pretty much whatever you want.
A popular breakfast includes Vegemite, a dark spread that has a similar taste to beef bullion, on toast or a bowl of cereal. In the colder regions, a more substantial hot breakfast similar to a Full English may be served.
For dinner, you could stop at a local McDonald’s or Subway in Australia, but we recommend sticking with a traditional meat pie, which is similar to the American pot-pie. The average Australian consumes 12 of these in a year.
What to Say
Of course the majority of Australians speak English, but some of their slang is a bit different than what you encounter in the U.S.
A mate is a good friend and the term bloke is usually used as a term of endearment for someone who is a good person, i.e. a good bloke.
If you’ve gotten that down, onya. Onya means, well done. It is a shortened version of “good on you.” And if you’re asked to take a smoko, but you don’t smoke, tag along anyway because they may be talking about taking a break to drink tea.
Photo Credit: safaris on Flickr
13 Responses to 'Your Guide to Visiting Australia'
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“you could stop at a local McDonald’s or Subway”
Seriously? If you’re going to mention those, why not point out the oddity that Burger King is called Hungry Jack’s instead. But why would recommend eating at those troughs when there is so much excellent food available in Australia? -
Certainly a visit to Manly Beach, the zoo and that big park. When I was there, it was “bat season” there were millions of bats in the park. Also, the aquarium is really nice because they have sea life we don’t have in the US.
Finally, we took a trip up to the Blue Mountains which was also a nice day trip. I ended up buying a Diggery Doo some where along the way.
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I strongly recommend Leconfield Jackaroo and Jillaroo school in the Tamworth area. Ride horses crack stock whips wrestle cattle you name it you do it Aussie style. One of my best times for sure.
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@Mollie – Breakfast food is awesome anytime.
@Chris – I did not know about BK/Hungry Jacks. Do they have an equivalent to the King?
@Leyla – Bats are awesome. Very cool animals. That must be interesting to see them on the beach.
@Ellen Jones – It’s nice to hear that it is a good program. We work with them on some live abroad programs.
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Definitely go to the outback! On your way to Uluru (Ayers Rock), make a stop in Coober Pedy (The opal capital of the world!). I worked in a bakery there for 5 weeks and had a spectacular time!
I unfortunately did not make it to QLD on my last trip, but my favorite part of Oz I did go to was Perth… and Fremantle!Other stuff:
They have KFC, but they don’t have mac and cheese, but they do serve chips (fries).
A lot of places have special deals on Tuesdays (discounted movie tickets, two-for-tuesday deals)
It can’t hurt to ask for ISIC and/or YHA discounts with your card. There was a cinema in Adelaide that gave discounts to YHA members. -
[...] was going to write about New Zealand today, but due to the great response we got from yesterday’s Australia suggestions, I’ve decided to do a little investigative work on your suggestions for another [...]
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Just how you guys call McDonalds Mickey D’s, we call it Maccas.
A large McDonalds meal in Australia is no where near as big as the American one!!!
Burger King is known to us as Hungry Jacks, although we do have a few Burger King’s around.
Personally, I prefer a sausage roll with tomato sauce over a meat pie… but how about some pavlova or a vanilla slice? Yum!
Just like bloke, you can use ’sheila’ to refer to a female.
We also use to word ‘tea’ to refer to dinner. “Tea time!” Haha.
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Okay, seriously had no idea that is what the STA acronym meant. Yeah, I’ve been learning more and more about Australia in the last couple months, meaning a trip is eminent.
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Didn’t know about it. Very nice information. Submitted this post to Google News Reader.
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I found your site on google, great site, keep it up. Will return in the future. Submitted this post to Google News Reader.
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[...] Your Guide to Visiting Australia – “Australia, kind of like the U.S. is a mash-up of cultures with immigrants from all over the world, so you can get pretty much whatever you want.” [...]
I would recommend Pancakes on the Rocks for breakfast to anyone who is in the Sydney area… even if its not breakfast time!!