I’ll be traveling to Australia in about a month and have received wonderful tips from this forum. Just a few more questions to be answered. I plan to buy the TravelPass ticket to use for the week we’ll be in Sydney. Since I’ll use it for travel from and then back to the airport - I see there is one that can be used for the airport - can it be bought right at the airport on arrival?

Also, I’ve been reading on the forums about phone cards, but most of the postings I found seem to be a year or two old. Just wondered if there are any new cards for sale that are best. Which cards are cheapest for calls back to the U.S ? Also, I’d read that you can get the phone cards at newsagents. Can you also purchase them at the airport?

Thanks in advance for your help!

You can buy the rail pass at the railway station ticket office.

Not sure if you can buy phone card at the airport or not. If you do not mind shopping on line there are websites that sell a range of cards. They send you the phone number and pin by email. I had a look and the best one looks like Day & Night at .02c per minute. We use Lime card out of habit but may give this one a go next time.Do not pay more than .05c per minute to the US. Remember if you call from a hotel phone they may over charge for the local call so try to use a public phone. A $10 card shoud give you way more than 5 hours so you shouldn't need more than that for a week!

http://www.phonecardselector.com.au
www.ozprepaidcards.com.au

We use a ChiTel card to phone China at about 2.5c/minute, and I think they offer the same rate for calls to North America. There's plenty of other brands on sale and they're sold all over the place - You'll see the ads stuck on the shop windows and I'd be surprised if some are not on sale at newsagents at the airport. Australia Post shops also sell them.

On the "no such thing as a free lunch" principle, the call quality isn't quite up to that of a regular call (the main problems are a little delay, sometimes echo and the occasional dropout) - but it's quite acceptable at the price. The idea is that you buy your card with a given amount of credit in multiples of $5, it has a user id. printed on it and a PIN, which is revealed by scratching off the gunk over it, like a "scratchie" lotto ticket. There's a local access number for each capital city: phone it and the machine will talk you through the call setup. We have to dial the access number (8 digits), "2" for English instructions, id., PIN, international access code (0011), country code, area code and wanted subscriber's number. Counting the intervening hashes (#) that's about 40 digits, so you learn to be very careful when dialling. But they're ridiculously cheap.

Many thanks to Tassietwister and Neil for the great advice on phone cards and also the information about the purchase of rail tickets. I'm assuming that the rail station is at or near the airport. It's great to have the information before we go rather than trying to sort it all out when we're jetlagged and trying to stay awake!! Looking forward to our visit to your country!

There's a train station in both the domestic and international terminals on the arrivals (lower) level. In the international terminal, it's at the left end (facing the terminal from the street), by the McDonalds. There's an information booth there, but the actual ticket office is down the escalators and is usually uncrowded.

Someotherguy - Thank you so much for "locating" the airport train station and ticket office for me. We'll be arriving at the international terminal and will plan to head right into Sydney, so I'll look for McDonald's and head down the escalators to the ticket office to purchase our TravelPass.

regarding the phone cards, there is another site which give huge discount.
http://www.ozphonecard.com.au

This phone cards shop http://www.salecalls.com offer cheap rates for your distination

Check the fine print. I don't think you can use Travelpass to and from the airport.
www.cityrail.nsw.gov.au

Absolutely right, Cilla - weekly travel passes bought from the STA (they are colour coded - blue, green, brown, etc, depending on how many zones and how many modes of transport) specifically exclude the train from the airport.

But OP - those passes are still great value - and you can get into the city on the train if you like for about $10 or you can take a minibus shuttle - drops you at your door in the CBD or Darling Harbour for the same amount of money.

The train line is reasonable value if your destination is somewhere in Greater Sydney other than the aforementioned - otherwise going by road involves a lot less hassle.

PatRemB probably means a sydneypass which does include a return rail trip to the airport and is available at the airport train station.

Msybe, Johhj,

And how much does a SydneyPass cost for a week (actually wasn't aware they were available in that form) - and how much does a commuter pass cost for the same time.

I know which I would buy.