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Sydney Kingsford Smith is Australia’s busiest airport and the main long-haul gateway to the country, eight kilometres from the CBD at Mascot.
Before you book
Three terminals. T1 international, T2 and T3 domestic — T3 is Qantas mainline, T2 is Jetstar, Virgin and the rest. T1 is on the opposite side of the runways from T2/T3.
There is an 11pm to 6am curfew on most movements, which is unusual for a major hub and means no red-eye arrivals or departures.
Visas. Almost every visitor needs one in advance — Australia has no visa-free entry for tourism. Most European passports use the eVisitor (subclass 651), which is free and applied for online. US, Canadian, Japanese and several other passports use the ETA (subclass 601), applied for through an app for a small service charge. Check your own well before flying; neither is issued at the border.
Biosecurity is strict. Declare all food, wooden items, plant material and anything that has touched soil or fresh water, including hiking boots. Declaring is free; not declaring is expensive.
When fares are lowest
Sydney is a long way from most places and the fare swings are large.
February to May and September to November are the shoulder months and the best value against weather — autumn in particular.
June to August is the northern-hemisphere summer and the Australian winter, and often has the cheapest long-haul fares.
December and January are the most expensive by a wide margin: Australian school holidays, Christmas and New Year all at once. Book many months ahead.
Fares also spike around Easter and the Melbourne Cup week.
Getting in
The T8 train takes 13 minutes to Central but carries a station access fee on top of the fare. Bus 400 to Mascot station avoids it. See airport to the city.
Combining Sydney with the rest of Australia
Australia is much larger than it looks. Melbourne is 90 minutes’ flight, Brisbane 90, Cairns 3 hours, Perth 5 — which is longer than London to Cairo.
The XPT train to Melbourne takes 11 hours and the Indian Pacific to Perth takes four days.
New Zealand is 3 hours to Auckland and is a common add-on.