That’s not Melbourne, Florida folks, but Melbourne, Australia. And it’s a long way from Jacksonville. I just got back from a three-week trip.

Going over from Jax took me from my house door to my hotel room door was about 36 hours, 30 minutes with in-seat time just over 21 hours. The itinerary given to me flew me from Jax to Atl., Atl to L.A., L.A. to Sydney and then on to Melbourne.

Our original route took us from Jax to D.C. but the United flight on that segment was delayed so we were put on Delta. After a 4-hour delay, from LA to Melbourne we were back on United.

If you want to cut down some hours there’s not much you can do domestically from Jax. To get to LA you’ll have to connect somewhere since as far as I know there are no directs to the West Coast from Jax.

You can fly Quantas from LA direct to Melbourne to shave some hours but I hear the Q hits the wallet a little harder then United.

Maybe you could fly to New York or Atlanta and take a direct to Tokyo, then Tokyo to Melbourne. That’s probably a quicker route.

The return trip ran 30 hours from my hotel room door back home. Same route as we took over but because you are with and not against the tailwind you make better time.

Because it’s a long journey, pack some warm stuff for sleep, pack some snacks and drink lots and lots of water. The tough part is the trip but you get rewarded once you touch Down Under.