Hello!
If you had asked this three months ago, I would have told you that we are emmigrating without having visited Australia beforehand. However, after much discussion (and scraping together every last penny!), we decided that we would go and visit. We are off to Sydney on Saturday (YAY!
- not that I'm excited or anything!), which is where my hubby is being moved to. We have two children so it is costing us a fair whack too. The reason that we decided to go was not to see if we like it (as most people who we tell seem to think), but instead to make Australia more familiar so that when we go on a one-way ticket, we have less to worry about. I am one of lifes worriers and had we not been going before-hand I would have worried about just about everything from driving over there, to the cost of food, to the flight, to the ... you get the drift!
This holiday, for us, is not going to decide whether we emmigrate or not. We ARE emmigrating - hubby has been offered the opportunity and we would be stupid to let it pass by. However had I not been a worrier we may not have booked.
So, as the others have said, it really is down to personal choice and circumstance.
Welcome to PiO - everyone here is going through (pretty much) the same things and are all a great support. If you are unsure about anything, or you have any questions, PiO is great because someone on here will know.
with all the stress of the visa and trying to sell the house we all need a good break. 
