If you’re going to visit Brisbane from Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific’s flight leaves at midday and gets in around 11p.m.  The flights around 8 hrs.  The Qantas flight, which we took on our visit to Brisbane, leaves at 8p.m and arrives around 6:45a.m.  You’d think that’s better but actually, if you’re going to visit Brisbane with kids, I reckon it’s almost better to get the day time flight.  If you take the night flight on Qantas, the kids don’t get to sleep until 9 or 10, and then have to wake up at what will be around 4a.m in the morning. I guess it depends on how your kids sleep and what time they usually sleep, but for ours, it’s almost better taking the midday flight, and giving them a good nights sleep when they get into Brisbane.  Of course that’s subjective, but unless the flight is over 12 hrs, I reckon the red-eyes are almost as difficult as you often get no or little sleep yourself and are a zombie for the first day of the holiday.

We flew Qantas business class, which I reckon is better than Cathay Pacific Business Class.  The flat bed is wider, quite a bit wider, and you can get more blankets, pajamas, and a better goodie (toiletries) bag.  The staff are also nicer, not so stuck up as they often can be on Cathay.

If you visit Brisbane, hire a car, drive north, maybe even think about staying the night somewhere up there, perhaps Bribie Island or on the Sunshine Coast.  Driving is easy and we got a hire car right from our hotel (the Stamford Plaza Brisbane). Use Google maps, they never pointed us in the wrong direction and most things are well sign posted.

Brisbane Airport is near the city, about a 20 minute taxi ride so no need to leave too early from your hotel.  Unless you’re going at evening peak hour, they’ll likely be not much traffic.

If you’re going to visit Brisbane, send us any questions or comments you have via email or ask us on twitter.