Antarctica offers a chilling encounter with a harsh, but hauntingly beautiful, wilderness, writes Craig Platt. On a ships’s deck looking out to sea it occurs to me that this is not what most would associate with the phrase “island cruise”. There are no white-sand beaches, palm trees, tropical heat or exposed bodies to be found […]
“Have you done this before?” I ask one of our guides. “Yes, I’ve done it,” he responds. “Are you going to do it again today?” Taking a dip in the Antarctica is a rite of passage. Photo: Daisy Gilardini “No, I’ll never do it again!” Hmm. It seemed like a fun idea when first suggested. Taking […]
It was the crab curry that got me. The rich, spicy sauce that ended up covering my hands and splattering my clothes. The sweet, salty crab meat that I had to work for, wrenching from the shell, twisting and snapping and slurping. The rice, piled high, mixed through with that fiery red sauce, shovelled towards […]
OMNIA. The jet set’s new favourite is the dramatic, adults-only Omnia in Uluwatu. You’re deep in Instagram Land here, so go glam. The class system is alive and kicking: you can enter as a regular punter, book a daybed, sofa or cabana or go to the top of the list in a VIP bungalow. Some […]
A trip to Antarctica is a gamble. Everything hinges on one almighty, uncontrollable, unfathomable factor – the weather. It is not the cold. It’s not the rain and not the snow. It is the wind that is your master. The wind decides whether it’s safe to disembark the ship and board a Zodiac to go […]
Below the impossibly vast vaulted iron and glass ceiling of St Pancras International located in London’s King’s Cross – surely the world’s most grandiose shed – my Eurostar service slips away from the platform, as gently as a ship untethered from its moorings, as it embarks on its journey from London to Paris. “You’re travelling […]
A beef dish on board a P&O cruise. Two tonnes of Australian red meat was typically ordered for a three-day cruise. Photo: chris court It’s no secret that the cruise industry, dramatically becalmed by the pandemic, has much at stake with the uncertainty surrounding the resumption of cruising. But there’s another Australian industry that also […]
SPONSORED CONTENT When the explorers Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813, in search for more grazing land for the young Sydney colony, they discovered what Australia’s Aboriginal people had known for millennia: it’s a big, beautiful country out there. Nowadays that big country is crossed from coast to coast by the […]
Grand Pacific Drive, New South Wales: Sea Cliff Bridge near Wollongong south of Sydney. Photo: Alamy Rex Lookout and Wangetti Beach, Captain Cook Highway between Cairns and Port Douglas, North Queensland. Photo: Alamy Red road through Stirling Range National Park, Albany, Western Australia. Photo: Alamy Most famous: Port Campbell National Park, The Great Ocean Road. […]
FINALIST: First summit sunset of the season. Photo: @elise_young_ FINALIST: Smashing laps at Hotham. Photo: @maxybon12 FINALIST: Hooker Valley Track. Photo: @man.meets.wine FINALIST: Field of snow monsters. Photo: @john.n.kellie A little under-dressed for the weather. Photo: @willhauserman FINALIST: Perisher awesome as always. Photo: @pomiejohn FINALIST: Freshly groomed. Photo: @patchono FINALIST: Mountains were made to punch […]
Ayana is Bali’s biggest resort with 775 rooms and suites over three properties on 90 clifftop hectares perched above the Indian Ocean. The L’Atelier Parfums et Creations’ perfume-making workshop at Ayana Resort and Spa, Bali. Ayana is Bali’s biggest resort with 775 rooms and suites over three properties on 90 clifftop hectares perched above the […]
Mulia Bali is the biggest resort in Bali, accommodating more than 1500 guests. It’s also among the most expensive, with a minimum nightly tariff of $630 after taxes, a price which feels rather more Bermuda than Bali. Big isn’t always beautiful, especially in the world of luxury resorts where designers are apt to trowel on […]
It’s early morning when I’m woken by the soulful call of the lesser coucal bird pining for a mate. Frogs croak incessantly, jubilant about the overnight rain. Curious as to what the raucous noise is all about, I push open the elaborate carved door of our tented retreat. Mist hugs the jungle-shrouded Keliki Valley, and […]
Two cruise ship passengers were left behind in the Bahamas in February. You’re on a cruise, so what could possibly go wrong? Apart from stubbing your toe in the spa or not tipping the housekeeping staff and failing to get a towel monkey on your bed? Well, some things can go wrong. Some down to […]
A video shot from the bridge of the MS Monarch shows the ship being beached ahead of its scrapping. Photo: YOUTUBE With cruising all but suspended worldwide, videos have emerged of several large cruise ships being beached in Aliaga, Turkey to be scrapped. The ships include MS Sovereign, formerly Sovereign of the Seas, considered by […]
Cycling Mkuru Safari Camp and Maasai Mto Wa Mbu, Tanzania . Photo: Intrepid Travel/Lucy Piper Spotted hyena or Laughing Hyena, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Photo: Mikel Hendriks On the road in Tanzania. Photo: Lucy Piper – Intrepid Travel Giraffes, NgoroNgoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Photo: Marco Pozzi Black rhinoceros, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. Photo: James Hager Giraffe […]
The pool at Oberoi Bali. Photo: Supplied The Oberoi Bali’s amphitheatre. Photo: Supplied A royal villa at Oberoi Bali. Photo: Supplied Oberoi Bali Photo: Supplied A villa bedroom. Photo: Supplied Oberoi Bali’s restaurant. Photo: Supplied Buffet dining at Oberoi Bali. A luxury villa bedroom. Photo: Supplied The Oberoi Bali fish pond. Photo: Supplied The Oberoi […]
