This week our Smart Deal comes from a smart site, Aussie Week. (tel. 877/202-7452; www.aussieweek.com) some smart deals. Put together by the Tourism Australia in conjunction with Qantas Airlines, the website wants to persuade American travelers that it is not impossible to travel to Australia and leave with a real sense of the place -- in just a week. The well-designed, interactive site, which launched in mid-January, reflects the loose, fun-living attitude for which Australia is known. Tourism Australia and Qantas Airlines sent 100 Americans off on weeklong itineraries, armed with video cameras, to bust up the myths that the country is too far, too expensive, and too big to cover in a week's time. When you load the homepage, it launches small video clip of Frank and Barbara and their week in Melbourne. In these short clips, the travelers all seem pretty excited to serve as ad-hoc tour guides on camera (Andy Warhol is still right about 15 minutes of fame), talking about their experiences, whether that means shopping in Melbourne or eating oysters in Sydney, or hugging koalas, scuba diving, surfing, or drinking wine and beer.
There are plenty of ways to tackle the site, which is chockablock with options. Planning a trip to a place with which you are unfamiliar can sometimes be overwhelming. But Aussie Week's site tries to make it a bit easier by showing you what's possible. You can either custom design your own itinerary, or you can select one of the ones that have been thoughtfully prepared for you. This, in turn, can be performed in a number of ways: by city (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and its surrounding areas) or interest level, such as city, natural wonders and wildlife, beaches, and food and wine. Its lowest priced trips reflect the city trips. Its weeklong Only in Sydney trip, including round-trip airfare and seven nights of four-star accommodations, is priced from $1,699. That trip also includes a five-day Sydney pass, with attractions such as the beaches, the harbor, the Opera House, along with the harbor bridge. Or take part in, Brisbane City Life, priced from $1,699, includes full American breakfast daily, return transfers from the airport to the hotel, and an Australia Zoo tour. Here, you're close the Gold Coast and endless natural wonders and preserves. Even if you pick one of its packages, you can still add things on as you go and customize it.
Another city destination, Marvelous Melbourne, is priced at $1,699, but this one also includes round-trip shuttle transfers and a Great Ocean Road tour, which includes lunch. Food and wine lovers may know that Melbourne is the food and wine capital of Australia. (I'm coveting the Melbourne and the Yarra Valley Wine Country package, which includes four nights in Melbourne, three in the Yarra Valley, a couple of tours, three days of a car rental, and full breakfast daily, priced at $2,053 for travel May 1-31 and August 1-31.)
The lowest prices reflect travel May 1-31 and August 1-31 and are calculated from West Coast departures from San Francisco or Los Angeles. You can depart at other times but prices will go up, peaking in June, July, and again mid-September through early December. You can, of course, get yourself to either of these cities and depart from there, but you'll have to book it on your own. Gratefully, the filghts on Qantas from the west coast are nonstop.
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