As the name suggests, Student Travel Australia (STA) places much of its focus on - you guessed it -…read morestudent travel. If you're a student and you're making plans to head overseas, or even travelling domestically, these guys will do their best to find you the cheapest flights available in a short amount of time. After all, travelling as a student means travelling on the cheap! These days it's pretty easy to cut out the middle man when booking flights, especially with the ease of buying tickets online through budget airlines, and not to mention sites like Webjet or Last Minute that essentially find the cheapest available flights for you. Nonetheless, having a professional does come in handy when you're trying to make last minute plans to travel and you've found yourself up shit creek without a paddle. Some years ago I went to STA to book a flight to Singapore after dismal attempts at finding cheap tickets online. As they're able to see the availability of flights directly from the carriers through their system, they quickly made arrangements for me and secured me a ticket that happened to be much lower than the ones I'd seen online. The student discount I got also relieved some of the stress from my wallet, and they gave me good deals on travel insurance too. And they did it all with a smile.

You don't have to be a student to book through STA…read more They also do special deals if you happen to be a teacher/ tutor, as well as being a regular travel agent. In fact, I choose STA every time over some of the travel agents out there. Not only are they super low-key (too many glossy pamphlets and corporate colour schemes just aren't me), but they focus on more DIY, lower cost and adventure-type holidays, which is definitely my bag. The staff here are super lovely and friendly too and always make you feel welcome, talking about their own experiences and giving you honest advice without being fake or SELL SELL SELL. I found their service to be top notch and genuine, even when I had some problems getting stuck in London (thanks Qantas!). I don't normally use travel agents and this is the kind of place that respects that you want to do your own thing. They gave me a great deal on insurance as well as super competitive flights (though as always I recommend you do your research before hand to make sure you're getting the best price out there, but you guise are smart enough to know that). In all, will definitely use again for OS trips - it's great to have that safety net out there and have someone else do the work for you sometimes, so you can just focus on having a rad time. Highly recommended!!!

Have been trying to make a booking online for the last four days with no luck. Tried phoning, the…read morewait is two hours then tried on my iPad and can't get through. How am I supposed to book flights to Canberra to see my family if your system isn't working, very very dissatisfied. what can I do. June Tidswell

Poor service.Rang on the 9 July to use the credits from COVID lock-downs last year.Talked to a lady…read morefrom Cape Town after second attempt as the first call was disconnected. Return flight from Adelaide to Sydney was booked but e-mail did not arrive in 24 h,it did not arrive in 5 days.I was charged extra $120. Called today -Sigeiniwe from Cape Town-nobody knew anything about my previous calls-start from the beginning.Instead of return flight I was booked for two flights from Adelaide on the same day-25 August QF 736 at 8 55 and QF 740 at 12 55. Another call-Cape Town again-half way the call was disconnected. Another 131313-Mary from Fiji-trying to correct the mistake-it will cost me another $76 for the correction-then the call was disconnected.Going to the Airport tomorrow to talk to someone from Qantas. The Company has to try to do better.

I bought a ring for AU$400 and had a chip fall out of it on the way back to the states. I sent an…read moreemail before I left Australia, with no response it cost me AU$63 to have the ring repaired when I got back to the states.

I was in Adelaide in December 1993 and stumbled upon this wonderful shop where I discovered opals…read morewere not the milky white colorless stones I'd always seen in the states. I traveled all over Australia by myself for 6 weeks and had a lot of time for shopping, mostly for opals. I returned to Adelaide to buy all my opals from the best shop I'd discovered with the most honest friendly staff, who spent a significant amount of time educating me about the different types, sources, and grades of opals. These are now my favorite gemstones. In fact, one of the rings I purchased was off the finger of the salesperson! It took me several days to convince them to sell it to me. It is a small boulder opal set with a diamond in 18k gold and is truly the most beautiful, colorful opal I've ever seen! I highly recommend this store for the massive selection of opals and friendly, patient staff. It was a highlight of my trip! It sounds like they've made some additions for tourists since I've been there.

RAA insurance is supposedly a mutual (eg. not for profit) insurance company servicing South…read moreAustralia but now charge +30% from any other provider and if you point it out be prepared for hard sell rude abuse they used to be the best and are now simply a pathetic rip off merchant

You may be one of those individuals who like to get behind the wheel of a car and drive for days on…read moretour of whatever region it is you are exploring; goodness knows that is one of the best ways to discover Australia. South Australia has so many fascinating places to tour through and many of these drive yourself tours are reachable over a weekend. There are not as many camping sites available in SA as there are on the East coast of Australia, but there are enough. You will want to have up to date maps, to begin with, and this is one place to get the correct ones. You may want to book a motel or get some caravan park details, again - the RAA is one of the primary places for this sort of information. Possibly you want to know where there are RAA approved mechanics along your route, again, this is the shop for that stop. Other travel agency services are available here, but it's the local knowledge feature and the anecdotes some of the staff will share with you that really count. Just for the record the RAA stands for the Royal Automobile Association, and it is a South Australian phenomenon due to our original status here as a "settlers colony" rather than a "penal colony"; the other way of looking at it is we are the royalist snobs... but that's a joke. There is an intra state agreement with the road associations elsewhere in the country that your membership there is covered here by the RAA and vice-versa. That means you are automatically covered when you cross the boarder for roadside assistance etc.