2025 Australia Trip Report

I visited Sydney, Hobart, and Melbourne in October 2025. This was my first visit to Australia!

As is standard for the trip reports I plan on posting here, this entry is heavily focused on logistics (flights, accommodations, getting around, etc.)

✈️ Flights

I flew LAS-LAX-SYD outbound on American, and MEL-SYD-LAX-LAS on the return using an American ticket on mostly Qantas metal. I paid the outbound using some American e-credits I had that were expiring and redeemed miles for the return. I'd wanted to put at least part of the trip on miles, and while the outbound and return flights cost roughly the same in terms of dollars, the return was noticeably cheaper in terms of miles.

Within Australia, I flew SYD-HBA and HBA-MEL on paid Virgin Australia flights.

A sort of fun thing on Australian domestic flights is that they board and deplane from both the front and rear doors. My row assignments meant that I consistently boarded from the back of the plane, and it was kind of a novel experience to scan my boarding pass, get directed outside, walk along a marked path around the wing, and climb some stairs to get into the plane. Did make the boarding process a lot more efficient! I did have one flight where everyone deplaned from the front via the standard jetway and not through any rear stairs, which I figure was because it was particularly windy that day.

Both Qantas and Virgin Australia were new to me, and of course all the Australian airports were also new to me.

I flew economy throughout including on the long SYD-LAX legs! Was in full rows both ways but in window seats. Slept better on the outbound American flight than the return Qantas flight, but I suspect that was mostly due to timing.

📱 Mobile data

After the success of using an eSIM on my Kyoto trip earlier this year, I decided to try out another for this Australia trip. For the Kyoto trip, I'd looked at both Ubigi and Airalo and gone with Ubigi. Airalo's list price was noticeably cheaper than Ubigi for Australia, so I decided to give them a try this time around. (More on Ubigi vs Airalo.)

I picked up a 10GB/30 day plan for $18 (paid $15 after saving $3 with a referral code). I was careful about using wifi for any heavy downloads, but otherwise used my phone pretty normally and only used about 8GB.

I got good 5G speeds in Sydney, but it seemed a little slower in Hobart and Melbourne. Not if this was due to the local provider, and of course there could also be environmental factors as well (tall buildings, cell tower positions, etc.) Interestingly, some websites seemed to identify my location as being in Singapore (as opposed to Australia) which could indicate how traffic is being routed and might explain some of the slowness as well.

Anyway, still a good experience overall, especially since I did have wifi available at my hotels to fall back on.

🚃 🚌 Local transport

In Sydney, went exclusively public transit: metro, light rail, and ferry. Being able to tap on and off with Apple Pay made it extremely convenient, and the daily/weekly fare caps made it easy to estimate maximum spend. (Also the $9.35 AUD fare cap for adults on weekends is a heckin' bargain.)

In Hobart, mostly walked with the occasional Uber or tour bus. Skybus to/from the airport was a good deal and very convenient since it stopped basically in front of the hotel.

In Melbourne, went Skybus again between MEL and the main train station in Melbourne. Then mostly took the free trams around the free tram zone, though part of the tram system was being worked on so not all the lines were open. Both the Melbourne Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria are one stop outside the zone, but they're pleasant enough walks to avoid fussing with buying the local transit card for such short hops (no contactless payments yet in Melbourne, though that might be coming in 2026?)

🏨 Hotels

In Sydney I spent a bunch of hotel points and a free night certificate at the Hilton Sydney, which felt like a good use of both my points and the certificate. Staff were friendly and helpful, and since I do still have Diamond status with Hilton, I got to enjoy a complimentary full breakfast in the restaurant and evening lounge snacks and drinks that were more substantial than I expected (2 rotating hot food items, a dessert, cold cuts and other charcuterie board type stuff, as well as beer and wine.) The hotel is also centrally located and extremely convenient to public transit. No room upgrade, but they let me check in super early after my long flight so I'm grateful for that. The hotel would've been out of my price range for the number of nights I stayed if I'd paid money (even during shoulder season, and even given the favorable AUD to USD exchange rate) but I did not mind at all spending points and a free night certificate on this stay^[1].

I stayed one additional night in Sydney at the 57 Hotel. Sort of randomly picked it off Booking.com as a reasonably priced, well-rated hotel in a decent location. This hotel's in the Surry Hills area, just a few light rail stops from the Hilton Sydney but felt like more of a neighborhood compared to the Hilton Sydney's CBD. I was not there long, of course, but it did whet my appetite for seeing more of Sydney the next time I'm in Australia. Anyway, the hotel was more basic than the Hilton Sydney (cash price was almost half as much per night, to be fair!), but I liked the location, slept super well, and could see myself staying there again in the future. Plenty of coffee shops and cafés around to help me cope with the lack of Diamond breakfast too!

