Galesa

I read the 250+ post re the Chilean visa. Wow. Some horror stories and stressed people regarding the process. One poster got her e visa in the Check in queue. Yikes. Thankfully there weren't any "I didn't get my visa in time" posts. Just wondering if getting a UK passport, which I qualify for, would be easier, lol.

Australia requires visas from a whole lot of countries that either offer visa on arrival or don't require visas for Australians. Very much an imbalance that "favours" Australia.

Australia's not good at reciprocaty so that probably explains it.

It's interesting too that UK and US citizens can travel to Chile visa free. Obviously we've no considered Chile important enough to negotiate Visa free travel. Or perhaps it's because Australia is not important enough in tourism terms.

Oh dear! Any reason why you can't start the process 9 months in advance?

As we can't PM thought I'd continue to ask some questions. First, we booked flights. We swore 2 years ago we'd never fly long haul economy again. Well that had to change! Qantas wanted 12.5k (for 2) return in PE ex Sydney. With 250k ff points it went down to 10.3. Incidentally up coming trip to Johannesburg is 5.5k PE with 150k points. So we booked economy for 5.5k. Grabbed the twin seats at the back. Yes not ideal but will put up with a lot not to be in the middle. Anyway the real point of my post: What Santiago, Iguazu and BA hotels would you recommend. Many TIA

Better not forget the Aerogard😄!

Ok everyone. Thanks heaps. Very informative. So if we go to Iguazu for 3 days. Return to BA, join the cruise and 20 odd days later depart from Santiago we should be OK to return without quarantine?

Further to my post on YF vaccination. It appears all of Brazil and Argentina are listed as YF countries. So, even if we didn't do the falls we still need the jab.

Interesting re YF jab. When discussing our upcoming trip to Victoria Falls with my GP, he advised there were side effect risks for me at 71 with the YF vaccine.

Thanks Rosie. Great tips. Have already checked Qantas and dates in February for our return dates aren't available yet. But yes, a stopover in Auckland would be much less desirable.

Thanks heaps Mic. Plan at this early stage is to fly to Santiago with a straight return (from Sydney). Stay maybe 2 days before heading to BA. Looking to do 2 nights Iguazu before joining cruise. I did think about going from Santiago to Iguazu then Iguazu to BA but there's not many flights from Santiago.

Hi Folks Put a deposit down on a 22 day South America Antarctic cruise with HAL, late January 2025. BA to Santiago. Just wondering if Aussies on the forum might have done this cruise; and any tips re flying to the cruise, excursions before, during and after, plus any other tips.

Debarked Auckland Thursday 22nd. Had to fill in NZ arrival card.

It was a mess in 2017. Still a record for us: 1 hour to check in then 2 hour line for security- for a 90 minute flight to EDI.