Where can I buy my Covid arrival test in Australia?

Q I understand that, on arriving in Sydney, you have to have an antigen test within 24 hours. Where do you buy these tests – or can you bring a testing kit with you from the UK? Do you have to send off the results of your test if it is negative?

Muller

A After almost two years of closure, Australia opened up last Monday to fully vaccinated travellers. Everyone needs a pre-departure test (lateral flow, no more than 24 hours before taking off for Australia). The requirement when arriving in Australia (apart from Western Australia, which remains effectively closed) is for a PCR or lateral flow (rapid antigen) test within 24 hours of touchdown. Visitors to New South Wales are required to take another test on day six of their stay.

The most straightforward way to meet the arrival requirement is to book a rapid antigen test with HistoPath. The firm has locations at the international terminal at Sydney (upstairs from arrivals, on the departures level) and the Qantas domestic terminal in Melbourne (on the departures level, on the left as you walk in). There is also a location at Brisbane airport, but I have not checked it out. The arrival test costs an annoying A$59 (£31) but, in my experience, the operation is swift and efficient.

It is not possible to use NHS tests for international travel, though you could bring a paid-for self-test. Indeed, for the “day six” test in New South Wales, you can self-test using rapid antigen devices. These are available for as little as A$10 (just over £5) at pharmacies, but if you can’t find one locally then online sources such as chemistwarehouse.com.au can supply them. There is no obligation to inform anyone of a negative result – nor, indeed, does there appear to be any system for following up with travellers to check they have complied. In the unlikely event that you test positive, you should call the National Coronavirus Helpline on 1 800 020 080.

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Q We are foodies and work in publishing. As part of our work we have a two-week stay in New York City, which we want to follow with a one-week exploration beyond Manhattan. Where would you recommend? We love the outdoors, but also enjoy locations with a lively buzz.

Name supplied

A Of the many possible options in the region, my recommendation is upstate New York. Now, the state is bigger than England, so let me narrow down the possibilities to four menu items. Choose one or combine a couple.

1 Hiking in the Catskills. In this relatively small area, about 100 miles north of Manhattan, there are 98 peaks over 3,000ft. You can base yourself in the artsy town of Woodstock and dine on locally sourced vegetarian food. (No relics of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, mind – the site was many miles away).

2 Further north, Adirondacks State Park is a vast wilderness that occupies much of the northeast of New York State. To continue the area comparisons with the UK, the park is larger than Wales. In this hub for conservation and the preservation of wildlife, Lake Clear Lodge & Retreat provides a family-run haven – with a genuine 1920s speakeasy that is now, legally, dispensing beer and wine.

3 Ithaca, northwest of New York City, is America’s most surprising college town. It has plenty of natural beauty, notably Cascadilla Creek gorge, as well as the towering intellectual heights of Cornell University. Farmers’ markets serve up local produce, including food from the Amish and Mennonite communities.

4 Buffalo was a great 20th-century city that, at last, is being reinvented. Go biking beside the Erie Canal, and head north to Niagara Falls – far more impressive from the Canadian side, so walk across the Rainbow Bridge to view the spectacle.

Finally, in terms of transport: while most people will cover the ground by rental car, Amtrak has a reasonably good service along the Hudson Valley and across to Buffalo and Niagara.

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Q I know that flight prices are dynamic and that generally the closer to the date you want, the more expensive it is. I also understand that occasionally prices can drop after you book. However, I’m wondering if my case is an extreme example of this?

On 18 January I booked two easyJet flights from Geneva to Belfast for late February for £131 each. That was the morning. In the evening I went back to book two more flights, this time at £156 each. I checked a day or so later and the price had risen again, to around £180. Phew, I thought. I checked yesterday again and now they are just £120 each, a week before we fly. Am I just unlucky or it is more common than I think? Any advice or tips to try and avoid this?

Graham 65

A Every airline aims to increase prices steadily as departure date approaches. In a perfect world, people who commit early will always get the best deal. But each departure has a booking profile: the airlines know how many seats they need to have sold by certain dates in order to fill the plane. If sales prove sluggish, the fare comes down again.

At present I am buying tickets very late indeed, because so much can change between buying and travelling. Sometimes that means I pay a fortune (eg, nearly £200 for the one-hour flight from London Stansted to City of Derry two days ahead). But you can sometimes get some decent fares very close to departure: London-Dublin in two days’ time is just £24 on the early morning Ryanair hop from Stansted.

Travellers to and from London are in the strongest position to wait and see, because on a route such as Geneva there are plenty of flights and lots of competition. For a journey such as Geneva-Belfast, however, you are in a difficult position. There are few departures and the alternative route – via Dublin – may well be unpalatable. So the only possible test is: are you happy with the price you paid? And then try really hard not to look again.

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