Which holiday dilemma...

[DISNEYALI]

I am tentatively booked to go back to Florida at the end of 2023 but and a big but my parents have given me a sum of money which would enable me to do my ultimate destination which is Australia. Now the questions:-
The length of the flight worries me I cope fine with the flight to Florida your experiences please.
As I'm going solo I am looking at a guided tour which organises everything but you do have two or three days at all destinations to yourself to explore as you wish, anybody any experience of this.
The next thing is I have ongoing health issues with a complicated bowel condition which is mainly under control but understandably can flare up how are medical establishments in Australia please.
This is a 19 day tourany help tips or advice most welcome.
My holidays tentatively booked for Florida would be my 6 and my third solo, My Heart is saying Australia my over sensible comfort zone head is saying Florida thank you

[loldis]

Personally, I would go with a dream trip rather than a repeat one. Who knows when you'd be in the position to afford it again and you don't want to regret not going while you had the chance.

I am an Australian citizen with family over there, so have done this journey a lot. I don't find the flight that bad since you have to stop somewhere for the plane to refuel, so the individual flight lengths aren't that much worse than Florida. I usually stop in Singapore but this depends which airline I'm flying with, although Singapore is good as the flight lengths are more even than other stops such as Dubai. I tend to fly straight through with the minimum connection but sometimes will choose a long layover (8ish hours) and book into the airport's transit hotel for a decent sleep and shower before the next leg.

I have had no issues with the health services there but again, I am a citizen. I believe the NHS and Medicare there have a reciprocal care agreement though. Take out insurance of course but you should have no trouble being seen if necessary.

[Loopylooloo]

The Australia trip sounds amazing! Organised tour holidays tend to have so eone looking after you, and would be structured for you to enjoy.

In regards to your condition, if you struggle to find good travel insurance try Insurancewith, they have been excellent for us.

Whatever you decide to do, go for it and have fun!

[aqualiv]

Definitely go for Australia
You can do a stop over of a night or two on the way and explore that destination too
Singapore is a great stop over
Tour wise I presume you are looking at AAT kings
You should be able to arrange excursions as add ons on your free days if you like or a good ta can advise based on the destination

A cruise is a great option in Australia too as you will have excursions to chose from in each port

I ve done the Gold Coast, Melbourne and the Grampians if you have any questions

[Blue nose]

Another vote for your dream holiday.

You only live once and never regret what you don't do.

[Rac20]

I’d definitely go for Australia. Done the trip a few times and stopped over in Langkawi-Malaysia and Kuala Lumpar and Dubai before. It does break it up a bit. Though with testing now-I’d probably prefer to just get on the plane and make sure I got there. (Have also done it a few times with no stop overs.)

[sky13]

I don't live in the UK (I actually live in Singapore which a couple of other people have suggested as a stopover destination between the UK and Australia), but the flight time from Singapore to Orlando is probably similar to the flight time between UK and Australia.

Have done this sort of extremely long haul flight route (>20 hours in the air in total split across at least 2 flights) several times. I generally cope pretty well with such long haul routes but I generally don't have massive issues on planes and can sleep decently well on them. I've done this sort of flight lengths both split up (a couple of times I took BA and stopped over in London for a few hours, one time I stopped over in the UK for a couple of days on the way back) and straight through (not leaving the airports). Find both split up and straight through are OK.

Singapore is a decent stopover point (pre-COVID at least... current travel protocols are not great for stopping over) between the UK and Australia but I'm probably biased on that score!

In terms of tours - the last time I went to Australia was a decade ago, but what we considered doing was to use the city we were visiting (Melbourne) as a base and join guided day tours out of the city to see sights like the Great Ocean Road and Philip Island. (We actually had done these tours on a previous trip to Melbourne and were thinking of doing them again.) The upside of doing this is that you can stay in a city as a base and not have to keep moving around, and no need to self-drive, and there is a tour guide along the way explaining things. The downside is that the days are really long, they start extremely early and end extremely late due to the distances involved, so it can be pretty tiring!

From what I understand of Australian healthcare (from friends who have worked or are currently working in healthcare there) - the healthcare standard in the cities is extremely high. However the rural areas (which can be hours away from the cities) have a lot less access to healthcare especially specialised services due to the distances involved. But as a tourist I would guess you probably wouldn't be too far away from the major cities most of the time?