Choose your body part … then find out all the terrible things that can happen to it at the Museum of Human Disease. Photo: Louise Reily Like a mad scientist in a Victorian-era novel, the first thing to do at the Museum of Human Disease is choose your body part. Do you want to wander […]
The Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour’s infinity pool. The bathroom in a luxury corner room. Photo: Geoff Lung Club Millésime on the top floor offers terrific views. Photo: Geoff Lung The pool is bound to become a popular spot for photos. Photo: Geoff Lung The hotel lobby. Photo: Geoff Lung The Champagne Bar. Photo: Geoff Lung […]
Kiwi freeskier Sam Smoothy is used to going off-piste – but when it comes to strange ski destinations, North Korea is right up there. The Wanaka-based athlete spent 10 days in the isolated nation in February, hitting the slopes at Kim Jong-un’s Masikryong Ski Resort. In a video posted on YouTube this week, Smoothy can be seen staying in a luxury lodge, and eating skewers of […]
Silversea’s Silver Spirit undergoes a world-first lengthening project. Photo: Silversea Silversea’s Silver Spirit undergoes a world-first lengthening project. Photo: Silversea Silversea’s Silver Spirit undergoes a world-first lengthening project. Photo: Silversea Silversea’s Silver Spirit undergoes a world-first lengthening project. Photo: Silversea Silversea’s Silver Spirit undergoes a world-first lengthening project. Photo: Silversea Silversea’s Silver Spirit undergoes a […]
Cocktails don’t get much easier or more refreshing than a highball. Whisky might not be the first spirit you associate with summer, but it’s a real gem topped up with soda or mineral water on hot day (and seems to taste even better when there’s tennis or cricket on the box). Johnnie Walker Red Label is […]
Sasa Sestic at the World Barista Championships. Photo: Jeff Hann How to make a perfect latte at home (with video) When Sasa Sestic asked two filmmakers to join him on his “bean-hunting” trips and make a bit of a film about coffee, none of them realised they would end up with a documentary about the […]
Keen beans: How to take your coffee to the next level World Latte Art Champion 2015 Caleb Cha shares his top tips for texturing milk. The jug Aim for glossy milk before pouring. Photo: Supplied Cha is a jug-half-full kinda guy, filling his milk jug “a bit less than half-full”. The size of the milk […]
1 TRAVEL LIGHT, SANS WHEELS Travelling on Europe’s rail network will be a breeze when you have a bag you can pick up. Not only will it be easier to carry it up and down the stairs in many European stations, you’ll be able to lift your bag into the overhead racks to keep an […]
There’s nothing like a little public shaming to change travellers’ bad habits. And right now, it’s the good people of Sweden leading the way. This year’s Scandinavian word-of-the-moment, taking the baton from the cuddly likes of “hygge” (cosy) and “lykke” (happiness), is the Swedish mouthful “flygskam”, which means, literally, “flight shame”. It’s a word, and […]
Craig Simon is a two-time Australian Barista Champion (2014 and 2012) and the head of research, development and innovation at Veneziano Coffee Roasters in Melbourne. Here are his tips for making a great latte at home. The machine: You can spend anything from about $200 to $6000 on a domestic espresso machine. ”Work out how […]
Veteran barista Craig Simon has been crowned the Australian barista champion for the third time after a four-year hiatus from competition. Simon, 40, took out the national title on Saturday at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo. Runner-up Anthony Douglas, 26, is a relative newcomer to competitive coffee making. Both men, who are friends and former musicians, […]
The Selfieccino is social media gold. Photo: Shutterstock A cafe in London is taking barista art to a new level by giving customers the chance to sip on their own self-portraits. The Tea Terrace, based in House of Fraser’s Oxford Street branch, has become Europe’s first location to deliver the “Selfieccino,” which features an image […]
SPONSORED CONTENT Camels! They’re the last animal a traveller might expect to find in the wild in Australia – you might as well anticipate polar bears, or zebras. And yet there are hundreds of thousands of the hardy animal roaming the Australian outback. They’re the descendants of the camels brought to Australia in the 19th […]
About a decade ago, chef Rodney Dunn had an epiphany. “There was a point in my life,” he says, “where I realised that if I wanted to cook better food, then the ingredients needed to be a lot better.” That’s a roundabout way of explaining how Dunn came to find himself living and working in […]
Climb Mount Gower at Lord Howe Island, NSW. Photo: Getty Images Peer into Kings Canyon in the Red Centre, Northern Territory. Photo: Getty Images Wonder which planet you?re on at The Pinnacles. Cervantes, Western Australia Photo: Getty Images Swim with whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. Photo: Getty Images Catch the morning sun at […]
Known as the Horizontal Waterfalls, this ocean phenomenon is the result of one of the world’s highest tidal shifts compressing through two narrow breaks in the Kimberley coastline. The Horizontal Falls are one of the premier tourism destinations of the Kimberley. Sir David Attenborough has called it “Australia’s most unusual natural wonder”, and 15 years […]
World Heritage listed Uluru in Australia’s Northern Territory. Photo: Steven Siewert World Heritage listed Uluru in Australia’s Northern Territory. Photo: Steven Siewert World Heritage listed Uluru in Australia’s Northern Territory. Luke Eldridge who is an an indigienous worker at the Sounds of Silence and working in the industry. Photo: Steven Siewert World Heritage listed Uluru […]