Tips for Travel

So I've been Melbourne for a total of 12 days and in those 12 days I have learned quite a bit about traveling abroad, so Im going to share my bit of knowledge for your reading pleasure.

First of all, if you are planning to participate in the exchange program or maybe just travel abroad for a bit, the biggest piece of advice I have is to SAVE UP MONEY. I know this seems obvious, but to give you an idea of how fast you will go through money I have already blown through $1000 within the first two weeks. I know this seems excessive and you're wondering what in the world I could have spent that money on, but when you are trying to get yourself established there a lot of little things that you need and might not have planned for. Im just going to go through the most obvious and basic of needs like housing, communication, and traveling around the city.


HOUSING


The biggest issue we ran into was trying to find housing. The best way, we found, to find housing is to actually come to Melbourne first and stay in a hostel for about a week until you find housing. We spent about a month before we came to Australia trying to secure housing but no one would respond to any of our emails. Basically, cheap housing is hard to come by so if you want to rent you have to be there in person to inspect the apartment and then put a deposit down. In order to find housing, you have to be in Melbourne, so find a hostel and give yourself plenty of time to find permanent housing. Also, you need a phone. People dont always respond by email and trust me, wifi is a lot harder to come by than you think.

The first thing you need to do is find a hostel and book in advance for a week stay. You dont want to show up and then try to find a hostel because you will be lugging all your baggage around and you never know, most of the hostels may be booked then you wont have any place to stay.  Hostels are everywhere and most are relatively cheap, but you can find more expensive ones, so do your research before hand. You also need to research where you want to stay. Its much more convenient to find a hostel in the area where you plan on living so you wont have to travel as far and you can also spend time exploring and becoming familiar with the area. If you are going to Swinburne University, either the Hawthorn campus or Prahran campus, there are a few suburbs you can search in for housing which are close to both campuses.
 Suburbs: Prahan, Hawthorn, Hawksburn, Toorak, Windsor, South Yarra, St. Kilda, Richmond, and Elwood. All of these suburbs are within 45 minute train or tram ride to the campus, so look for hostels in or near these areas. We stayed at The Base hostel in St. Kilda which was nice and had lots of perks, such as a pool table, all female floor, a bar with daily drink and food specials, and a full kitchen in the basement. The base was only $25 a night, plus a $20 bond for the room key, so relatively cheap.

Here are a few pieces of advice when looking for housing.
-Foremost, its EXPENSIVE. If you want a decent place you will need to pay for it. Also, if there is cheap housing you need to jump on it because it will go quick.
-Try to find housing that is FURNISHED because no one wants to carry a couch across town, so save yourself the headache.
-Along with furnished, try to find a place that is all inclusive, meaning your rent for the week covers all utilities, water, and WIFI. Make sure you have wifi, you dont realize how much you use it till its gone. Plus, it makes planning a trip with public transport much easier because the transportation is pretty confusing.
-Make sure to always inspect the place because we have seen some dirty digs...
-GET A RECEIPT for your deposit or when you pay rent.
-Beware, the prices you see on Gumtree are weekly rates. Cheaper housing is around $200 a week, also most places ask for two weeks or more of rent for a deposit or bond, plus the first week of rent. Some places may even ask for more so expect to pay at least $600 right off for housing.
- If you move into an older home they most likely wont have central heating or air. Gas heating is really cheap in Melbourne so there will be a gas heater in the living area of the home. If you come in the winter, invest either in a heater or a heated blanket.

The best places to find housing:
Gumtree.com.au-  Its like craigslist
Realtor Businesses- There is Century 21 and other Realtors around the area. You can walk in and ask for a listing of rentals. They will give you a whole list of places, how many rooms they are, where they are located, how much, and when you can view the apartment.
Uni-Lodge or Swinburne housing- Look on the Swinburne website


COMMUNICATION

There are a few options to choose from when trying to pick a phone plan. You can bring your own phone thats been unlocked, you can buy a rechargeable phone, or you can pay to get a skype number. What ever you choose, make it your first priority because its very difficult to find housing without an Australian number. People will not always respond by email and wifi can be hard to come by, so just call about housing because its much easier.

Bring your phone-  if you have an extra phone or smart phone laying around, you can get it unlocked to work in another country. If you do this, you can pay for an international plan and some data usage then just connect to wifi to skype, face time, or download Whats App to text internationally. You will have to buy a $2 sim card to put into your phone for it to work.

Rechargeable- This is what I did. I bought a cheapy flip phone for $30 from Vodaphone, If you buy a phone it will already come with a sim card. Its 15 cents to send a text, free to receive, then free phone calls between the same carriers. You can load up on minutes, then when you run out you can buy more at some grocery stores or at the actual phone store.

Skype- If you dont want a phone at all, you can pay for a skype number and minutes. With it you can send texts from skype and you can also call cell phones and landlines.

What ever you choose, make sure to talk to your provider to see what sort of international plans they have and what the prices are so you can decide whats best for you. Also, while you are gone you can put your phone on Standby, which basically puts your plan on hold and you dont use your data so it cuts down on your bill saves you money, so call your phone provider before you leave to set a date for standby.

TRANSPORTATION

Airport:
Once you have found your hostel, you need to set up transportation from the airport to the hostel. If youre a Uni student, Swinburne offers a free pickup and drop off service, but you need to book it in advance. If you go onto the Swinburne website you can search for the shuttle pick up. You will need to enter your student ID and also your flight information so they know where to pick you. You will also need to enter what time you want to be picked up. Best advice is to give yourself about an hour and a half from the time your plane lands till you need to be picked up. When we landed in Sydney we had to pick up our baggage then go through customs and then check our bags again, but we only had an hour and a half to do it. We got stuck in a long line and we ended up missing our flight to Melbourne. This could easily happen, so make sure to give lots of leeway for your pick up.

Around Town:
Melbourne is implementing a new system to get around town, its called a MyKi. Its a reloadable card that you buy from 7-Eleven for $10. You put on as much money as you want and its works for the buses, trains, and trams. You simply touch on and off and it automatically deducts the money.  If you are here as a student though, you need to look into getting a Myki concession card which is the same thing as a Myki except you have reduced fares as a student. A normal fare can be $3, but with a concession card your fare is only $1.50. Instead of first buying a Myki card, then a week later buying a concession Myki, I would suggest the older system. You get onto the tram and on the actual tram you use coins to buy a paper card that is good for the week. It doesnt cost you any extra money, you only pay for the fares for the week. Once you have your orientation and CoE from the school, you can go to student services and get some paper work that you then take to the train station where you can buy a Concession card.

A bit of warning about transportation though, its easy to hop on and off, but its very confusing. On buses they dont tell you what the next stop is and there is not a ticker to tell you the stops either. The best you can do is look out the window at the stop number. Its the same with the trains, there isnt always a map around and the trains dont always display their stops. I must say, there was a lot of trial and error and you will ask lots of strangers for directions. Dont worry about looking like a tourist, the trains, trams, and buses are not the easiest to navigate.


I know this was a lot of advice, but there is a lot to do with the first 2 weeks you are here, so hopefully this will help relieve some of the stress of getting established in Melbourne.