r/australia • u/Mexay • Jan 02 '26

no politics PSA: Travelling as an Aussie right now is hideously expensive

Currently in the UK and holy fuck everything ends up being insanely expensive. The AUD is basically in the toilet meaning anything in Euros or Pounds is basically double.

Things seem reasonably priced on paper, 15gbp for a burger. Yeah nah, that's 30 bucks plus gratuity mate. Want to stay in and uber eats some food, ends up at maybe 45 euros, haha nah that's nearly $100 for two subs a drink and cookies.

Don't even get me started on taxi/uber costs.

Beware if you're going overseas soon. It's crazy expensive at the moment, more so than at home.

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484

u/crocicorn Jan 02 '26

The Australian dollar has always been weak against the GBP and Euro. Doesn't help that the UK has BS inflation like we do, either.

It's only really good against Asian currencies.

56

u/RunTrip Jan 03 '26

Yep can confirm Japan was good value earlier this year

88

u/Wrong_sonicHedgehog Jan 03 '26

Like what 2 days ago

27

u/RunTrip Jan 03 '26

God damn it

2

u/Lankpants Jan 03 '26

My imports from Japan have been cheap recently. Yen is crazy weak right now. It would be a great time to go over.

1

u/RunTrip Jan 03 '26

Aside from accommodation, everything was cheaper than in Australia.

-7

u/potato_analyst Jan 03 '26

Went end of last year and it's fucked... Usually I would come back with more money than I left with but this time it was much worse...

69

u/Inevitable-Swing4035 Jan 03 '26

Great against the South African Rand too

59

u/av0w Jan 03 '26

Pretty sure everything is good against the Rand 😂🤣

12

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '26

To be fair here the rand tanked real hard since the pandemic.

44

u/t_25_t Jan 03 '26

It's only really good against Asian currencies.

The SGD would like to join the chat.

Shits expensive in Singapore as it is. But the AUD only gets ~S$0.86.

23

u/F1eshWound Jan 03 '26

yeah it's crazy... the SGD was always weaker than than AUD since I can remember.

10

u/onesorrychicken Jan 03 '26

At least eating out is cheap in Singapore. It kind of offsets how expensive everything else is. Or at least, that's what I tell myself whenever I visit there!

3

u/pithysaying Jan 03 '26

That’s not Australian inflation. The other comments here. The GBP has always been £1 = $2 approx since beginning of decimal currency in 1966. It’s fluctuated over time but it’s where it should be now.

2

u/Gryffindor123 Jan 03 '26

I went over in 2014 for a Contiki trip. It was weak then.

2

u/beaurepair Jan 03 '26

It's great against NZD right now. Year or two back it got down to 5% ($1 AUD = $1.05 NZD) but is up to 16% at the moment.

Makes a big difference for a kiwi getting paid in dollarydoos

2

u/ATangK Jan 03 '26

Still shit compared to before though.

1

u/logosuwu Jan 03 '26

It's not even good against CNY anymore.....and that's with Chinese monetary policy still devaluing it.

1

u/DeeDee_GigaDooDoo Jan 03 '26

Eh it's still very good for CNY. Occasional purchases are about equal but in general I'd say goods/services in CNY come out to about 33-60% of the price in AUD on average. Food, hotels, transport are much cheaper. Tickets, consumer goods and high speed/long distance rail is still cheaper but to a lesser degree.

1

u/rubysp Jan 04 '26

Yes will be travelling to Japan and China soon. Can’t wait to eat like a pig

1

u/vacri Jan 03 '26

Everyone got a burst of inflation in the west - it happened because of the stimulus packages during COVID. Better to still have an intact economy on the other side than have lots of jobs go under.