Traveller Letters: Sydney Airport is a shambles

Fix it

Well said, Mark Elrick (Traveller Letters, October 14). I too was appalled by the shambles at Sydney Airport. When I was there, three of the four passport machines were not working, with people asked to line up in front of the machines while the staff got someone to fix them.

One reader found most of the smartgates at Sydney Airport not working during a recent arrival.

The machines couldn’t be fixed, so these same people then had to join a queue that was by then four times as long. After a long flight, they were not happy people. Rather than using machines that don’t work, how about employing more people to do the job and properly welcome visitors at the same time?
Brendon Fehre, Waterloo, NSW

Letter of the week: Do the bus stop

South America by bus: passing through Chile’s Atacama desert.Credit: iStock

In a total of seven trips over four decades to South America, whenever I have travelled the continent it has been by bus (Traveller, October 14). There are good reasons to do so – it’s cheap, there’s plenty to see out the window and, most importantly, you meet the locals. Even if your Spanish or Portuguese is non-existent you can still manage to communicate. Each South American country has something different to offer by bus, from the magnificent climb into the Andes on poor and narrow roads, to the Pan-American Highway stretching from Ecuador to Chile with the Pacific on one side of the bus and desert on the other.
Robert Pallister, Punchbowl, NSW

Stamp of approval

I thought I would share my positive experience with the passport office. I recently decided to renew my Australian passport and, based on past Traveller Letters, I allowed plenty of time. To my absolute delight, my passport arrived eight days after the interview at the post office. Congratulations to the Passport Office, it’s good to see you have this under control.
Tony Siler, Sunbury, VIC

Cold comfort

I’d like to point out to Traveller reader Anne Cloak (Traveller Letters, October 14) that a bidet is for washing one’s bottom, not one’s smalls. However, if she wants to go to the next level when she comes across a bidet she could put ice in it and use it as a drink cooler.
Tony Curtis, Fitzroy North, Vic

Frequent complaints

The late September announcement by Qantas that it would offer more Frequent Flyer seats does not seem to have flown (excuse the pun), at the time of writing, through to international flights. On September 13, Frequent Flyer economy seats from Sydney to London were available on 21 of the 50 Tuesdays (to August 27, 2024) listed on the Qantas website. On October 17, those seats were only available on 19 of the 50 Tuesdays (to October 1, 2024) listed on the website. Premium economy seats were only available on six Tuesdays, four on partner airlines and two via the US, with the second leg on a partner airline. No business class Frequent Flyer seats were listed, and the two first class options were both with Emirates.
Maurice Critchley, Mangrove Mountain, NSW

Connectivity leads to disconnectivity

Having holidayed in a couple of far-flung parts of Australia recently, I can report that Wi-Fi connectivity has spread across our wide brown land. Wherever we are, we expect technology to be strong and constant. But is continental coverage to be uniformly admired? Being off-the-grid and uncontactable has its charms and wellbeing benefits. A sign in a brewer’s beer garden reminded me of what we’re losing: “No Wi-Fi. Talk to one another. Pretend it’s 1995.” Cheers to that.
Matthew Gibbs, Leichhardt, NSW

History lesson

Colchester, the UK’s oldest town.Credit: iStock

Thanks, Steve McKenna, for the article about Colchester, England (Traveller, October 14). I grew up in Colchester, coming to Australia in 1967. The article and photo took me back to the then rather provincial but huge army town with a lot of interesting historical features. I went to Colchester’s Gilberd School, named after William Gilberd who pioneered research into magnetism. His lovely house is well worth a visit. I can remember that when my school was doing renovations we could walk across the site and easily dig up shards of Samian pottery, Roman bricks, household Roman rubbish and the occasional Roman coin – the site being an old Roman barracks just behind the Postern (back) Gate in the Roman wall.
Brian Woodward, Cremorne, NSW

Plane wrong

The Grumman family and the descendants of the other founders, and the later company Northrop Grumman Company, would not be best pleased to hear the company being described by your columnist, Lee Tulloch (Traveller, October 14) as German. It was and is a proud US company founded in 1929. From the mid-1930’s, its staple aircraft were the Grumman “Cats” – Wildcat, Hellcat, Panther, Cougar, Tigercat and the iconic Tomcat. The last of these starred in that Tom Cruise movie Top Gun. If you wish to see the Cats on display, head to the aircraft museum at Kalamazoo Airport, Michigan, where the F14 Grumman Tomcat is on display out the front.
Gordon Chirgwin, Harrington, NSW
EDITOR’S NOTE The online version of the column in question has been corrected. Apologies for the error.

