When this posts, I will be somewhere between Darwin and Canberra, on my way home from the annual RWA conference. I don’t think people realise how big Australia is (including some Aussies). To get home I need to take two flights. The first leg is Darwin to Sydney, the second a short jump to Canberra, my home town.
The first leg is about 4.5 hours, the second about 1hr. With check-in, layovers etc, the travel time for me to get home will be about 10 hours.
The map below an overlay of the USA (minus Hawaii and Alaska) and Australia. There’s not a lot of difference – interestingly the USA have 50 states and we have 8 states and territories. Of course, vast areas of Australia aren’t really inhabitable as the middle is desert. We mostly live on the coastlines.
You can see Darwin in the top centre of Australia, and Canberra, my destination, on the bottom right. A bit like flying from North Dakota to Florida I guess.
Aussies are used to travelling long distances though (it’s my first time trying to embed an instagram post so I hope you can see it *fingers crossed*)…
We think nothing of driving for 8 hours to get somewhere. A day trip can mean driving 3 to 4 hours each way. We used to regularly drive for 16 hours each way to see family.
What is a big day of travel for you?
August 25, 2026 at 12:40 pm
One to two hours is the tops I would do and then plan to return home the same day. San Diego is about two hours away by car. To the north, maybe Ventura, but that depends on traffic. (Los Angeles traffic can make 30 miles take over an hour.)
August 25, 2026 at 5:39 pm
In our three big capital cities, it can take longer than LA traffic – I’m shocked. About 10km will take 30ish minutes (I think 10km = 6 miles)