When it comes to air travel within the United States, we’ve become experts at packing appropriately. I can pack a compact (but quite full) carry-on bag with enough clothes to last me a few days, and paired with a small backpack stuffed with my laptop and some travel essentials — I’m set. But internationally? Five flights later, we’ve discovered that things are VERY different overseas.

Our intention was to not check any luggage on our flights around the world, thus saving some cash on checked baggage fees. Sadly, we’ve found that the low cost airlines in Australia have severe limits on carry-on luggage. With 3 airlines — Virgin Blue, Tiger Airways, and JetStar — we’ve found that they limit carry-on bags to one per person, each of a size slightly smaller than what would be considered a traditional carry-on bag in the USA, and weighing under 7 kg each (10 kg for JetStar). To put this in perspective, my brand-new, light and nimble Samsonite carry-on bag can only hold a pair of sneakers, a pair of jeans, and a couple of t-shirts in order to weigh-in under 7 kg. This, as you can imagine, is far less than what I packed for the trip. And to make matters worse, this “carry-on friendly” bag isn’t of a “carry-on friendly” size in Australia… it’s just a little too big to fit into the bag check containers outside airline gates. No matter that the bag fits into the overhead bins on the planes just fine, and there’s not an overstuffed bulge to be found anywhere on it – these airlines just consider it too large and heavy to be considered “hand luggage.”

So if you’re traveling and looking to book on a discount airliner, be sure to read the terms and conditions of baggage allowance as if you were reviewing your last will and testament. Otherwise, you could be stuck checking your bag last minute — resulting in some pretty brutal fees. Virgin Blue charges $10 if you pre-pay to check a bag online, $15 if paid by phone, and $20 if paid at the airport. Not too bad… but Tiger Airways charges $50 to check a bag at the airport (and even then it’s limited to 15 kg in weight, and they’ll charge you a $5 credit card processing fee as well). And JetStar? They’ll charge you a massive $80 fee to check a bag when you arrive for your flight (versus $40 if booked in advance).

Long story short? Pack light. In fact, pack nothing at all. You’ll save so much cash (and headache) that you won’t know what to do with yourself.

I know what you’re thinking… “You guys are traveling around the world and instead of trying new foods and indulging in local cuisines, you guys are actively seeking out Mexican food in places without Mexican people.”  To that I would smile and say, “YES, that is exactly what we are doing.”

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Our second day in Sydney was much more relaxed. We woke up around 6am, in part to jet lag and in a larger part to the kids having sex in the bunk beds under me. (I’m not kidding.) We quickly got dressed, checked out of the hostel and had a lovely walk to the train station. The train ticket to Bondi Junction was around $4.40 AUD, much cheaper than the $50 taxi ride we took the last time we were in Sydney. The train was easy and quick- it only took about 15 minutes from Central Station. There were a few people standing around the ticket counters asking for money, so just be aware of them- but really, what city doesn’t have that.

We were told the walk from Bondi Junction to the beach was an easy 30 minute walk, and since it was sunny and warm out we decided that was the best way to enjoy our day.

Right outside the train station, as we were walking to the beach, Rob saw the most beautiful building ever. The Bondi Beach Apple Store was directly to our left and the big glass windows and open air ceiling made quite an impression. We stopped in to check our emails and update the blog and chatted up the lovely Apple employees about our trip and then resumed our walk.

When we arrived at the beach, it was more beautiful than I remember. The skies were so blue and the teal green waves were crashing oh, so glassy. I love this beach- it’s long and wide and perfect for tons of people or only a few. Luckily, we were some of the only people there that day. We walked around the boardwalk and over to Let’s Go Surfing‘s shop.

Immediately upon seeing Brenda again, the owner of Let’s Go Surfing, I was flooded with memories of surfing Bondi and our surf lesson from last September. She was sweet and super friendly and we did a great surfing tips video. It was a fantastic way to end our visit to Bondi Beach.