When dorms were the norm

Ben Groundwater’s article (Traveller, October 14) brought back many wonderful memories of travel with my children. I fondly recall our nine months driving around Europe and the UK with our three and five-year-olds in the 1980s, choosing places to stay based on what the local youth hostel had to offer. These included the youth hostel in Wanlockhead, Scotland, where Mrs Johnson was able to time the burning down of the coal in the communal kitchen to coincide with her “lights out at 10 o’clock” edict. Then there were the castles in Italy, the former mills in Switzerland, the old schoolhouses in the UK and the erstwhile hospital in New Zealand, all turned into hostels. All offered an array of accommodation options and great facilities at very reasonable prices. There were always places for the kids (and parents) to relax, laugh, play games and converse with people from different backgrounds and life experiences. Youth hostels have so much to offer for all stages of life, and, of course, you never forget the smell of spaghetti bolognaise. Someone is always in the kitchen cooking it, no matter where you stay.
Anne-Maree Thom, Saratoga, NSW

Tip of the week: Making tracks

You can travel on Germany’s rail network at a bargain price. Credit: Alamy

We are travelling by train through Germany using the Deutschland Ticket. This subscription-based ticket only costs €49 ($82) a month and gives the holder unlimited travel on all German regional trains and local public transport. It easily paid for itself within the first week as we travelled from Frankfurt Airport to Koblenz, Mainz, Miltenberg and Wurzburg. It also makes it easy to do day trips or just jump on a bus or tram when you’ve had enough of walking. We purchased our app-based ticket through RMVgo, one of the regional transport companies that accept foreign credit cards (DB Bahn didn’t do so at the time of purchase). RMV also allows you to start a subscription in the month of travel, which some companies don’t. Just remember to cancel the subscription before the tenth of the month so it doesn’t automatically renew for the next month, and away you go through the beautiful towns of Germany at a bargain price.
David Berg, Canterbury, NSW

Step this way

My wife and I, both in our 70s, have enjoyed walking the Larapinta and Bay of Fires trails in Australia, with both undertaken in the past 13 months. Then, three weeks ago, heading overseas we experienced the Basque country in south-west France with Patrick and Robbie who own Pyrenees Tours, based in Bowral NSW. A simple formula, the trip involved choosing a central town with a great hotel for eight nights and then adding three meals each day, along with local wines for lunch and dinner. Then you walk some eight to 14 kilometres each day, with a most knowledgeable Basque country and Pyrenees host. It did require a good level of fitness and good breathing capacity.
John Verhelst, Huntleys Cove, NSW

Going for croak

Humans aren’t the only ones impressed with the Kimberley’s public toilets.Credit: Diane Maddison

As a frequent visitor to the stunning Kimberley region of Western Australia, I agree with your correspondent (Traveller Letters, October 21) regarding the cleanliness of the public toilets in that region. However, at times it’s worth checking the bowl before using the facility, wherever one travels in remote areas in Northern Australia. A magnificent green tree frog may have taken up residence. The joys of travelling.
Diane Maddison, Parkdale, Vic

Band on the run

I was delighted to read Anthony Dennis’s glowing reports, in his ABBA story (Traveller, October 15) on his Viking Cruises visit to Stockholm. The city has what must be the most amazing changing of the guard ceremony ever and, during our own Stockholm visit, we felt like we’d been captured by the Pied Piper. As Dennis writes, it’s a rousing spectacle. We followed the guards and marching band through the streets leading to the Royal Palace then were entertained by pomp and ceremony centred on the changing of the palace guards. Music, marching and much laughter from the assembled crowds encouraged by the military police. On our day there was lots of ABBA, too. The changing of the guard is a must-not-miss event in this beautiful city.
Penelope Davies, Junortoun, Vic

Cancel culture

Beware if you are booking accommodation well in advance through the various online platforms. While recently travelling in the United Kingdom, we had two hosts suddenly cancel our nine-month-old bookings with less than a week’s notice before arrival. One at Canary Wharf claimed our credit card was invalid, which it wasn’t, and the other in High Wycombe had a fictitious story of a neighbour flooding their apartment. In fact, the hosts had discovered that they could obtain a greater financial return than we had locked in by booking early and had continued advertising their property through other platforms. The platform we booked through was totally indifferent. Although most hosts are great, be prepared to have to search for new properties at short notice.
Mark Berg, Caringbah South, NSW

The Letter of the Week writer wins three Hardie Grant travel books. See hardiegrant.com

The Tip of the Week writer wins a set of three Lonely Planet travel books. See shop.lonelyplanet.com