Hi there

My husband will be going to canberra for a year to study next yr, so we'll be visiting in nov to see if it's a suitable place to bring our toddlers along for the stay.

We will will be visiting Canberra in November, but due to the unavailability and price of flights from Sydney to Canberra we'll be driving. Any advice on the route from Sydney to canberra, or interesting stops along the way , will be appreciated. We hope to make the whole journey is less than half a day.

Thanks much!

Cheers

Hi Toralina, it is certainly not a difficult drive and not all that long, it might be worthwhile not stopping and just getting to Canberra itself. Plenty to see and do. I must admit I am surprised you couldn't get any cheap flights, did you try virgin ?

Hi there

Thanks for your reply. We're flying from Singapore, and our agent couldnt get the cheap fare Qantas flights for the Syd-Canberra leg at the timing we wanted. I also checked the Virgin website, seems they fly from Syd-Canberra via Melbourne (!!).

Thanks for the tip. May I ask if it's easy to navigate from the airport to the highway leading to Canberra?

Driving to Canberra is about 300 km, almost 200 miles. You should be able to do the trip in under 4 hours driving the Hume and Federal Hwy route. It's mostly, if not all dual highway nowadays. It's relatively uneventful scenery-wise, though if you've never been to Australia before, you may well find it quite interesting. Nonetheless, I think taking some extra time for detours would be well worth the effort.

The Hume Highway goes through region called the Southern Highlands, very beautiful if you can explore off the highway. There are pretty towns, waterfalls and several spectacular lookouts near Marulan and Bundanoon (Badgery's Lookout, Echo Point, etc). A nice return journey from Canberra would be to exit the Hume Hwy at Marulan and follow the Wingello Rd to Moss Vale through Bundanoon, sidetracking to lookouts along the way. From Moss Vale you could either cut back to the Hume or head directly to the coast via the lovely Kangaroo Valley (maybe detouring to spectacular Fitzroy Falls en route). Then you would head north to Sydney taking in some of the great coastal scenery south of the city....Kiama, Bulli, Stanwell Park and Royal National Park.

I lived in Canberra in the 80s, postdoc-ing at the ANU. If your experience is anything like mine was, you won't want to move back!

I did a quick search of the Virgin site, quite strange that they don't fly direct !!!! Weird ! There are still quite a few Qantas flights available at about $200 (aud) each way !

Yes, it's quite easy to navigate from the Sydney Airport to the highway leading to Canberra. There is a relatively new toll road now that goes by the airport and leads to the Hume Highway that goes to Canberra. The attendant at your rental car counter can easily show you the way. The nice thing about this toll road is that it has cut down the driving time to Canberra by quite a bit. It used to take 4 hours to drive from the center of Canberra to the CBD Sydney, but now it's only 3 hours. It should take you even less time if you are starting at the airport.
I must admit that in all the years we lived in Canberra, we only detoured once from the highway--we were always anxious to get to Sydney or to get back home. We never found the drive all that exciting, but it is an easy drive with pleasant scenery.
As you come into Canberra, you will be driving on Northbourne Avenue. The Canberra Tourism office is located there (well-marked with signs) on the left as you are approaching the city center. It might be worth a stop for you to pick up maps, brochures, etc.
I believe you will find Canberra to be extrememly "suitable" for your toddlers. It has to be one of the most family-friendly cities in the world. I'm sure you and your family will love your year there and, as another post-er mentioned, you won't want to leave.

The tollway leading to Canberra (sorry, I have zero memory for the Sydney road numbering system) passes quite close to the airport, to the east - the car rental agency will be able to give you detailed directions, and if you can pick up a road map covering the area you're heading through, so much the better.

Keep your eye on the road signs, as there's one point at which you need to be in the LH lane. After that it's just a case of following your nose, so to speak. There's a set of toll gates about 15 km on (at a guess) - just make sure you're in one of the cash payment lanes, not the electronic tag lanes (the toll is $3.30 but there's a manned gate where they give change).

Depending on traffic the direct trip is about 3 hours, give or take. The highway bypasses all the towns en route, but there are service centres and rest stops. After passing by Goulburn, which is about 90 km short of Canberra, keep an eye out for the signs directing you to bear left for the Federal Highway.

Just before you enter the outskirts of Canberra there's a service station (Eaglehawk Hill) where you'll be able to buy a Canberra street map - a good idea if you don't have detailed directions.

If this is your first visit I'm inclined to think that you can do without the complication of side trips. You could, if you wish, take the Princes Highway south (the previously mentioned Hume Highway route goes more SW). The Princes Highway is just a spit to the west of the airport's international terminal and takes you, via a fair slice of Sydney suburbia, to the city of Wollongong and beyond. You would, however, have to cut across west to the Hume Highway at some point, and while very scenic most of the roads rise up a mountain escarpment, with many hairpin curves (switchbacks). This would be a significantly slower trip and perhaps not one that you'd want to add to a flight from Singapore.

Just did a quick search at the Qantas site, and saw plenty of Syd>Cbr flights at $99 one way.

Toralina

What concerns do you have regarding taking toddlers to Canberra? I am not a great fan of our capital city but I would imagine that town has about the highest standard of living anywhere in the world. I wouldn't worry about taking children there at all.

Dear all

THanks for your responses! We've decided to drive, but thanks for looking for all the airline info You guys are real helpful.

My concern for my kids is more about education, and the cost of it. We'll be surviving on my husband's meagre allowance, so that's a concern. I havent been to Canberra so not much sense of how much higher the cost of living is (if at all) compared to Singapore.

Am not sure if this is the right forum but if anyone could shed light on the pre-school education system, I would appreciate it.

Thanks again

Canberra has a good and nominally free government school system, but I can't comment on pre-school facilities. I suggest you contact the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Department of Education & Training
(www.decs.act.gov.au) before you travel and arrange to talk to someone there and/or a likely school when you visit. I notice there's a PDF document on pre-schools on that website. There are also non-government schools of all kinds, but of course they'll expect you to pay.

You don't mention where your husband will be studying, but I assume that the student counselling service at his university could also assist.

I can't make any cost comparisons with Singapore, I'm sorry, but I do know that a lot of multinational companies have relocated their regional headquarters from Singapore and Hong Kong for (among other things) cost reasons, although that probably has a lot to do with executive housing costs.

The city is a family-friendly place with an excellent lifestyle and very convenient for a young family. When our kids were young we were both very busy with work and study, and found the ability to get from one place to another quickly and conveniently invaluable - we could never have managed all that back in Sydney. This helps to explain the increasing number of refugees from Sydney we're seeing here.

On average the standard of living is the highest of Australian cities, the product of a concentration of upper administrative and academic jobs and a high proportion of two-income families. There's little conspicuous wealth though, apart from the occasional drug dealer's Porsche (no, it isn't paradise).

Canberra is 2-3 hours' drive from the New South Wales South Coast, the Snowy Mountains and Sydney. As with other major Australian cities, there are active communities of many different national cultures.