UK To Australia Overland - Part One Planning The Journey

As overland travel becomes increasingly popular more and more travellers are attempting the epic adventure of travelling from the UK to Australia overland. There are so many cool things to do on the way that it seems a shame to fly. Tour companies are catching on and offering tours that cover large parts of the journey (ie Moscow to Singapore) and no matter what your preferred travel style there are options that will suit.  Backpacker travel is all about adventure and travelling to Australia overland is a great way to start your gap year travel.

In this fantastic series Richard Lodge shares his experiences of the journey. This practical guide is packed with information and is an essential guide for anyone considering undertaking an overland journey from the UK to Australia….

UK to Australia Overland by Richard Lodge – Part One: Planning the journey

Travel is as much about the journey as the destination and how you travel from point A to B can make a big difference to any trip, adventure, year out or holiday. The best way to travel between point A and B is definitely overland either on land or sea as this gives you a full appreciation of the changing world as you move between destinations and the sheer size of the world you live in. However with the cheap and efficient airline operators travelling overland is an option that many go against in order to save money and time. My advice is if you do have the time and can afford a little extra then overland travel is definitely the way to go.

There are many great overland journeys to be had both big and small but the example I am going to give is of a Journey from the UK to Australia all without flying. Now this is definitely one of the larger journeys that can be undertaken but it can easily be replicated for any other overland journey.

Planning is an essential part of any overland journey and it is not as easy as going online searching for and booking a flight. Because of the nature of overland travel you will more than likely pass through different countries and across different borders. You may be required to take several different means of transport of which some have to be booked in advance where others can only be purchased on the day. The world is a great place but it is not an open place and you will have to check visa requirements for each country you intend to travel through not to mention the different currencies, languages and vaccinations you may require. To avoid disappointment and to ensure that you complete your journey without any problems forward planning is essential. So where do you start? There are of course many ways to approach this but this is a method that I found worked for me.

Step 1.  Select point A & point B

This should be easy and should be where you plan to start (point A) and where you plan to finish (point B). For the purpose of my example;

                Point A: Dudley, UK

                Point B: Brisbane, Australia

Step 2.  Route Selection

Which route do you intend to travel to get to your destination. Take a look at the world map, read up on your options and pick your route. It is important that when making your route selection that you check that there are transport options to get to and from each stopover.

A very useful resource for this part of your planning can be found at www.seat61.com

Now to travel from the UK to Australia there are many different route options. I decided on the following route.

                Step 3.  Transport & Visas

Once you have selected your route the next part of your planning should be to firstly check that you can get from each of your stopover points and to determine what options you have e.g. Train, Bus, Boat etc. A great way to find options is to simply ‘Google it’ just by typing ‘Point A to Point B’ in the search bar. By doing this not only will you find options you will also find other travellers blogs, comments, photos and videos on your options so you can get a better idea of what you are choosing. Hopefully you will find transport options for each part of your route but if you do have problems then you will have to change your route.

Now that you have found transport options for each stopover you should now check visa requirements for each of the countries you plan to travel through (this includes transit). To find this information out you can visit the embassy or consulate website for each country you plan to travel through or you can use a visa agency. A great visa agency for British passport holders is www.travcour.com and on here you will find visa requirements for every country in the world. For other nationalities there should be visa agencies in your country and should be able to be located by doing a simple web search for ‘Visa Agency’.

On my journey from the UK to Australia I planned to travel through Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore. As a British passport holder I did not require any visas for Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore.  For the others I required either a transit or tourist visa all of which required filling out forms and applying for each individually. Visas are not free and you will be charged a fee by the embassy or consulate for the processing of your application and if you use a visa agency they will also require a service charge. To give an example of how much they cost and the variation in price I paid the following for my visas;

                Belarus Transit Visa £44.00 + £33.00 service charge

                Russian Tourist Visa £75.30 + £30.00 invitation + £40.00 service charge

                Mongilian Tourist Visa £40.00 + £20.00 service charge

                Chinese Tourist Visa £64.50 + £25.00

                Vietnam Tourist Visa £38.00 + 20.00

                Cambodia Tourist Visa US$25 Purchased at the border

As you can see Visas are not cheap and vary in price not to mention the extra cost on top if you decide to use a visa agency to get the Visas for you. Also please be advised that if your visa application is rejected you will not get a refund of your money, but more than often as long as you have no criminal record and a no major illnesses your application will be accepted.

Step 4.  Accommodation

By this point you should have planned your route ensured that there are transport options to get you to and from each of your stopover destinations and taken into consideration your visa requirements. Now you will need to find a place to sleep in each of your stopover Cities and towns. You can use HeadingThere to find hotels and hostels in all your destinations along the way, HeadingThere also links through to the cheapest websites to book accommodation online. For budget travellers you could also try Hostelbookers or Hostelworld for your accommodation.

Step 5.  Booking your Overland Journey

Once you have obtained information on transport, visas and accommodation then all that is left is to make your bookings and purchases. I recommend doing it in this order;

1.       Visas

2.       Transport (Where it can be booked in advance)

3.       Accommodation

One thing missing from the list above is vaccinations and the easiest way to find out what you will need is to visit your local doctor or nurse who should be able to advise you on the vaccinations required and cost.

Also please note that sometimes booking transport in advance can cost you more than if you book it on the day in person. A example of this is trains in Russia which will cost you alot less if you book in person at the station rather than booking online through a ticket agency, but bear in mind that it is not easy to book tickets in Russia unless you speak Russian and the same may apply to similar scenarios in other countries.

So these are the steps I followed for organising my overland journey from the UK to Australia and they can be easily applied to other overland trips. Please also note that planning an overland journey can take a lot of time depending on the size of the proposed journey. Your best bet if you are planning a journey is to break it down into smaller bite size pieces and the way I did this was to break my journey into the following;

                Dudley (UK) to Moscow (Russia)

                Moscow (Russia) to Beijing (China)

                Beijing (China) to Bangkok (Thailand)

                Bangkok (Thailand) to Brisbane (Australia)

Also note it is advisable that you do not make any confirmed bookings for countries until your visas have been issued otherwise you may lose money on these if your visa application is rejected.

Part two of Richard’s series covers his journey from the UK to Moscow by train.