Choosing Your First Stop

Okay, you’ve decided to come down under, you’ve applied for and been approved for your visa, and now you want to book flights...but where to first? The lads at Permanent Holiday would generally suggest starting in one of Australia’s two biggest cities, Melbourne and Sydney. Home to about 9.5 million people, or around 40% of Australia’s total population, the two share a friendly rivalry and are both excellent options due to the widespread availability of work. Picking between the two is, like anything, a matter of personal choice and both have benefits and drawbacks.

Melbourne

Melbourne is the culture capital of Australia, home to intimate bars, good coffee, and live music almost every night of the week. The nightlife is booming and open late -- may we suggest Rev’s? -- with both club and bar settings to choose from. With world class public transportation, navigating Melbourne is an absolute breeze and the city is dotted with cheap and well kept hostels. Add in dozens of public parks, street art on every corner, and some of the best Asian food you’ll ever taste and it’s easy to see why Melbourne is consistently named one of the world’s most livable cities.

So what drawbacks are we talking about? The most obvious is the weather. Locals love to say that you can experience four seasons in one day, and unfortunately that’s no exaggeration. Torrential rains give way to brilliant sunshine in the blink of an eye and overcast skies are quite common. It’s also the least beachy of the major Australian cities and provides a more urban feel than the laid back Aussie surf life you may be expecting. St. Kilda, the closest beach suburb to Melbourne’s city center, simply can’t compete with the likes of Bondi or really any of Sydney’s plentiful beaches.

Sydney

That brings us to Sydney, which is probably the most well-known and visited Australian city by Americans. That’s for good reason, too, as there are few cities in the world that can match the architectural and natural beauty of this bayside sprawl. In a sentence, Sydney is Australia, or at least stereotypical Australia. The beaches are awe-inspiring, the water warm, and the people beautiful (like seriously it’s crazy). The Opera House and Harbour Bridge provide a wow factor that Melbourne is missing, and if your idea of a good day is lounging on the beach with a good book or cold beer, then Sydney is the place for you.

That being said, Sydney is much more Americanized than Melbourne and doesn’t have the overseas differences that are a big part of traveling outside the U.S. It’s all too easy to think you’re actually in Santa Monica when strolling along Bondi Beach, and the consensus at Permanent Holiday is that while Sydney is stunning, it could be anywhere on America’s West Coast. New South Wales is also notorious for its strict alcohol rules and we’ve found the nightlife to be much better (and open much later) in Melbourne.

A rough comparison with the U.S. would equate Sydney with L.A. and Melbourne with either San Francisco or Chicago.

Alternatives

There are, of course, other options. The Gold Coast is often compared to Miami, Byron Bay is the quintessential small beachside surf town (with limited work opportunities), and Perth is a remote oceanside city with world class beaches on Australia’s oft-overlooked West Coast. Brisbane is another city with plentiful work, but frankly, it’s just not that cool.

Still, with available jobs and thousands of other working holiday-makers to meet, Sydney and Melbourne are our recommendations as the best options when first arriving in Australia.