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Along with every other aggressively Instagram-happy Sydneysider, I’ve just returned from Euro summer. And I’ll be honest: I categorically botched my journey home. I won’t go into details (that’s a whole other story), but let’s just say I had to book a whole new set of flights, shed a whole lot of tears and extend my European getaway for a total of four weeks. A certified atrocious attempt to cross the world to the city I call home.
As confidently as I can admit to completely fumbling my journey back to Sydney (the first attempt, anyway), I can proudly say I absolutely nailed the trip over – easy flight, magical stopover and zero jet lag. Here’s how you can do the same.
First up: booking your flights. In the Time Out editorial team, we do our best to share flight sales with our audience as soon as they go live, so you can jump on the deals while they’re fresh. To help you plan ahead, we spoke with the team at Skyscanner to find out their tips for cutting costs on your airfare. According to Skyscanner Australia Travel Expert Jarrod Kris, flexibility is the golden ticket: more than a quarter of Aussies are keeping their dates wide open, unlocking cheaper fares (with Saturdays and the week of August 3–9 flagged as sweet spots) and better-value stays, while shoulder months like June and September deliver warm weather without the peak-season price tags (or crowds). Kris notes that 50 per cent of travellers would rethink plans due to rising costs, yet 75 per cent are still actively searching – so the savvy move is to swap headline hotspots for under-the-radar gems, set price alerts, and use whole-month search tools to track dips in flight prices. According to Skyscanner, 37 per cent of Aussie travellers say they’d funnel savings made on cheaper flights straight into experiences once they land – so it’s worth being smart when you’re booking so you can switch budget mode off once you’re on hols.
Next up: jet lag. There are heaps of old wives’ tales that circulate about how to beat jet lag, but my key tips are rest, hydration and time zone-shifting. As soon as possible on your journey over, try to move your eating and sleeping schedule to fit with the time zone you’re flying to. I have to admit here that I was upgraded to Cathay Pacific’s Business Class cabin, which made operating on my own timeline easy as pie. If you’ve got the cash to splash on a Business Class flight (me neither), booking with Cathay Pacific will give you a super-comfy fully reclining bed, a private suite fully decked out with high-tech features and a perfect menu (everything from superfood smoothies to stacked beef burgers and on-point Old Fashioneds) available to order whenever suits you. Failing the upgrade, it pays to download a good ambient playlist to help you drift off, and pack hydration salts, a can of coffee and a few wholesome snacks so you can eat and sleep at your own pace on the journey.
Booking a direct flight across the world is one way to do it, but I’m a proponent of the midway stopover for maximising your travel experience and seriously minimising jet lag. On my way over to Europe, I spent four activity-packed days in Hong Kong, and I can seriously vouch for it as the ideal stopover city for adventure-loving Aussies. What a lot of people don’t realise about HK is that 80 per cent of it is a dedicated national park, meaning you’ve got hiking options galore right on your doorstep – shoulder to shoulder with some of the most wildly diverse and vibrant dining options in the world. You can read my full guide to a stopover in Hong Kong here, but my two must-dos are the Dragon’s Back Hike (an easy, super-cheap 20-minute bus ride from the city) and, if you can, a Martini or three at Bar Leone.
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