One thing Australians must come to terms with when it comes to international travel is the dreaded long-haul flight. To reach a wide range of the world’s most popular destinations, we face double digit hours up in the air.

A lot places are also simply too far away from this island continent to reach in a single flight. This means two or more stints in the sky which end up really taking a toll on many a traveller.

The only way to fly directly between Australia and the European continent right now is from Perth. These flights clock in at 16-17 hours. Aussies elsewhere typically make their way to Europe with a stopover in Asia or the Middle East. This tends to add up to well over 20 hours.

Notably, things are set to change in mid-2026. Australia’s national carrier, Qantas, is planning to connect more cities directly with Europe through Project Sunrise. In 2022, then Qantas CEO Alan Joyce called the project “the final fix for the tyranny of distance that has traditionally challenged travel to Australia“.

Plenty of people will take advantage of this new straightforward option once it becomes available. Personally, I won’t be rushing to spend up to 20 hours on what will likely be the world’s longest flight.

The ‘best of’ travel

Australia has dubbed itself “the lucky country” and those of us who have the privilege to travel abroad are definitely lucky. Journey times have obviously shrunk enormously over the decades. We’re also fortunate to have some amazing international destinations right on our doorstep.

But unfortunately, unlike in other parts of the world, we can’t spontaneously hop on an ultra low-cost carrier and visit a different country and culture in less time, and maybe even at a lower price, than a lunch or dinner out.

For me, the time, money and effort required to travel to Europe all have a major influence when planning trips. After flying for a couple dozen hours, spending a couple grand on flights and losing a couple nights of sleep, I feel obligated to make the absolute most of every minute.

What do I mean? Well, let’s say Europe is one of my favourite bands (the continent, not the actual Swedish rock band) and each country is one of their albums.

I could take the time to listen through each of those albums carefully and find those deep cuts. Instead, I basically rush through a ‘best of’ album with all the hit songs while meaning to dive into more of the back catalogue later on.

This is a situation faced by many Australians heading to Europe and those in similar circumstances. We have limited time and limited money and taking in the very best destinations (or at least the most famous and most popular) is a top priority.

I guess there isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with this type of travel. The challenge, though, comes down to whether you ever actually go beyond the ‘hits’ in the future. Why even go anywhere new when there’s often so many places you want to revisit? That seems to be a pretty common view considering how many of us do return to the same spots over and over again.

Life moves pretty fast

I started thinking about all this while looking back on my two previous times in Europe and considering some potential travel plans.

In 2017, I spent four or five nights each in a dozen or so major cities while not going much deeper into any one country. I think this was just enough to scratch the surface and start to get familiar with each place.

After enjoying Vienna and Salzburg, I want to see more of Austria. Exploring Sweden and Denmark is also high on my list after having a great time in Stockholm and Copenhagen.

In fact, I’d be happy to go right back to every single location I went to on that trip. The same also applies to everywhere I visited on my second Euro trip in 2023.

So when putting together ideas for a future adventure, places I’ve already been to compete with many more I haven’t. This makes it difficult to narrow down potential destinations to a realistic number. It also seems hard to justify spending too much time in any one place.

Unfortunately none of us will get to go everywhere we want, which may well be as true in travel as it is in life. I guess the challenge is finding balance between doing as much as you can while avoiding missing anything along the way.