The 21st edition of the Floriade flower festival will open on September 13 in Canberra. Floriade is the biggest flower festival in Australia and is well worth a visit if you are coming to Canberra. I try to visit every year and I can personally give it the thumbs up.

The festival will run from 13 September – 12 October and is located in Commonwealth Park just near Lake Burley Griffin. It is only 5-10 minutes walk from the city centre.

This year a feature of Floriade is the NightFest. It runs from 24 September until 28 September each night at 6pm until 10.30pm. NightFest gives you an opportunity to see Floriade in a different light which will surely be spectacular.

Entry to the daytime part of the show is free. Parking is available either near the Civic pool or on the western side of Commonwealth avenue. Buses also stop near the show.

If you need a hotel during your time in Canberra any hotel in the city or in the inner city will be within easy reach of Floriade.

Recently on the airwaves here in Canberra there has been quite a bit of discussion about the Canberra Airport. Due to the large number of public servants now working out there the traffic situation has become a major concern. Also finding a taxi from the airport into the city is said to have a negative impact on business in Canberra.

Something else that was raised by callers was the fact that the Canberra Airport itself is not running smoothly. The terminal is too small and the flights at times were being canceled. The Qantas regional manager was interviewed on air to give a perspective from the airlines. He said according to statistics things are not really that bad.

The Qantas representative also pointed out that the airport will be opening new facilities in around 3 years. Before that time Qantas will spend around $10 million to upgrade facilities at Canberra Airport.

After hearing all this I come back to the headline for this post. If you are coming to Canberra is it worth flying or are you better off driving your car or getting a hire car? I think a Qantas pilot’s wife gave the answer to this. She called in to say her husband finds it better to drive rather than fly from Canberra to Sydney to take the controls of an international flight.

I tend to agree. For the past couple of years whenever I fly out of Sydney International Airport I choose to grab a rental car and drive up the freeway to Sydney. It is about a 3 hour drive and is quite stress free. Compare this to flying and there is little difference. By the time you travel to the airport, wait for check in, board and then fly it all adds up.

I vote for the driving option.