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By far, the cheapest place for an American to fly into Australia would be Darwin. Would that give one a representative Australian experience, or is it atypical of the country?
The lowest plane fare USA (IAH) to Sydney is over $1500, but one can fly for about $1150 by tying together separate tickets to Denpasar, Bali ($850), then on to Darwin ($300). Even Sydney would be $100 cheaper going that way instead of direct, amd you'd get Bali, too..
By far, the cheapest place for an American to fly into Australia would be Darwin. Would that give one a representative Australian experience, or is it atypical of the country?
Australian cities are pretty ordinary relative to other countries. Surely tourists don't travel to Australia for the bustling city life!
To the OP, Darwin offers a great unique Australian experience with a great war-time history which some of your own were involved in, swathes of aboriginal culture and art, and World Heritage Site Kakadu National Park on Darwin's doorstep. It's always warm with long sunny dry seasons and wet seasons with spectacular thunderstorms. Hard to beat a Darwin sunset sitting along Fannie Bay.
Australian cities are pretty ordinary relative to other countries. Surely tourists don't travel to Australia for the bustling city life!
To the OP, Darwin offers a great unique Australian experience with a great war-time history which some of your own were involved in, swathes of aboriginal culture and art, and World Heritage Site Kakadu National Park on Darwin's doorstep. It's always warm with long sunny dry seasons and wet seasons with spectacular thunderstorms. Hard to beat a Darwin sunset sitting along Fannie Bay.
All of which is true of course. However the OP indicated he was looking for a representative Australian experience. The answer is clearly no for Darwin.
By the way, from most US airports, you can save hundreds of dollars buying Australia tickets flying through Bali, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Bangkok. Two separate tickets, but that connection is never shown in the air-fare websites. Houston to Singapore to Perth, for example, can be done for $1065 on the same day that direct fares are listed at over $1400 to anywhere in Australia.
Australian cities are pretty ordinary relative to other countries. Surely tourists don't travel to Australia for the bustling city life!
To the OP, Darwin offers a great unique Australian experience with a great war-time history which some of your own were involved in, swathes of aboriginal culture and art, and World Heritage Site Kakadu National Park on Darwin's doorstep. It's always warm with long sunny dry seasons and wet seasons with spectacular thunderstorms. Hard to beat a Darwin sunset sitting along Fannie Bay.
You'd hope not!
OP, what are you looking for in Australia? Big cities are not our distinctive feature, they're the same as any other first world city. In that sense, Darwin is more distinctive than Melbourne or Brisbane, but I would recommend looking for the unique landscapes of Australia. Darwin is a good starting point for that sort of thing. Google Kakadu.
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