In Hobart I stayed at the Ibis Styles Hobart which I booked through the Citi Travel in part to redeem a $100 promo credit that was offered by Citi itself. Hotel's in a decently central location and I was able to walk to most places. Did not get breakfast with my rate but there are a number of good places within walking distance (particularly liked the Lobby Eatery a block and half away). I was a little underwhelmed by the dinner I had at the hotel restaurant and never did check out their breakfast so can't vouch whether it's worth paying for separately. Anyway, no real complaints about this hotel, especially at the rate I actually paid to stay there.

In Melbourne I had one night at the Savoy Hotel on Little Collins and spent the rest of my stay at the Next Hotel Melbourne, Curio Collection (yes, another Hilton-branded hotel). The night at the Savoy Hotel on Little Collins was mostly because I'd shifted my plans a bit and prices at the Next Hotel Melbourne had jumped significantly since I made my original reservation. I'd selected the Savoy Hotel on Little Collins in part because it was conveniently located right next to the main train station in Melbourne, but it seemed like a pretty nice hotel in its own right.

The Next Hotel Melbourne was decent, in a good location with easy access to the free trams. No early check-in here, and in fact they never did actually notify me that my room was ready, but they did upgrade me to a pretty nice suite:

now in Melbourne, at a hotel that I'm pretty sure totally forgot to tell me my room was ready, but also upgraded me to a suite so shrug emoji?

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— carol o (@carolou.bsky.social) October 19, 2025 at 10:43 PM

With my Hilton Diamond status, I also got free breakfast in the lounge. I think I would've been more impressed with the breakfast and evening lounge snacks at this hotel if I hadn't just stayed at the Hilton Sydney, but of course that's a bit of an unfair comparison.

🏙️ Touristy things

Ah, too many to list, but I think I'll just point out a few highlights.

No matter where you go in Sydney, see if you can do at least one trip on the Sydney ferry:

waiting for the ferry at the Cockatoo Island wharf. Sydney ferries have been a pretty scenic way to get around, tho definitely more crowded today than earlier in the week ⛴️⛴️

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— carol o (@carolou.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 8:50 PM

Hobart felt like it was having some growing pains with tourism, but I really dug the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Appropriately named since it has quite a good art collection in addition to all the history/natural history stuff, plus free admission!

Weather wound up ruling out some activities in Melbourne, but that just meant I got to continue on my museum bender! Particularly enjoyed both the Melbourne Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria.

Melbourne Museum goes pretty hard.. probably the best history/natural history museum I've been to on this trip! it does cost money, but only about 12 USD for general entry, which is a bargain for how much there is to see

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— carol o (@carolou.bsky.social) October 20, 2025 at 8:51 PM

still thinking about some of the oil paintings i saw at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. am uneducated in art certainly, but i don't think i've ever really appreciated oil painting as a medium before? did go on a random uncrowded weekday, so was able to linger and just admire more

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— carol o (@carolou.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 4:50 PM

☕️ 🍜 Drinks and Eats

I ate a lot more Asian food on this trip than I expected going in. Lots of good options in both Sydney and Melbourne. Also ate a fair amount of fish and chips in Sydney, and good pub food in Hobart:

in my chicken schnitzel pub food era

(it's apparently a common pub food in Australia!)

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— carol o (@carolou.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 9:13 PM

And of course, being in Australia, I did have my fair share of flat whites with oat milk.

minor upset stomach yesterday. also the first day this entire trip that I haven’t had a flat white. coincidence????

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— carol o (@carolou.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 5:03 PM

🛍️ Shopping

Did not have many shopping intentions for this Australia trip, though when it turned out I under-packed a little, I picked up an Airism cotton T-shirt from Uniqlo and a long-sleeve merino wool T from Decathlon, both in Sydney. Both shirts were good purchases, I bought them list price but still quite a good value especially given the exchange rate, and I think I might need to add more Airism and merino wool shirts to my travel rotation!

Also everyone who says to just wait and buy your sunscreen in Australia is 100% correct.

💵 Cash

After checking some of the Australian subreddits, it sounded like I'd be able to get by without any cash and that turned out to be true. I was able to tap and pay using one of my travel credit cards via Apple Wallet for most things. Hotels did want to see the physical card, but of course that wasn't a big deal. It seemed like the majority of places levied some sort of card surcharge (in the range of 1-2%), but in my mental math, any card surcharge was basically just rounding off the AUD to USD conversion. And as it stood, that AUD to USD conversion already felt really favorable to Americans!

↩️ Returning Home

Could not check-in online for my return Qantas flight. From what I could tell, this is typically the case if you're flying Qantas back to the U.S., maybe because they have to see your passport and collect some other info? Anyway, a very nice staff person got me quickly sorted out at MEL when I went to check-in.

It was crowded at LAX when we landed but the Global Entry line was quick-moving, the kiosk was the facial recognition kind, and I was called and waved through pretty quickly. This was a few weeks after the government shutdown had begun, but that was not too noticeable at this point.