Travel Editor Susie Boswell visits a dream destination – where the essence of the tropics blends with romance and colonial charm.
The closest I’ve come in Australia to my favourite holiday spots, Bora Bora and the Maldives, is Palm Cove in tropical north Queensland. The bonus: holidaying at home means saving thousands of dollars in airfares and precious days otherwise eaten up by long-haul travel and jetlag. At Palm Cove – just 15 minutes from Cairns’ new international airport to martini, bikini and poolside sun lounge – I spent a week in the exotic surrounds of three beautiful resorts, all dotted along the cove’s Esplanade beachfront with its sandy shores and ocean-side boardwalk winding through groves of tall swaying palms. Read more
Travel Editor Susie Boswell goes bush and enjoys a Berry relaxing weekend.
The countryside around is as easy on the eye as anywhere in the world – all graduating shades of green, from the lightest of lime-tinted roadside tufts of grass to a deep green forested mountain escarpment soaring high above my valley.
I’m at Jaspers Brush, next door to Berry, on the upper South Coast of NSW. The area’s part of the Shoalhaven region less than 150km from Sydney. Berry itself is next to coastal Gerroa and Gerringong, and east of Kangaroo Valley, just below Kiama and a whisker above Nowra, a short drive from Seven Mile Beach. Read more
Travel Editor Susie Boswell says scenically-stunning Canada is welcoming visitors and offering some good deals post Olympics.
The Winter Olympics are over – let the fun and games begin! The billions of dollars spent by the Canadian Government and private enterprise to stage last month’s winter sports extravaganza – based on one of the world’s best ski resorts, Whistler – is now required to pay dividends. The TV spotlight’s faded to black and now’s the time Canada hopes to capitalise on the worldwide exposure the Games delivered. Let’s hope they do better than Sydney: despite staging “the best Olympics ever” Australia’s premier city is considered to have failed to benefit fully from the heightened, welcoming, profile it gained from holding the friendly summer 2000 Games. Vancouver, capital of Canada’s westernmost province British Columbia, was “Games central” and has focused much attention on B.C. and its neighbouring province, Alberta, the country’s winter sports capital. Read more
The land down under comes out tops for Australian family holidays, writes Travel Editor Susie Boswell.
HOBART, January 2010 – This is one happening town! From my heritage hotel overlooking Constitution Dock I’ve waved farewell to the last of the returning Sydney-Hobart yacht fleet. And I’ve inspected the navy-hulled $25m three-masted luxury vessel berthed nearby (with grand piano in the salon!) belonging to an Italian multimillionaire, his crew awaiting his next nautical whim. She sits rather conspicuously alongside hundreds of tour cruisers and working fishing and cray boats tied up at this bustling port – that make for an entertaining stroll around the waterfront. Read more
Travel editor Susie Boswell samples a road less travelled – and finds the Mediterranean offers far more than the much-vaunted Greek isles.
Despite being installed in the spiffing Les Orangers Beach Resort, standing on golden sand on the south-west Mediterranean, I was none to happy with the hotel just at that moment. Read more
Sydney for summer holidays is not so far away, but it can transport you to a world of great entertainment.
Mamma Mia! What a show! The stage musical has returned to Sydney by popular demand, following the success of the Meryl Streep film version in spawning a whole new generation of ABBA fans. Opening night in October was a wild success, with stars strutting the red carpet, champagne flowing, and patrons from eight to 80 dancing and singing in the aisles – some of the more overly enthusiastic in the dress circle in danger, it seemed to me, of toppling over the balcony. Read more
The spotlight fell unhappily on Samoa when a deadly tsunami struck the tiny South Pacific nation a month ago. But travel editor Susie Boswell suggests it’s still worthwhile saying Talofa (“hello”) to Samoa sometime soon.
The mid-morning refreshments I enjoyed in the restaurant at upmarket Coconuts Beach Resort on the south coast of Samoa’s main island were welcome on a steamy tropical day. Read more
If there is one word that best captures Singapore, it is “unique”. A dynamic city rich in contrast and colour, you’ll find a harmonious blend of culture, cuisine, arts and architecture here. Brimming with unbridled energy, this little dynamo in Southeast Asia embodies the finest of both East and West.
The unassuming accountant from the back rooms of a big Sydney merchant bank regularly spent his lunch hours browsing in Dymock’s CBD book store.
He always made a beeline for the Lonely Planet section, reading avidly about far-off holiday places.
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What do Keith Richards and k.d. lang have in common?
Along with Kate Winslett and Keanu Reeves, Keith and Katherine Dawn have escaped from Sydney concert gigs and movie launches to an exclusive retreat known for its exquisite surroundings – Rae’s, on Watego’s Beach at Byron Bay.
The church choir on Wakaya island is like a band of angels, singing out hymns in the sweetest of voices.
It’s a wonderful spiritual experience.
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Hellooo, Soosie! Well-come to Singapore,” the cheery greeting echoed down the phone in my suite at Singapore Intercontinental. “This is Wee Tee, your personal guide. Come on down; let’s go!”
This energetic dynamo, keen to show me her hometown’s highlights, bustled me into a waiting limo. Bouncing in alongside, she directed the driver to our first scenic stop.
Holidaymakers enjoy an amazing range of tour options, from traditional scenic sights and weird special attractions like ghost tours in black hearses, to rewarding historical tours.
It’s fascinating to visit Port Arthur, south of Hobart, and marvel at the inhumanity of early colonialists who confined prisoners to cells like horse stalls.
Without doubt, the most spectacular landscape and stunning scenery I’ve ever experienced surrounds western Canada’s Icefields Parkway, high up in the Canadian Rockies close to the peak at 3750m.
The parkway is a ribbon section of more than 200km of Canada’s Highway One that carves for the greater part of the year through craggy snow-clad mountains, glaciers, fir forests cloaked in white and shimmering frozen lakes.
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Susie Boswell takes a ride in a ‘ ship’ in the desert, in Dubai, head-spinning centre of the United Arab Emirates.
True sea sickness is not when you think you’re going to die, but when you want to die. And so in Dubai I am experiencing a major case of mal de mer, yet I’m a good hour inland from the Arabian Gulf.
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