A friend of mine just returned from a three-week vacation to Sydney, Cairns, and the Australian Outback. I’ve spent the last few days looking at photos and listening to him rave about all the amazing adventures he had on his trip. Of course, I’m totally jealous now, as that’s the exact itinerary I’ve been dreaming about for years. The only thing that has prevented me from making the journey Down Under is a lack of funds, but I’m due a bonus at work within the next month, so I think I’ll finally have enough money to go.

I’m so excited about the prospect that I’m already checking into flights to Australia to see what how much I’ll need to spend. I know that airfare has been on the rise pretty much across the board recently, so I have to admit that I was worried about having to pay an arm and a leg just to get to over to Sydney. Fortunately, while flights to Australia are indeed more expensive than other top vacation spots, the prices aren’t nearly as bad as I feared they would be.

The main reason for this is the fact that there are so many discount travel websites on the Internet these days. Most of them offer good deals on flights to Australia, so I’m 100 percent sure that I’ll be able to find something in my budget. It helps that my travel dates are completely flexible, as that obviously gives me the opportunity to go during off-peak times when fares are at their lowest.

Anyway, I decided to use a site that quickly compares rates on all flights to Australia offered by every airline that flies out of my nearest airport. It was very easy to get these instant rate quotes. All I had to do was type in the dates that I wanted to travel on, the number of people in my party, and a few other details, such as whether or not I minded layovers. Once I entered this information, I then received a list of cheap flights to Australia that met my criteria.

I haven’t actually booked my flight to Australia yet because I think fares might dip a bit lower in a few months as winter arrives in the southern hemisphere. In the meantime, I’ll just keep monitoring prices every couple days or so. Then, as soon as I see a reasonably cheap flight to Australia that I can afford, I’ll snap it up and make the rest of my travel arrangements immediately after.

I can’t even begin to tell you how great it feels to know I’ll be going on my dream vacation soon!