Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder. It's Monday the 26th of January.

And if you know your public holidays, you will realise that it's Australia Day. So for insights and

advice on travel to and within Australia, I've been trawling through the travel industry,

trying to come up with the ideal person who can tell me all about the places to go,

the things to see, and do. And I've come up with the top expert, Lauren McLeod,

who heads up the Australian product portfolio for trailfinders,

which is, as you will know, the largest independently owned travel company in the UK.

So, Lauren, let's start at the very beginning.

Wop, Porsche, the first-time visitors to Australia, simply ask for a return ticket to Sydney,

and do you advise them to do anything different?

Yeah, so there's definitely a demand for flight-ownies into Australia.

And as you probably know, there's a lot of Brits who have family and friends who live in Australia,

so there's always big demand for that.

But the

majority of our business is package booking. So that is what we book the most of it, particularly

to Australia. I would definitely recommend exploring as much as you can, depending on how much time

you have. Most people choose to visit two or three of Australia's states and territories, and there is

just so much to explore, like it's one of the

most diverse countries in the world. Let's say somebody going for the first time, maybe for

three or four weeks. What sort of itinerary would you recommend? Yeah, good question. So I personally

have spent a lot of time in Australia. I actually lived in Australia for a year as a working holiday visa back in the day.

And then I go once or twice a year these days for work.

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