Welcome to Sydney

Yes you do! If you’re coming here just as a tourist to visit Australia, you’ll need a Visitor Visa. 

If you’re coming here to work while you’re on holiday, you’ll need either a Working Holiday Visa (417) or a Work and Holiday Visa (462), depending on which country you’re from. 

You can find more information and a list of the various visas here.

We recommend organising this as soon as you know you’re coming to Australia. The application can be completed through your travel agent, or directly through the same Australian Government website as above. We always recommend checking the Australian Government website for any specific enquiries.

Absolutely! It doesn’t matter if you’re coming to this beautiful country to work, visit friends or family, study, sunbathe with the kangaroos or perfect your Australian accent. All of our travellers will still get the same treatment!

This depends on trip length, your travel style (backpacker or flashpacker) and what you are wanting to experience here in Australia.

According to the Australian Government, you need $5,000AUD in your bank account on arrival if you’re coming on a Working Holiday visa. This is a good savings target if you are wanting to either travel for a while or set yourself up for working and living in Australia after the Welcome To Sydney week. 

However, everybody is different and to give yourself the best chance of experiencing as many things as possible in Australia, we would recommend just saving up as much as possible before you come travelling.

Of course you are – anyone would be – and of course we will! Something we love is how close our travellers get on tour, and how they become one big family at the end. 

Everyone’s in the same boat, and you will make friends for life.

Expect the best experience ever!  As long as you’re polite and friendly then you’ll be fine. To get the best out of your experience we recommend talking to people in your dorm as soon as possible. Travel broadens the mind and that is mainly because of people you meet. Listen to where they’ve been, what they’ve loved, what they recommend, their funniest stories, all of it! This will be you in a few months!

All dorms have lockers, but you will need to buy a small padlock to use them.

We aim to try and get everyone on Welcome To Sydney in the same dorm, but if you have any special requests such as, you want to be in an all female dorm or you want to upgrade to your own room., then will be able to assist you.

About 70% of people on tour are actually solo travellers. This tour is a perfect way to meet other people and experience new things together. So many of our travellers make friends for life on our Welcome tours!

You sure can! We create a WhatsApp group chat the week leading up to the tour.

Yes! You just need to let us know who you’re travelling with beforehand and we’ll make sure you’re in the same room.

Yes definitely! As long as you tell us who you’re travelling with we’ll make sure you’re in the same room. If you’d like to upgrade to a private room then this is possible on the Extras part of the checkout. Please note, if booking the Welcome to Sydney tour, we cannot organise a private room for Surf Camp (Wednesday) and this is not included in the upgrade.

Absolutely, we recommend booking 2 extra nights after the tour. This can be done at the time of booking on the Extras page at Checkout. Alternatively you can add them on closer to the time. We will send you an email 4 weeks before the tour and this will ask you if you’d like to add any on.

We include a lot of meals but outside of that, you’ll be able to find lunch for between $6-15 and dinner for $10-$20. If you want to save money, you can always team up with people and cook dinners at the hostel!

Drinks usually cost between $7-11 but we can also point you in the direction of plenty of places with happy hours offering drinks for $5-6.

Because accommodation, activities and some food and drink is already included, we would suggest that $200-$250 of extra spending money during your week with us will be enough!

The $99 deposit is required to secure your booking. But don’t worry! Full payment is only required 21 days before your departure date, which gives you time to save money for it! 

However, if you make a booking within 21 days of your departure date, you will need to pay the full amount at the time of booking.

Once you know you’re coming to Australia and that you’d like the best possible welcome here, we’d recommend placing your $99 deposit right away, especially as we offer free date changes.

Our Welcome to Sydney tour is often fully booked 3 months in advance.

Yes! If you pay your deposit and later realise you have to change your date, don’t panic. 

You can change the date of your booking, unlimited times and subject to availability, up until 14* days before your departure date.

*Normally 28 days but currently 14 due to COVID19. Please see our terms and conditions here.

The Blue Mountains and More Add On is an amazing way to carry on your journey as a group. You don’t know these people right now, but you’ll become friends across the week. The Welcome to Sydney tour finishes on the Sunday, from Tuesday we have booked 5 days of car hire and 4 nights of accommodation meaning that you can go on a self-guided group adventure together. We give you an advised itinerary and off you go for an amazing road trip adventure!

That’s up to you and we’re here to help with that.! Everyone has different plans for their time in Australia. You might even find that your plans may change halfway during the tour after meeting some new friends.

Either way, the Welcome To Travel team is here to support you before, during and after the welcome week. Whether it’s work or travel you’re looking to organise or get advice on, we’ll be able to help you.

We will go through options that suit you specifically in the 1-on-1 sessions on the Saturday of the tour. We then have our Experience Team who will be there to help you throughout your whole time in Australia!

Of course! During our travel presentation, we will give you an overview of all the beautiful and exciting destinations and experiences around Australia.

Following this, during your 1-on-1 sessions with our team, we will talk more specifically about what exactly you want to see and do, and we’ll help you plan everything. We want to make sure you have the most amazing adventure possible while you’re here!

With our help, that’s how! 

As part of your Welcome to Melbourne tour you will receive exclusive tips, resources and guidance towards finding a job and farm work in Australia.

We will present you with all of the basic information needed to get started, and give you access to our huge database of employers and contacts in sectors such as hospitality, retail, construction, sales and marketing and many more.

We also send out a weekly update email that highlights the most recent job and farm work opportunities we come across.

Depending when you land you will receive your Australian Sim Card on Friday morning before the tour or on Monday morning of the tour, during the meet and greet session.

Don’t panic! You will be able to jump on the free wi-fi at the hostel and airport beforehand to let everyone back home know that you got to Melbourne safe and sound.

This is basically a personal identity number created for you by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). It is required if you want to work in Australia, so that you can be correctly taxed on your income from day one. 

You will provide this number to each employer you have while you are in Australia and your tax will be deducted from your wage accordingly, just as it would be in your home country.

If you’re travelling as a tourist for just a few weeks, you don’t need one – a pre-loaded travel cash card will work just fine!

If you’re here for a longer period of time (for example, on a Working Holiday Visa) then it’s highly recommended to open an Australian bank account. Not only will you save a lot on exchange/transaction fees, but employers will only pay wages into an Australian account. It’s also an extremely easy process that we will organise for you.

You can fast-track the whole process by creating a Wise account, so that you can already have Australian dollars in your account for when you get here. But don’t worry about all of this now, we’ll explain it all soon!

Medicare is Australia’s health care scheme, which allows Australians and some overseas visitors to access certain health services at little or no cost. Only a handful of countries are eligible to apply for Medicare in Australia, including: 

Belgium, Finland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, The Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom

Click HERE to see details for eligibility and details for enrolment, such as what documents you will need to bring to service centres. We will also explain this in more detail when you arrive and point you in the right direction.